Cawdor and West Nairnshire usual suspects

This observer headed up to the first meeting of the Cawdor and West Nairnshire Community Council under the new chair Janice Douglas. They seem a competent bunch and their first meeting went very well with Highland Councillors, Sgt Graeme Erskine of Northern Constabulary and Angus McNicoll of Cawdor Estate present too.

Cawdor is a part of Nairnshire but in the best traditions of Glenurquhart Road centralisation it has for some time been part of the Ardersier, Culloden and Croy ward. Thus the presence of Councillors Roddy Balfour and Glynis Sinclair at the meeting. To the best of this observer’s knowledge a lot of the West Nairnshire area is still in Nairnshire (Ward 19) as deemed by the powers that be, and surely the meeting should also have merited the attention of one of the four members that represent that ward. After all, even if they are experienced councillors, are folk that sit on the Inverness City Committee appropriate to represent what is an historical part of the County of Nairnshire? Will any of the candidates for the election in May have restoring Cawdor to Nairnshire proper as part of Ward 19 in their manifestos? Anyway back to the meeting…

The meeting discussed potholes, planning, community improvements, the Cawdor shop and the Jubilee. Janice began by telling the meeting her vision of the purpose of the community council:

“I believe that we are your vehicle for any issues that are brought up within the community, brought to this group for us to take forward to the relevant powers. I’m not sure that we can solve everybody’s problem of every issue within the community but we’ll certainly do our best to address it. But this is your meeting. Now we’ve got some things on the agenda but obviously we would hope for participation from yourselves.” Janice then went on to introduce Angus and Graeme and then a discussion on the state of the roads began.

More from the meeting later. Minutes of the previous meeting here.