Unless you were one of the lucky folk that have signed up to the Highland Council consultation portal then it is very unlikely that you will know about this consultation that closes on the 6th of August - of course even if you do know about it you might have one or two other things competing for your attention at this time of the year. It is hard to see how the town's two Community Councils will make a response as they traditionally take July off each year and have no meetings this month.
So this link here will take you to the Highland Council Consultation on the draft Housing Land Audit. You then have the opportunity to read and comment on a document. There is an interactive page here with a map you can zoom into to find details of what housing the planners think should be added to Nairn.
The map gives you details of the allocation capacity for South Nairn (520 houses), The Showfield (30 Houses), The Kingsteps land that made the front page of the Nairnshire recently (90 houses) and Sandown and Delnies.
There have been complaints in the past that views submitted to these consultations have been ignored. But given the new mantras of Community Empowerment and Localism emitting from Holyrood and Glenurquhart Road perhaps this is crunch time - is it business as usual or will our community finally get to decide where things should get built and how the town should grow? Is it still about trying to attract large scale commercial developers or could we try something different and be a bit more holistic about it all? Maybe some of our MSPs might want to stand up and say things need to change somewhat after all they must have heard some of the complaints too?
Unless it is quickly proven otherwise though consultation is still a four letter word - It really is easy to be cynical and not give a shit given the way we've been treated in the past but should anyone still think it worthwhile the link is above...