Camper vans parking at the harbour and dumping toilet waste annoys Tommy

Tommy introduced AOCB at the River CC meeting last Wednesday night and then said:

“Before we go further I’ve a wee gripe of my own. Basically, the car park down on the west pier facing the sea, down at the harbourt, at night a lot of the caravanettes are using it during the summer time for parking. There’s nowhere else for them so they park down there at nights. One day last year I was down in the morning early and there was seven of them, huge massive campervans. I was standing on the pier looking out and the next thing this guy just came out of the caravan and he had his portable toilet with him, he came out the caravan, two dogs running about doing their business. The guy just comes straight over into the river, empties the chemical toilet straight into the river.”

Tommy expressed his worry over environmental damage and then continued: “Is there any need to have them parking down there? I think it is all wrong”

Graham Vine then said: “I thought overnight parking was banned”

The Chair replied: “It used to be but they took the signs away. So what I’m actually suggesting is that they go somewhere, a designated area for the campervans and I would suggest that the caravan park be over the bridge in the new car park because the sewer runs adjacent to the car park and it’s just a case of getting a chemical waste unit connected onto the main sewer.”

“A very good idea,” said Rosemary.

Mike Henderson also reported that the contents of chemical toilets were being poured down the public toilets and he said: “With the best will in the world you always get a bit of spillage. Three weeks ago they actually dumped it in the urinal trough.”

Graham Vine returned then returned to the debate: “Presumably you need not only to provide a facility on the other side of the river you need to find a way to stop them parking this side of the river,” he observed.

The River CC agreed to write to the ward manager and Liz said she would raise it as well. 

No objections to Playhouse 2.a.m licence bid on Fridays and Saturdays from River CC

Last Wednesday night the Playhouse application for a 2.a.m. licence was discussed in the URC hall by the watchdog organisation who are statutory consultees on such applications. This part of the meeting was opened by Mike Henderson who gave a little background to the application and then opened the subject up for discussion. First to comment was visiting Chair of the Westies, Rosemary Young:

”To answer your question “Does Nairn need a late night venue?” I think perhaps it does in the  summer, because we a certain amount of leakage with the golf groups going to Inverness, taking their money and spending it there. Is it a suitable place? I’m not really sure if anywhere is a suitable place, if you’ve got residents. I know I lived next door to a pub and I hated but if you take the premises, they have been well constructed. It is well run. It does employ people and I have a feeling that they will monitor perhaps better than other pubs in the town do and I think it would be good if the Highland Council did have a two o’ clock, I think three o’clock is ridiculously late and maybe one o’clock isn’t late enough. I don’t know, I’m not sure I wouldn’t want to go to a place myself for that. I certainly know there are people that do go to Inverness to seek out those sort of places. 

Tommy Hogg, chair of River CC agreed with Rosemary: “I think it’s the day and age now, I think Nairn rather needs it to keep the money in the town because the leakage…but if it is well controlled and monitored I don’t see any problem.”

New street furniture in Nairn High Street

Here's the new style bin which centres around separating the waste stream at source. 

Next Saturday (19th October) will you be joining the exodus from Nairn in the direction of Grant Street Park Inverness?

Chatter out there on the County Fans We Believe Facebook page indicates that a large number of County fans will be travelling great distances to be at Grant Street park in the Merkinch next Saturday, to see the showdown between NCFC and Brora Rangers in the AJG Parcels North Cup Final. We hear at Gurn HQ that there are now three buses leaving from various points in the town and many, many more people planning to travel independently. It promises to be a classic with both the Wee County and the Cattachs on good form. Here's how we won the North Cup last season in an action packed encounter at the same venue against Wick Academy. See you there on Saturday!

Lochloy – a non-existent bridge over troubled planning waters

No River CC meeting seems to be complete these days without either the Lochloy grass cutting problems on the agenda or debate at some point on Lochloy related issues – namely the lack of planning enforcement. A resident of Lochloy present on Wednesday night told the regular River CC monthly meeting:

“But surely when planning permission was granted in the first place something should have been put in place to ensure that the planning regulations were upheld.”

The Westies Chair, Rosemary, who was also at the meeting then intervened: “Mr Chairman could I actually ask our ex Provost Liz over there. She’s been an elected councillor for some years. When you saw these things weren't happening at Lochloy did you do anything about it?

Liz replied that she had meetings with planning officers and that she thought the problem had been lack of enforcement.

Rosemary followed this up: “Well would you see if there is some way out of this because surely if things aren't complied with then it’s the fault of what was put down in the first place? Therefore you should have been shouting it to the rooftops.”

There was some more debate and then Liz got another chance to say more: “The last time I actually went and arranged a meeting with planning officers the files had been archived that had the conditions in them and they took them back out and they started collecting the monies again for the bridge across which I think that the council is now trying to deliver. But it has…I mean, that site has been a nightmare.”

