Week 23

Short term lets, buses, trains ... and more buses

Short term let licensing

You can now license your short term let (STL) property here on The Highland Council web site. You need to do this if you have a self catering property, a bed and breakfast, or if you let out rooms in your house.

The legislation has been brought in by the Scottish Government to ensure short term lets are safe, to address issues faced by neighbours, and to help local authorities understand what is happening in their area. New operators of STLs must license them before taking bookings or receiving guests but existing operators have until 1st April 2023.

Be warned that if you’re thinking of selling your STL you may want to get it licensed first as I know of at least one purchaser who has had problems with their mortgage company because the STL property they were buying didn’t have a licence. 

School buses

As you may have seen in the news Highland Council is about to launch a pilot to expand its in-house school transport service, so it can rely less on commercial companies like Stagecoach.

Cllr Ken Gowans shows the Transport Minister one of the new buses and explains more about the Council's in-house pilot project ambitions

The pilot will begin in January 2023 and initially routes covered will be across rural Inverness, the Black Isle, Loch-Ness-side and Nairn.

In Nairn for this first round this only covers the bus service from Cawdor for Nairn Academy, not the services for pupils staying in Nairn, but that same bus also provides the service 20 town bus (which is the only subsidised bus service in Nairn) so we will see a new bus serving that route and, as I’ve mentioned in the past, I’ll be discussing with officers how we can improve that service.

East Nairnshire Community Council

Following the close of nominations and the withdrawal period four community councils have failed to attract half the maximum membership so have not been established and, sadly, that includes East Nairnshire Community Council.

Rail replacement buses

A reminder that from Saturday, 15th October until Tuesday, 25th October buses are replacing trains between Inverness, Nairn and Elgin while Network Rail constructs part of the new Inverness Airport railway station. Journeys will take longer, so plan ahead.