Year 3, Week 24
HOIL, MSP surgery, Cawdor & West Nairnshire CC, Nairn River CC, A96 roadworks, local road closures, new bus service for Piperhill and Cawdor ...
Inverness Dog Daycare
Sometimes being a councillor can be fun. On Monday I went to Inverness Dog Daycare for a photo op as Highland Opportunity (Investments) Limited (HOIL), a company owned by the council which I chair, has just loaned them £25,000 to help them get their new business started.
I had a great time meeting both the owners' and some of their customers' dogs and got thoroughly sniffed and licked!
For more about Natalie's business visit her web site and if a business or third sector organisation you’re involved with needs a loan then don’t forget that HOIL is there to help you too. It offers competitive rates as well as good advice.
MSP surgery
Your regional MSP, Emma Roddick, is holding a surgery in Nairn tomorrow. Contact details in the poster below.
Apologies for the late notice on this but unfortunately this came to me just after the last blog post went out. If you can’t make it then do remember that you can raise an issue with Emma at any time using the contact details above.
Cawdor & West Nairnshire Community Council
I attended this community council on Monday along with about 20 members of the public. As ever it was a lively session with much discussed including roadside verges, maintenance of the river path, and the plots for sale on land next to Curlew Cottage, Balfreish.
Broadband availability continues to be a problem for some residents and some possible solutions were discussed.
The issues with speeding through the village continues and the council is writing, again, to Highland Council officers about this. Your ward councillors continue to support the community council on this.
Nairn River Community Council
You may have seen in the Inverness Courier - Nairnshire Edition this week the front page story about this community council being accused of being ‘rude and arrogant’ by some residents. You can also find a version posted online here.
It’s unfortunate that some residents believe this to be the case. Community Councils are self-regulating, however they have to be administered in line with the Scheme of Establishment and I’m told that advice and support is being offered by Highland Council officers to the community council’s office bearers in this regard to help ensure compliance.
I have also spoken to the chair of the community council myself about some of these issues.
The council next meets this Wednesday, 23rd October at 7pm in the Nairn Community Centre and the agenda should be on their web site and on the Castle Square noticeboard in the High Street, Nairn.
A96 roadworks
As I mentioned last week resurfacing work is taking place on the A96 around the junction with the B9006 to Ardersier and the B9006/B9090 to Clephanton and Cawdor with overnight closures and diversions. This work will take place from today so Sunday, 20th October to Saturday, 2nd November.
There will be no overnight works on Saturday 26th and Sunday 27th October.
They are proposing to use an overnight convoy system between 7:30pm and 6:30am so as to avoid diversions onto rural roads around it but there will be diversions in place for local traffic going to Ardersier and Clephanton.
Local road closures
The rolling programme of rural road closures for BT works continues with the road which goes past Boath House in Auldearn as shown on the map below being closed from Monday, 28th October to Sunday, 3rd November.
That’s then followed by a second closure on the road heading north towards the old Auldearn railway station. That will be in place from Monday, 4th November until Sunday, 17th November.
At the same time there’s also a closure on Moyness Road heading south east out of Auldearn from Monday, 11th November until Friday, 6th December.
I’m assuming that all of these closures are so that BT/Openreach can lay in more fibre to get more of us onto faster broadband.
New bus service for Piperhill and Cawdor
A new Nairn to Inverness bus service will begin operating on Monday, 28th October, running 4 days a week during school term time. The No. 253 will go via Piperhill and Cawdor, dropping off at the UHI and Raigmore hospital before terminating at Falcon Square. The service into Inverness starts from Sainsbury’s, Nairn at 09:15 and the return journey leaves Falcon Square, Inverness at 14:00.
This is a service being run by the council’s own bus service and although it’s very basic as yet it does illustrate what we can start to do now we have our own buses.
Planning applications
The following new applications were logged since I last posted:
24/04150/FUL - Ardersier Port Approach, Ardersier, Inverness, IV2 7QX - Installation of heritage feature, car park and upgraded road
24/02744/FUL - Land 440M East of Barevan, Cawdor - Erection of house
24/04103/FUL - Aurora Hotel, 2 Academy Street, Nairn, IV12 4RJ - Alterations and extension
24/04131/FUL - Land 35M NE of Assich Croft, Cawdor - Erection of self catering unit (in retrospect)
24/04211/FUL - 9 Balmakeith Drive, Nairn, IV12 5AP - Erection of extension
24/04311/ADV - Trespass, Forres Road, Nairn, IV12 5AA - Erection of fascia sign
To find details search on the reference number on the planning portal where you can also find details on how to comment.