Year 2, Week 39
Welcome, Ardersier Port, council budget, community councils, offensive graffiti, my pay, joint surgery ...
Welcome
I should start this week with an introduction to new subscribers as last week’s post was read by over 1,300 people and also resulted in 46 more people signing up to receive these blog posts by email, the biggest weekly increase ever, 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.
Ardersier Port
On Thursday evening I attended a community liaison group meeting with Haventus, the people who now own Ardersier Port where they updated us on progress.
They told us that they are intending to start putting in a new quay wall in April to replace the old one and will then be re-commencing dredging with the aim of opening the port for business in the autumn of 2025. They are still not clear what they’re going to do with all the sand which they are dredging up but it may be sold, it may used to build up beaches like Nairn’s which are scoured by coastal erosion, or it may simply be dumped in deep water.
The way they’re hoping to make money in the first instance is by providing a port facility for other companies to use to create the floating wind turbines for the ScotWind programme. This may be “marshalling” - so putting together components manufactured elsewhere, as happened at Nigg for the last phase of offshore wind farms - but it may also involve some on site manufacture, especially of the floating bases.
Getting the port operational is already employing 60 staff and they’re expecting another couple of hundred contractors to be added to that total soon. Once the floating wind farm components start to be assembled then over a thousand people may be employed on the site, with more if manufacturing is undertaken.
Haventus are intending to create a £1,000,000 Community Fund to benefit the communities around the port over the next ten years. This will be index linked, managed by Foundation Scotland, and will be distributed by an Advisory Panel made up of local people.
The slide above from the presentation lays out the planned timeline for this and you can find the while slide deck here as a 4.1MB PDF if you want to know more or just read the above slide, which is page 10, more easily.
They are keen to get lots of people involved, especially in the community benefit workshop, so I will keep you posted as I hear more on this.
Council budget consultation
I have been to two more meetings this week where we continue to discuss the council’s budget so a quick reminder that you still have until this Wednesday, 7th February to get involved in the second round consultation on this.
Community council news
We had some good news this week with two of the community councils which failed to get enough nominations in the Autumn have succeeded at their second attempt.
Cawdor & West Nairnshire CC did very well, with people being nominated for all ten places on the council so the new councillors are: Pat Clafton, Dougie Fraser, Marion Ann Mackay, Lucy Anne Mackintosh-Barclay, Alastair McGregor, Mike Ogden, Robin Pope, Lizzy Rose, and Stevie Webster. They will be meeting for the first time as a new council at Cawdor Primary School/Community Centre at 7:30pm on Monday, 12th February.
Nairn West & Suburban CC had eight nominations this time and the new councillors are Kristin Duncan, Gillian Hodge, Cory Jones, Alastair Noble, Joan Noble, Kevin Reid, Graham Stuart, and Phillip Stuart which bring the gender balance up nicely as they only had one woman previously. They still have three places to fill, which they can do by co-option if they want to, so if you’re interested in being a community councillor and you live in that area then talk to one of the councillors. They will be meeting for the first time at the Nairn Community Centre at 7pm on Monday, 26th February.
Sadly East Nairnshire CC failed to get any nominations so remains in abeyance for now but Auldearn CC and Nairn River CC did succeed in forming back in the Autumn and the latter next meets on at the Nairn Community Centre at 7pm on Wednesday, 21st February.
Community council meetings are open to the public so feel free to go along and hear what’s being discussed.
Graffiti
We have had offensive graffiti painted on walls at various locations along to the river this week which council staff have been removing as soon as it’s reported. Given its nature the police are treating it as hate crime and taking it very seriously. If you have any information regarding this incident then can you please phone the police on 101 quoting crime reference CR/ 38399/24.
Councillor pay
The base annual remuneration for any councillor in Scotland, which is what I get, will increase from £20,099 to £21,345, a rise of 6.2%, effective on 1st April 2024. The way this is calculated is that councillors’ pay increases annually in line with the percentage increase in the median annual earnings of public sector workers in Scotland.
Joint surgery
I will be holding a joint surgery with your regional MSP Emma Roddick at Nairn Community Centre from 10:30am to 11:30am on Monday, 12th February so if you have any issues, either Highland Council or Scottish Government related, or just want to say hello, then do come along.
This surgery has now been cancelled for unforeseen reasons. I will advise when we get another date/time organised.
Planning applications
The following new applications were logged since I last posted:
24/00086/FUL - Dove Cottage, 58 Society Street, Nairn, IV12 4NL - Demolish porch and install door
24/00228/FUL - 36A Seabank Road, Nairn, IV12 4EY - Erection of annex (family use)
To find details search on the reference number on the planning portal where you can also find details on how to comment.