Year 3, Week 44
Council budget, Delnies Community Liaison Group, Delnies and the Nairn Common Good Fund, Community Regeneration Funding, Kingsteps Quarry, road closures ...
Council budget
On Thursday we agreed the council’s revenue budget for 2025/26, which I outlined in my last post. To fund this we agreed a council tax increase of 7%. This means we have the second lowest rise in Scotland and it’s less than half of the highest, Falkirk Council, at 15.6%.
What this 7% increase means in practice is that if you’re a band D property you will be paying £1527.09 in 2025/26, up from £1427.19, or just under £2 per week. That puts us in the lowest third of councils. Here’s how we compare to other councils.
I've been tracking the rises agreed elsewhere, mainly to generate the charts above, and reading reports of debates at other councils and what’s striking is that not only have we brought in a budget with an increase lower than virtually everyone else but it was also a very positive budget, unlike many of the others where they mainly seem to be scrambling around making cuts.
Thankfully after three budgets in this council we’re no longer in that situation, we are not relying on reserves to balance the budget, and we are bringing in new things like the Poverty and Equality Commission to make the lives of our residents easier.
Delnies Community Liaison Group
I attended the first meeting of the group on Tuesday. It was certainly an “interesting” meeting, not least as they were claiming the traffic lights on the A96 were being actively managed at all times when several of us said we have seen no one present when we’d driven through or, in one case, jogged past the lights.
Anyway some things I picked up:
They hope to stop operating traffic lights at all during peak hours in the next couple of weeks
The roundabout will be in operation in early April
They expect to complete all works on the A96 by third week in May
The foundations of the first houses will be laid in May
They are legally allowed to install gas central heating in at least the first phase of homes (if they were starting an application today then all homes would have to have electric, probably air pump, heating)
The development is divided into 150 houses built by Barratt Homes, 75 by David Wilson Homes, and 75 by a social housing partner which will probably be Places for People
The expected final completion date for the project is February 2030.
The next meeting is scheduled for 20th May.
Delnies and the Nairn Common Good Fund
You may remember that the proposed routing of the Delnies sewer around the edge of Sandown land was discussed at Nairn West & Suburban Community Council in January as well as at a Common Good Engagement Group the same week.
As was made clear by the chair at the first meeting the developer could use this route regardless, without Highland Council’s consent, although it would just take them a bit longer. Despite this some community councillors were demanding that we ward councillors refuse permission to the developer regardless, to make a point about our collective unhappiness that the sewage was coming to Nairn STW.
What I couldn’t say in any detail then for reasons of commercial confidentiality is that the other factor in making our decision was that if we did refuse permission then we would lose the money the developer was offering the Nairn Common Good Fund for that access and, as a custodian of the Fund, I had to keep that in mind.
The four ward councillors were divided on what to do so, regrettably, the decision went to the council’s Economy and Infrastructure Committee in February as a confidential item. The committee agreed with me and so the developer was granted access.
I can now confirm that the developer is paying the Fund £200,000 for that access and also to be allowed to temporarily use the field south of the A96 while working on widening the shared use path out to Delnies.
This increases the Fund’s cash holdings by about 22.5% and given the size of this gain for the Fund, to the future benefit of all the inhabitants of Nairn, I’m a loss to know how we could have refused access just to make a point.
Community Regeneration Funding
The council is inviting community groups and organisations to submit Expressions of Interest for Community Regeneration Funding to finance capital projects that will respond to the needs of their local areas and deliver positive impacts.
Community Regeneration Funding is an umbrella term used to cover multiple community-led external funding programmes being administered by the council. This includes the Highland Coastal Communities Fund (from which our ward will be getting substantially more this year thanks to the hard work of my colleague Cllr Michael Green), the Place-Based Investment Programme, and Community-Led Local Development funds.
Funding requests are expected to be for a minimum of £5,000, and a maximum of £100,000, and the deadline to submit an Expression of Interest is noon on Friday, 28th March. So if you are involved with an organisation in the ward who might be able to benefit from this funding then this press release will tell you more.
Works in Kingsteps Quarry
The work on paths in the quarry is now completed and a before photo:
… versus an after photo (featuring Skye in the distance):
… shows whats’s been done nicely. The paths are now back to their original width and the scrub bordering them, mainly broom and gorse, has been cut back. I talked about the need for this work in one of my first blog posts even before I was elected so I'm glad that it’s finally been done.
Road closures
We’ve seen this one before but it was re-scheduled. The C1172 from its junction with Lochloy Road south east across the railway line to the junction with the U2997 will now be closed from Monday, 10th March. Traffic management with signed diversions will be in place. Local and emergency access will be maintained.
Also there will be a restriction on turning right out of Beech Road in Achareidh for five days from Monday, 10th March to “facilitate safe working for Amey contractors on the A96” so you may want to divert via Wyvis Drive and Pinewood Avenue.
Planning applications
The following new applications were logged since I last posted.
25/00063/DEM - Bognafauran Farm, Auldearn, Nairn, IV12 5RZ - Demolition of building
25/00478/FUL - 1 Newton Gate, Nairn, IV12 4TS - Increase height of garage
To find details search on the reference number on the planning portal where you can also find details on how to comment.