Year 2, Week 38

IMFLDP2, pavement parking, Auldearn road closures, coastal change adaption, a new newspaper, A96/bypass survey ...

Inner Moray Firth Local Development Plan 2

I have written many times here about the IMFLDP 2 and indeed I first did so before I was even a councillor. I can now report that it has completed its review process with the Scottish Government Reporters and the Examination Report has been published.

You may also remember that many voices in the ward, lead by Nairn River CC, said we ward councillors should reject the new Plan. We declined to do so for reasons I’ve discussed here before but instead got changes made to it to ensure, in particular, that there would be no new development at Nairn East (NA05) before we got a bypass.

This seems to have been even more successful that we hoped: the Reporters noted that:

The uncertainty regarding the implementation of the A96 dualling and Nairn Bypass project raises doubt over whether development on allocation NA05 is deliverable within the plan period.

and for this, and various other good reasons raised by people locally, the reporter has dropped NA05 from the Plan which I think will please most people in Nairn (although not all, I did have representations from some groups in favour of NA05).

The much smaller NA06 (the land east of Sainsbury’s and McDonald’s) remains, as do the other areas around Nairn including NA04 (the Sandown land) although now zoned for 150 houses rather than 350 if we chose to develop it … although we agreed not to back in August 2022.

Equally importantly the Reporters refused some developers requests to retain as yet undeveloped areas in the old Plan. This includes Nairn South, the land across the railway line south east of the academy, and also the land at Delnies.

Elsewhere in the area covered by the Plan nine other proposed sites have also been deleted and three sites have been added. The Reporters have also agreed that the Council can increase the percentage of affordable units sought from suburban Inverness sites from 25% to 35% and that 5% self build plots/units can be sought on developments of 100 or more houses.

Importantly the Reporters agreed that the Plan’s housing target and land supply to meet that target are sufficient and that no increase or decrease is proposed.

The Plan now needs to be formally adopted by Highland Council and this will happen at our May meeting. Until then it carries no more planning weight than it did before the reporter concluded their work.

I should also stress that although Delnies is not in the new Plan it does still have outline planning permission and the developers are pushing ahead with applications relating to this site and even if those come to the council’s planning committee after the new Plan is adopted that doesn’t necessarily mean that the development won’t be allowed to continue.

Pavement parking enforcement

It is now an offence to park on the pavement, to double park, or to park in front of drop kerbs installed for pedestrian or cycle usage and anyone caught doing so can be fined £100. This came into effect a couple of months ago but council officers are starting to enforce this from February. You can find more information about this here and you can also report offenders here.

Auldearn road closures

The west end of the High Street in Auldearn will be closed on Monday and the east end on Wednesday in order to install traffic calming measures. Appropriate diversions will be in place.

Coastal change adaptation

The Dynamic Coast project is funded by the Scottish Government, Centre of Expertise for Waters, NatureScot, and the St Andrews Links Trust and aims to provide the strategic evidence base on the extent of coastal erosion in Scotland.

Local Authorities are expected to receive £11.7m of funding to develop Coastal Change Adaptation Plans and to undertake resilience and adaptation actions, using Nature-based approaches wherever possible and in 2023-24 £1.85m was allocated including £83,000 for dune resilience and adaptation at Fishertown dunes and more widely along Central Beach. You can read updates from April and August online. This is all early days but we are at least looking at the potential problems scientifically with a view to finding solutions.

Nairnshire community newspaper

This isn’t council related but a group of people are working on creating a weekly newspaper for Nairn to replace the much missed Nairnshire Telegraph. The Steering Group are now close to achieving charitable status. Once this happens then working groups will be set up for various aspects of the paper. There are already many people willing to offer their skills and experience but there's still room for more as the steering group want to have the widest community representation possible in the administration of the paper and in particular they are looking for a marketing and social media assistant and a space which might be suitable as an office. If you can help then contact the group secretary Sheena Baker.

Nairn traffic and bypass survey

And talking of things which aren’t directly council related I’ve been asked to tell you that The Inverness Courier are running a survey on this issue and would like you to take part.