On Wednesday night in Auldearn Liz suggested that the Highland Council's new Community Challenge fund might be a suitable source of funding for NICE's intentions with the old social work building. Yesterday she also tweeted on this:
Council agree criteria for Community Challenge Fund. I hope communities in Nairn consider going for itm
— Provost Liz McDonald (@Liz_Nairn) October 25, 2012
Item 3 on the list of chllange fund projects seems to be suitable for what Nairn Improvement Community Enterprise have in mind, see below. What could be done with those buildings though to ensure that they had a sustainable future?
"(i) Deliver a service at lower cost
The project will demonstrate that a community based delivery mechanism will provide the same level of specified service or services as currently provided by the Council, at lower cost, and will be sustainable in future years at an indexed cost.
(ii) Provide a higher level of service for the same cost
The project will demonstrate that a community based delivery mechanism will provide a higher level of specified service or services as currently provided by the Council, at the existing cost, and will be sustainable in future years at an indexed cost.
(iii) Help to reduce the Council’s cost for maintaining premises
The project will assume responsibility for the maintenance and running costs of premises and will show how the project will be sustainable in future years following a one-off challenge fund contribution."
The Council's full challenge fund document is here. When the Council talks in item (i) about providing the same level of specified service or services as currently provided by the Council, at lower cost, and will be sustainable in future years at an indexed cost, could that mean that the Community Councils could put in to take over the grass cutting contract for the town and employ the local guys that used to do that job? As long, of course, they could show that they could do it cheaper than the contractors?
I like the idea of Nairn taking control of its own destiny. I think a community development trust is a good thing. I’m tempted to join NICE, but why is it they’ve just increased the Board size to 9 (from the 4 quoted on their website just two weeks ago)?
ReplyDeleteThere are a few things about NICE which make it hard to buy their claim to be working for us all.
An awful lot of people have complained that the leadership of the group smacks way too much of middle aged men in smoke filled rooms gossiping & back-slapping over the port. One grimaced suggestion from a neighbour is that it reminded them of those 17th & 18th century Scottish lairds, educated in the ways of the French Court, who ruled their fiefdoms from London and Edinburgh - or the arrogance of the absentee landlords of the 19th & 20th centuries who did as they would and toyed with their estates at the expense of the locals.
All this plays to our Scots culture and inherited prejudices. So many born here - and throughout Scotland - have been brought up with a sense of being done to, mostly by the privileged and the wealthy. It's no invention, yet this sense of suspicion, sometimes resentment, is always a surprise to those without it. No surprise that Alex Salmond has stimulated such emotional pride about independence in Scotland, even if not quite the commitment to go all the way - yet.
So surely there should be little astonishment when the response to NICE is enormous suspicion. Never mind their claim that 400 have joined up over the last two years. Never mind that many sympathise with their complaints about how things are and the idea of taking control, but the Board from NICE almost all live in the comforts of West Nairn and preach and aspire to grandeur like the Victorians. They didn’t even start to refer to ideas for our economic future until it became clear that was the only way they might get funding and might just start to win them friends among the elected of the town.
If you really care, men and women of NICE from West Nairn, announce you're intention to stand down and get the real representatives of the local community to sit on the board of directors...
How about the 'real representatives' of the local community getting off their arses and do something?
ReplyDeleteSmall town mentality, that's all Nairn ( and most other small towns in the UK ) suffer from.
I would make a contrary grimaced suggestion that it's got more to do with 'we don't want to do it, and haven't been bothered to do it yet....but we'll do our damndest to make sure that you don't do it either'.
Thinly, or perhaps not so veiled, racist rants do nothing other than portray the impression that the town is populated by some folks that don't seem capable of developing dynamic thought processing abilites that would see their conciousness dragged this side of the '45.
I personally don't give a toss where anyone on , in or around NICE comes from.
I do know that they at least offer the potential to see Nairn develop , whilst retaining it's colour, character and charm.
Of course, someone will tell me that the Council should be doing just that......but I'll not be holding my breath
Perhaps the fact that the NICE board seems to be male dominated is that what they do does not interest the ladies in the community. Or perhaps the females leave it to the menfolk to get the work done whilst they take long lunches.
ReplyDeleteOn a serious note NICE should think very carefully about whether or not what they want actually represents what the community needs or does it represent a particularly 'men of a certain age' viewpoint. It would be interesting to get a breakdown of the membership in terms of age and sex and then compare that to the make up of the Nairn population as a whole.