Can anyone spot what is missing in this picture?

Caley Bar closes

The Caley Bar has closed - a real shame to see this often vibrant part of the High Street silent on a Saturday afternoon. 

Meanwhile on Social Media:

They say that the ongoing digital discussion we are all having is changing the world in ways that we don’t really appreciate yet. It certainly accelerates things and provides a platform for those with points and issues to raise locally. Good to see issues brought to the fore, at least three of our local Highland Councillors are out there on Facebook too and it is a good place to bring things to their attention along with the more traditional methods. So much of the way we organise our lives and communicate with fellow citizens seems to be shifting to the Facebook platform. 

On the Nairn River Community page there is comment about the lack of road markings on Lochloy Road at the traffic lights junction. More about the dangers of Station Brae for pedestrians and notice of a meeting next Wednesday night. And why haven’t the zebra crossing markings been reinstated yet at the High Kirk? More here. 

On “Nairn when you were a bairn” an interesting conversation about the costs the kite mannie has to pay before he can set up the popular kites on the links. Maybe there might be some way to reduce the charges? More here on the popular Facebook Group. 

And on Nairn rocks Murd has highlighted a litter problem and thanks to the power of social media it looks as though it will be sorted very quickly. Interesting too to see the take up of local businesses taking advantage of the regular Friday night opportunity to highlight their products and services. The Nairn Rocks page is here. 

Nairn our Town our Views contains a lot of news that some of the usual suspects and serious students of local affairs might find interesting too. You can access the pages here. 

All this and more going on if there’s nothing happening here. Could be something on the Gurn twitter account too – quite a lot of local businesses and the Grunshire diaspora put content on twitter. You are limited to 240 characters but the opportunity to insert pictures, videos and sound fields is available.  More here.

Fergus Ewing re-elected as MSP for Inverness and Nairn

#Inverness & #Nairn Constituency results #SP16 @HighElection Issued for RO pic.twitter.com/6jLN47lLuv

— The Highland Council (@HighlandCouncil) May 6, 2016

Also two of the candidates that stood in the Constituency against Fergus, Ed Mountain (Scottish Conservative) and Dave Stewart (Scottish Labour) were returned on the list vote for the Highlands and Islands. 

Parkdean Planning application for change of use of existing public car park to form touring caravan stances and new shower block approved.

The holiday company's plans for the East Beach car park have been approved under delegated powers by officials of Highland Council.

The reason for the decision and the conditions attached can be viewed here under the documents tab on this Highland Council e-planning page.

Have you voted yet?

Election day for the fifth Holyrood parliament begins on a mild sunny spring day in Nairn - have a good one Gurnshire. 

Compost the gold in your garden - find out more at James's by the putting Green this Friday (6th May)

COMPOST ~ the gold in your garden. Come to a free workshop and learn how easy it is to make compost from your house and garden waste. See the beautiful vegetables grown without chemical fertilizers and pesticides at Laikenbuie. Come anytime on Friday 6th May, beside James’s by the Putting Green. Short talks start at 11am, 1:30pm, & 3pm. Any questions? Call Therese 01667 454630. Great coffee & cakes always available at James’s.

Therese Muskus and some of her Garden Gold

Council Cludgie Cuts Charges Consultation

A Highland Council press release states: 

"The budget for operating public conveniences across Highland was reduced by £250,000 in 2016/17 and a further £344,000 in 2017/18, at Highland Council in February 2016 as part of the overall budget savings, leaving a budget of £639,000 thereafter.

The council operates 102 public conveniences and 27 comfort schemes with annual costs of £1.233 million.

Members of the Community Services Committee have agreed that the service should seek to achieve savings without the closure of toilets during 2016/17, but that there may need to be closures of toilets in 2017/18 to achieve the total savings required.

A proposal was put forward to increase charges for using public conveniences to 50p, however Members agreed that local communities should be consulted about an increase in charges, before a decision is made.

Chair of the Community Services Committee, Councillor Allan Henderson said: “It is essential that the agreed savings are achieved and this cannot be done without raising charges, closing toilets or a combination of both. This is something that is important for local communities to consider and decide what is best for their community.”

“Give me a map and I’m magic!” - new orienteering course in Nairn

“Give me a map and I’m magic!” That’s the message from some of Nairn’s youngsters who have been trying out a new orienteering practice course that has recently opened on the Links.

