"for decades the Common Good Fund has been like an orphan with no real parents only Highland Council involved as a remote, distant guardian.”

The Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey area committee heard today in the Courthouse that the Nairn Common Good Fund was “looking healthy at this stage” and that council officers were  looking at developing further initiatives for the fund to consistently improve the service they gave to councillors and the community of Nairn in respect of its management.

Liz, in her role as area leader said: “Nairn members have been involved in scrutinising the Nairn Common Good. I think it is one of the first times we have actually had a budget for the Nairn Common Good Fund come before us. It has been a very difficult report as you can see there has been a lot of work put in by the officers. There’s three officers been involved in writing up this report and to sort out some of the anomalies that have been flagged up in the assets register. [...] We will be bringing forward a report in June with more background details and information that’s being looked into just now, investigated just now”

Michael Green said: “I was looking at this a few days ago and the thought that came to me was Churchill after El Alamein: Is this the beginning of the end or the end of the beginning? For as the regards of the administration of Nairn Common Good Fund we are at the beginning because in my opinion we have to establish the facts and establish the facts [...] Up until now we’ve only got a budget, we’ve not had a budget we’ve had a monitoring report with very limited information where we’ve had to pick specific items and address them individually. In my opinion for decades the Common Good Fund has been like an orphan with no real parents only Highland Council involved as a remote, distant guardian.”

A little later Liz said:

“It is an in-depth look and there have been several issues that have to be tackled which we expect will raise an income for the Nairn Common Good but it’s too early to make an announcement on that.