Rainbow Craic

Milder weather again and a rainbow adds to the afternoon ambiance above the Fishertown. Full screen slideshow.

Crumbling roads, in the Fishertown, across Nairn and the Highlands

Gurnites will have seen the recent material in the Nairnshire Telegraph about Cllr Andrew Purkis’s call for action on the state of the roads in the Fishertown. There was a wee follow up to that at Tuesday night’s meeting when Liz announced she was having a meeting with Andrew to look at some of the problems he has highlighted in the Fishertown.

Oor Graham mentioned that an additional million pounds was to be allocated to road repairs across the Highlands. This seems a bit at odds with information in the Courier today – that article is gathering quite a stream of comments from angry Council Tax payers but maybe Graham’s information hasn’t reached the Inverness mainstream media yet.

Andrew remarked that that million pounds wasn’t going to go very far. Graham said a bit later on in the debate that to get all the roads in Highland into the condition they should be would cost 150 million pounds, around 73 million pounds should be spent every year too but only 50 million pounds is being spent. Graham admitted that this “just didn’t happen yesterday.”

Stephanie Whittaker, herself a Fishertown resident, agreed with Andrew over the state of the Fishertown but argued that the rest of Nairn wasn’t too good either.

Obviously a problem that has been building and maybe one that will probably get worse in the short term no matter who forms the next council administration, they will inherit a crumbling road network in the Highlands. Has anybody got any ideas how this problem could be solved?

Flickr message for a Community Councillor?

Cllr Andrew Purkis, a new member of the River CC's team this time round after the nominations was quoted extensively recently in the Nairnshire Telegraph as regards to a list of improvements he wishes to see in the Fishertown. He said:

"I just feel a bit of community spirit and a little bit of tender care would give an extra boost to the area. We need people to spend money in this area to create jobs. And therefore, we need all the assets in the area to be in as good a condition as we can get them."

Could it be that not everyone agrees with Andrew's vision of how the Fishertown might be improved however? An interesting comment appears below this picture posted on Flickr.

Little Theatre - new signage

Picture here on Bratach's Flickr pages.

Bus Service coming for the Fishertown but next year

Liz told the River CC on Tuesday night that Forres Taxis were in the process of surveying a route for the Fishertown which will start next year. A minibus will run from the Fishertown to the hospital and the elderly will be able to use their bus passes on the service.

This will be excellent news for those who have been campaigning for such a service for several years now.

Hopefully the service will perhaps consider those holidaymakers who check out from the caravan site for 10.00 on Mondays, Fridays and Saturdays. Families making their way to the railway station with all their luggage can be a familiar site during the season and if the price of fuel keeps rising more of them might chose to come to Nairn for their holidays via the train.

Alan Barron's Fishertown guided tour - last chance this year next Wednesday (29th September)

Helen tells the Gurn
'There's only one more tour to go but Alan Barron does a great walk round the Fishertown every Wednesday during August and September starting at 2pm at the Little Theatre. Went on it last week and it is just soooo interesting. What Alan doesn't know you could put on a postage stamp. (Costs £3 money goes to the Museum) '

The Nairn Fishertown Walk

Join Alan Barron for guided walk around this fascinating part of Nairn

Meet outside the Little Theatre, King Street

@ 2.00pm on Wednesdays August & September

Cost £3 per person

Futher information Nairn Museum 01667 456791

Russian Vine improves fake Victoriana?

We've received one or two gurns in the past about the new 'historical' lamposts that were forced on the Fishertown. Here's one that certainly looks nice with a bit of Russian Vine. Will this fast growing plant stop there though! Thanks to Tony for the picture.

No Fishertown bus service

The campaign to get a bus service down to the harbour has stalled again with little joy from Highland Council and Stagecoach on this matter. River Community Councillor Margaret Mackintosh was deeply disappointed and once again stressed how elderly residents of the Fishertown will need to get to the hospital once the medical services move. She stated that she knew one elderly woman who had given up on physio as she was unable to afford the £9 taxi fare to the hospital.

White lines (Don’t do it)

The line painters have been out in force today in the Fishertown refreshing the areas roads white lines and speed signs as well as the yellow parking restrictions.

The 20 mph speed restriction remains confused with this not being marked on all of the many streets that enter the Fishertown area. It is an important safety factor as many of the streets are narrow and have some have no pavements. Some more signs please?

The Fisher Lassies

AyeRight has his culture hat on :)

BBC Radio Scotland has been making a series of programs recording people’s lives. In this program it looks at the fisher lassies, those women who followed the herring fleets around the country. This episode records the recollections of women from Nairn and also Lossiemouth.
It was first broadcast last week but it is available on BBC iPlayer for another few days - well worth listening to.

Give Way

A recent visitor to Nairn described the town as 'horrifyingly quaint'
AyeRight reckons part of it is now horrifyingly fake
Fake Victorian lampposts, and hanging basket brackets were at one level of bad taste, but in the latest lighting revamp in the Fishertown we are seeing modern day street signs stuck on fake Victorian light poles - why? I'm not sure that the Victorians had traffic signs (Road name plaques yes) but to marry old with new in this way beggars belief. I dread to think what will come next, plastic horse droppings, cobbled streets, no services (Water, electricity, gas, phones etc). I'm afraid to write in case I give somebody ideas! Please stop it, it doesn't even look twee just bad, and to boot the Fishertown is now covered with badly filled in trenches post the fake Victorian lighting install. Give way? I give up!