Week 13
Sandown, flooding, and a consultation
Nairnshire Committee
The first meeting of the new Nairnshire Committee takes place on Monday. This will be via Teams so won’t be accessible to the public although it will be recorded and placed online afterwards. Hopefully this will be the last meeting held this way and in future we will be back to public meetings (although, as before Covid, the public have no right to speak at these meetings so don’t get too excited).
You can find the agenda and supporting papers online here. There’s routine stuff to be done, like electing a chair and a Provost, but I think the thing that will be of most interest to the public is various reports relating to Common Good land and especially Sandown.
As has already been widely publicised in the local press we’re being recommended not to sell the land at this time and to consider other options.
River Nairn Flood Protection Study
We had a briefing this week about a study which is being done by JBA Limited on behalf of the Council’s flood risk management team. They are carrying out some hydraulic modelling of the River Nairn and Auldearn Burn. If you live close to either of these watercourses you may have already received a letter about this.
This is the first part of a programme of action to develop a flood protection study to determine the potential risk of flooding and identify solutions to alleviate any potential flood risk where it makes economic sense to do so.
It can take years to fully develop a flood protection scheme with the next step, a couple of years from now, being an options appraisal and consultation with the public on those options.
And then of course funds will need to be found to do any work required. Historically the Scottish Government has paid 80% of the cost of this but there’s currently a review underway on that.
So this is moving forward … but slowly.
“Have your say Highland” consultation
Highland Council has launched a community engagement exercise to ask people's views on how you would like to see area-based funding being prioritised and which types of community projects you would like developed in your local area.
The community consultation is open until 31st August and you can access the survey here. If you care about how the council spends its money on supporting community-led local action then do get involved.
This is an important exercise: as I’ve discussed here before the Ward Discretionary Fund is a key way in which such funds are allocated so it will help with making decisions on that and although it’s aimed at Council spending I would also expect us to consider the results of this consultation when considering future spending from the Common Good Fund.