NAIRN IMPROVEMENT COMMUNITY ENTERPRISE
Date: 23 September 2026 PRESS STATEMENT – IMMEDIATE
IS THIS LOCAL DEMOCRACY IN ACTION – DECIDE FOR YOURSELF
PROPOSED SCOTTISH WATER WORKS AT A96/LOCHLOY ROAD JUNCTION
A meeting of Nairn Community and Scottish Water representatives was held today, 23rd September 2026 with the intention of discussing the proposed works and associated traffic management Plan.
The following represents the key outcomes
Scottish Water from the outset and throughout the meeting said the works would proceed on 5 October 2026 and no further options would be considered. So what was the purpose of the meeting?
The community proposal for Riverside Court had not been properly addressed to meet the SEPA
Objective ‘to improve water quality’. This has been interpreted by Scottish Water as ‘the need for a screen’. However, in Scottish Water’s response they said the community proposal had been assessed against Scottish Water’s need to transfer a significant flow of untreated sewage from the Lochloy Road trunk sewer to the Merryton Bridge sewer because of incapacity in the downstream trunk sewer to Nairn WWTWs caused by system surcharges and backflow to the Lochloy Road CSO. Prof. Simon Parsons, Director of Wastewater, accepted there were problems with the Lochloy trunk main sewer and NWWTWs.
The Community believe the Scottish Water proposal will result in a net increase in overflow into the River Nairn as a result of Scottish Water failing to upgrade the significant overcapacity within the combined sewerage network and the failing NWWTWs.
Albeit Scottish Water were not prepared to consider any further options, the Community did bring forward a further solution relating to the three gully flows on the A96 entering the present CSO and being redirected to the current surface water pipe thus reducing the amount of heavy rainfall water from entering the CSO – but this was discounted out of hand.
Scottish Water could provide no evidence of how they and SEPA had reached the determination that the Lochloy CSO was a high priority either at national or local level because there was no monitor on this CSO/Outfall to the River Nairn. Local priorities surely must come before national programme generic projects and in this case these works will have a very marginal impact on the River Nairn, while the NWWTWs continues to pump overflow untreated (SRD removed) sewage of 615,388,000 litres (2021-25) into the Moray Firth.
The Unsatisfactory Intermittent Discharges Report dated 2024, on which the proposed Lochloy works were based and which had been provided by Scottish Water on 11 September, 2026 did not contain the new proposal for these works which, we believe, was superseded by a further proposal in 2025.
Location drawings provided by Sunbelt Rentals did not provide any detail about how the A96 4-way traffic junction would flow. This was highly unsatisfactory and not defensible in terms of financial loss to local economy caused by these unnecessary works at this crucial junction traffic on the A96. Scottish Water were asked to provide details of how traffic would flow through this four way junction, congestion waiting, flow times etc.
Community strongly believe there is no holistic approach by Scottish Water/SEPA/Transport Scotland/Highland Council to planning i.e. everyone is working in silos and passing the buck and there was evidence of that today. There is a clear lack of governance and the First Minister needs to address this very important issue through his Programme for Government measures.
Early local engagement and collaboration with communities is a primary tenet of Scottish Water and Scottish Government yet despite these proposals being considered as far back as 2021-22 and 2 site visits being held in Nairn in 2023 at the Lochloy Road location, Scottish Water did not engage with the local community who are now being told now – you do not have a say, the decision is made.
The good people of Nairn face total gridlock and to all intents and purposes the Town being shut for nearly a year. What the Community has experienced from Scottish Water is a fait accompli – it’s our way or the highway. This is not early community engagement and collaboration, nor is it by any stretch of the imagination ‘empowering communities to participate in local decisions which impact them and their area’ – not by our definition.
Alastair Noble
Dr. Alastair Noble,MBE, Chair, Nairn Improvement Community Enterprise
