Year 3, Week 18

Academy bus, various roadworks, Regeneration Funding, fireworks ...

Academy bus from Lochloy

The new school year had brought issues with the bus that takes children from Lochloy to Nairn Academy.

This service has always been a little odd as it is actually two services in one: it’s the school bus for children in Auldearn as they live more than three miles from the Academy and so are entitled to free transport. However on its way to the Academy it goes up Lochloy Road and around Montgomerie Drive and Lawrie Drive where it runs as a service bus, i.e. one where passengers have to pay, although the students pay using their Young Scot National Entitlement Card so it’s effectively free to them too.

The problem in this new school year is that there are now slightly too many children wanting to use the bus and so the driver is having to refuse to take some of them which means that occasionally the children have to walk or get their parents to take them, and so arrive late through no fault of their own.

I was alerted to this issue this week and I have been talking with council officers about how this can be resolved.

Ardersier Port roadworks

Construction works associated with the new security building and roundabout on the B9092 at the entrance to Ardersier Port will commence from Monday, 9th September. 

The B9092 will not be closed to traffic during the construction of the new junction although traffic management will be in place. This will ensure that there is minimal disruption during construction and in particular to the school transport and public transport services.

There will however be a closure to apply the final top coat to the finished road surface as that’s best done as a single exercise and Haventus has ensured that these works will be undertaken overnight to avoid both the school transport and local bus times and again to minimise any disruption. 

Brackla roadworks

The B9090 road east of Cawdor and just west of Brackla will be closed from Monday, 16th to Wednesday, 18th September. There will be diversions in place via the B9091 Balblair Road and Cawdor Road and I suspect this will lead to traffic problems as the B9090/9101 is well used in the rush hour as an unofficial Nairn bypass.

I have asked officer to put additional signage in place at the A96/B9090 junction and A939/B9101 junction to try to discourage traffic from attempting to use the “bypass” route while the road is closed.

Community Led Local Development fund

The Highland Strategic Local Action Group met during August and considered and agreed funding for 49 projects submitted to the Community Led Local Development fund (CLLD), which makes up part of council’s Community Regeneration Funding programme.

CLLD gives local communities the power to tackle their own, local challenges and by building knowledge and skills, supporting new ideas and encouraging cooperation, CLLD helps to create viable and resilient communities. It is funded by the Scottish Government.

Just over £827,000 was distributed and in our ward:

• Nairn Community and Arts Centre got £22,253.90 for their Phase 2 - Environment & Energy Sustainability Project

• Green Hive got £19,135.68 to help with rewiring the Seaman’s Hall

• Nairn Museum got £15,172.00 for Exhibiting Nairnshire: Renovating the Galleries of Nairn Museum

So the ward got £56,562 or about 7% of the total allocated which is more than our fair share on a per capita basis (which would be about 5%).

Fireworks

At the Communities and Place Committee this week councillors agreed to allow the creation of Firework Control Zones in Highland. In such a zone it is a criminal offence for the public to ignite fireworks, including on private properties and gardens and the maximum penalties for offences are £5,000 or 6 months’ imprisonment.

The way this will work is that community groups, so probably community councils, will request that a Fireworks Controls Zone is created and, after consultation, the final decision on whether one is put in place will rest with the respective Area Committee i.e. your local Highland councillors.

My feeling is that this isn’t currently a great problem in our ward. Certainly at the east end of Nairn where we stay the amount of fireworks let off has declined in recent years, much to our dog’s delight, but it’s good that we now have this tool available if it becomes a significant issue.

Councillor work

A lot of the work I do as a councillor is not ward specific so I tend not to mention it regularly here but last week as well as Licensing Board and Committee, and Redesign Board (where we discussed the council’s web site and I flagged up some of the issues which annoy me and I know annoy some of you), I was also elected as chair of the Investment Sub-Committee for the Highland Pension Fund.

The Fund invests to pay the pensions of council employees both for Highland Council and Comhairle nan Eilean Siar as well as associated organisations like High Life Highland and has assets of over £2.5billion so it’s a big responsibility.

Planning applications

The following new applications were logged since I last posted:

• 24/02729/MSC - Land 365M NW Of Druimkell Meadow, Nairn - Erection of house and garage with temporary siting of caravan

• 24/03438/PIP - Land 125M SE Of The Bungalow, Forres Road, Nairn - Construction of 7no. starter industrial units and formation of access road

• 24/03550/FUL - Achavelgin, Nairn, IV12 5QJ - Erection of extension

To find details search on the reference number on the planning portal where you can also find details on how to comment.