Year 2, Week 5
The fire, Standing for community council, Community Regeneration Funding, the Harbour Street toilets ...
The fire at the Harbour
Friday’s fire was a shock to everyone but the relevant agencies plans for emergencies seemed to work well and I’ve also been very impressed by the way the whole community and local businesses have rallied round with offers and help and support.
I’ve been contacted by various people with issues and I hope I’ve pointed them in the right direction. I think thing are calming down now but if anyone else needs my help then my contact details are here and you can also get me via WhatsApp.
Community Council elections
Have you ever thought of standing for your community council? If so then now’s the time as we have to elect new councillors this autumn for all our community councils. You can find details here, both about how they work and how you can stand.
Some thoughts on this from someone who's stood in the past:
Although this is, in theory, an elected post a lot of the time we don’t get sufficient nominations so everyone automatically becomes a community councillor. In my experience, both here and with the equivalent councils in England, it’s pretty rare for there to be an election and although it does happen occasionally that’s unusual. So don’t let the thought of having to stand in an election put you off as you probably won’t (and indeed if it turns out there will be an election you do have the option to withdraw at that stage).
In theory anyone over 16 years of age can stand but sadly the vast majority of community councillors are a lot older. Of our currently active community councils the demographic strongly skews from 40+ to retired. They’re also pretty overwhelmingly men. To my mind this is not healthy: community councils are meant to represent the whole of their community, and it’s difficult to do that when the councillors don’t have the same life experiences as their residents. So if you don’t fit the older male demographic I particularly hope you consider standing … but we still need some of us old men too.
We have five Community Councils in the ward: Auldearn, Cawdor and West Nairnshire, East Nairnshire, Nairn River, and Nairn West & Suburban. You may not know which one is yours, especially if you live in Nairn or out in the more rural areas of the ward, but you can find maps here which will let you confirm which is yours.
In the case of East Nairnshire area Community Council so few people stood last time that the council couldn’t even begin operating and at a time when there are serious issues affecting that community, especially the 400kV powerlines, that’s unfortunate so I hope more people step up this time.
Anyway I hope you do think about standing and, if you do, I look forward to working with you after the new councils are formed.
Community Regeneration Funding
There is a fund called the Community Led Local Development Fund which has £1,000,000 to spend in the Highland Council area on "revenue" projects but the deadline to submit an expression of interest is 12pm on Friday 16th June - yes, this coming Friday - and the press release for this only went out on Monday.
I've already expressed my unhappiness about the way this has been handled but this is where we are. So if you are involved in an organisation which is thinking about putting in a bid for revenue funding then you need submit an expression of interest now. All the council is looking for at this stage is outline information about your project including what it will achieve, by when, and a summary of costings.
It would also help if you could let me know if your organisation is doing this.
Harbour Street toilets
There was been some discussion on Facebook this week about the toilets at the end of Harbour Street which Highland Council closed before I became a councillor. There are plans to try to re-open them if we can find a sustainable way to do that but in the meantime I have, at the request of residents, got the sign directing people to the toilets removed.
I’ve also got it better secured, by boarding off the entrance, to prevent it being used for various unsavoury purposes. It’s not the most elegant solution but at least it should reduce the problems residents were reporting until we (hopefully!) find a sustainable solution to having a toilet block at the harbour.