More for the blue box soon

'Recyclable materials such as paper, card, cans and plastics will be collected under the scheme.' Good idea but make sure you don't fall foul of the recycling police however. 'The committee also agreed to appoint four waste awareness officers at a cost of £126,000.' The Highland Council is going for 40% recycling by 2010 - it's all here in the Courier

It's all about 30 years too late but a start has to be made somewhere.

The roof is off, change is in the air

Waiting, waiting, waiting for a bit of the black stuff

Surely the Highland Council can spare a penny or two to finish the job off?

Cashblack

Journalist Donald Wilson has been digging:

'A SENIOR civil servant moved across the city from a development agency to a top £100,000-a-year job at Highland Council this week – and also picked up a £138,000 payment from the public purse on the way.'

More on the Highland News site.

Only 23% do the majority of their shopping in Nairn?

That is one of the results of the Survey done by Pettifer Estates and it is probably not all that far off the mark if you consider how many Nairnites you can see in Tescotown or Tesco's in Forres. The survey is well worth a read and you can get in here (just keep pressing on next from the first page onwards.
It has been, of course, no secret that lots of Nairn money goes out of town each week. It still will of course when you spend in a chain store in town but at least a few more people won't have to travel 16 miles to work everyday. 
If Sainsbury's are successful maybe they could construct a rail halt over at the industrial estate and keep a few more lorries off the road?  Could they take advantage of HIE's review of northern freight routes?

'Workshops will be held in Inverness and Aberdeen in May.
The aim will be to bring together operators, businesses and authorities to discuss the key issues and ways of improving freight facilities.'' More on the BBC site here.

Inverness councillor discussing Nairn planning matters

Have you got your Nairnshire yet? No, well rush out and buy it, the front page article is a treat. 'Confused over Nairn Plan'. A Nairn planning matter was discussed at the Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey planning committee. Councillor John Holden let fire with some very old Labour comments. He is quoted in the Nairnshire:

'We don't see our major developers going around town on bicycles or walking. We actually see them in their big Rolls-Royces and Mercedes; so stop conning us in relation to developer contributions. The developers don't pay it; it is passed onto the purchaser of the house.'

Now that is absolute rubbish, Donald Trump doesn't have a Rolls-Royce - he has a plane. Things must be desperate in Inverness if Cllr Holden sees so many developers driving round in their big Rolls-Royces and Mercedes but here in Nairn the Gurn knows of at least two developers who are prepared to walk the streets amongst the rest of us. Are you a developer? Is Cllr Holden right in what he says?
Answers on a postcard to 'Behind the bikesheds, Glenurquart Road, Inverness.'

The Gurn notes from Cllr Holden's non-financial interests that he is a 'Giant Carboot Sale Organiser'. Well if you have a giant Rolls-Royce or Mercedes better not turn up at that one then.
And thank's to John Holden's party's policies a lot of people have to use their car more to get to the nearest post office, be it a Mercedes or a Trabant they possess.

'Don't follow leaders, watch the Parking Meters.'

A reader asks...

Would Nairn accept a not so ethical supermarket or do we not give a shit?

Sorry if the swear word upsets you, the Gurn rarely uses bad language but that question seems such a normal question in this new uncertain millennium that it is almost a polite blast from the past. And the reason for the question? Well the Guardian reports

'The supermarket chain Asda wants overseas suppliers excluded from a new code of conduct which is designed to ensure that the big grocers do not use their buying power to impose unfair trading terms.'

More here 'Asda wants ethical code for UK suppliers only'. And of course that is if Asda ever was or still is one of the permutations for the Nairn supermarket scene (A thought process that can be quite dizzy at times).

Somerfield and Woolworth partnership

It's hard to keep up with but it looks like the two chains are planning a close relationship.
Meanwhile elsewhere there is another theory: 'A break-up of Woolworths appeared to be on the cards today when the High Street chain said its long-struggling retail arm was back in the black.' More at This is money.
'The times they are a' changing', and the High Street as we know it in the near future? Retailing in turmoil as the credit cards are culled?

Movement for the Cooperative Movement?

Just type in'Somerfield sale' into Google to keep up with the latest rumours, facts and speculation. Interesting indeed is a page on Crain's Manchester Business site.

Crain's suggest that if the coop made a move on Somerfield then they would have to sell some stores on again, would that include Nairn?

'In the convenience store sector the Co-op has 7.9 per cent and is third behind Tesco (9.6 per cent) and Spar (9.2 per cent). With the addition of Somerfield's convenience stores it would have 9 per cent.

But James Flower, from research group Verdict, believes the Co-op would have to sell some of the 955 Somerfield stores if the deal went through.'

'From Littlehampton to Blackpool, Nairn to Poulton, Kenilworth to Great Doddington, the furies are massing'

'Try this experiment. Go to a search engine of your choice and type in "post office protest". When I did so, Google gave me over a million results. Scan through them, and you'll find a remarkable similarity in the stories.' Writes Paul Kingsnorth on Comment is free at the Guardian website.
He detects stirrings in the population concerned about their vanishing identity: 
'They are rising up, now, all over the nation. Recently, researching a book on just this subject, I was surprised to see just how widely this is happening, usually far below the media radar. '