Farmers Market demonstrates the potential?

The space created by the demolition of the old Community Centre was used to good effect on Saturday by the Farmers Market. Shoppers could be seen making their way from the High Street down the lanes to the market and then across to the Craft Fair in the new Community Centre and vice versa. 

Nearby the old Social Work buildings await a new future depending on the outcome of negotiations between NICE and the Highland Council.  Imagine that building back in use with a mixture of community and business users and then perhaps the car park areas revamped (wasn't some stone kept for this?) and maybe  some trees planted too. According to one of the traders that had a stall on the market on Saturday there is now talk of four more markets a year. That would be a good start but surely the ideal must be to aim for a weekly market? Some of the  thousands of drivers that pass through Nairn would soon get the idea and perhaps stop to spend some cash  in the market and in the High Street and beyond. 

As the future of  business on the High Street continues to face great challenges and some shops go under we have to think of ways of putting of bringing more people to our town centre. The switching on of the Christmas Lights in Nairn recently showed how that was possible. That was an evening event however and perhaps there are lessons to be learned for that event and any other potential ones from the way Buckie made a whole day of their Christmas Lights ceremony - Images here Buckie Christmas Kracker. As mentioned in a post below it also coincided with a home defeat for Buckie Thistle by Nairn County FC and the resultant fireworks display at five o'clock was well received by ebullient County fans as they made their way back to their transport in the streets surrounding Victoria Park.