Gaelic temporay teacher post for Millbank advertised for the third time

The Highland Council are having severe difficulties getting a temporary teacher for the Gaelic unit at Millbank. A Highland Council spokesperson said:

“The Education Authority is making vigorous efforts to fill the current vacancy for the temporary P4-P7 Gaelic Medium teacher post at Millbank Primary School. Unfortunately, despite the post having been advertised twice previously, there have been no applicants. The post is now being advertised for a third time and approaches are also being made to Gaelic Medium teachers currently working on a part-time basis with the offer of increased hours. The Education Authority have also made enquiries to other council areas about the availability of Gaelic Medium teaching staff. The difficulty in attracting applicants reflects the current national situation where there is a lack of supply teachers.

“The Area Education Manager has already met with parents at Millbank Primary in order to discuss options for the continuation of Gaelic Medium provision for their children until the vacancy has been filled. Parents have been reassured that every effort will continue to be made to fill the post.”

Highland Council at last getting tough on doggie jobbie offenders?

In February of this year the Gurn reported that the Highland Council had not issued a single fine for dog fouling in Nairn in the five years up to that point (that article here). Could that all be about to change though as the local authority starts talking tough? A Highland Council Press release states: 

"Almost 7 in 10 people rated dog mess as the item on our streets, parks and beaches that bothered them most; that is the finding of recent research into public attitudes to littering carried out by Keep Scotland Beautiful which is running a Dog Fouling Fortnight from the 30th September to 13th October.

The campaign, which is being supported by The Highland Council, aims to highlight the problem presented by irresponsible dog owners who allow their dogs to foul in public spaces.

Britain’s approximately 7 million dogs produce 1,000 tonnes of excrement per day and it is estimated that in a ten year lifespan the average dog produces half a tonne of poo! Dog owners are being urged to ‘Grab it, Bag it, and Bin it’
During the fortnight of the campaign The Highland Council dog wardens, enforcement and education staff will be patrolling identified dog-fouling ‘hotspots’ and engaging with owners to promote responsible dog ownership. Fixed penalty Notices will also be issued to dog owners allowing their pets to foul without cleaning up. KSB are also asking anyone who would like to be involved to organise a dog fouling survey of their local park or pitch. The information gathered will allow KSB to formulate a better understanding of the problem.

Sunrise picture

Thanks to Andrew for this picture showing the fine start to the day on Wednesday. Things have gone a little

duller now and some welcome rain for the very dry ground but the temperature is still very reasonable for the time of year.

Andrew told the Gurn:

" From taking the picture to getting level with the slide took less than 5 mins. By then the sky had changed completely. It was one of those 'moments' so prevalent in Nairn."

Highlands and Islands Growers - Horticultural Day Nairn - November 13th

Panny tells the Gurn:

"Highland and Islands Growers are a group with horticultural interests at heart. We have an annual Horticultural Day with 5 speakers. This year it is on November 13th (9.30 – 5) at Nairn Community Centre and the speakers are Sarah Speakman from The Floral Hall, Inverness; Rob Harland from Koppert Biological Systems; Dougal Philip from New Hopetoun Gardens; Colin Stirling, Horticultural Consultant; Alastair Maclean, rhododendron propagation. Open to all interested in horticulture. Entry £25 (includes lunch). More information from panny@logie.co.uk. "

Nairn Town and County becomes more dementia friendly

Support from members of the community is helping to turn Nairn Town and County Hospital into a pacesetter in the care of patients with dementia.

With “fantastic” assistance from the hospital’s League of Friends, the Town and County is working towards becoming a dementia-friendly environment.

The hospital is aiming for ‘Beacon’ ward status, which reflects excellence in dementia care. The original Beacon wards were developed in NHS Lothian, and NHS Highland staff have visited these wards to learn from their experience."

More on this NHS Highland web page.

Now “Getting IT together ” to research your family tree – digital inclusion initiative goes from strength to strength.

We hear from the local Citizen’s Online “Getting IT together” co-ordinator, Brigitte Vallance that the local digital inclusion initiative is going very well and she told us of a further step to help people use skills they have learnt so far:

“We are putting this event on jointly with the Highland Archive department as we have found that the Get IT Together project has proved so successful so far that those who are learning want to carry on.  We thought a good way to encourage the learners to use their newly acquired skills and improve further would be to have

6 sessions learning how to research your family tree.  We have had a fantastic response to the suggestion and the first block of sessions is already fully booked!”

There will be an introductory talk on Monday the 14th of October between 2-4 p.m. in the Community and Arts Centre and the Course proper begins on Friday the 18th at the Adult Education rooms above the library. More details about the course available here. 

