Happy New Year! Nairn in 2010
Happy New Year, everyone. 
Seems strange for 2010 to be already upon us…but certainly is going to be an interesting year for Nairn, for a number of reasons.
One way or another, one thing we can be assured of is disruption.
The HC, in their wisdom, appear to have scheduled the streetscape changes to the High Street across the summer. Combined with a new roundabout to accompany the new Sainsburys at Balmakeith over the same period, it could be a pretty nasty time for driving.
Even still, the new Sainsburys will be an interesting change for the town – and with the current severe weather, it would certainly be even more welcome if people can do their supermarket shopping locally, instead of enduring treacherous driving and traffic jams at Inverness, by next Christmas.
Despite the overall enthusiasm for the Sainsburys, I have a sneaking suspicion that it won’t be the godsend some people would like it to be, and that there will remain a degree of “retail leakage” out of town.
Economic conditions at the moment are terrible, and it’s not a fun time to run a business. While the bad-taste comedians in Downing Street would like to project a sense of control and recovery, there remains a wide expectation that any signs of recovery in 2009 were entirely government-funded, and that 2010 could see a nasty double-dip recession take hold.
Despite this, Nairn’s high street at least remains in decent health – you only have to look at how Inverness is being decimated, with To-Let signs all over the place, to appreciate that Nairn’s small size and limited commercial premises is actually working in its favour. It remains to be seen how long Nairn can be sustained by this.
Sandown – well, Deveron Homes have their appeal coming up in February. Despite their attempts to court favour with planning officials, and Invicta’s desire to spin good news and bury opposition interest, the Highland Council’s insistence that the number of properties should not double from planning consent is a sensible one.
Unfortunately for Nairn, the agreement so far between Deveron and the HC is a nasty one – in business, it might be called an “affiliate arrangement” – no money paid until the sale is well finalised, which usually favours the buyer by their promising higher returns for the seller taking on more risk. It’s not the sort of deal that should ever have been done – so Deveron’s attempts to squeeze more blood from an agreement already weighted very much in their favour remains in bad taste.
Which is a shame, because there is a real shortage of commercial property in Nairn and the planned business park could bring real life to the place, helping local employers expand within Nairn, while drawing in outside employers in through the cheaper business rates.
That’s good for Nairn because it has been long identified as a problem that Nairn is essentially a commuter town, and for Nairn to retain a sense of independence it absolutely needs to keep as many people as possible in Nairn for both employment and retail needs – in order to escape designation as a suburb of Inverness.
Speaking of which, the arrival of Sainsburys is likely to make an expansion of the main Co-op store very slim indeed – but wasn’t that always the case? The HC are talking about putting in contingency plans to redevelop the derelict buildings.
Unfortunately, they are already talking about demolishing the old community centre and planning for residential flats on the site instead. As the area can be classed as within Nairn’s “Central Business District”, it would make more sense to look at developing office space to help employers set up in Nairn instead of forcing them towards Inverness.
In the meantime, the potential joining up of the local community councils can only be good news – a single community voice for Nairn would go a long way to help allow Nairn to voice a single political identity. While that comes with its own challenges, it’s a better alternative to the “divide and conquer” strategy that appears currently in place, with the existing three community councils proving a fractured force through no fault but for local government policies.
And the A96 Corridor Plan, of course, undergoes serious consideration as the masterplan goes to the table and defines development in the region for the next few decades.
While the population presumptions are spurious at best, it’s worth remembering that in the general scheme of things, and by relative consideration, even the “city” of Inverness is nothing more than a small town. There remains a real need for continued development in the area in order to bring amenities and opportunities to the Highlands, and Nairn is lucky to be close enough as to be able to tap into the benefits as they come – the caution, of course, is being relatively separate enough to stand on its own with a visibly independent identity.
The By-Pass, no doubt, will continue to be discussed, but the Scottish Government have made it plain they intend to spend all their transport budget on a new Forth Bridge if they can. The real danger is that the SNP are looking to build a legacy, rather than addressing a real practical need – and in the meantime it’s not just Nairn’s transport issues that are suffering.
The failure to fund a rail-link to Glasgow airport – Scotland’s biggest and most important airport – represents a potential serious failure of planning, and no doubt while projects as that remain on the table, Nairn’s needs for a by-pass can only be overlooked.
Overall, 2010 from here looks like it will be all about changes, and not all of these will necessarily appear beneficial – certainly not at first. The hope remains that whatever growing pains Nairn experiences this year, will be offset by gains for the town by next year.
In the meantime, may all have a happy Hogmanny, and here’s to the traditional five days of partying.
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“In the meantime, may all have a happy Hogmanny, and here’s to the traditional five days of partying”.
Err… Happy New Year Brian, Hogmanay is the last day of the year in Scotland (31st December)
Not sure where in the world you are having a traditional ‘five days of partying’, one is enough for me
Bill
Heh, I’m under the impression that Hogmanny is simply the start of the celebration, so while it may begin on New Year, it can continue on a few days more.