Nairn Links new #Team Hamish performance area plan attracts objections
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THE planning application for the second phase of the Team Hamish project on Nairn Links has attracted nine letters against the plan in the proposed location – and one in favour.
Team Hamish was set up by the family of eight-year-old Hamish Hey, who died of cancer in 2017.
An appeal raised £200,000 and a splashpad water feature was built on the Links.
Sadly, Hamish’s mother Susan also died of cancer in 2020 before she could see the fruits of the fundraising campaign which captured the hearts of the local community.
Now a planning application for a tiered seating performance area and footpaths has been lodged with Highland Council as phase two of the memorial project.
The plan involves utilising a grassy bank for the seating, but this has resulted in a strong response from some residents in Royal Marine Apartments which overlooks the site.
The grounds for objection include inadequate parking in an already congested area, loss of amenity, potential for noise disturbance from performances, and fears that the seating would become a night-time gathering place for illicit partying and under-age drinking.
Some representations say that they do support the project but feel the area being so close to the apartments is not appropriate, and suggest that the “under-used” bandstand area at the east end of the Links would be more appropriate.
One objector stated: “While sceptical about the need for such a development, given the proximity of the bandstand on the links, its success or otherwise will in the
end depend on use, and it is likely that after an initial surge of enthusiasm, it will probably become little used.
“So one would question the need, beyond observing that the area could do with tiding up and maintenance by the [Highland] Council. Obviously some consider there is an need, but it should not be predicated on deterioration or failure to maintain existing facilities.
“We recognise that facilities such as this can be useful. The issue is mainly on the detail of the proposals particularly closeness to residential properties with multiple overlooking properties which are likely to be disturbed (despite best intentions) and some minor detail which makes it visually obtrusive and inappropriate for the location.”
The second phase and the masterplan for the proposals have been designed by Hamish’s father Sam, who is an architect.
Neither Mr Hey nor Hamish’s grandparents Liz and Danny Bow, who were heavily involved in the splashpad project, wished to comment on objections until they had considered them in detail.
