April fools?

A press release from Highland Council today with regards Nairn harbour. 

Well over a month from the initial collapse of the harbour wall local property developer and councillor Liz MacDonald makes the following statement:

"Nairn Harbour is the backbone of our town and essential for locals, tourism and the prosperity of our town and I welcome the efforts being undertaken to move it forward for repair as quickly as possible. Officers have been working very hard over the holiday period preparing a schedule of works to repair the harbour wall and road and will hopefully have the harbour open to users by Easter. I would like to thank the staff involved for their quick action on this issue."

We’re not sure that the harbour is any longer the backbone of the town; the fishing industry was in decline when it was being built.

“Quick action’ really? We’d like to think our councillors would have been pressing for a much earlier resolve. Perhaps there’s more to this than we’re being told at this stage.

Interesting that the statement suggests the damage happened during 'winter storms'. Is this a way of leveraging some funding for the damage that most of us assume was caused by the poor state of the structure and more importantly the dredging of the harbour?

Easter falls on the 1st of April this year. Make what you will of the hopeful reopening date for the harbour road.


Press release in full here: https://www.highland.gov.uk/news/article/10724/nairn_harbour_repairs?utm_source=&utm_medium=&utm_campaign=




Comments

  1. I think you’re spot on Spin. Aberdeen has already received some Scottish government money for storm damage and there's a commitment in the new budget for this funding to continue

    Of course (wink,wink) the collapse of the harbour wall and road were down to storm damage

    In 2018-19 we will:
    • maximise the benefits of the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) to create and safeguard jobs in remote rural areas and to support community-led local development;
    • continue to develop and sustain markets for premium Scottish seafood products through the EMFF;
    • establish a strategic fish health framework to support the aquaculture sector’s 2030 sustainable growth ambitions; and
    • continue to offer harbours funding towards repairs caused by storm damage.

    http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2017/12/8959/16

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  2. Yes, storms to blame, nothing to do with dredging, just an unfortunate coincidence.

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  3. I wonder what other monies we could scam from the Scottish government. Could someone not put a chainsaw through the Bailey bridge one dark night and in the morning we could say 'ooh, look what that naughty storm did'.

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  4. I've heard that the contractor who was called in to place the rocks in the harbour quoted to do a proper repair for little more than the 'armour' solution. If Highland Council have managed to get money from the Scottish government under the excuse of storm damage then we should be grateful as left to the budget available from Highland Council the road might not have opened again.

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