Brigitte was also at the Careers Evening event at Nairn Academy, she said “It was a real success, with a lovely buzz around the whole evening. With the brilliant support of Liz Main - Signpost. Inc. we managed to sign 30 new volunteers to join the Saltire Awards and volunteer with the Nairn Get IT Together project.  We hope that with their help and support the community of Nairn will continue to become more digitally inclusive.  It was a great event and thanks to all those young students who signed up and also to the parent council and the all the staff who made this such a very positive event."

“The students were so helpful, polite and well-mannered, nothing was too much trouble for them to help with, from blowing up balloons to bringing around refreshments.  Even those with already busy volunteering commitments wanting to get involved!”

“We are hopeful that with the School’s support that we can all encourage even greater links between the local community and the school by having some Get IT Training sessions in the School’s PC Suite which Mrs MacDonald the Head Teacher very generously suggested that we use.  I can’t tell you how well this project has been received by the Nairn community and I feel very privileged to be working with the people in Nairn.  The spirit and keenness to learn and overcome barriers has been fantastic and most weeks I get calls, or people coming into the Community Centre to ask about classes because their friends are already coming along.”

Truck and Van Company acquires site in Nairn

The Mercedes Benz UK media site states:

"Meanwhile, parent company Caledonian Truck & Van has acquired a site in Nairn, near Inverness, from where it will serve operators in the far north. Work is scheduled to begin soon on an extension and wholesale redevelopment of the former council depot, which is ideally located on the main Aberdeen to Inverness road." 

This observer isn't aware of any former Council Depot at Balmakeith perhaps they mean former Council owned property? Anyway more details of what facilities will be on the site on this Mercedes-Benz webpage. 

South Nairn Decision - Friendly voices - 1. Jim Crawford

Here at Gurn HQ we've had another look at the webcast of the 18th of September and the meething that  saw the South Nairn application refused planning permission. There was a lot of support for Nairn which cut across party lines.  Here's what Independen Cllr Jim Crawford had to say:

“This application today highlights concerns I’ve had for quite some time and when we arrived in Nairn this morning there were about a hundred people who met us and on the t-shirts it says “Nairn is our town.” It’s

true, It’s not planners’ town, it’s not this committee’s town. It’s their town - they don’t want this. It’s been imposed on them. We’ve already heard criticism of the Highland wide Development Plan. The reason we are having problems today is because of a lot of these local plans. We’ve had this problem at the West Link, we’ve had this problem at Tornagrain, we’ve now got this problem coming up in Nairn.

At the last full Council meeting I asked could we possibly have a cross party group set up by you to look at the overall effect of planning in the Highlands and I’m formally asking you today would you please undertake that duty to form this group so we can come back, maybe in January after looking at planning to see if there is anything we can do to stop this happening again. To give the people back their voices, community councils have said they don’t want this, the local people have said they don’t want this, the local councllors have said they don’t want it and it’s still being recommended for approval. Well that is not democracy it’s not local democracy and that’s what we must return to the Highlands. “

Bjorn again

According to the Facebook page "Find it in Nairn" Bjorn the Polar Bear will be back in town on Friday the 15th of November at the switching on of the Christmas lights.

Michael Green has also been quoted in a local weekly newspaper saying:

"I want it to be a night where the whole town gets involved and if anybody has any creative ideas then please get in touch with me."

Any Gurnites that made it up to the High Kirk for the appearance of Bjorn last year will testify that it was a night to be remembered. Indeed an opportunity exists to build on the success of last year's event and bring an even bigger buzz to the town centre this time round. A couple of pictures below and more here. 

Suburban kids taking an active part in plans for Moss-side playpark.

Cllr Lorraine Mallinson told the Subbies CC meeting last week that they had so far received a return of 57 surveys from residents in the Community Council’s area via a box in the Co-op. A total of 420 surveys were distributed. The subbies are looking to take that total up to 80-100 to achieve nearly 25 % of the population before taking things forward with their funding consultant Alan Jones. She asked for folk to spread the word to get more of the surveys returned.

Lorraine stressed how the local youngsters are continuing to play an active part with the project and helped deliver the surveys. She went on to say who the children are also taking a proactive role in caring for the existing equipment, when kids from outwith the area starting damaging part of the playpark surface recently, local children informed Lorraine within minutes. She said:

”The kids really are taking on board what we have said, if they can respect the park that we have at the moment, they could possibly get more things added to it.”

Gurn articles from  June and July give more details of the initiative planned for the play area.