Whilst detailing River Community Council's plans for next year in a presentation last week (see that presentation here), Simon Noble stated:
"We've taken a position where we've said that joint community council meetings should be stand alone meetings, they shouldn't be River Community Council's meeting to week other community councillors can come along. They should be specific joint meetings addressing common issues and common interests."
Later on in the meeting the issue of joint meetings was raised again. Gurnites may recall that Liz initially called for these joint meetings - article here from March 2011. Back then John Mackie of suburban was calling for the out of town Nairnshire Councils to be involved.
Last week at the River CC meeting Stephanie said the Council had received a letter from Rosemary Young of West CC and they needed to schedule the next joint meeting.
Discussion of other correspondence then intervened but Tommy returned to the matter later: "It's growing arms and legs now, Dick has actually e-mailed me and he wants seven Community Councils."
Stephanie then said: "We can't do that but we need to have one don't we?"
River then agreed to hold a joint meeting in January and a separate one from the normal schedule. There didn't seem to be any desire from River to extend the meeting beyond the normal scope of West, Suburban and River.
This observer would suggest that to maintain the status quo of the joint meetings would be the right thing to do. A meeting of the seven councils could take place some other time. The joint meetings of the town's three councils are still in their infancy and trying to run too far, too fast, could open up fault lines again and bring the fragile "entente cordiale", brokered by Liz, crashing down. There is a place for pan-Nairnshire meetings, maybe one day we could get something resembling a Nairnshire District Council back but it will need a bit more planning and thought and there's no sense in rushing. Maybe something could be arranged for further into 2013, then the next joint meeting could go ahead in January for the town's three councils?
C'mon Gurn, give it a break!
ReplyDeleteMost regular readers by now recognise that the Gurn rarely misses an opportunity to credit Liz McDonald for addressing every issue and solving every problem in this town. But claiming that Liz was the initiator of the joint meetings idea, and "brokered an entente cordiale" is pushing the boundaries of credibility.
Many people across Nairn called for and supported the idea of CC collaboration and joint meetings. The topic was widely aired and discussed at meetings and in the media. It was William Gilfillan of Highland Council who chaired the meeting on 11 May 2011 at which all three Community Councils agreed that they would meet regularly "up to four times a year to discuss key issues affecting the whole town". There is no need to reopen that debate, or to seek to rewrite the terms and conditions on which they might happen. The CCs should "just do it".
Yet these meetings haven't happened. Funny, that. No prizes for guessing where the reluctance or resistance to having such joint meetings has come from.
Most regular readers will also recognise that Liz McDonald received the highest number of votes by a long margin in the last council elections, and therefore she enjoys the support from the majority of people in Nairn
ReplyDeleteThe West CC regularly seems to regularly debate issues outwith it's boundaries at its meetings, is this in leu of having joint discussion with the other Nairn CC's?