Nairn was never a one horse town

Recently we've heard Highland Councillors talking about how they would like to raise Council Tax. Perhaps it is an ideal time to reflect on how taxes were levied in the past. It is interesting to see who could afford a horse in 1797. Thanks to Irene for another of her wee gems from her research into Nairnshire's past. (picture will enlarge).

Links school - online debate continues

The thread is slipping down the Gurn now but it is still attracting interesting comment, click here to read the latest. Hamish has also added more information in a comment to the Links School history thread.

Firhall Bridge an 'anti' speaks out

As this article is posted the support for Murd's campaign is currently at 80% in the Gurn's unscientific poll. We suspect that this is how support would pan out in the community at large but as we say our poll is unscientific. In the interests of democracy we publish the opinion of someone that does not support the plan, this individual has a good reason for staying anonymous and we respect that and are willing to publish their views.

'I have the greatest respect for Murd's effots to improve the ambience of our riverside and access to it for ALL. But if you are questioning why there may not be support for his proposals to make the Firhall Bridge accessible to wheelchair users you just need to look at your blog about council cuts we are facing.

Recently Highland Council got into one hell of a stramash over the cancellation of a school trip because one mum was upset because her disabled daughter could not go on the trip. To my mind that was crass stupidity on the council's part . In my view the mother involved was being totally selfish. Here we have another case where there is a balance to be struck but there is a clear distinction - the cost of investment in a ramp to the bridge potentially at the expense of other services to people with disabilities.

It's easy to have a pop at councillors but we must be fair to them. Murd has demonstrated that a wheelchair can get across the bridge. But you can bet your bottom dollar that any ramp would have to fulfil stringent and no doubt costly building regulations which would all add to a considerable bill to the taxpayer. As a caring society we must do what we can to ensured the disadvantaged in our midst are not unnecessarily disadvantaged. But we have to live within our means. How many people with wheelchairs would use this route? There are many alternative pathways and walks with better surfaces than the riverside path that wheelchair users can enjoy. And you can be sure other services would suffer if thousands were spent on this project. Anon.'

Funding would actually be from sources other than Highand Council anon, it would be money that would go to some other community if Nairn were not to get it. Are we to say no more projects to go on the wish list just because there is no money in the public coffers? If we were to base our criteria on that assumption we would say no by-pass ever for Nairn because there is no money and other services would have to suffer if we were to build it.

If we want to talk about money and Highland Council however, in the debate at Glenuquhart Road yesterday the suggestion was heard that there should be cuts amongst the 881 staff on the council that earn over £40,000 before hitting voluntary organisations.

The Cuts part 1

Convenor Sandy Park prepares to take his seat

Councillor Alston made the opening speech explaining the administration’s rationale for the cuts. Fine and noble words about sharing the burden of having to bail out the banks and how they had to get it right for the future because if it was left to 2013 it would be an unholy mess. It was all quite laudable until he started a rant against the Scottish Government, accusing them of taking decision making powers away, after that he just sounded like a typical petty politician scoring points.

He was followed by the convenors of the committees and then John Finnie the official leader of the opposition spoke. He was brief saying he would leave much of the debate to the amendments his group would be tabling. He indicated that he saw the budget as an attack on front line services.

The amendments were proposed but all defeated, there was some considerable debate but the votes came out around the 50-19 mark each time. The Lib-Lab-Indy ruling group held their nerve and went through with it - 12 million pounds will be cut from the budget. They will come back in the Autumn to decide on more cuts. History and their constituents will be their judges.

Highland Council: another split in the Independents

The two existing groupings, the 'Independents' and the 'Independent Members Group' have been joined by another grouping called 'Independent Alliance Group'. All that is needed now is the 'Independent Liberation Front' and the 'People's Independent Front' and a few scenes from the Life of Brian could be played out.

Liz fails to overturn cuts to lunch clubs

Today was the day of the 12 million pounds cuts package at Glenurquart Road today and Liz made a plea for the cut in the lunch clubs to be spared the axe. She also questioned the accuracy of the information backing this decision and was not satisfied that she had yet seen all the details concerning lunch clubs.

