Parking Charges - Tom Heggie at Community Council meeting "so there is severe pressure being put on by Councillors across the board so we have yet to see what the outcome of that will be"

At the River CC meeting in the Community Centre on Wednesday evening the subject of parking charges was on the agenda once again and the Chair, Tommy Hogg, asked Tom Heggie for an update.  

Tom Heggie said: “ We wait until the Highland Council meeting in June, that's when the policy, which is part of the policy mentioned here will go to the full Council. There is at present no parking policy, there is a great deal of debate, a great deal of discussion going on and there is at the moment  no policy in place so therefore there can be no final decisions or discussion about parking charges per se. In Nairn, which is unique within Highland we have an agreement that there will be no consultation until the conclusion of the BID process which will be balloted in August. Thereafter there is due to be an appropriate consultation process […]"

Tom carried on a little longer on the subject including details of Community Empowerment seminars he'd recently been too.

Liz was the next to speak: “As Tom says the parking policy has been deferred until the redesign group has reached its conclusions. There was a meeting of the redesign group, working group, yesterday where it was discussed in a very heated atmosphere. Carolyn Wilson was saying that they had a petition in Alness where they had 1,100 signatures. I've just picked up today in Nairn, a petition with 1,100 signatures so there is a lot of opposition to the car-parking in its current form. But one of the points that was made very clearly was that the paper that came before the Council that laid out the money that it was going to be raised was flawed.

Free parking, almost part of the town's DNA but will Highland Council take it away?

There was that many mistakes, for example, they had the two Common Good car parks in. Carolyn Wilson said that in her area in Alness they had a car park identified as having 203 spaces when it just had 90 and there was other areas in there that didn't even belong to the Council that was identified for car parks to raise funds for the Council. So the paper that went to the Council was totally flawed and leaves the Council with a deficit of, is it, 1.4 million?”

Liz then seemed a little unsure of that figure and asked her colleagues if that was correct. She said that the deficit becomes a budget pressure unless they could close it up. She went on:

“At the redesign group meeting, certainly whenever they are discussing car parking there are a lot of people that attend who are not members and I'm one of them and so are several others that turn up and make their case for their communities.”

Tom Heggie then said: “There are other meetings where what Liz is describing is, so there is severe pressure being put on by Councillors across the board so we have yet to see what the outcome of that will be.”

The debate continued with mention from Tom Heggie about the massive debate about the lack of clarity in the initial stages.

Then an interesting intervention from a member of the public Loreine Thomson who stated:

I'll read you a quote from the letter that I got back from Bill Loban and he has signed it as chair or the redesign board and it says. The decision on this saving (that's the one point four million) has therefore already been made by the Council for 18/19 and that the intended consultation is to discuss when and how the charges can be introduced.”

The discussion continued and when time permits we hope to post more and include also technical details about what has to be done with money raised from parking charges revenue which was questioned by another member of the public who seemed to have a remarkable in-depth knowledge of the subject which seemed to surpass that of the three elected members present.

Gurn opinion:

So there we have it folks, Highland Council has got itself into a toxic parking mix and there is obviously a lot of trouble behind the scenes. It's decision time soon for Laurie and Tom, will they lay it on the line and commit to resigning from the administration if the parking charges go through?

Another Councillor comments on Councillors upset at parking fines "The entitlement on display there is staggering."

Here's what Richard Laird, a Highland Councillor himself thinks of some comments attributed to other Glenurquhart Road members in an article in the Inverness Courier: "Councillors face fines after being snared by parking rules"

The entitlement on display there is staggering.

— Richard Laird (@Richard_Laird) 18 May 2018

Gurn comment: The arrogance displayed in that article just comes out and hits you right in the face. Yes Richard Laird is right, the entitlement on display there is staggering, it is appalling.

Please have a read of the article if you can. Stuff like this is just too much, "I am not going to walk along Glenurquhart Road when I am entitled to park outside the HQ. There is a shortage of parking spaces, and I think on occasions people park there who are not entitled to be there."

Shorewatch training day - When: Wednesday 27th June 6-9pm Where: Nairn Sailing Club

Bu Chòir Inbhir Narann a' dèanamh deiseil son iomairtean samhraidh - Nairn Yes preparing for summer campaigning

Some Nairn Yessers met at the bandstand last night for a wee blether about forthcoming summer activities. Afterwards they retired to a nearby hostelry  for some refreshments. More images here. 

"Highland Council was on the brink of chaos last night after as many as five members threatened to resign from the independent group over parking charges."

According to the Press and Journal:

"The four are Margaret Paterson, Carolyn Wilson, Donnie Mackay and Mike Finlayson. A fifth councillor could not be contacted for comment."

Interestingly Laurie can be seen in last week's Highland Council webcast saying that he fully supported Margaret. 

Last night at the River CC meeting Tom Heggie and Laurie were not giving away too much but they were obviously concerned by the attitude of their Council administration and I get the impression that there is quite a bit of friction behind the scenes. We'll give a report on last nights River CC meeting when time permits but in the meantime head over to the P&J for more on parking issues. 

