Week 31

The Council programme, B9007, and Christmas waste collection

Council programme

We had our last full council meeting of the year last Thursday and the biggest item on the agenda was the Our Future Highland: The Highland Council Programme 2022 - 2027. This is a high level document indicating the intended direction of travel for the council over the next five years and you can find it online here in both English and Gaelic (but sadly not Scots, maybe next time).

I don’t tend to make speeches in full council unless I’m proposing a motion or amendment but unusually for me I did comment on the programme and its significance for Nairn. I said:

I wanted to thank the Leader and welcome this Programme and, as the local member for Nairn, just highlight what it says on page 20 about “[working] together with communities and partners to produce local place plans which meet communities’ needs.”

I know this will be very welcome to the people of Nairn who are looking to follow communities like Fort William and so will be pleased to see the explicit support for Local Place Plans in the Programme.

Oh, and talking of Nairn I should perhaps just reassure Councillor Christie that outwith Inverness we are taking the lead and have already identified an area for food growing and ecological benefit on Nairn Common Good land which I hope we will be able to take forward through the next few years.

We also had presented to us the officers’ Draft Corporate Plan 2022-27 where, under item 2.9 in Appendix 1, they said that they would:

Work with the Scottish Government on the delivery of improved transport infrastructure throughout the Highlands.

Actions & Measures:

• Progression of Inverness Railway Station Master Plan to detailed design by April 2024;

So I’ve pointed out to them that in June the Scottish Transport Minister said in the Chamber at Holyrood in response to a question that: “The Scottish Government will also provide funding for step-free access at Aviemore, Nairn and Kingussie stations.” so I’ve urged officers to press the Government to ensure those projects happen too, especially at Nairn.

B9007 Carrbridge to Ferness

I’ve talked here before about how, during (sadly all too common) closures of the A9 there is a problem with heavy lorries using the B9007 Carrbridge to Ferness road as an unofficial diversion. I was hoping we might be able to get a suitable weight limit to stop this but officers tell me that this isn’t possible.

So the next option is to try to get the police to stop lorries using the B9007 when the A9 is closed, something which they have already talked about. We are going to ask the police about this at next Nairnshire Area Committee meeting.

In other news officers are planning to do some repairs and surface dressing on that road in next year so there’s some good news at least.

Festive recycling arrangements

Bin collections over Christmas will carry on as normal except bins emptied on 3rd January should be put out that day but will be emptied between the 3rd and 6th January. You can check your bin collection days here.

Highland Council are urging you to recycle as much as you can over Christmas and you can find more details here. New for this Christmas is the ability to recycle clean aluminium foil and trays in the blue bins. All those mince pie foil cases can now go in your blue recycling bin; however, this foil must be clean, dry and free from any food residue.