Her motion was defeated by 50 to 23. It can't be fun being a councillor these days when, as part of the administration you have to actually vote for this kind of thing. The voluntary organisations and Gaelic also seemed to be taking a disproportionate hit from the process. More about this meeting later.

Nairn 0 Wick 4

Football returned to Station Park after an eight week hiatus due to the bad weather. Nairn were simply outclassed by a skillful Wick side that passed, passed and passed again with low balls that eventually found their way into the county net. A report is available on Highland league.net.

River Community Council Controversy - minutes challenged!

The Firhall Bridge issue came back again to the River Community Council with a challenge to the minutes and debate about the custom and practice of River CC voting procedures for decisions made during meetings open to the public.

Suffice to say that most people went away from the last meeting of the council thinking that Murd Dunbar had the support of the council for his popular campaign to enable better access to the Firhall Bridge. However the situation after reading the minutes was confused to say the least and the debate too was shall we say, lively!

It is quite unusual, perhaps for the minutes secretary to challenge the minutes but nonetheless that’s how things went tonight. In fact the minute on the Firhall Bridge was challenged successfully on three points. The Gurn subscribes to cock-up rather than conspiracy theory here.
Over the years this observer has many times seen the River CC invite members of the public present to vote with members and for that decision to then become the Council’s policy. This situation was raised stating that what was happening was that in doing this the Council were de facto co-opting the public into the decision making process. There was agreement that this was the case from one councillor, although another stated that, ‘this had been happening recently but it was wrong.’
So thus the confusion, the subject returned again during the ACOB part of the meeting, there was lively and passionate debate with members of the public failing to see why the Council didn’t want to back Murd. Another vote was called for to clarify the position of the council but this process was never completed as the Council decided that the best way forward would be to gauge the feeling of a public meeting.
Liz MacDonald told the meeting that the Access Panel was now backing better access to the bridge. Soon Murd will take his case to the Suburban Council too, having already won the support of the West CC. Maybe a public meeting on the issue would be superfluous or perhaps just the thing to get the whole campaign up a gear or two. The Gurn fails to see the problem, if Murd eventually gets the go ahead, no Highland Council money would be involved, no one would lose a job and no schools or day care centres would be closed. Other funding would be sourced, perhaps somewhere up the bureaucratic food chain there is someone that can put insurmountable obstacles in Murd’s path but surely that shouldn’t be the job of a local community council.
The Gurn has no wish to dwell on this subject, it is obvious that the newly elected Council is deeply divided on the issue and democracy sometimes comes with hiccups. So let’s move onto the rest of the meeting.
Constable Swan put in an appearance to update the Council on Law and Order issues in the town, quite successful activity again by the local constabulary it seems with the town centre being quieter again during January. There was a request to see if separate crime figures were available for Nairn rather than the entire division itself.

Liz MacDonald reported her progress on trying to get better gritting for the Fishertown by having some areas classified as pavements rather than roads which would perhaps work out with The Fishertown getting some gritting faster than it did last time. It seems she has pinpointed issues which lead to the delay in calling in the help of contractors to clear snow and ice.
There was again concern about the lack of proper facilities to view planning applications in the town. Carol Clark raised issues about the difficulty in replying to notifications when they are issued at times when the council offices are shut etc.
The River CC has more electors than the two other councils combined, 3,797 compared to the West’s 1,072 and Suburban’s 2,653.
Stephanie Whittaker showed the meeting correspondence between herself and the Director of Social Work and the Chairman of Housing and Social Work on Highland Council concerning respite care and MacLean Court Day Care. She felt that the responses were very unsatisfactory. Stephanie feels very strongly on these issues and the meeting mandated her to continue the correspondence in the search of further information.
There was of course debate on the Firhall Bridge as explained above. The meeting was also shown plans for a bungalow at Whinnieknowe. There simply remained a vote of thanks to the former treasurer Margaret MacKintosh, she was presented with a bouquet of flowers and applause for her years of service to the community.

