Year 4, Week 1
Three years, East Nairnshire Community Council, combining the Nairn community councils, Emma Roddick, Post Office moving, road closures ...
Three years
This week saw the third anniversary of my election to council. It’s always a day of the year I view with mixed feeling as while the count was proceeding I was reading the eulogy at my mother’s funeral and so I got the news of the result at the wake.
Anyway, it’s been an interesting three years. I now sit on a lot of committees and sub-committees. Since last year I now chair the South Planning Applications Committee and the Investment Sub-Committee, and I’m vice chair of various committees. In addition I’m the chair of the board of Highland Opportunities (Investments) Limited which is wholly owned by the council.
In between meetings I’m busy with your issues. The cases I’ve had this year have included all sort of things. Just looking back over the last three months I see I’ve talked to people about planning applications, licensing, issues relating the Delnies and the A96, speeding, disabled car parking bays, council house allocation and maintenance, graffiti, witnessing signatures, parking problems, seagulls, derelict houses, maintenance of roads and paths, giant hogweed, anti-social behaviour, emptying of dog waste bins, play areas, motorhomes, and council run busses.
I hope those of you who have had to contact me are happy with the responses you’ve had but if not then do contact me again.
East Nairnshire Community Council
In theory we have five community councils in our ward but in my time on the council we have never had enough people willing to come forward to successfully form a community council for East Nairnshire. The map below shows the area it covers which is large but sparsely populated.
As part of the review of community councils your ward councillors suggested that we split the community council in two, using the A939 as the boundary, and merge the west part into Cawdor and West Nairnshire CC (shown in light green on the map) and the east part into Auldearn CC (light blue at the top).
We’ve been told by officers that this proposal brought no comment from anyone but I have spoken to both of the active community councils this week and they are happy with the idea, they just didn’t comment.
A paper on the next steps is coming to full council on Thursday and, because no comments were received, officers are proposing not to go forward with this split but we four local members are thinking about bringing an amendment to continue taking this forward as it seems unfair that people in the south east of the ward have no community council.
With that in mind I would welcome your views, either for or against, and especially if you live in the area currently covered by East Nairnshire CC.
Combining the Nairn community councils
Another proposal in the review of community councils was to merge Nairn River CC and Nairn West and Suburban CC to create a single Nairn CC to serve the whole town. Both community councils declared their opposition to this proposal and overall there was no clear support for this from the people who responded so officers are recommending that this is not taken forward.
Emma Roddick
I’m pleased to be able to tell you that the SNP has chosen Emma Roddick to be our candidate for the Scottish Parliament elections in 2026 for the constituency of Inverness and Nairn, replacing Fergus Ewing who is standing down after many years.
Emma stays in Inverness and was a councillor for the Inverness Central ward on Highland Council in the last council. She has served as one our regional MSPs for the last four years and has visited Nairn a lot in that time, holding surgeries, dealing with casework, visiting local businesses and, of course, the Highland Games so she knows both the constituency and the ward well.
Post Office moving
The Post Office are proposing to move the Post Office branch in Cawdor Street into Strachans so they're doing a consultation. You can find details as to why they’re moving and a link to the consultation here.
Road Closures
A small section of the U3151 in Cawdor will be closed beginning on 12th May 2025. This is to allow SSE contractors to carry out essential works on their network safely.
The closure order covers a two week period, however the contractor is aiming to complete works on this section within about a week. SSE have already informed local residents of the planned works.
Meanwhile our old friends BT/Openreach are still at it and there will be a temporary closure of the C115 and U3138 roads near Piperhill beginning on 19th May.
As usual with both of these closures diversion signage will be in place and local and emergency access will be maintained.
Planning applications
The following new applications were logged since I last posted:
25/01299/FUL - Dunollie, Cawdor, Nairn, IV12 5RA - Erection of garden room
To find details search on the reference number on the planning portal where you can also find details on how to comment.