Proposal lodged to break up Highland Council

"Ian Blackford and Dave Thompson – the MP and MSP for west Highland area – have submitted the plan as part of a consultation on proposed new legislation"

"But SNP colleague Drew Hendry – the Inverness MP – would not commit to splitting Highland Council..."

More in Iain Ramage's article on the P&J site here.

New bridge within 2-3 years - Whitebridge campaigners express their thanks and gratitude

The Gurn is delighted to post the following statement from the Whitebridge support group:

Members of the Cawdor and West Nairnshire Community Council and Whitebridge Community Support Group this morning attended the Highland Council’s Planning, Development and Infrastructure Committee meeting held at the Highland Council’s Headquarters. Sandy Park, former Convenor and member of the Support Group was warmly welcomed back to the Council Chamber.

During a discussion on capital expenditure, Councillor Michael Green spoke passionately about the requirement for a replacement bridge on the B9090 at Whitebridge as a result of the forthcoming 18T weight restriction. He highlighted the impact the traffic restriction will have on the local economy and specifically forestry, farming and other businesses.

Councillor Green drew members’ attention to the recommendation to accelerate capital sums for this project as it is now seen as a priority. Already a preliminary design report has been prepared by the Council’s structural engineers, and praise was rightly given to the Community Services and Development and Infrastructure teams for the speed in which they have taken on board the seriousness of this project. Whilst not a ‘lifeline’ bridge, this crossing of the River Nairn is crucial to the local and wider communities. As Councillor Green highlighted, there are potentially huge knock-on effects on the traffic through already congested Nairn.

Councillor Roddy Balfour, a long-time advocate for a replacement bridge to protect the historic Whitebridge, concurred with Cllr Green in both the requirement for a new bridge and the support of the local community, working closely with the Highland Council’s officers.

After a brief discussion about other Highland-wide projects, we are delighted to report that the Committee unanimously passed the recommendations of the officers and we are finally getting our New Bridge within the next 2 to 3 years!

The Community Council and Support Group wish to publically express their thanks and gratitude to the hard work of our local councillors, especially Cllrs Green, Balfour and Stephen. We would also echo Cllr Green’s thanks and praise of the Highland Council’s Planning and Infrastructure team along with the support of Community Services and we look forward to working with them in the forthcoming months.

Former McDermotts road end - barrier installed

One of our regular readers recently noticed the barrier installed at the top of the road down to the former McDermotts site. On either side there are concrete barriers and a newly dug ditch. 

On Monday it was reported that the Port of Ardersier was now in administration.

Looking good for replacement White Bridge according to Donna

@HighlandCouncil officials being showered with thanks at planning cmte for accelerating plans to replace White Bridge crossing River Nairn

— Donna MacAllister (@SPP_macallister) November 4, 2015

Will the White Bridge replacement get a shove to the top of the Highland Council capital expenditure programme today?

"A long-awaited solution to a replacement for Highland Council’s oldest bridge could be on the horizon.

Councillors will be asked at a meeting this week to “accelerate” the process for an alternative to the White Bridge B9090 crossing of the River Nairn, near Cawdor, with a pledge of £2.25million to cover the cost.

Community services director William Gilfillan has confirmed that the project has been reviewed.

“Due process will be followed this week to establish whether the funding is agreed or not,” he said."   

More in an article by Iain Ramage here. 

The meeting starts at 10.30 am, the agenda is here and the White Bridge is item 5 for discussion. You can watch it live here. Recently the implications of the White Bridge 18-tonne weight limit for Nairn were discussed at a Community Council meeting.

Music Nairn announce the Maxwell Quartet in the Community and Arts Centre 7.30 pm Friday 13th November

Here's some information from Mike at Music Nairn:

Hailed as “one of the front-runners” in young UK ensembles (Classical Music Magazine, 2013) the Maxwell Quartet is rapidly emerging as a dynamic and exciting force in the chamber music world, with an unparalleled drive and commitment to expanding the string quartet repertoire.

The quartet was formed in 2010 at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, where its founding members met as postgraduate students. Upon winning the major chamber music prizes, in 2011 they were selected as the Royal Conservatoire's

rst ever Young Artists in Residence/Junior Fellows in Chamber Music. During their studies, the Maxwells were mentored by members of the Brodsky Quartet, Endellion Quartet, Dante Quartet, and Quatuor Mosaiques, in addition to working closely with mentors including Robert Irvine, William Conway, and Steven Osborne.

The quartet was also named as Residency Artists for Enterprise Music Scotland 2011-2013, which saw them giving several acclaimed concert tours over their two-year tenure. Since then they have established themselves as the most widely-performing chamber out t in Scotland, and have gone on to delight audiences with their "unnaffected enthusiasm" (North Highland Times) and their "panache and conviction" (Strathearn Herald), gaining particular repute for their balance of new and old in their programming. As well as being regular guests at Perth Concert Hall, they have appeared at many festivals, including the Plug Contemporary Music Festival, the Cottier Chamber Project, Lammermuir Festival, Loch Shiel Spring Festival, Celtic Connections, SOUND Festival, BBC Chamber Music Proms and more. The quartet has collaborated with the likes of pianist Benjamin Grosvenor, cellist David Watkin, cellist Philip Higham, and accordionist Paul Chamberlain.

