First meeting of Nairnshire Local Committee
The first meeting of the new Nairnshire Local Committee was held in public on 27 January at Nairn Courthouse.
Committee members are Cllr Laurie Fraser, Cllr Stephen Fuller, Cllr Michael Green and Cllr Liz MacDonald
Cllr Michael Green was duly elected Chair of the Committee.
The new Scheme of Delegation re-organises former powers and includes new powers for all Local Committees. The new powers include:
- Establishing appropriate links between the Committee and local community planning partnerships
- Taking forward the localism action plan in the locality
- Agreeing local community engagement approaches
- Ensuring productive working relationships with Community Councils
- Purchasing and disposing of Common Good Trust assets up to 10% of the value of the Common Good Fund: and
- Using participatory budgeting for any funds decided by the Local Committee
An event for the public to vote on local bids for funding from the budget will be held on Saturday 12 March in the Nairn Community Centre.
Future powers for local committees from April 2016 will include local devolved decision making on parts of the Community Services budget, including roads maintenance, winter maintenance, environmental services and street cleansing.
Chair of the new Committee, Cllr Michael Green said: “I am delighted to be elected to chair this new local committee and help take forward the localism agenda. More people need to be involved in decisions which affect them and we aim to increase the involvement of the Nairn community in our discussions and decision making.
“Effective partnerships need commitment from all partners to be meaningful and we aim to build on the very positive local partnerships we already have. I am eagerly awaiting the further powers the new scheme of delegation will bring, which will enable us to work with our communities to support change and improve local outcomes in Nairnshire.”