Year 3, Week 30
Nairn Academy, A96 and the bypass, road closures, waste management, Corran Ferry, rent consultation ...
Nairn Academy
The academy is currently experiencing issues with a shortage of teachers which has arisen due to a variety of reasons and which has created something of a “perfect storm” in terms of vacancies.
I won’t go into this in any great deal as the school are keeping parents and carers informed but rest assured that officers are continuing to link in with the senior management of the school to work to resolve the issue and are keeping your four local councillors informed. Recruitment is underway for current vacancies and meanwhile the council is actively working to secure existing supply staff as well as recruiting new staff on temporary basis to support and manage staff absences.
Meanwhile work on the new school continues at pace and the (somewhat delayed!) official “sod cutting” ceremony will be taking place this week attended by Jenny Gilruth, the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills.
A96 dualling and Nairn Bypass
Fiona Hyslop MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Transport made a statement to the Scottish Parliament on Thursday on the dualling of the A96. You can find the full text here but this is the important part for Nairnshire, confirming that initial work on dualling to Nairn and the bypass is already proceding:
Presiding Officer, I also want to update Parliament on the A96 Dualling Inverness to Nairn (including Nairn bypass) scheme which is separate from the A96 Corridor Review process as it has already received Ministerial approval.
Completion of the statutory process for this A96 dualling scheme earlier this year clears the way for Ministers to take forward the final stage of the process to acquire the land required to construct the scheme. Transport Scotland is now pressing ahead with the procedural steps to make this happen in the coming months.
Work has also commenced to determine the most suitable procurement option for delivering the A96 Inverness to Nairn including Nairn bypass dualling scheme and thereafter a timetable for progress can be set in line with available budgets.
Today Presiding Officer, this Government is reiterating its commitment to the people of the north and north east of Scotland. The position of this Government has not changed – the current favoured position is to fully dual the A96 and we are already starting the dualling process from Inverness to Nairn, including Nairn Bypass.
This confirms what I’m hearing on the ground from local landowners where the compulsory purchase process for the land which is needed is underway.
On the full statement the summary is they remain committed to dualling the rest of the A96 all the way to Aberdeen but don't expect to do so by 2030, which was a previous target.
Priority now, after our bit, is bypasses for Elgin and Keith, targeted road safety improvements, and other measures to try to reduce vehicle movements on the road.
Road closures
For a change this week’s closures are nothing to do with BT/Openreach but are road improvements.
A96 near Balloch
A 1170m stretch of the A96 near Balloch lying between the B9039 at Newton of Petty and 160 metres north of Barn Church Road (shown in red on the map below) is undergoing resurfacing works from Tuesday, 3rd December to Tuesday, 10th December and there will be overnight road closures between 7:30pm and 6:30am (but not on Friday or Saturday night).
Going towards Inverness diversions will be in place via Clephanton and down the B9091/B9006 road past Croy and through Culloden to the Inshes roundabout as shown in dark blue in the map above with the same route in reverse heading back for Nairn.
(Amey were proposing to send traffic down the A939 in Nairn and then along the B9090 through Cawdor but hopefully I have got that changed … still waiting for confirmation on that though.)
Around Howford Bridge
The B9090 Cawdor Road at Howford Bridge south of Nairn will be closed from this Monday, 2nd December to Friday, 13th December. The link road just east of the bridge will also be closed. See map below for details.
This is to allow road improvement works as part of the Strategic Timber Transport Scheme and there will local diversions in place.
Waste management
The council has decided not to go ahead with plans to build an energy from waste (aka incinerator) plant at Longmans in Inverness. There are already six new energy-from-waste facilities under development across Scotland so it’s been decided to continue to truck the non-recyclable waste in our grey bins south to one of those. It’s currently going to a site at Dunbar.
In related news the council has entered into a new contract with Smurfit Westrock, a global leader in sustainable paper and packaging, to take the contents of our blue bins. This will now be trucked to Glasgow to be graded and baled, to ensure the best quality feedstock for the paper making process.
The council continues to investigate whether it can find any way to move to shipping waste south by train rather than lorry, but without success so far.
Corran Ferry
A long way from Nairn but an issue which has concerned the council for quite some time now is the replacement of the ferry across Loch Linnhe at Corran south of Fort William which provides the best route to Ardnamurchan and Morven. It’s the busiest single vessel route in Europe, carrying around 270,000 vehicles per year and is run by Highland Council.
The Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government, Shona Robison, has now agreed that the council can use up to £28m of funding through the Inverness & Highland City Region Deal which was originally earmarked for “level grading” the Longman’s roundabout on the A9 to deliver a new electric ferry for Corran.
This, alongside £20m from the UK Government and £10m from council, will ensure that the project can be completed.
Rent consultation
As discussed in my previous two blog posts the council house rent consultation 2025 to 2026 is now online here. It’s proposing an increase of 8% to 10% .
Planning applications
No new applications were logged since I last posted.