Highland Council teacher absences concerns and Nairn housing development worries
Sewers cannot cope with new housing development
It is my understanding that the intended sewage disposal route for the new 300-450 home Delnies development is via the existing Nairn treatment facility.
The existing system serving Nairn has a history of sewage releases, the size and frequency of which are well summarised in the Inverness Courier article of 22/4/24, " Sharp increase in sewage overflow in Nairnshire sparks concern".
Adding a new effluent flow from these new homes is hardly likely to improve the current situation.
In raising this concern, I refer to this extract from the environmental statement used to support the proposal for the new treatment plant at Ardersier in 2010: " Ardersier Wastewater Treatment Works Environmental Statement March 2010 Scottish Water
3.4.1 Nairn WwTW has capacity for limited further development. The WwTW is adjacent to Nairn East and Central Bathing Beaches. Treating significant additional flow at this works will place additional risk on Bathing Beach compliance from combined sewer overflows. Furthermore, the existing works is constrained for substantial expansion, as it has poor access (through a holiday camp) and adjacent land is constrained by existing recreational and holiday businesses."
While I'm sure ongoing remedial work has been carried out on the Nairn system since 2010: there has also been a significant increase in new homes in the interim: and the spill record indicates the plant is still under pressure to process the existing demands. Therefore, why is the sewage from new developments west of Nairn not routed by pipeline to the relatively new plant at Ardersier?.
As with all major projects, time and expenditure are key performance indicators - but not at the expense of knowingly exacerbating an already questionable environmental performance.
Brian Lynch
Nairn
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Concern over teacher absence levels
Highland Council teacher absences exceeded 8400 working days last session, a rate branded as “disturbing” .
“I first started teaching in the Highlands about 20 years ago. It is a very different job now. Little or no respect is afforded to teachers. Children are more aware of their rights than their responsibilities. They arrive at school unprepared to work or listen. Even exam groups show little concern for their results. Social.media is a lot to blame and a good move would be to ban phones from schools. Smaller classes would solve many problems but that is unlikely. Several schools struggle to recruit and there is a high staff turnover.” - Tess Killen, Dingwall
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