Year 3, Week 26
A96/bypass, Area Committee, Nairn West & Suburban Community Council ...
A96 dualling/Nairn bypass
Congratulations to The Inverness Courier for winning a News Media Association award for their Build The Bypass campaign.
This was well timed as in the last couple of weeks I’ve finally seen some positive signs that things may be, slowly, moving forward on this project.
Firstly at Portfolio Question Time at Holyrood on Thursday the Cabinet Secretary for Transport Fiona Hyslop was asked by Douglas Ross about dualling the A96. She replied:
The Scottish Government remains absolutely committed to improving the A96. In particular, we have recently completed the statutory process for dualling between Inverness and Nairn, including the Nairn bypass, along with the adjacent Inshes to Smithton scheme. We are now pressing ahead with the procedural steps to complete the purchase of land.
Meanwhile, a few days earlier, I was told by a resident that land they had connections with was being compulsorily purchased as part of the route.
So this really is happening … if slowly.
Area Committee
Nairnshire Area Committee met on Monday morning. The papers for the meeting are online here and you can watch the whole meeting on YouTube if you’re so inclined.
I’ll cover some of the key points below.
Invitation to pay parking
We were told that in 2023/24 invitation to pay parking on the three Common Good car parks brought a net income of £27,857.10 after costs to the Common Good Fund.
Play areas
We agreed that the £85,000 allocated to the Scottish Government’s play park renewal fund be spent as follows:
Birch Road Play Area, Nairn; £15,000 to replace the bark surface for grass matting;
Moss Side Play Area, Nairn; £30,000 to install more inclusive items after a consultation with young people; and
Nairn Links Play Area, Nairn; £40,000 to replace the boat and install an embankment slide (for which those with long memories may be pleased to see returning!)
The remaining £7,000 will be retained for contingency and once all projects are completed we can look again at what’s left in the pot.
Sandown Land Community Food Growing
We considered a feasibility study on how this might be taken forward and, if you’re at all interested in this, I do recommend taking a read - it’s appendix 2 starting at page 6 of the paper.
Although it makes some bold proposals they are all predicated on a group wanting to actually take this forward, as the study makes clear, and no one seems to be pushing to actually do that we decided to stop at this point and wait to see if anyone feels inspired to get together a group to actually do that.
So, if you think that could be you, then do read the feasibility study.
Toilets
Regretfully we decided not to go ahead with building new toilets at Harbour Street or re-opening the existing ones. Instead we’re going to look at:
Upgrading the toilets on The Links to add beach showers and better disabled facilities
Having temporary toilets at the harbour each summer.
Hardship Fund
We have been discussing ways of creating a hardship fund for the people of the ward relying on funding from various sources, including the Common Good Fund, and administered and allocated by Nairn CAB through their “People’s Pot’.
It also turns out that there is £11,834.02 sitting in three related charitable “poor funds” (the Cawdor Poor Fund, the Nairn and Auldearn Poor Fund, and the Nairn Children's Fund) left over from the days of Nairn District Council (and probably from before then too I suspect) and so we agreed to allocate £2,000 from there to provide some initial funding.
Nairn West & Suburban Community Council
The council met last Monday night attended, for part of the time at least, by one member of the public. The council discussed the new planning application from the Aurora Hotel, coastal erosion and flood risks, and the last Common Good Engagement Group meeting. There was also a presentation about Parkrun which is coming to Nairn Links very soon.
Planning applications
The following new applications were logged since I last posted:
24/03139/FUL - Land 185M SE Of Househill House, Househill, Nairn - Change of use of land for siting of 10no. movable storage units
24/04425/PNO - Land 110M SW Of, Meikle Geddes Farm, Meikle Geddes, Nairn - Erection of agricultural building
To find details search on the reference number on the planning portal where you can also find details on how to comment.