The scene around midday as Alexander Brodie assisted by a local resident installs the gate across the road down to the Kingsteps car park. More pictures here. Short video here.
Alexander Brodie is no longer in a mood to compromise earlier in the week he commented on the Gurn: "I have read the article dated 27 November in the Inverness Courier where Provost Macdonald branded my above posted compromise as "ridiculous". Pity. According, I withdraw the offer.
I am sorry, but I can no longer negotiate over this matter. It is taking to much of my time, confounding me, getting nowhere and subjecting me to unwanted judgement etc. According, I withdraw all offers and will not be making others.
Thank you to the readers of the Gurn for your support and understanding, and to those who did not support - for your good cheer and humor. thanks also to the Gurn.
Yours ever,
Alexander Brodie of Brodie"
Earlier this morning Liz tweeted:
Brodie and Frank Milne are in the process of closing the road to Kingsteps car park and installing a gate
— Provost Liz McDonald (@Liz_Nairn) December 1, 2012
32 comments:
@anon 13.11 Thanks for that comment anon. I realise people have strong feelings on this subject so I'm not going to post any comments that might inflame the situation.
Please remain clam everyone.
There's me thinking kick off was at 3
o'clock.?
Please remain clam everyone.
Is this in response to the possibly shellfish actions?
I trust all emergency services have been provided with a key. It's a long way to carry a stretcher or a fire pump.
So........
Is the cooncil going to recover the cost of tarring the now STRICTLY PRIVATE road?
@999 I seem to remember Alexander Brodie telling the River CC meeting that such keys would be provided.
Oh well.... no more walks in that part of the Culbin for me, then. I have limited mobility and if I set off from the East Beach car park I don't think I'd be able to reach Kingsteps (I might on a good day, but on many days I couldn't).
Thanks, Mr Brodie, for limiting my enjoyment of the outdoors even more.
mmmm! So where are the emergency keys kept then?
Often I see ambulances from out-with Nairn.
Police, Inverness and beyond.
Nairns' fire tenders have been seen in John o' Groats, Fort William and Elgin of late.
How many keys is there?
Where are they kept?
I sincerely hope Brodie is going to reimburse the council for tarring the path--the man is a law unto himself.
@999 Nairn fire engines in John o Groats, Ft William and Elgin, please can you give us a source to confirm this?
Seems to me the jury has made up there own decision before theres been a fair trial. We have all heard the saying dont judge a book by its cover
I think the "book" is being judged by its actions.
I suppose now that Brodie has got his way with his path Nairn council will roll over and bow down to him now--or will they have the stomach to fight him in court--i dont think so.
Nairn Council will do nothing that is guaranteed. It no longer exists. we are all subjects of the mighty Highland Council now. Will they do something? I think they might but we'll have to wait and see.
I have been going down to the "Dead Woody" for over 45 years long before the house at the far end was built and the cottage at the ice house was derelict. The track used to go down onto the beach as I used to drive down on it and as a child with my father. It has alway been an access to the beach until someone dug a pit just as you came onto the beach to the right. How long does a track/road have to be used to be a right of way. I am old enough to remember the wood being cleared back in the 60's with the machinery sitting where house at the end is. Now it has been thinned and probably awaiting a clearance again. If the road is going to be permamently closed where do I get a refund on my council tax for the tarring?????
Could Highland Council just go down there tomorrow morning and take the gate out?
As far as I know, Brodie of Brodie is technically correct. The right to WALK to the beach is not questioned. The right to DRIVE everywhere on private land doesn't exist.
Why was the road made up anyway? If B of B was the fortunate recipient of a Highland Council error, that is understandable.
The anon correspondent here could maybe trawl through the relevant sub-committee minutes to find out who said what and why.
Maybe a charge-back on whoever authorised the work would please everyone?
Yawn! Where's the helicopter gone?
Alexander Brodie has blocked off access for some folk with limited physical abilities with his new gate at Kingsteps, including anyone using a disabled scooter.
Another disabled woman I know can no longer drive to the car park and doesn't have the ability to walk there from the car park at the East beach so this walk is lost to her
In out society disabled people are often forgotten about despite what the government liked to spout about the paralympic games in terms of making people aware. It clearly didn't work with Kingsteps or maybe the disabled are another group that Mr Brodie didn't want to see on his land?
If the council used public money to create a car park/road without first checking out their legal position and getting the necessary planning permission, as they would expect everybody else to do, they have brought this mess upon themselves. Trying to blame Mr Brodie appears to be their attempt to deflect attention away from their own incompetence/stupidity.
At last month's river CC meeting Liz produced the following two documents which this observer presumes will feature heavily in any legal goings on.
Letter from Highland Council
Response from Ninian Brodie
This is not about vehicular access - the Right to Roam is just that, a Right to Roam. However some of the clauses do bring into question disabled access.
see - http://www.legislation.gov.uk/asp/2003/2/contents
Chapter 1, section 5 (6)- it is not a road (even if the council tarred it)
Chapter 2, section 9 (F) - cars are not allowed, however disabled cars are possibly allowed. Should all people with a blue badge be given a key?
Chapter 5, section 13 (1) - If the council thinks it has a case then It could argue on disabled access rights?
Discuss.
Hi Gurn
I have just had a quick look at the HC letter and it mentions that the council owns the car park which is accessed by the track. The letter also notes that access to the private properties is also taken via the track. Presumably the private property owners would have some kind of 'heritable and irredeemable servitude right of access' in order to be able to reach their homes (and sell them on?). I am not a legal expert by any means but someone must be. Does anyone know if the Council has any kind of rights of access to the land that they say they own?
