“I find that unacceptable that the town is going to have something imposed upon it!”

The title of this post is a quote from Sheena Baker earlier this evening at the West Community Council meeting.

A rough ride for the representative of Upland Developments “up west” this evening at the Community Centre for the last meeting of the Council before they throw themselves to the mercy of the electorate who will pick any 8 from 11 candidates on the coupon. Mr Johnston outlined potential changes he was able to consider given the constraints placed upon him by the developer and other factors such as the number of storeys that he was not able to change. He also indicated that the developer would not oppose an extension of time for the community to consider the application and also indicated that revised plans would be submitted. A photo-montage showing the building in relation to the surrounding landscape should also be shortly available.

Brian Stewart gave Mr Gary Johnston a forensic questioning on the local plan and whether the application for 12 flats and a supermarket fitted into that. It has to said that Mr Johnston performed very well in the witness box however and gave as good as he got on the vexed issue of the local plan. Gurnites would surely appreciate a few more notes on that exchange and we will hopefully put more up when time permits. There were some other wee complaints but it was Sheena Baker that made the most forthright attack on the proposal however, she told the meeting:

"I’m absolutely delighted to hear that Mr Cameron has suddenly woken up to the fact that we have a blot on the landscape here and is going to do something about it. I would actually echo the words earlier by Brian. Why is there such a rush? We want something to happen but whether it happens in three months or six months or a year, what we want is for it to be right when it is done and this is not right.”

West CC also debated NICE, South Nairn, the town centre, sewage problems in Nairn and a few other items. A lot of interesting material was aired tonight and hopefully we will get round to it over the next few days.