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11.02.10 Please note that Liz has told the Gurn that the Access Panel supported a previous attempt to get ramps at the Firhall Bridge and will soon be looking at the Fairhurst Report.

Links School - report of the meeting

Hopefully the following will do the event justice, you really had to be there though to get the raw emotional feel of the meeting. It was inspiring to be in a room full to standing room only with people that wanted to get involved in saving the Links School building. More proof, if any were needed, that Nairn is a caring community.

Graham Marsden opened up the meeting by explaining that within 12-18 months the Links School would be redundant with the new hospital completed and that a number of the 27 groups that use the building would have moved up to the new facility. The process of the community taking ownership of the Links School would be long and arduous and it would be necessary to get started as soon as possible. He pointed out that there was no immediate threat. NHS were responsible for maintenance in the short term but their lease would run out in Jan/Feb and decisions would have to be made over the next 6-9 months.

There was some discussion of the specifics of the lease/ownership situation and the best way forward for the community as regards the two issues. A representative from NHS Highland pointed out that they had made a significant investment of £25,000 in the building over the past 3 years. It seems that NHS Highland would consider still using the building after their lease expires but are very wary of incurring maintenance costs.

The meeting then moved onto to hear other contributions from the floor that really outlined the deep emotional link that many in the community has with this building. It was outlined by users how the building was a far more friendlier environment than either the hospital or the community centre, it was more a space were you could feel at home: you couldn’t put posters up on the wall at the community centre for example and it was very costly. Personal testimony was given of how the Links School was helpful to sufferers of post-natal depression. One woman told the meeting that she wouldn’t have been here today if she hadn’t had the help available from the building.

From the floor the very valid point that the Council might make some money from the sale of the building but what about the cost to society from those who would suffer the consequences of its closure in terms of ill health etc.

It was a powerful emotional event and a committee has been formed to explore ways to bring the building into community ownership. One of the first things the committee will do is to find out who quoted the price of £100,000 to fix the roof and see whether that is indeed the correct price, the committee is also mandated by the meeting to apply for a £15,000 ‘Invest in ideas’ grant that is available up until the end of March.

These meeting was indeed very positive and a remarkable contrast to the very stormy previous meeting on this topic held two or was it three years ago. It looks like the Links School might survive after all. Also in attendance for the Highland Council was Sandy Park.

If there's anything important missed or something you disagree with, please let us know.

History of the Seccessional and Links School

Information presented to those attended the meeting this evening:

The building opened in August 1836 establishing a school in the Fisher Town area of Nairn for the benefit of its seafaring classes and residents. The Cost, including the school room and teachers house was £216.13.8d.

It was financed by subscription, the money coming from as far afield as India. The ground had been bought for £45 from Mr. Robert Cameron, a local shoemaker and Town Councillor.

As far as possible, it was to provide free or low cost education for very poor children within Nairn’s fishing community. Additionally; it would also serve as a Sabbath School, free to all.

A third of the schools Directors would be representative of the Nairn Kirk Session, with Rev.James Grant as Chairman. Other Directors were chosen from the subscribers.

In its first month, the school’s headmaster, Mr Donald Sinclair, registered 118 children with 101 attending regularly after 3 months. Over a third of these pupils came from the fishing community.

The school continued until the introduction of the Education (Scotland) Act in 1872 when it became compulsory for all children to be educated. The school was then transferred to the town and run by the Burgh School Board. The name was changed to The Links School.

During the Second World War, the building was requisitioned by the army and pupils were taught at the Seamen’s Hall. It remained as a school until the late 1960’s.

Since its closure as a school, it has serve a myriad of users and uses including adult education; the most recent is as an anti-natal clinic and for support groups hosted by the NHS. Local Quakers meet there on Sundays.

There is no doubt this unique building has served the community well over the past 174 years and has become very much part of the heritage of Fishertown. What now?