West Councillor Graham Vine told his colleagues and members of the public at the meeting in the Community Centre last night of his continued efforts concerning issues relating to Nairn’s Common Good Fund. He said:
“I was castigated by some elected members for having got MSPs to intervene over the question of the Common Good and they complained bitterly that it was costing a lot of money to reply. To which is my response, ‘well if you had replied to us in the first place we wouldn’t have needed to get the MSPs involved.’
He went on to say how he went to Louise Clark in the Courthouse and asked her to dig out the minutes of the council meeting that agreed to grant the original lease to the farmer at Sandown in 1988. He then described how later that day he was ‘buttonholed’ in the Co-op by a Highland Councillor and, to this observer, what he says he was told seems very much like a ‘my gang is bigger than your gang’ statement in relation to Common Good matters.
Graham Vine stated that he has relayed his conversation in the Co-op ‘word for word’ to Fergus Ewing who he says is continuing to pursue these matters with Highland Council on the behalf of West Community Council.
This item on the agenda continued for some time. More later this week if time permits, if it doesn’t the Nairnshire Telegraph was, as usual, also present and no doubt will report on this item in next week’s edition.