Year 2, Week 44
Area Committee, Full Council, Gaza, Lethen Road ...
Nairnshire Area Committee
This committee met on Monday (seems like a long time ago now!) to discuss issues relating to the Nairn Common Good Fund. Thank you to those people who emailed me with their concerns and questions about the Fund, both before and after the meeting. I hope you’re happy with the replies I gave.
The papers for the committee are here and you can watch the whole meeting below if you’re so inclined.
Full Council
We have a full council meeting this Thursday and we’ve been told to expect it to go into Friday too. There is a long agenda, starting with that Notice of Amendment (Planning) which I mentioned here before, and we then go on to consider lots of other issues.
You can find the full agenda online here along with links to the many papers we’re going to consider.
I’m still reading the papers but the most significant one, which will lead to a lot of debate, seems to be item 13, ‘Place Based Approaches to Strategic Capital and Asset Management’, which is significant and covers a lot of ground.
It includes allocating £10M of capital expenditure towards replacing the Corran Ferry which runs across Loch Linnhe south of Fort William, funded by taking City Region Deal money away from the proposal for “grade separation” (essentially an overpass) at the A9/Longman Road roundabout in Inverness. The East Link proposal, which was also in that funding round, remains.
Item 13 also proposes that we spend an additional £63.5M over three years on road improvement across the council area which will come as welcome news to those fed up of driving down pot hole ridden roads, especially in the west and far north and it lays out future steps in identifying and rationalising the council’s capital assets, not just buildings and other things from land to land posts.
Gaza
Also on the agenda for full council (right down in item 23(i) so we probably won’t get to it until Friday) we have a motion on Gaza. Subject to possible amendment it currently reads:
This Council:
• Abhors the attack, killing, raping and kidnapping carried out by Hamas in Israel on 7th October 2023;
• Is horrified and appalled by the excessive loss of life in Gaza since the Israeli attack on it;
• Recognises the gravity of the 26th January order by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to the State of Israel regarding the right of the Palestinian people to protection from genocide;
• Acknowledges that the UK government, as a signatory to the 1948 Genocide Convention, is obliged to take all steps to prevent genocide, and calls on the UK government to ensure that the State of Israel complies with the interim measures issued on 26th January by the ICJ;
• Is further appalled by the spreading violence and killing spreading from Gaza across the Middle East;
• Calls for a complete bilateral ceasefire at the earliest opportunity;
• Hopes that a two state solution for Israel and Palestine may emerge after subsequent international negotiations
The SNP group have agreed that we have a free vote on this motion. I have received emails asking me to support this motion, to amend this motion, and to oppose this motion. I would welcome your views.
Lethen Road, Auldearn
This road will be closed on Tuesday, 12th March in order to complete the program of road safety improvements in Auldearn that began on the High Street last month. The works will begin at 8am and should be complete, with all traffic management removed and the road open again, by 1pm.
It’s good to see this work being completed and I hope it is helping the people of Auldearn.
Planning applications
The following new applications were logged since I last posted:
24/00578/FUL - Millbank, Millbank Crescent, Nairn, IV12 4QB - Erection of garage
To find details search on the reference number on the planning portal where you can also find details on how to comment.