River CC – the South Nairn edition – Liz will not be at planning meeting on the 18th due to legal advice

There were other subjects debated at the River Community Council meeting at the URC Church Hall last night (Weds 11^th). The continuing complicated affair of the Lochloy schemes grass cutting took up a lot of time but top item was the South Nairn planning controversy.

There were contributions from River CC members and also from present Provost and Area Leader Liz MacDonald and Councillor Colin MacAulay. If time permits we will post details of some of the robust but polite debate over the next few days. 

After the meeting the Gurn asked Liz whether she would be attending the PED (Planning Environment and Development) meeting on the 18^th when the application for houses at South Nairn will be discussed again. She replied that she had been given legal advice that she would unduly compromise herself if she took part in the meetings on South Nairn. This legal advice centres around a submission she and her family made to the Inner Moray Firth development plan Call for Sites. Liz told the Gurn that she did not know if that submission had been accepted yet.

Colin MacAulay will be attending the meeting however and told the Gurn that, although not a member of the committee, he intends to use his local member vote – a Highland Council mechanism that is unique in Scotland and, the Gurn understands, will be abolished on the 30^th of September following a recent decision of the Council.