John Mackie attacks secrecy at joint Community Council meetings

Recently we reported the fact that the meeting held in the Courthouse on the 11th of May for the three Community Councils excluded the public. There was a press release later however but a lot of what was said at that meeting will never be reported and it is a pity because the public have a right to know (and if they wish, witness) what their Community Councillors are saying on their behalf and how they back up their decisions - especially when it comes to deabte into how this tier of local government is organised in the town. In November the three councils will be up for election, if there are enough candidates then there will be elections. Isn't it only right and proper then that all the actions of all existing community councillors should be open to press and public scrutiny to help the electorate when it comes to making their mind up as to who to vote for?

At the Suburban meeting in the Academy this evening (Tues 31st May) it was reported that the West, River and Suburban Councils would meet four times a year to discuss matters of importance to Nairn (the next best thing to a single council for the town or simply a powerless talking shop - you decide!). Anyway it emerged that there would be another meeting in private first to set up the agenda and the ground rules. Now, you wouldn't exactly have had to buy a ticket on the black market for such an event but it would have attracted a few of the usual suspects and maybe some others that might have seen it advertised. It was agreed at the last (secret) meeting that this next one will not be open to the public too. Why not for goodness sake? The public have every right to be there. One person that will not be there unless there is a last minute change of heart is Cllr John Mackie of Suburban. He said:

"I wasn't at that meeting, and I'm not going to that closed one either. I make that quite plain now, unless it is an open meeting I won't be there. I'm totally against it. "

Well said John Mackie, there is no more need for any secrecy, let the people of Nairn witness the debate if they wish. If there is to be a joint Forum of the three Community Councils then it has to be built on a credible foundation.

Traffic warden now active in Nairn

Example of extreme bad parking from around this time last year which would now get you a ticket from Nairn's seasonal traffic warden.

At tonight's (Tuesday's) meeting of Nairn Suburban Community Council at Nairn Academy Sgt Olga Hansen gave her police report and stated that a seasonal traffic warden was now working in Nairn. Our traffic warden will be working until the end of September and she is full time.
Cllr Graham Marsden highlighted the softly-softly approach from the former warden Sandy Ford and the way that he worked by consensus rather than threat.
Olga told him that the warden would have a job to do and if the police were getting complaints they would have to take action. She added, however, that there would be a period of grace where advice and warnings would be given until folk become aware that there is a traffic warden back in the town.
Over on Green Dad's blog you can see an example of one of the warning notices that have already been issued.

Sainsbury's weekly picture update from Murray

Coming along nicely, picture from Murray MacRae

Development across the road from Sainsbury's too as the work on the Bitz MOT test centre continues.

Jobs at Sainsbury's

Thanks to Robert who forwards us the following webpage address.

STV goes in search of Hyperlocal news

This observer, with nothing better to do followed a link to a page giving details of the Forres and Nairn Welfare league. Elgin Thistle beat Nairn United 5-1 unfortunatly but there's a home Derby down the riverside between United and Wanderers tomorrow evening (weds). It seems STV are branching out into "hyperlocal" news. Here's the page that show the towns they cover. They don't have anything for the Highlands yet but they have a page for Forres where you can add events, stories etc. It needs a bit of filling up but maybe the like of this site is how many people will access local news in the future as many newspapers find themselves with declining sales and may disappear altogether..
Maybe it's just the time of year but this observer's regular use of Google News for Nairn related items seems to be bearing less and less fruit? Are we generally making less news or are the big boys like the P&J not so interested anymore? Perhaps it's all just going behind paywalls where no one will see it?
Only time will tell if STV finds that it can run a profitable business model running local news sites throughout Scotland but good luck to them for a fine effort so far, a lot better than a few other efforts that are available online these days.

New pavement but no dropped kerb - sorted as of 31/5 however!

UPDATE - 31/5/11 - Result - sorted according to some of our regular readers. The following article was originally uploaded exactly one week ago (24/5) and now we are glad to report the problem has been corrected:

Thanks to one of the regular Gurnites for pointing this out. The new pavement has been built beside the bridge side of the road outside Grants Garage but anyone wanting to continue up the brae with say a pram or a motobility scooter is presented with a considerable obstacle. There is a perfectly good dropped kerb at the red area further along for those wishing to cross the road but even to reach that do you have to travel along the A96 for a few yards if you can't get up onto the pavement?

Could someone please install a dropped kerb here please?

Nairn morning walk

"Nice houses. Brighton of the North. Town centre with tesco extra blight." Does he mean the Co-op? If only we had a Tesco Extra too. Anyway a visitor to Nairn has put the details of his morning walk up onto an internet service.

Centralisation in the Highland Council area – Could the SNP roll it back next May?

It’s not only folk in Nairn that are concerned with the centralisation of power in Inverness. Here’s a tweet by the LibDem Robbie Rowantree.

The former Holyrood candidate, was tweeting his impressions from a recent ward forum in Lairg. The irony of course is that the Highland Council is led by a LibDem/Indy/Lab coalition and it is under LibDem rule that all power has been steadily dripping away to Inverness from places like Nairn. If the SNP were to work out practical ways to give more say back to communities in the Highland Council area then they could be onto a big winner in next year’s May elections.. What would be wrong with giving total control of the Common Good Fund back to the citizens of Nairn for example? It could still be run under the guidance of our elected councillors but with real input from the Community Councils and other members of the community too. When it comes to planning applications in Nairn for the like of Lodgehill Clinic why should anyone from Inverness have a say? Surely communities can decide for themselves on this level of planning?

Anyway a week is a long time in politics and a lot can happen before May. Recently Cllr Glynis Sinclair defected to the SNP after a short spell in the wilderness as an Independent. She was quoted in the Hearald recently:

Sinclair, who was a LibDem before turning independent, said: “It is never easy to change to another political party but it became clear long before the Westminster election that the Liberal Democrats were losing touch and I have long seen that the SNP reflected the values of both myself and my constituents more directly.” More here.

One wonders how many more will follow here before next year’s elections?

In the meantime if the likes of Robbie Rowantree want to stop centralisation in the Highlands then they should be offering practical steps on how to roll back the Glenurquhart Road administration’s policies.

Retired Greyhound Trust sponsored walk

There was a large turnout of greyhounds and their owners for the sponsored walk in aid of the Skye Branch of the Retired Greyhound Trust down at the Links this afternoon. Everyone set off in a heavy shower but returned in brilliant sunshine. Here's another three pictures.

Three of the dogs taking part in the walk are Homeless Hounds who are looking for permanent, loving homes. They can be identified by the coats with ‘Greyhounds as pets/Take me home’. Check out the Skye Retired Greyhound Trust web pages for more information and for details of other Homeless Hounds. More pictures here on the Gurn Flickr pages.

More images now available on the Gurn Flickr pages.

Floating mink trap in the harbour