Simon Noble then said: “It is quite easy to be critical of the councillors in relation to this but actually it’s also easy to be critical of the council officers but what happens with things, particularly where they drift over a long period of time, is that you get people that go off sick, you get people who leave. Other people come in. The documents don’t get picked up at the right place. So there need to be mechanisms that ensure there is an accurate record of what needs to be reviewed.”

Rosemary seemed exasperated by Simon’s viewpoint and interrupted: “But those mechanisms are there, they are there already, they’re just being absolutely ignored. It’s been ignored up there and nobody’s shouting about it!.”

Simon came back: “You’re asserting that but I haven’t heard that the mechanisms are there and the point has been raised before. There’s been kind of nods of heads there’s been various other things but there’s not been an absolute assertion that the mechanisms actually exist.”

Rosemary wasn’t finished yet, she added: “Well I presume the Highland Council work with some mechanisms that are supposed to work if they grant applications and say the proviso is the bridge must be built for people, then there must be a mechanism that it should have been.”

Simon also had more to say: “The point that I’m trying to get to is that if there is a mechanism that also includes local people that have a vested interest. In other words, for example, people that live on the Lochloy development, they will have a vested interest in that. People who live in Nairn South, if that goes ahead, people who live there have a vested interest in making sure that the planning conditions are complied with and they are involved in that mechanism. It gives it a greater likelihood of succeeding…

There was a sharp interruption from Rosemary: “Well I don’t share your enthusiasm and I think that whatever mechanism you put there will still be ignored.”

Stephanie, the secretary of River CC then spoke: “I wrote about the bridge in Lochloy and I have a reply which referred me back to a huge consultation document from ages ago and when I read it through – it took me ages to read through. It virtually said they weren’t going to do it.” 

Nairn 2 Turriff 0 - pictures from Kenny Macleod

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Saints v Dufftown - images from Kenny Macleod

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Nairn 2 Turriff 0 - pictures from County club photographer Donald Matheson

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"Do we really want the coast of Nairn blighted by the constant presence of tankers? " Ritchie Cunningham

Shipping berthed in the Firth - a feature that tourists enjoy or a noisy and unsightly intrusion?

On Wednesday night in the URC hall Tommy told his River CC colleagues that he had received an e-mail from Ritchie Cunningham. Tommy read out the request he had received here we reproduce most of what was said:

“For the attention of Community Councils in Nairnshire. Nairnshire visitors cannot fail to have noticed the almost constant presence of oil tankers and other vessels off the Nairnshire coast since Easter, indeed for only a few days have we had an uninterrupted view. Such has been an eyesore in what is an important tourist destination and a source of clearly audible noise as well as low frequency nuisance. The prospect of free anchorage here has deterred them from anchoring in the areas where they would have had to pay fees. In other areas of Scotland Port Authority areas often cover the entire Firth. For example Clyde Port and Forth Port Authority. In the Moray Firth Inverness, Ardersier and Cromarty are small port authorities with limited boundaries. We aren’t now seeing a ship just waiting a day or two to enter the Cromarty Firth but empty tankers for weeks on end – up to six weeks in one tanker’s case, birthing for free until their job calls them away. I’d like to pursue the possibility of extending the limits of the Port Authorities in the Moray Firth to take the waters off Nairn into their ambit. If a Port Authority in Scotland wishes to change their harbour limits they would have to apply to Scottish ministers though Transport Scotland for a harbour revision order[...] Do we really want the coast of Nairn blighted by the constant presence of tankers? Hardly the view that tourists come to see. Do Nairnshire Community Councils have a view on this issue and are they prepared to press the Highland Council and our MSPs for action?”

Graham Vine then said: “I am not a resident of this community council area but my bedroom does overlook the Firth and those boats. It is true that you do sometimes get noise when they are empty, it’s usually very, very low frequency but I can’t it’s ever bugged me and it’s like living in the countryside and looking out over the fields and saying my view is blighted by that tractor.”

Tommy then said that his personal view was that he was living just a 100 yards from the sea shore and he never heard it.

A little later Rosemary Young (Chair of West CC and visiting River’s meeting) said after putting her tourism hat on:

“Can I say something on the behalf of the tourist association? I find all the tourists love looking at the ships and find it quite interesting. I think he has a valid point if there is money to be made, why not? But I’m sure that’s a very difficult process to get into – it’s not our remit I’m sure. We’ve got enough to do without that.”

After a little more discussion Graham Vine asked: “Are we all agreed that the boats are not an eyesore, they are just a feature?”

There was no one that dissented with Graham’s view and the Secretary minuted the result of the discussion. 

Sunset Nairn Beach 12/10/13

More pictures here