Seafront consultants - the way we were (in 1994) and the way we are today.

There is at present an ongoing consultancy for the future of the Links. As a Highland Council press release put it last year:

"As the local community is aware, consultation has been underway on the future of the Paddling Pool Area. Linked to this, the Nairn Councillors are taking forward a scoping exercise on the existing provision to lay the groundwork for a Development Plan to ensure that the community has their say on the future of the Nairn Links. All of this presents an exciting opportunity for the Highland Council to work in partnership on the future development of the Links with Team Hamish, NICE and the Nairn community."

One of our regular readers contacted us recently however, wondering just how he could make representations to the consultation as he feels it is a pretty low profile initiative at the moment. 

Highland Council and the money they spend on consultants have had a bit of a bad press recently, especially at a time of proposed cuts. The money for this consultation was £2,500 though so wouldn't be breaking the bank and perhaps might not bee too lavish an affair. The Council will be paying by the way and not the Common Good fund and as he value of the work commissioned is under £5000 it didn't have to go out to contract.

Our correspondent is politely suggesting that the ongoing consultancy comes up for a wee bit of air and puts a bit of info out there to the Community Councils and other "stakeholders" and asks for public submissions. Perhaps that is planned for a future date but with a sensitive area such as the Links perhaps it is best to keep as many folk informed as possible. 

So flashback then to another consultants report which became a Tourism Management Plan for Nairn Seafront. Some of the things in the report happened, others didn't and some are still talked about. For a quick flashback to 1994 and the way we were, pour yourself a dram or make a cuppa and have a browse here. Our favourite page is 30 and "Nairn Seafront: The Vision" and not far behind is P13 3.8 a wee list:

• new harbour breakwaters;
• a new basing with 265 marina berths;
• parking for 100 cars;
• possibly a disused tanker as an eastern breakwater;
• a boating pond (at the North end of the Maggot);
• a weir across the River Nairn;
• an indoor Wet Weather leisure facility;
• a traffic management scheme for the Fishertown
• an aquarium;
• a visitor centre (possible relocation of the Fishertown Museum)

A fascinating list and a lot of it eerily reminiscent of ambitions we hear about from unreliable Gurn sources close to the Harbour working group. We'll be featuring one or two gems from this report over the next week or two folks and reflecting on the way we were and the way we are now. 

The biggest difference we suppose is that the magic money tree that was available has been severely pruned since then but magic money was there to dredge the harbour and funds (100K) supposed to be coming for a repair to the harbour wall that will enable the road to be opened again.  We are now exactly two months on from the closure of the harbour road to the carpark and it will be sorted for Easter we are told.