Two Nairnshire community councils return to action after 4-month halt
After being put into abeyance in October, two Nairn community councils will return to business after securing enough candidates to form again.
Highland Council confirmed last week that Cawdor and West Nairnshire and Nairn West and Suburban Community will be back up and running after first results of the ongoing interim elections.
With Cawdor managing to secure a full house of candidates and Nairn West attracting eight nominations – with a potential three spaces to fill – members will be meeting again in February.
Cawdor and West Nairnshire CC secretary Lizzy Rose said they were delighted with having new members joining the team.
"This makes such a difference for us – having a full team means we will be able to be more efficient and share the workload, but also brings new views and opinions into the community council, and people in different areas as well," she said.
"We will be touching other parts of the community council areas."
The new composition of the community council will also allow to reach out to more people – with a Facebook page, community groups presentations and progression on their website among their future projects.
"It will be just great to have a more vibrant community council.
"I think we'll be able to move issues on as well – and it will allow us to focus on resolving issues that have been on our agenda for a long time, to bring them to a conclusion.
"With this we also hope that more people will be interested in coming along to our meetings as well."
She said that being in abeyance and stories in local news highlighted to people that community issues couldn't be moved forward without a community council in action.
"It also prompted us to be more engaged that we had enough nominations in," she continued.
She said that after an informal meeting their focus in the future will be on planning, broadband, Local Place Plan and road issues – and increasing attendance by local residents.
East Nairnshire Community council is the only one in the area who has failed to get any nominations – with Auldearn and Nairn River fully operational since they were confirmed at the past elections.
New councillors for Cawdor and West Nairnshire – whose first meeting will be on Monday, February 12 at 7.30pm – are Pat Clafton, Dougie Fraser, Marion Ann Mackay, Lucy Anne Mackintosh-Barclay, Alastair McGregor, Mike Ogden, Robin Pope, Lizzy Rose, and Stevie Webster.
The new councillors for Nairn West and Suburban are Kristin Duncan, Gillian Hodge, Cory Jones, Alastair Noble, Joan Noble, Kevin Reid, Graham Stuart, and Phillip Stuart. Their first meeting will be on Monday, February 26 at 7pm.
