Year 3, Week 19
Battery storage, Lochloy to Academy bus, visitor levy, MP surgery ...
Meet the applicants for the BESS schemes
Apologies as this is very short notice but OPDenergy, who are proposing the scheme at Grigorhill (numbered 3 on my map), are at Lethen Hall, Auldearn at 7:30pm this evening with details of their proposal (which they are calling Newton of Park) so feel free to go along and ask questions.
In addition Auldearn Community Council have invited Whirlwind Energy Storage Limited and Anesco Ltd to their meeting on Wednesday, 2nd October to talk about their schemes at Russell’s Wood and Blackpark 2 (numbered 4 and 5 on my map) and that meeting is also open to anyone, not just people in Auldearn.
Academy bus from Lochloy
Last week I talked about the issue of this bus not having enough capacity to transport all the pupils from Lochloy to the Academy and said that I was discussing options with council officers.
The solution that has now been agreed is to make use of another school bus, which already collects children from Ardclach, Lethen, Moyness and Kingsteps and so goes down Lochloy Road. From next Monday, 23rd September it will also operate as a service bus for pupils in Lochloy picking up at the end of the service track into Burnside: the location shown with a red star on the map below and here on Google Streetview.
This will be a service bus for them so pupils will need to use their U22 card to pay, as they do with the Stagecoach service 120 now. The latter bus will continue as before so there will now be two service buses going to the Academy.
More information on this will be going out via the school.
I should mention in passing that the new bus is operated by the Highland Council in-house team and it’s only because the council now has its own bus service that this was possible to do relatively painlessly.
Visitor levy
Following an extensive consultation in 2019 - in which 6,600 residents, businesses and visitors responded - the Council has agreed to the principle of implementing a visitor levy as means of securing investment for the sector and helping Highland become more resilient and sustainable.
You can find details of what is being proposed here and you can also comment on the consultation that they are now undertaking before bringing in this levy.
MP constituency surgery
Apologies again for the short notice but our new MP, Graham Leadbitter, is holding his second surgery at Nairn Community Centre tomorrow.
If you would like to meet with him then email graham.leadbitter.mp@parliament.uk today to arrange an appointment.
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.