Disquiet about format of meeting for CC’s organised by Highland Council

Tomorrow night (Tuesday) the future of how Community Councils in Nairn should be organised will be discussed in the Courthouse. Each Community Council is only allowed to take four members to the meeting and the public are excluded.

There was a call from the public benches for the River Council to boycott the meeting on account of the number restriction. Cllr Graham Marsden said the meeting had been organised in this way by Mr William Gillfinnan so as to be efficient. There was another call for all seven of River’s members to turn up anyway.

As regular readers will know this observer is a keen supporter of a single council for the Burgh but any reasonable person can only share the concerns of River CC. Why does this meeting need to be behind closed doors with the public excluded? Who is calling the shots here – the Community Councils that represent the people of Nairn or the Highland Council? Comparison was made of the large numbers that attend Ward Forums in the Courthouse without things becoming unmanageable

River Councillor Mike Henderson was incensed by the limit on numbers, he stated: “When we agreed to attend this meeting there was no restriction mentioned, this is building barriers before we even get there.”