The Green Hive, social enterprise organisation, have circulated an e-mail around groups in Nairn. In the challenging scenarios that the community finds itself maybe the Hive can see the potential of getting some of the emergency cash that is coming the way of towns and cities in Scotland just now to make the vision of a green portal in the High Street a reality? It isn't actually a new idea and was floated during the heady days of the forerunner of the Hive, from the offshoot of Nairn River Community Council - Nairn River Enterprise. Could be really cool to get one of the empty premises up and running with the like.
Yesterday Snecky Councillors discussed what to do with their share of monies coming to the Highlands and an agenda item that went before the Inverness City committe stated:
"The Scottish Government has allocated the Council an additional £1,066,000 ring-fenced Town Centre Fund (TCF). On 5 November, 2020, Members of the Economy and Infrastructure Committee Members agreed an area distribution of the grant. The City of Inverness Area has been allocated £252,468 to be invested in any of the eligible localities detailed in Appendix 1."
252K for Snecky, how much for Nairn out of the Town Centre Fund then and when will it be discussed? Will the forthcoming Nairn West and Suburban Community Council meeting hear about it from our four local Highland Council members. Would be fab to know what the initiatives are/could be for reviving the local economy post-covid?
But anyway, here's what the the Green Hive are asking, may some folk out there in Gurnshire might wish to respond:
"Green Hive are planning out a Green Portal for Nairnshire, an accessible, exciting and welcoming place for members of the Nairnshire community to learn about sustainable living, local environmental action and activities using our space to bring people across our community together to form lasting bonds and friendships, whilst also benefiting our local environment, individuals and the community as whole. We're reaching out to your organisation as a local exemplar in looking after your community and environment, to see how we can work together and all benefit from a Green Portal on Nairn's High street, we would be very grateful if you could answer these 3 questions which will help us ensure our Green Portal project reaches the whole community and is a relevant and valuable addition to the Nairn community:
1. What do people in the community whom we find difficult to engage with - i.e. the socially isolated, whether from disability, poverty or other disadvantage - most need in terms of events, services, programmes?
2. What do young people in particular need to encourage them to participate?
3. What do young people in particular need to encourage them to participate?
We would really appreciate it if you could take the time to answer these questions - we really would like to keep your organisation involved in these plans as we believe strongly in collaborating and the power of teamwork - we will be reviewing all of your answers and putting together a review in February 2021 and will happily keep you updated on the progress of our project.
Do you have a particular event, activity or cause that you would like to work with Green Hive on in 2021?"