Closed for business

So what news of the harbour, well none from Highland Council or our four councillors. A wall of silence. 

The road at the harbour remains closed with details announced on Radio Scotland’s travel bulletin this morning. Not good publicity for the town or Highland Council.

As we creep towards Christmas it looks as though we’re not going to get any announcement or statement from Highland Council before January.

The Spin has been doing some investigations of it’s own and it doesn’t make pleasant reading.

Like many other harbours in Scotland Nairn’s was built for the commercial activity of fishing, long since gone along with the income it produced. 

The subsidence at the harbour is in two places; both now need repair. The road alongside the harbour wasn’t built with today’s traffic in mind. Before it can be reopened to vehicles not only will there need to repairs but it and the harbour will require a full structural survey to see if it is indeed safe for vehicles to travel along it. It’s possible that a weight restriction might be put upon it or it could be pedestrian only. This would end craning of boats in and out of the harbour.

Even if repairs are made the walls of both the harbour basin and the pier remain in a poor state of repair where the sheet piling has been used. Replacement would cost millions and it’s only a matter of time before there’s further subsidence or the harbour area is compromised.

There are a few examples where harbours have passed into private or community hands but raising enough monies for proper repairs would be a daunting task

The Spin estimates that at best the current income is roughly £100,000 annually, this amount being raised for berthing fees. It sounds a lot but is peanuts compared to repair/refurbishment bills.

Nairn harbour also has an issue of access, many larger boats are limited to near the top of the tide so the harbour is never going to be that popular and for that reason alone it's a questionable future project for improvement.

Unless there is a strong political intervention/will we can see that Nairn harbour is not going to get the necessary repairs it needs and therefore faces closure. 

It might be that the whole harbour basin is filled in and the harbour area become pedestrian only. It’d be a huge loss to us all but at the moment this looks like a likely scenario unless our politicians get fully involved and a strong case is made to parliament for funds. So far no sign of this, we wonder if it'll ever happen?