Nairn Matters

A Possible Vision for Nairn & its Town Centre

Principal Objectives

The primary objective would be to attract more visitors so that local businesses (directly) and the community (directly and indirectly) thrive. In short, to put Nairn “on the map” as a centre worth visiting and staying in.

The secondary objective (and part of achieving the primary objective) would be to remodel the eyesore that sits on the A96.

Criteria

Whatever is done needs to be sustainable and (in current and future economic climate) not reliant on state funding.
It needs to have the support of the local community.
The vision must be truly the big picture – just building a new supermarkert on the eyesore site is not going to put Nairn on the map.

What are the Possibilities – What puts towns “on the map”?

Nairn is a seaside town with wonderful beaches – so make it like Blackpool? Or Brighton? Or have a Butlins? We think not.

Nairn has two world class golf courses (plus Castle Stuart and possibly Delnies to come), but they haven’t put Nairn on the map like St Andrews and Troon, and are unlikely to do so. So, excellent reason to come to Nairn, but won’t be the big vision.

Nairn has excellent communication links (airport, night sleeper) and is central to exploring the Highlands and North of Scotland – but again these haven’t put Nairn on the map. So, again, wonderful part of infrastructure, but not a new vision.

Build a world class shopping centre starting with the eyesore central site? Seems a complete non-starter given small Highland population, and other centres (eg Lakeside to east of London) rely on customers coming by car from a vast population within say an hour’s drive.

Make Nairn a cultural centre by building a modern Arts Centre capable of supporting and promoting the entire spectrum of arts and culture - ie music, theatre, dance, art (painting, drawing, sculpture), camera, and so on. Do this by building the Centre on the existing eyesore site and plan to surround it with coffee shops, boutiques, and other small businesses playing to the visitors the Centre will attract. The Centre might be a central multi-purpose theatre seating say 400, with studios, workshops, galleries, so that it could accommodate exhibitions, live performance, training courses, etc. This has logically to be an ideal solution – it just needs vision, the capital to acquire and develop the site, and a business plan to ensure the Centre is financially sustainable.

How to Go About It

Needs a core team of like-minded people with a business approach to drive the project.

They need to identify the vision and construct a quasi-business case to persuade potential investors/sponsors that it is viable.

They need to cost the project’s development phase and identify and approach potential sponsors/donors – eg Sainsbury Foundation that gave over £40 million to the Arts last year. Alternatively, and much more high profile, would be to bring in a ‘quasi-political element, and put it to Sainsburys Plc that if they would support the project (eg buy the site from the Co-Op and pledge the capital sum for the initial build) that may enhance their prospects of planning permission for their out of town store.

A priority would be to obtain the funds to buy the site from the Co-Op and then begin to discuss/plan in detail what to do with it. After all, if property prices are projected not to fall further, the fall-back position for a purchaser would be that the site could always be re-sold if the Vision Project didn’t get off the ground.

How to Make the Arts Centre Sustainable

Nairn already has the annual Book & Arts Festival; the annual Jazz Festival; and Music Nairn is determined to raise its game. These are excellent building blocks, and a main aim would be to attract festival/event organisers from outside Nairn to use the venue regularly. For example, many Public Schools and Oxford & Cambridge Colleges do this – they have the facilities, and they sell them out of term to visiting organisations and promoters of all sorts of things in the world of the Arts. Another example – Jamie Walton who played to Music Nairn recently is about to launch his own annual music festival in a North Yorkshire Moors town – lots of musicians are doing this. With its beaches, Highland access, transport links, etc Nairn is very well positioned to take advantage of such a market.

POSSIBLE OBJECTIONS

Will no doubt be many. To tackle just a few:

“It would be unfair competition to the Community Centre” No - that is a success as such serving the community, and once Nairn is truly on the map with its Arts Centre,, it is an additional excellent venue for events. The Community Centre though is never going to put Nairn on the map.

“Nairn has several unused good venues” – yes, but they are all small, and they are not modern. Again, they would ideally complement the main Arts Centre.

“Nairn needs a town centre supermarket”. Well – does it? If it was that desperately needed, wouldn’t it have happened in the last 20 years? Wouldn’t a supermarke chain have been desperate to build it (for profit purposes), and wouldn’t official bodies have made sure it happened? It hasn’t been for want of trying on the part of local politicians and various councils. And Sainsbury’s is strongly supported in its bid to build a (just) out of town supermarket, which would need to be complemented in the town centre with a “convenience store” of smaller footprint on or near the High Street.

“It’s too ambitious – it will never happen – you won’t get the money” – Well, if you don’t try you won’t succeed, which a cynic might say has been the position for the last 20 years or so. And the middle of an economic depression is when people with vision can grab an opportunity while prices, etc are low.

IN SHORT

The Inverness Courier recently challenged Nairn to position itself as the Arts Centre of Scotland – so, why not?

Michael Barnett

May 2009

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