Secret talks to privatise Highland Council care homes?

The Press and Journal is on the case this morning, Iain Ramage reports in today's edition:

'The privatisation of every care home run by Highland Council is back on the agenda.
The Press and Journal can reveal that e-mail messages exchanged by senior officials have confirmed that the controversial option has been discussed by senior members of the local authority’s administration at secret talks.
The correspondence was obtained by the opposition SNP group on the council.'

See the full article here. And the P&J on the council's smoking dilemma here.

UPDATE Tuesday : a new article in Press and Journal
Care homes to stay in council hands
highland leader gives assurance privatisation is no longer on local authority agenda

Free dinners for councillors - Gurnshire has spoken!

No doubt about that one. A chance now exists for Sandy, Liz, Graham and Laurie to show solidarity with the credit-crunched council tax payers of Nairnshire in simply stating that they will no longer accept free dinners at Glenurquhart Rd when they attend council meetings. It would be a small step in financial terms but it would show a significant lead in other ways and voters would remember them for it.

Sandown: last Week's editorial in the Nairnshire

Iain Bain entitled last week's editorial 'Controversy' as he took a long hard look at the troubled history of Sandown in recent years. He looks back to the 1990's and the 'centralising tendency' that was prevalent at the time in local Government matters. He sees more controversy to come too after the inquiry as far as Sandown is concerned. Before queuing up this evening for your inquiry-filled edition of the local paper at the Co-op perhaps you might want to turn to the current edition however and reexamine the Editor's view. It gives those Gurnites only now showing an interest in this matter a crash course into the events that led us to where we are now and other long-term implications regardless of how many houses eventually get built on the Sandown fields.

We reproduce the third paragraph:

'Sandown was a prime candidate for disposal because it was ground owned by the CGF and not a part of that fund. The money riased will stay in Nairn's CGF but a mortgage has been raised on the council's contribution to the building of the community centre which will be covered by the proceeds of the Sandown sale, whenever that happens. While the council has undoubtedly provided a bridging loan of sorts and carried the charges, eventually the Nairn CGF will pay for the council's part in the Community Centre. Some might call this a pretty good trick. Others might question its legality and consider what other costs are going to be lumped into the settlement .

But it is a controversy mostly to come. Sandown lands also became notorious for the way in which...' Well worth a second look Gurnites if you still have your copy of the Nairnshire available.

Sandown Inquiry: goalposts were moved!

A couple of quotes from Friday's edition of the Inverness Courier - an article titled: claims of 'elastic planning process.'

'A CAMPAIGNER against the proposed Sandown development claims the planning process surrounding the scheme has been elastic.

John Hart, chairman of Nairn Residents Concern Group made his comments as it emerged there was confusion about the masterplan which is the subject of the public inquiry.

Before the start of the hearing at Nairn Community Centre, there was a lengthy debate about the detail of a masterplan which was rejected last May by Highland councillors and which, according to objectors, was a revised version which the public had been consulted on.'

'However, Mr Hart, of Sandown Road, maintained the confusion was "an indication of the goalposts moving throughout the whole process." "The whole planning process has been elastic," he said.'

Letters of support against Sandown Plan come from all over town and beyond

Brian Lynch, spokesperson for the Nairn Residents Concern Group told the Gurn that they had now received 101 letters of objection covering 143 individuals-109 individuals from Nairn alone (23 from Highland Region other than Nairn and 11 from outwith Highland). Brian states that the breakdown by number of protesters per area/address) shows a fairly broad spread of objectors across Nairn and helps draw the teeth of the nimby accusations that normally arise at these times. The NRCG think that these figures might be of general interest to Gurn readers, particularly those who took the time to write in and support the campaign.

The Inquiry reconvenes on Tuesday morning in the Community Centre and once again if you have some time to spare please go along and show your support. The public benches have been fairly full during the proceedings, let's keep it that way and continue showing our support for the objectors.

Nairn 10k and fun run

Pictures will enlarge.

485 more pictures of the fun run and 10k now on the Gurn flickr pages. Once on the set of pictures please note there are eight pages (navigable from the bottom of each page). Just click on any picture you wish to see and once on an individual picture's page click on 'All sizes' if you wish to see the largest format.

Sunset Wednesday

Mountain backdrop

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Nairn businesses on Googlemaps

More evidence of how Google is taking over the world can be had on the Googlemaps site.

When you arrive on Googlemaps you are looking at a map of the USA but if you put 'Nairn' in the search box you will be given the option to click on 'Nairn UK', you'll be asked 'did you mean'. Once on the google map page for Nairn UK you can search with 'shops' for example and this is what you see if you zoom in on the map. If you are a business owner you can add information to your page once Google verify your status as owner. If you are a customer you can add reviews too. A similar search for accommodation will give you a page of hotels. The Windsor is owner verified and has more information and pictures. 130 customers have submitted reviews up to now and they can be read at your leisure if you are say a tourist looking for somewhere in Nairn.

It is hard to see how the world's biggest search engine can fail to dominate this type of Internet business research facility. Any business can list on Google maps for free, there is even an explanatory video showing you how to do this. Will Google eventually dominate all advertising, including the local scene?

Gurn Photo Competition

Thanks to Duncan Green for permission to use this picture. To win this competition you have to give the location of the picture and the name of the girl in the picture.

Winner wins a day at the Sandown Public Inquiry listening to Sandy give evidence. Runner-up wins two days at the Inquiry.

(reposted to the top - Saturday morning)