What is a community council?
Community councils are the first tier of local government in Scotland and are entirely independent from their local authority. Community Councils were set up in 1973 and formalised in 1996 when Nairn District Council, which used to run local public services in the town, was replaced by a larger authority, Highland Council.
Nairn River is one of 5 community councils in Highland’s ‘Nairn and Cawdor Ward’. The 4 others are ‘Nairn West and Suburban’, ‘Cawdor and West Nairnshire’, ‘Auldearn’ , and ‘East Nairnshire’ (which includes Glenferness).
Nairn River CC is the ‘statutory consultee’ for this area and all serving Community Councillors have been duly elected by the public under Highland Council’s Community Council Scheme of Establishment to represent the 5600 residents who live on the Nairn River patch.
The main function of Community Councils are to have key roles in consultations on planning applications and liquor licence applications.
Planning: Community Councils will be consulted on the submission of planning applications for proposed developments that are categorised as being of national or major scale or of significance to the community. Community Councillors may also be invited to attend events held by applicants to inform members of the community about the development proposed prior to submission of a planning application. Community Councils may also request to be consulted on specific planning applications once the application has been submittedis to provide a two way communication channel between the local Community, Highland Council and other public authorities.
Our Members work hard as volunteers to keep local people informed and consulted on Highland plans and proposals which affect public services and infrastructure in Nairn. NRCC try to to make sure that the needs and views of residents are fed back and taken account of in local authority decision making.
Community councils are independent organisations, are not part of Highland Council and do not have any power to instruct or otherwise influence Highalnd Council. Highland Council may consider submissions and requests from Community Councils but are not obliged to do so.
Community Councils do not have access to public budgets and are not permitted to run financial ventures, but they can help support local organisations and community groups to apply for public funding, and set up new projects.
Highland Council provides an annual grant (around £1000) to cover administrative expenses of community council meetings. While the Community Council does not have any executive power, it is a statutory consultee of the local authority (Highland Council).
This means it must be consulted ‘by law’ before decisions are taken by the local authority on planning and licensing applications and it has an important role in helping to give local people a say and coordinating submission of public comments.
It supports community consultation on all aspects of public service provision which impact on local residents, including local development planning, and any changes to local Common Good Assets where prior consultation is a legal requirement.
Nairn River Community Council normally holds meetings in public on the second or third Wednesday of each month, except July and August, in the Community and Arts Centre at 7:00pm to discuss matters of concern to the residents of NRCC area.
Dates of upcoming meetings can be found here.
We normally give 7 days’ notice of our Agenda on the Castle Square community notice board on the High Street and on our website.
We ask all those attending our meetings to observe the ground rules laid out by the Chair to ensure that we can provide a safe and respectful environment for public debate. Under the Councils Scheme of Establishment all decisions made by the Chair during the meetings is Final.
The AGM is normally held in June of each year.
The role of Highland Councillors in community councils
Nairn and Cawdor Ward is represented at Highland Council by 4 elected Nairn Councillors out of a total of 74.
These are Laurie Fraser, Michael Green, Paul Oldham, and Barbara Jarvie They take decisions for Nairn, (including on matters affecting Nairn Common Good Assets for which they hold an additional responsibility as Nairn Common Good trustees). They make these decisions at the Nairnshire local area Committee, the Nairnshire Community Partnership, and the various committees of Highland Council.
All 4 Highland Councillors above are non voting members of all 5 Nairn and Cawdor Ward community councils and are invited to all our meetings to provide relevant updates from Highland Council and to participate in community discussion.
Nairn River Community Council 