Year 2, Week 24

Welcome, the freeport, news from three community councils, and other news ...

Welcome

I should start this week with an introduction to new subscribers as last week’s post about Delnies was read by over 2,400 people and also resulted in 10% more people signing up to receive these blog posts by email, so welcome to you all!

This blog exists because I promised as part of my election campaign to keep residents of the ward informed as to what was going on at Highland Council, something which I think the last cohort of local councillors failed to do.

For those who don’t know me the first post I ever made here will tell you something about me and this post on my personal blog, which I wrote on the anniversary of my election to the council, will tell you more about what I do on the council.

Council meetings

This week I have council related meetings every day except Monday but most of them are not specifically ward related.

We have full council on Thursday and the papers are online. I think the most significant item for the people of the ward is that we are still looking at a budget gap of £60-70 million for 2024/25 and I already have about half a dozen meetings in my diary through the remainder of this year where we will be discussing this and how the council can save money, but it is going to be hard.

Green Freeport

I’ve talked here before about Inverness and Cromarty Firth Green Freeport and it’s got even more relevant to the ward now that Ardersier Port has joined the freeport as one of the three proposed “tax sites”.

They are having an online Community Webinar at 6pm this Tuesday, 24th October where you can find out more about what’s been proposed. For more information, and to register to attend online, visit this page.

Nairn River Community Council

Nairn River is one of the two ward community councils still running after the failure of three to get enough candidates and they had their inaugural meeting this week which I initially chaired to allow them to re-elect Hamish Bain as chair, Veronica Mackinnon as secretary, and David Thomson as treasurer.

A productive meeting then followed with issues discussed including the Local Place Plan, the Delnies planning application, the traffic calming/pedestrian crossing in Grantown Road, the fire at the harbour, the Italianate building, town centre maintenance, lorry parking in Balmakeith, and damage to riverside railings behind Whinnieknowe.

Remember that Nairn River currently only has seven councillors and it can have up to 12 with the extra members being co-opted by the current councillors, so if you live in their patch and are interested in becoming a community council then do contact them.

Auldearn Community Council

The other surviving community council meets for the first time on Tuesday, 24th October at 7:30pm at Dunbar Hall. Sadly I’m double booked for that evening so I won’t be able to make it but at least one of my fellow ward councillors will be there to open proceedings.

The agenda will allegedly be available online on their Facebook page but I don’t see it there yet.

Cawdor & West Nairnshire Community Council

This community council didn’t have enough nominations to continue however they are hoping to reform in the new year and, in the meantime, they’re continuing as the Cawdor & West Nairnshire Community Group and intend to meet in December. This will probably be on Monday, 11th but I’ll post details here when that’s confirmed.

In other news

• McLean Court residents are looking for some garden help next Saturday morning, 28th October. More details over at GurnNurn.

• Nairn Gaelic Baby and Toddler Group and Highland Council are having a fun morning of Gaelic stories and songs on Saturday, 4th November from 11am to 12:30pm at the Community Centre. More details on Facebook.