To Graisg,
Those letters to Mr. A. Brodie of Brodie from Highland Council, and his reply both state that he has “Title” to the land. All that Highland Council are doing is asking permission to make the track better for their purpose.
If you rent a house from a landlord and want to paint the rooms a different colour because you don’t like those colours then you ask the permission of the landlord. If he grants you permission you can do it AT YOUR OWN EXPENSE!
If you leave the property you can’t back charge the landlord for the cost of the painted rooms because it is work you have done and “left”.
Usually if you ask to change things structurally (thinking about renting shops), the Landlord my give permission to do so. If you leave, the alterations “stay”. Or the landlord might stipulate at the time of granting permission that the premises are returned to the same state as before you altered them!
When Jessops closed the “Boynes” shop, they employed a few blokes to rip out all the cabinets, shelving, counters, etc, etc….this was all skipped……as the landlord asked for the premises to have none of “their” stuff.
As in those letters Mr. A. Brodie of Brodie has NOT asked for this to be done Highland Council have two options:
1.Leave as is and walk away.
2.Remove the tarmac and reinstate the track as it was before they tarmaced it.
Both of these options are at Highland Councils expense, and it would cost more to rip up and dispose of the tarmac (landfill cost), and then level and reinstate the dirt/gravel track! Cheaper to leave and walk away! Anyway Highland Council have had 10 or 11yrs wear and use out of it for their purpose!
@ anon2.57 I don't think anyone involved is denying that the Common Good owns the land and all the adjoining golf course areas. I'm not a legal expert either but I would imagine this will all need top range opinion or maybe not.
How many houses have a road through the middle of them?
At one time, a River called Nairn ran
through the middle of it.
Alexander Brodie has put up a fence to keep cars off of the access road. People are said to use the access area to dispose of medical waste. Because of this, he asked that the council to address the issue. I am not sure that they did. From what I have seen on Google maps, people do not need to be driving along that road unless they live there, and those folks should have a key; with a lockbox for emergency services. If the road needs to be repaved that should be the responsibility of those who live on that road and not the taxpayers. The road does not need those visitors who want to dispose of their medical wastes. That is a health hazard that could lead to a health epidemic. If i want to go to the Culbin Sands, or Forest, I can pay for that privilege at the other car-park. That presumed privilege has been abused at the western end because there is no requirement for them to pay or to control their behaviors. I have heard that the council wants to sell the eastern car-park to a private developer. Whatever that means, the prices of the privilege to park there will not get any cheaper. This will funnel more people to want to use Lochloy Road. Which will make the problem worse. It seems that the main contenders in this fight are Liz McDonald and Alexander Brodie. From my outside view, there are a number of questions that she needs to answer. Who is going to profit over the sale of the eastern car park, will some of those funds go to dealing with these concerns, what will be done about the disposal of medical wastes, are there illegal behaviors going on, should the police be involved, will a fee be charged, is the council willing to buy the access road property so they can have better control on negative behavior? These are only a few of the . I have tweeted Liz, and will tweet her some more. A good aspect of social media. I honor and support Alexander's convictions on this issue. I realize that there are strong convictions contradictory to Alexander's. I do not demean those convictions, we are all free to believe whatever we want. I disagree with those convictions because we feel that personal responsibility is being disregarded. We, Clan Brodie of the Americas, have no animosity towards the citizens of Nairn. Those people will be the ones who decide on these questions. Whatever is chosen is what will be.
Robert C. Brodie
Commissioner, Clan Brodie of the Americasmid
Do we have a new clan war in the making here with Alexander Brodie drawing on his US clansmen against the McDonalds? Will the battle of Kingsteps be written into out history books
Six pints none the wiser raises the interesting question of disabled access rights, down the approach 'road' to the car park in question.
So far as I recall from my days as a retailer, the relevant laws imply 'wheelchair access' and mention ramps and doorway widths needed to permit such pushed or manually propelled wheelchairs to pass into and out of the premises. When my own business was inspected for this, they were rightly interested in the signing and access to fire exits.
The availability of powered scooters for the disabled is to be commended. But it may not be appreciated that these cannot necessarily go everywhere that a simple basic wheelchair can do. There may well be no intrinsic right to drive your scooter everywhere.
Many older shops, for example, are quite unable to accomodate such scooters. Similarly not all forest tracks or seaside paths are sufficiently wide, dry and smooth enough to take a large scooter with certainty.
The question of a trio of scooter riders being turned back by a NP ranger on attempting to ride up the Cairngorm Mountain track on a typical foul day was raised elsewhere. Should he have let them carry on and risk a need for medical emergency personnel, a mountain rescue team or a scooter breakdown vehicle to be called out to a rather inacessible place? The consensus was that he was correct, but there were some bruised feelings involved.
So the interesting question yet to be answered is- Did Highland Council ask for a vehicular right of way to be dedicated to them to allow the public to reach the Kingsteps car park when they created it on the adjacent Common Good land?
If they did this, then B of B's gate will have to go.
If they didn't do this, but relied on the goodwill of the landowner, or on some assumption that making up the road gave them certain rights, they could be very disappointed.
@ call to arms - away wi yersel. Give peace a chance this Christmas. How about a game of 5 a side soccer down in the Kingsteps car park?
The Provost's Choice versus the Brodie All Stars?
I'm new to the area, but I'm sure my neice who has lived in the area on and off since birth stated that she had parked in the car park in question, before taking the daog for a walk. I infer from that that the access to the car park in now clear, and people are able to use it?
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