In addition to a busy concert diary, the quartet has featured in broadcasts for BBC Radio Scotland, as well as regularly giving schools workshops and concerts for children.

Vandalism at the paddling pool

Earlier today one of the regulars on the popular "Nairn when you were a Bairn" Facebook page reported: "Sad to see this morning that the paddling pool looks as if it was a target for the vandals. The top coping in various positions have been kicked off and smashed into the pool. Reported it to the Council."

Here are some pictures from the late afternoon and it certainly does look like vandalism.

Citizens Advice Scotland say Beware Pension Scammers

Citizens Advice Scotland has today warned that scammers are actively targeting people with pension savings across Scotland, looking to con them out of their hard-earned savings.

Most commonly ‘cold-calling’ potential victims, the scammers offer free pension reviews, promises of better returns and early cash release from your pension as a hook. Their main objective is to persuade savers to transfer their pension funds into unregulated investment schemes that often involve huge fees and tax penalties. In other cases they simply disappear with the cash leaving the victim with nothing.

In a recent example, one victim was pressured into signing documents to transfer his lifetime pension savings of over £100,000 from his company pension scheme into an unregulated, off-shore property development scheme. It was only the intervention of a local PensionWise Guidance Specialist that halted the transfer after it was found that the scheme was part of a scam already under investigation by The Pensions Regulator.

Citizens Advice Scotland’s PensionWise manager Angela Spalding says:

“We have now had a number of instances of these scams reported to us, so it’s important to make people aware of the risk. Cold-callers are phoning individuals across Scotland, hoping to engage with pension savers. These callers are very persuasive, suggesting that they are experts doing you a ‘good turn’ and offering free reviews and early access to your pension cash. In fact, many of these people are not registered with the Financial Conduct Authority and they are often promoting the most high-risk, unregulated schemes on the market, often with overseas investments unsuitable for most savers.

“The best thing to do with cold-callers is to put the phone down. If you want to review your retirement plans or access your savings, why would you do it through someone you don’t know who has randomly called you? You can get expert, impartial guidance through the Pension Wise service at your local Citizens Advice Bureau. Like all CAB services, our pension guidance is free, confidential and independent. Face-to-face appointments are available to those approaching 50 or over.

“If you believe that you are a victim of a scammer or wish to report a potential scam, you can contact Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040. It’s important to report these calls when they do happen because the authorities may be able to prevent them potentially conning someone else.”

Anyone aged close to 50 or over with a defined contribution pension scheme is eligible for a Pension Wise appointment. Contact your local Citizens Advice Bureau to arrange a face-to-face appointment, or call our Pension Wise telephone line - 0300 330 1001, or visit www.pensionwise.gov.uk.

A96 in Nairn (lights and increased traffic from White Bridge) - discussions from last Tuesday night at Nairn West Community Council

At the meeting of Nairn West Community Council last Tuesday night in the Academy, the Secretary Brian Stewart told his colleagues that Transport Scotland had agreed to have a consultative meeting with the members of the Community Councils to discuss “what to do about the Traffic Lights”. The consultative meeting was to take place the next day Wednesday 28th of October. No word of what happened at that meeting has yet entered the public domain - did Transport Scotland respond to local concerns? Perhaps we will find out soon. 

Sadly the next day (Thursday 29th) there was a tragic accident at the pedestrian crossing on the Academy Street section of the A96.  The road was closed for several hours as police investigated the scene and traffic was diverted via Marine Road and the West End. 

The subject of traffic through the town also came up during discussion on Tuesday night when the effect of traffic displacement of the 18-tonne limit due to be imposed on the White Bridge at Cawdor was aired:

Brian said: “they had traffic counters and they have produced stats on the likely volume of heavy traffic that is going to be diverted through Nairn when the restrictions come in” 

He went on to say that the information suggested that there was going to be somewhere between 50 and 80 additional heavy vehicles per day coming through Nairn that currently use the White Bridge route. He continued: “there’s nothing we can do about that but the reason it is on here is that this isn’t only Cawdor’s problem [...] We will be faced with an additional volume of heavy trucks, buses and the rest.”

Highland Councillor Michael Green later added that buses would not be affected as they come under the 18-tonne limit, he went on to say that the very best case scenario for the completion of the White Bridge was two and a half years.

Brian Stewart also suggested that other traffic over and above heavy vehicles would perhaps come through Nairn due to delays caused during construction of a replacement White Bridge. 

The accident scene on Thursday afternoon in which one elderly pedestrian died and another was seriously injured. 

Scottish Cup Replay Wick 5 Nairn 1 - pictures Donald Matheson

Nairn exited the Scottish Cup in an ignominious fashion up at Harmsworth Park yesterday.  You can read a match report here.  A video of highlights has appeared on line here. Les Fridge tries to make sense of what went wrong in comments to Graeme MacLeod here. Meanwhile on the fans We Believe Facebook pages there are again vehement calls for the manager to step down. 

Individual images here. 

Meanwhile over the other side of the tracks a comfortable win reported for Saint Ninian JFC