Nairnshire, Croy and Ardersier – a potential union of disaffected communities?

Would an alliance of Nairnshire, Croy and Ardersier make more sense than the current plan Highland Council has to herd us into a Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey area committee? This observer would go as far to suggest that that, in the not too distant future, could be one of a series of potential outcomes from a meeting planned of all the Nairnshire Community Councils plus Croy and Ardersier. 

At the Suburban Community Council meeting last night in the Academy Dick Youngson gave details of the next meeting of the councils, he said:

“We’ve been asked to set up another meeting of the seven, and now eight community councils. To again discuss what are our requirements and what are we to do about Nairn and everything that has been taken away from Nairn. Because really if we don’t get it right at this stage, and set up clear sort of ideas we’re going to lose out as a result of a shrinking budget. Because Highland Council and all the other Councils are in extreme difficulty at the moment. I think the auditors are looking very keenly at a lot of the cash which has gone out to different organisations and been used in all the Council areas. So really things are going to get tighter than we ever imagined and yet we haven’t really had our fair share of cash and allowance and I think we again should get together.

We’re going to include Ardersier this time because they felt left out. We had Croy and Cawdor and East Nairnshire which is really Glenferness and Lethen and Roger Milton (Auldearn) and out three Community Councils here. It went down quite well and we discussed a lot. It’s going to be an open meeting, we’re not going to have a small contingent from each Community Council. It’ll be open and we’re really going to tackle all the issues that we’re going to lose if we don’t speak up now.

Dick then discussed potential dates for the meeting Weeks commencing Monday 22^nd April or 6^th May seemed to suit best, he went on:

“This isn’t the same as the three Nairn Community Councils getting together, this is a much larger. It’s Ward 19 together with the Councillors and part of Ward 18 or most of it.

Because Croy feel completely left out as do Ardersier. So if we can actually get together and debate keenly what is required and how we can perhaps put up a decent case for a form of thinking and management…there’s been quite a lot of discussion with senior members of Highland Council over the last few weeks. There’s quite a lot of support and interest from them for this. So we are not going against Highland Council this actually takes us forward along with Government thinking and what Highland Council can perhaps achieve with us as partners.

It isn’t as if we are going to give ourselves a heap more work, we are still going to exist as a Community Council. That’s our responsibility; we’re not changing the Community Councils. It’s just that we will be free then to set up as development companies and to look for funding and to get funding through government and Highland Council. So it’ll be channelled in a slightly different manner. Unless we speak up we are going to lose out all the way along.”

More on this initiative/discussion later this week in the Gurn.