Year 3, Week 5

General Election and postal voting, seagulls ...

General Election

The list of candidates for the UK General Election is now confirmed. The following people are standing:

• Neil ALEXANDER - Scottish Liberal Democrats

• James HYNAM - Scottish Labour Party

• Graham LEADBITTER - Scottish National Party (SNP)

• Euan MORRICE - Scottish Family Party – Putting Families First

• Kathleen ROBERTSON - Scottish Conservative and Unionist

• Steve SKERRETT - Reform UK

• Draeyk VAN DER HORN - Scottish Greens

There has been some confusion in relation to this election as the council responsible for our Moray West, Nairn and Strathspey constituency is Moray Council, not Highland Council, so the count will be in Elgin, but as you live in the Highland Council area all queries on your ability to vote should be addressed to:

Comhairle nan Eilean Siar & Highland Council
Highland and Western Isles VJB
Moray House
16-18 Bank Street
Inverness
IV1 1QY
0800 393783
https://www.saa.gov.uk/h-wi-vjb/the-electoral-register/
ero@highland.gov.uk

If you’re going to be on holiday for the election it’s also not too late to apply for a postal vote. You’ll need to know your National Insurance number and be able to scan or digitally photograph a copy of your signature (I used my phone).

Start here https://www.gov.uk/apply-postal-vote

It’s easy to do and I did it today. You’ve got until 5pm on Wednesday, 19th June.

Seagulls

I got the text below in an email from Nairn BID this week which will be of interest to you if you are dodging the seagulls in Nairn town centre:

As you may know, we have been wrestling with the new regulations NatureScot have applied this year for some time. It has been a problem across the country and we joined together with all the BIDs in the area to negotiate.  Eventually, we were successful in getting licences last week. The visit from our pest control professional we had managed to clear 104 eggs and 87 nests but unfortunately there were many chicks already hatched. This means another visit will not be happening. It also means that there will be more fledglings in town this year than in previous years. Please help us to keep the town clean by reporting any dead birds you see on the Government website here, and "street cleaning issues" on the Highland Council website here.

Going forward, we will be working with NatureScot over the winter to formulate and deliver a town-wide gull management plan into the 2025 season. […] Thank you in advance for your help with this and for your patience while we have tried to deal with this.

Planning applications

The following new applications were logged since I last posted:

• 24/01882/FUL - Garden Ground Of Sunnyside Tradespark Road Nairn - Erection of house

• 24/01795/FUL - Balintore Croft Cottage, Cawdor, Nairn, IV12 5XP - Alterations and extension

• 24/02021/FUL - 7 Spey Street, Nairn, IV12 5TX - Fomation of new frontage on garage

• 24/02079/FUL - Hay Lodge, 8 Crescent Road, Nairn, IV12 4NB - Erection of garages and ancillary annexe (amended proposal 23/05957/FUL)

• 24/02098/FUL - Beauty Bubble, First Floor, 17A Leopold Street, Nairn, IV12 4BE - Change of use of First Floor (17A) from Salon to Flat

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