Give communities a stronger role in planning their local areas to address planning ‘frustrations’, says Holyrood Committee

The recommendations of the  Scottish Parliament’s Local Government and Communities Committee  will certainly chime with those groups in Nairn who recently wrote to Highand Council and the Scottish Government over several issues that they feel the community has not had a proper say on. More in this article: 

"Inadequate structures in place to support consultation and involvement of Nairn communities " A remarkable letter from Nairn River Community Council and 5 other local community groups to Highland Council and the Scottish Government"

It seems that Community Empowerment is the will of Holyrood but will we ever see it effectively working in Nairn?  Anyway here's the Scottish Parliament Press Release:

We want communities to have a stronger voice in planning what their neighbourhoods look like, says a Holyrood Committee today.

The Scottish Parliament’s Local Government and Communities Committee sets out recommendations to strengthen the Planning (Scotland) Bill in a report published today, while recognising that it has the potential to improve the planning process overall.

The Bill aims to streamline the system of development planning, support delivery of planned developments and includes a new right for communities to produce their own plans for their local areas called Local Place Plans.

Key Committee recommendations include…

We call for the Bill to include a purpose for planning to provide greater certainty to communities and developers, and encourage more meaningful engagement on planning applications, Local Place Plans and Local Development Plans.

While we welcome that planning authorities must “take account of” Local Place Plans, we are concerned that, without further support, disadvantaged communities will be considerably less likely to take advantage of Local Place Plans due to a lack of capacity, time and resources. This will widen inequality.

We are concerned that the Bill proposals don’t go far enough to address planning frustrations felt by many communities. We believe that in a plan-led system, appeals should only be allowed in certain circumstances and we urge the Scottish Government to look at these issues.

We recognise music venues make an important contribution to Scotland and it is unreasonable for those moving into a new development to complain about pre-existing noise levels. We recommend that Agent of Change – a principle that puts the onus on developers to mitigate pre-existing noise impacts – should be included within the Bill.

Local Government and Communities Committee Convener, Bob Doris MSP, said:

“Planning impacts every aspect of our lives. It decides where our homes are built, where our children go to school and how we use our outdoor spaces.

“Over the past few months, we have taken evidence on Scotland’s new approach to planning and while we consider this Bill has the potential to improve our lives, we have also outlined a number of ways it can be strengthened.

“A clear theme running through our report is the importance of empowering communities to have a meaningful say on the kind of place they want to live in. Communities being able to help shape their area by working with planning authorities early on makes for better places.

Bob Doris MSP

“It remains the case that more disadvantaged communities could lose out on shaping their local areas because of a lack of money, time and capacity, which we think may widen inequality. That’s why we’ve called for communities to be supported so that planning works for everyone.”

Commenting on the Agent of Change principle, Convener Bob Doris MSP said:

“We all have fond memories of visiting local music venues and hearing emerging new talents. Music venues are an incredibly valuable part of many communities and make an important contribution to the cultural life and economy of Scotland.

“We think it is unreasonable for those moving into a new development to be able to complain about pre-existing noise levels, which can result in music venues closing their doors because it’s too costly to mitigate that noise. That’s why we want to see the Agent of Change principle included within the Planning Bill.”

Laurie Fraser calls for entire Council budget to be devolved to Nairn

Here's the point in last week's Highland Council meeting where he calls for full financial control of the budget for Nairn and, interestingly, he states his full support for Dingwall Councillor Margaret Patersons and her threat to resign from the administration if car parking charges go ahead.

Dingwall Councillor threatens to resign from administration if Parking Charges go ahead " I was elected by the people and I will support them as that is my duty as a Councillor"

Here's Dingwall Councillor Margaret Paterson saying she will resign from the Highland Council administration if parking charges go ahead. She was speaking in the Council chamber last Thursday, 10th of May.  A little later in the webcast Laurie Fraser says he fully supports her.

 

New petition to Fergus Ewing - calling for a Ministerial Statement to protect the Moray Firth from oil transfers

New petition to Fergus Ewing - Protect the Moray Firth from oil transfers
"We ask you to issue a Ministerial Statement to protect the Moray Firth from oil transfers. This would help stop this threat to our stunning natural environment."https://t.co/AbVAK8cs9L

— A Gurn from Nurn (@GurnNurn) 15 May 2018

"The popular belief is that there will be no consultation and Nairn will soon have parking meters"

We've just been having another look at the editorial in last week's Nairnshire Telegraph. 

The editor ponders on whether the majority are anti car-parking charges and writes:

"We hesitate to say this is a majority view because that is untested, so far, but the experience over years since meters first appeared made an appearance on the High Street is to firmly object to the idea. The fact is we have not heard a view expressed to the contrary, in support of parking charges. 

And when it comes to the three councillors voting for the parking charges after the public meeting, the Nairnshire continues:

"Locals were given the line that this was expedient; the budget had to be passed, but there was a kind of deferral on the parking charges there would be consultation."

"At the end of the month, the council intends to come to a decision on the charges. Will consultation have taken place by then? To date there is precious little sign of it. At a recent meeting of Highland Council's Re-design Committee members were treated to a hard sell by a council official proposing the benefits of parking charges."

A little later the editorial reaches it's point. 

"The popular belief is that there will be no consultation and Nairn swill soon have parking meters. It seems that when consultation was talked about earlier in the year the emphasis was on the word's first syllable.