Following work earlier this year with local schools, Inverness based orienteering development officer Johannes Felter teamed up with his Moray counterpart Mike Rodgers to devise a “semi-permanent” orienteering practice course, starting and finishing opposite the swimming pool. 

Orienteering development officer Johannes Felter

With the support of Inverness Orienteering Club and the Nairn-based Davidson Trust, a section of the map used for last summer’s World Orienteering Championships Sprint Relay has been adapted so that local folk can have a go at orienteering in their own time. This idea is that people can pick up the general idea and will gain confidence in using orienteering maps before trying one of the many events that are organized by local clubs. 

“We wanted to make this a simple and free facility, particularly so that schools,

scouts, brownies, guides and family groups can access it easily” said Mike. “So rather than have maps on sale, the maps and instructions can be downloaded free of charge from the UK-wide permanent course directory hosted by British Orienteering. You can go on to the web site to find out details about permanent courses all over the UK, and, in the case of Nairn, download and print your own maps free of charge.” The facility will also allow the club to keep track of usage. If the course proves popular it might pave the way for funding for more permanent courses similar to others that have recently opened at Bught Park and Ord Hill in Inverness.

There are 10 control points marked by small but distinctive markers bearing the iconic red-and-white orienteering kite mark. The controls can be visited in any order, but there are 3 suggested routes varying between 1.3Km and 2.9 Km that can be used as a map-reading exercise at walking pace, or as a running time trial for those with a competitive streak. The identification plates are numbered so you can be sure which one you’re at. An added bonus for schools is that the numbers match the electronic markers from the “Sportident” electronic event equipment that is available for schools to borrow. This means that the courses can be used for realistic orienteering races with electronic timing like that used by the world’s elite last summer. This can be loaned from Inverness Orienteering Club’s schools development team through Active Schools Co-ordinator Gregor Campbell.

Nairn area schools have been taking part in the Inverness Schools Orienteering League competition. There were 28 pupils from Cawdor and Rosebank among the 164 youngsters who took part at the latest round at Craig Phadrig in Inverness last Wednesday. Cawdor have the bragging rights over their big-city cousins, sitting 5th in the league to Rosebank’s 6th. The final round is being held locally at Carse Wood near Arderseir on Wednesday 18th May. Entries for the schools competition is done centrally through Active Schools, but after the schools races, the courses are also open for the general public of all ages to run.

Meanwhile, Inverness Orienteering Club has opened bookings for a block of Wednesday-evening family coaching sessions starting at Nairn East Beach on 25th May. These are aimed at ourdoorsy families looking for something they can all do together and who want to fast track themselves in to orienteering. Details of this and other local orienteering opportunities in the Nairn area and to the west can be found at www.invoc.org.uk , while events in Moray are at www.moravianorienteering.org. A short drive over the Dava Moor will take you to the Badenoch & Strathspey club’s area (www.basoc.org.uk) where some of the best orienteering terrain in the whole of the UK can be found.

The permanent course maps can be downloaded from www.britishorienteering.org.uk/pocs

Michael Green “Wheels turn slowly but they do actually turn.”

Historical issues concerning the Nairn Common Good were discussed last week at the regular meeting of Nairn West/Suburban Community Council in the Community Centre. Michael Green said:

“We dealt with the Sandown fiasco. We got that partially resolved. We got money back. We’ve now got the current scenario surrounding the fishing lease and a report will be coming back in the next two or three weeks to the ward and then we’ll release it out at the next area committee. That is the sort of time scale we are talking. The Highland Council Legal Department, at their expense I should point out, have been going through the records, have been looking at this and they will come back with a position which we can discuss and take action, and if we’re due money then we will get the money. It’s similar to the paddling pool, things happen slowly, processes go slow, they don’t go anywhere near as fast as you would expect or would wish but they do happen. The paddling pool was resolved, that was a Common Good issue, we go through process. The Fishing Leases will be resolved, it’s not sustainable for us to be going on paying 9-10 thousand pounds a year. ” 

Bill Young was dissatisfied with the speed the issue was moving forward however, he said that he didn’t see why it would take to next December to decide that.

Michael Green said: “Wheels turn slowly but they do actually turn.”