Hopes that Green freeport announcement will bring benefits to Nairn

Councillors in Nairn have positively commented the announcement of the Green freeport status for the Cromarty Firth, despite acknowledging that it will have a limited effect on the town.

The Provost of Nairn, Laurie Fraser, said tha the welcomed the initiative and that this was “the sort of project that the Highlands need.”

Councillor Paul Oldham, in his most recent newsletter, commented: “We finally had the news this week that a “Green” freeport is to be established in the Highlands based around Cromarty Firth. “The area around Nairn does form part of the wider freeport area, although we’re not going to be a freeport.

“Hopefully this freeport will bring benefits to the whole of the Highlands but especially to the region around Cromarty Firth where it should attract the new jobs that the area is desperately short of.

“For us here in Nairn and Cawdor I suspect the economic impact will be relatively small. The core of the freeport is a good hour’s drive away but there is an area in Inverness – the Port of Inverness, the former Longman Landfill, and Inverness Campus – which also form part of the freeport so some people working there may choose to live in Nairn, especially when and if the A96 is (finally!) duelled.

“We will also need to keep a watchful eye on the potential environmental impacts and other issues arising from increased shipping movements in the inner Moray Firth.”

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