Big Slide rage continues, anger with Nairn's four Highland Councillors is still being expressed (both online in the digital domain of the "Nairn when you were a bairn" facebook site and now into print on page four of this week's Leopold Street Thunderer.
Nairn West Community chair, Rosemary Young, is quoted: "The public sector are supposed to be our servants, but they have become our lords and masters. Instead of asking us they just do things."
Liz and Laurie are saying in the NT that there was consultation however. Tonight the West Community Council (Westies) and the Suburban CC (Subbies) both have meetings in Nairn Academy. Item B on the Westies agenda is listed as "Follow up on on Links/Leisure Park/Crazy Golf/Playground."
Will tonight provide another focus for the considerable anger that has been expressed so far (see comments on this previous Gurn thread)? Issues concerning the Links have had the ability in the past to create considerable upset and perhaps our councillors should have seen this one coming. Anger is now compounded by the fact that a team of workers have taken away the hill that the big slide rested on. This observer spoke to two citizens watching the JCB at work down by recently and they were outraged that money was being spent on such work at a time of austerity, they maintained that the slide could have been fixed for a fraction of the cost. They felt that removing the hill was just the Council symbolically "rubbing the community's face in it".
The anger of a considerable section of the community (perhaps the majority) is very real and has momentum. This is the sort of thing that voters remember. Iain Bain occupies himself with this subject in his editorial this week. he states:
"It seems our local politicians do not learn much from the lessons of history. Nairn Links and the quality of the the Links is engraved deeply into the local image of what Nairn represents. Generations have used the play area and it is perceived as a vital part of the appeal the Links has, not just for locals but for visitors. The paddling pool and the equipment in the play area have all aroused debate and argument when the local authority has sought to make alterations. The current work might have been expected to arouse comment." More in this week's Nairnshire Telegraph and online at Nairn when you were a bairn, also previous comments on this Gurn article.
