Week 51
Station footbridge and fire alarms ...
New Station Footbridge
For a long time now people have complained about the difficulty in accessing the southern platform of Nairn railway station as the existing bridge is a cast iron design from the days of Highland Railways and the direct access to that platform from Balblair Road is not good.
Funding for improving station access for various highland stations was announced in Holyrood last year and that’s now coming to fruition in Nairn with a proposal from Network Rail to replace the bridge with a new combined bridge and lift arrangement designed in a style that’s visually similar to the old bridge.
They’re proposing to construct this further east, so just the other side of the Cawdor Road bridge, as the image below illustrates where I have highlighted the bridge parapet in red.
Once it’s built then the old bridge will be removed.
Although this is the preferred location they are also considering locating it to the west of the station building. Both options have potential to overlook residential properties but Network Rail claim this could be mitigated “through careful design of parapets and stair balustrades”.
Unwanted fire alarm signals
I went to Invergordon Fire Station this week for a briefing with officers on various issues and we also got to watch trainees exercise their skills, which was entertaining.
The briefing was about various issues but the one I wanted to highlight here effects you if you have work premises which have fire alarms. Historically if an alarm went off in a commercial building or workplace premises and it either automatically dialled 999 or someone heard the alarm go off and dialled 999 (a receptionist for example) then the fire service would turn out.
From 1st July they will no longer do that. Instead they expect someone to actually check that there really is a fire first. This means that if you’re a premises out of hours keyholder you may find you have to visit a premises in a hurry if the fire alarm goes off in the night.
For more on this, including why this change is taking place, visit this web page. Note that this does not effect premises where people sleep.