Sunday in Viewfield

Above is a copy of the the programme of musical talent that will be appearing at the Jubilee Celebrations in Viewfield on Sunday. The event was discussed at the Suburban CC meeting on Tuesday night and Dick Youngson who has been working with the museum's Yvonne Cotter, gave an account of what is planned for the day. Unfortunately for the organisers the Community Centre will not be available in the event of wet weather but the Sports Club and the Bowling Club will be open, the Musuem is also offering free entry. 

Fund-raising for the event has raised £600 but expenses so far have reached £939, with the hire of the stage and payment for musicians being the main expenditure (jazz club £240). There will be a raffle on the day to raise further funds.
The organisers will no doubt be keeping an anxious eye on the weather forecast as we near the Jubilee weekend.
UPDATE: John Urquhart tells us that there has been a programme change: "Re the timetable shown on the Gurn site. The Timetable is an old one and The Howlin Gaels and Accidentals have swapped times at the Gaels request."

Thursday miscellany

A Nairn loon will come of age at the Oylmpic games. Torch bearer James MacDonald will become 18 whilst at the games: "In July he is heading to work as a Young Ambassador with Coca Cola at the Olympic Village and he will spend his 18th birthday on 22 July at the Games." More on the Highland Council site.

The Highland Council are also making much of the Keep Scotland Beautiful flag award for Nairn and other Highland beaches. This observer has always thought that the Marine Conservation Society Good Beach Guide was the benchmark that many holiday makers chose their preferences by however. Anyway, again more on the Highland Council site. 

This observer noticed an English based orienteering club recommending Parkdean Nairn Lochloy as potential accommodation for competitors in the 2013 Scottish 6-day orienteering event. The website for this competition shows some of the action will take place very close to Nairn. There is a link to Visit Higlands.com/moray on the 6-day event page and also one to this is Moray. Maybe the organisers should make folk aware that there is also a large choice of accommodation just over the Moray border in Nairn. Maybe some of our tourism movers and shakers can influence that?

Blue-green algae blooms on Lochindorb

Summer is here and bad news from Lochindorb, a popular spot for many Nairnites. This from the Highland Council:

People visiting Lochindorb near Grantown on Spey are being warned of the presence of blue green algae at the Loch

Recent samples taken by SEPA at Lochindorb have indicated the presence of blue-green algae. Lochindorb is situated near the A939 approximately 6 miles north of Grantown on Spey.

As a precautionary measure, The Highland Council’s Environmental Health has posted notices next to the loch warning that contact with the algal scum should be avoided.

Food Parcels - Blythswood helped 55 people so far in Nairn this year

In light of the airing in the Nairnshire (also published here on the Gurn) of the recent revelation that there is a school of thought in Nairn that feels that giving citizens in need free food parcels is "not only an empty gesture, it is a futile gesture and its going to all the wrong people",  we thought we would ask the Blythswood charity for their response to this allegation. The organisation's Lorna Dempster told the Gurn: 

"All I can really say is that the people we help are as carefully assessed as possible by our partnering agencies. With an increase in job losses and low paid employment it is really difficult for many in society to manage with little resources. Currently we are helping a family, not from Nairn, who have been waiting for 12 weeks for child benefit to be processed. The mum of the 12 week old baby is using other resources to buy nappies and baby milk as she is not entitled to free milk until child benefit kicks in – this is leaving her in a tight position financially."

We also asked for some statistics to put a clearer picture on the situation in Nairn, recent media reports have  indicated that several hundred people in the Nairn area rely on parcels. We know the economic situation is still deteriorating for many people but what is the accurate picture of the current numbers in receipt of food parcels in Nairn?  Lorna was quick to respond:

"So far this year we have helped 55 people in Nairn – 35 adults and 20 children. With the exception of maybe a couple of this number they are all different people. Each food allocation to a single person is valued at roughly between £25 and £30 and for a family between £33 and £40. 

The Gurn asked how those who may want to donate cash to alleviate the worsening situation could help. Lorna told us:

"Although all of our food is donated, the cost to run such a project is phenomenal. At present we have three agencies who refer clients from Nairn and for one of these Blythswood Care takes responsibility in delivering Emergency Food Boxes to them.

Any financial donations should be sent to Blythswood Care, Highland Deephaven, Evanton, Ross-shire, IV16 9XJ and highlighted ‘For Foodbank’ "

The Gurn also understands that Tommy Hogg and Dick Youngson, the chairs of River and Suburban CC's respectively, today purchased £200 worth of food for food parcels, these are now on their way to Blythswood. Sainsbury's supermarket, where the purchases were made, also donated another £30 worth of food. Image of the food on the Blythswood
lorry on the left.
West CC's donation will be given to Blythswood in the next few days.

How not to light a living room fire

"A porch at a Nairn flat was damaged by fire after the occupants tried to light a living room fire using a can of petrol." More on the Inverness Courier site.

Also in this week's Tuesday Courier John Oliver has a letter in reply to criticism of his Charlie Chaplin walk plans. Tommy Hogg is mentioned too (complete with picture) and he gives the Courier an explanation of what motivated him to insist that the Community Councils gave £100 each to the food fund as well as £100 to Jubilee celebrations.

Tuesday night - folk night - The Vic

One short video, unfortunately this observer hadn't recharged the video camera since the hustings and was only had a few minutes left of battery life, another music fan present made some smart phone recordings however and they may appear on the Gurn. Shortly after this song two Irish musicians turned up and joined those already present and the excellent music and craic continued right up to the midnight hour.  Here's the Vic website for further information. 

More pictures of weekend events

Murray MacRae sent the Gurn a few images from the Harbourfest on Saturday, you can see them here.  Alec Munro was there too, here's some images he took

The car boot sale in the Showfield was very busy on Sunday, see some images here. The next car boot sale is on Sunday 1st July and more information is available here.

Petrol Station no more!

What was left of the petrol station got a quick shift today. Images here. 

Food Fund - All food and cash donated in Nairn is used in Nairn

The Gurn hears from Tommy Hogg that the Rev Steven Manders has been assured by Blythswood that all food and cash donated in Nairn to the Highland Foodbank goes to the Blythswood depot in Evanton.  It is then returned to Nairn via boxes Blythswood gives to agencies within our community to use as, and when, the need arises.

South Nairn - Balblair Consultation.

In the Community Centre last Thursday this observer took a look at the latest proposal for what the planners have termed South Nairn, or rather that part of the Nairn metropolis of the future that will be in the fields opposite Firhall. Regular readers will remember the article Consultation Fatigue in which we described Rosemary Young’s displeasure at having to consider yet another plan for this spot.

Here you can see the plan at present. Plenty of trees, a nice football pitch and lots of allotments up in the left hand corner. Seems very nice and if we must have expansion of the town maybe it should look like this. There is a slight problem in that Mr Allenby doesn’t own all of this land (as this image explains) and there is another application in for part of this site. Putting in an application yourself for something you would like to see built on someone else’s land is allowed under the planning legislation however so we may see such an application soon. Lots of Firhall residents had apparently attended the latest consultation and they were vociferously opposed to the other application and this observer has no reason to believe that they have softened their stance to development in their area. Mr Allenby can expect at least 50 letters of objection if and when his application goes in?

Is all this in the lap of the by-pass gods however? You would think that such a major development couldn’t go ahead without a by-pass but remember Highland Council’s Malcolm MacLeod who indicated that some house building might be permitted on this site without a by-pass.