Someone said that Nairn is the second largest town in the Highlands. It should not be regarded simply as the eastern end of an eventual Greater Inverness (as the current A96 development plan implies). Nor should it become simply a dormitory suburb for Inverness commuters (like Balloch) or a base for airport-business park workers (as it once was for rig-builders). At present, this is the most likely fate of the town.

Nairn needs a coherent development plan of its own which isn’t arbitrarily limited by the Highland region boundary east of Auldearn. A plan for Nairn needs to acknowledge its primary role as a centre for tourism and services, and as the principal coastal resort at this end of the Moray Firth. Its development needs to be integrated with – and to provide facilities for – an area which extends east to Brodie and Forres and inland to Glenferness, Cawdor and Croy as well as being linked to the airport. The flaw in the present A96 Corridor Masterplan (that title is such a giveaway!) is that it is not diversified, not decentralised and not balanced.

If Nairn ends up depending on Inverness for retail facilities, and on developments like the airport business park for employment, it will cease to have any autonomous identity or character. As others (like Iain Fairweather and the Gurn) have said elsewhere, there’s a desperate need for unified and clear-thinking civic leadership in Nairn. At present, there’s a deadly mix of public fatalism (or inertia) and a leadership vacuum. The councillors don’t seem to have a clear vision or agenda. The community councils have a consultative role but no executive powers (and at least one has ceased to exist!). Until the people of Nairn have a unified body which is fully representative of the burgh, and which can actively promote Nairn’s collective interests, their voices will continue to be inaudible, their efforts largely ineffective, and the town at the mercy of decisions and developments made elsewhere.

On the one hand, this means we’re not going to see a big development take place over night – but hopefully it does allow time for the planners to change as required with any airport expansion.

I think there remains a key difference between the Highlands and South East England in terms of population density and transport links – especially when London is surrounded by airport – Heathrow, Gatwick, Luton, Stanstead, London City – so I think the positive impact on business development of Inverness airport on Nairn will be more piqued.

However, as you rightly point out, we need the services here anyway. Even though Highland Councillors would rather strip Nairn of any significant in lieu of Inverness – I think there are natural pressures on Nairn to develop and modernise. I can only hope such pressures are intelligently guided, rather than councillors trying to hold back its tide and failing Nairn for it.

2c.

It is absolutely true that the Airport Business Park, like the other planned developments along the A96, will have a direct and significant impact on the future of Nairn. That’s why it is vitally important to get it right. Will the planners and developers learn from what happened to Nairn the last time there was a big business development just along the coast? I wonder if the lessons of the Ardersier rig-yard boom have been understood. That decade brought Nairn a property price-bubble, a legacy of utilitarian dormitory housing, and the atrophy of the town as a tourist destination. Nairn won’t attract “high net worth” individuals as residents or visitors unless or until it offers an attractive environment and quality services. It’s not immediately obvious how a business park focused on activities linked with the airport will deliver this – as anyone who has visited Hounslow or Feltham near Heathrow will know!

A first glance at the .pdf plan also suggests that there may be some weaknesses in the development proposal. Years ago the planners blew it first time around in failing to co-locate or link the airport terminal facilities with the railway and existing main road. Looks as if they might be about to do it again.

How so? Three things are essential for successful business zones and for coherent long-term development: 1) transport integration, 2) scope for expansion, and 3) flexibility. The density of suggested building adjacent to the A96 leaves little room for wider roads or better access to station or airport. There seems limited scope for separating HGVs and other business transport from airport-passenger traffic. And what if, eventually,expansion led to pressure for a bigger/better terminal? Logic suggests a new or second terminal ought to go next to the proposed rail station (cf Gatwick). With the business park all around it, there would be a Heathrow-type access problem (with no Underground option!).

And the Moray Firth is also a leisure and tourism destination. That will mean demand for ‘airport hotels’ and similar visitor-oriented services beside the airport. How far will this be separated from – or inserted among – the business units and warehouses?

Enough already. But we need to be careful, and thoughtful, about what we who live in the area wish for.