A letter appeared in this week's Nairnshire from a certain Mr Phil Andrews of River Park. He stated in his opening paragraph: 'Can I say how delighted residents of River Park were when it was announced that the plan for Sainsbury's had been called in.'
Well now River Park begins down at the Grantown Road doesn't it? Are all the folk down at that end of the scheme all against Sainsbury's and supporting the aims of Mr Andrews? Just how strong is the anti Sainsbury feeling? We'll find out when we get to the Public Inquiry. The Gurn reckons Mr Andrews support might not be as large as he thinks. Maybe enough antis in River Park to order a taxi to the inquiry?
In the meantime we're all condemned to travel to Forres and Inverness if we want a better choice of food, not to mention the jobs that we might not see now for a couple of years at least. Aye, delighted indeed.
I fear the Riverpark protest is that of a 'not in my backyard' toward Sainsburys? If you bought a property that overlooks farmland then the prospect of looking at a large structure and having the near 24/7 sound of slamming car doors etc is not one that anyone would relish.
ReplyDeleteAs with all new building in any town it is going to upset someone, but Nairn needs an alternative to the current food shopping offerings
Majority rules OK
ReplyDeleteI say ignore the minority of NIMBY's
Living Dole/ Remember when we had a dole office in Nairn - now it's a stockbrokers lol
ReplyDeleteAnyway that land has been zoned for industry it seems although nobody ever wanted to put a factory up.
A nice earthbank and a couple of hundred trees might be a nice compromise.
Boathpark used to overlook farmland lol until riverpark went up infront of it.
A new site is needed for Porterfield Prison. Next door to River Park?
ReplyDeleteI suspect almost everyone agrees with living dole that
ReplyDelete"Nairn needs an alternative to the current food shopping offerings". And quite a lot of people share graisg's current discontent that
"we're all condemned to travel to Forres and Inverness if we want a better choice".
But it's quite a leap of logic (and simplistic) to conclude that the solution has to be a Sainsburys. Yes, a different brand of supermarket will add welcome variety and choice. It will however be neither solution nor improvement if the new roundabouts, additional traffic lights and increased traffic jams which may be part of the planners' conditions render daily life and access to and through Nairn even more difficult. Not to mention the prospect of the Cawdor-Auldearn back road becoming even more of a rat-run/bypass than it is already.
The debate and the planning enquiry will anyway take some time. Meanwhile, how about some lateral thinking. If "better choice of food" is the need, why not arrange to host a weekly farmers' market in the carpark/bus station space opposite Somerfields? There are plenty of local farmers, and a decent range of market stalls should attract the customers. If any self-respecting small town in France can do it - not to mention Inverness and Elgin - why shouldn't Nairn do so too?
A market? With you all the way anon and that's a subject that we've gurned about before.
ReplyDeleteGridlock because of the Sainsbury supermarket? Gridlock on the A96 is probably not all that far away anyway and was a reality this summer at certain times of the day.
Many of the folk that would head to Sainsbury's would probably have been heading that way anyway to Lidl and Tescos in Forres. The A96 is a road fit for the 1980's just like our Somerfield store is a supermarket fit for the 1980's.
Yeah let's have a market - Nairn folk would love it but would the idea ever get past the officials of Highland Council and the militant tendancy of the Nairn Business Association?
Elswhere market stalls and shops co-exist, each attracting customers to town for the other. If you want to call a public meeting to demand one Anon then this Gurnmeister General will turn up to back you!