Jessica Boughey – the new Community Development Officer (CDO)

Strathnairn Development Company is delighted to welcome our new CDO and we know she is equally looking forward to starting work with us this week.

Jessica will be meeting with groups and residents over the coming weeks to discuss the hopes and aspirations of Strathnairners, young and old, as expressed in the CAP and in various meetings and, with her excellent communication skills and commitment to listening to the community, we are sure you and we will benefit from getting to know and working with the CDO.

Weather Warning for Storm Babet

SDC has been asked by SSEN to post details of current weather warnings for Storm Babet.

SSEN’s current weather model shows high winds forecast across Angus, Aberdeenshire, Moray, Caithness and Orkney.  These areas could see gusts of up to 60mph, with the strongest winds currently forecast to be on Thursday afternoon.   

Heavy rain is also forecast for much of Scotland between Thursday and Saturday.

SSEN is activating its well-rehearsed contingency plans and is standing up more teams to deal with any damage to the network and subsequent faults, which may impact customers’ power supplies.

Customers on SSEN’s Priority Services Register are being proactively contacted to offer further advice and support, with calls made to those in the most vulnerable categories.  Coordination is also under way with local resilience partners to aid preparations. 

Customers are encouraged to be prepared for the possibility of disruption to supplies by: –

  • saving the emergency power cut number – ‘105’ – to your phone to report any loss of supply or damage to the electricity network; and
  • downloading SSEN’s Power Track app to give you details of power cuts and restoration times. You can also report power cuts and network damage through the Power Track app; and
  • Going to SSEN’s website where there is a wealth of advice and information on how to deal with a power cut, or to chat live to one of SSEN’s advisors via its Webchat service.

SSEN would also like to remind people not to go near any damage to its equipment they might find and instead report it to them directly by calling 105, or via the Power Track App, and engineers will investigate as soon as possible.

Customers are also eligible for SSEN’s Priority Services Register (PSR) if they: –

  • Are deaf or hard of hearing; 
  • Have a disability;
  • Live with children under five;
  • Are blind or partially sighted;
  • Have a chronic illness;
  • Use medical equipment/aids reliant on electricity; and/or
  • Are over 60.

To find out more about the PSR, click here or call 0800 294 3259.

SDC would add that if you have vulnerable neighbours, please check their well-being if it is safe for you to do so.

Farr Gala was a success!

A huge thank you to everyone who came along, helped out and donated baking and money to the Farr Gala held on the 10th June 2023.

It was great to see so many people coming together to make it a great community event.

Thank you to the Strathnairn Community Benefit Fund for providing the finances that enabled the event to happen.

SDC raised £407.13 in donations which will go towards providing catering for future community events. FANS had great success with their fundraising for the school and nursery too!

Community Development Officer

Strathnairn Development Company have sat as a board and considered carefully and with respect the role of the Community Development Officer and significant issues pertaining to the employment of the Community Development Officer.

We have come to the difficult decision that we will not be continuing with the current Community Development Officer beyond the probationary period.
There is a consensus among the board and the reasoning has been minuted and communicated to the chairs of SCBF and SNCC.

Any queries can be directed to the board at comments@strathnairndevelopment.scot address and we will seek to provide answers in due course.

Community meetings

We are holding some whole community meetings to discuss where we should go next with the CAP, what are the priorities, etc.

We are especially keen to hear the voices of the community groups, yourselves as members and the wider community.

Below are some details.

Community Action Plan has been published!

Today SDC has published the Community Action Plan (CAP) for Strathnairn.

We have updated the Community Action Plan webpage with more information, including links to the CAP documents. You can also head directly to our documents page where the CAP summary and the whole CAP are listed for downloading.

There are no plans to provide copies of the full CAP to each household. However, if you are a resident of Strathnairn and would like a copy please get in touch.

We have produced a poster to be shared on social media announcing the publication of the CAP. Please share with other residents, particularly those who do not use social media.

CAP: Community Survey Extension

Thank you to all those residents who have completed a community survey questionnaire already.

Our page on the Community Action Plan has been updated.

Due to a rising response rate, we have decided to extend the community survey period by two weeks, until the end of the 10th October 2021. This should ensure that all residents who intend to respond have sufficient time to do so.

This should also ensure that residents who tried to complete the survey online but had difficulties when using a device that another resident had already used will have access.

We have produced new poster to be shared on social media encouraging residents to complete the community survey questionnaire as soon as possible, and before the 10th October 2021. Please share with other residents, particularly those who do not use social media.

Can you help us help Strathnairn? We need your ideas!

Strathnairn Development Company (SDC) has engaged consultants, Impact Hub Inverness (IHI), to conduct a Community Action Plan (CAP) for Strathnairn. SDC is grateful to SCBF for funding this project.

A CAP is a framework for implementing activities that are decided by the community itself. This is a great opportunity to have a say on ideas for improving life in Strathnairn. What do you think would make this a better place to live and work and enhance your experience of community life? The action plan developed by the community, with help from the consultants, will identify challenges, seek solutions and give us direction for future projects that will help our community, now and in the future.

A CAP is an expression of how a community wishes to develop, and a critical component is a survey of the community, led by the community. With the help of Strathnairn’s community groups, IHI has created a questionnaire for a community survey. SDC invites all Strathnairn residents, aged 11 years and older, to submit a response. Responses to the survey will be sent directly to the consultants, who will, with the help of Strathnairn’s community groups, use them to prepare the CAP.

Questionnaires can be completed online, downloaded from SDC’s website, or collected from Inverarnie Stores. Questionnaires are also included in each copy of Strathnairn News. The preamble to the questionnaire includes instructions on completing it. 

The questionnaire will need a little time to complete. Please discuss with other family members and friends, and persuade them to submit a response too.

Responses must be submitted by 26th September 2021.

Thanks for your time and help with this important consultation.

COVID19 Briefings 3/9/2021

Our post on COVID19 briefings last week proved very popular with the community so we will continue with them until further notice.

We are passing on a resilience briefing from the Highland Council.

In addition, NHS Highland issued a press release on 3rd September 2021. And provided a briefing on the situation with respect to COVID19.

Can we also draw attention to Strathnairn’s Community Action Plan? The community survey has begun today, and continues for 3 weeks. The community survey is the best opportunity for you to say what direction you want the community to go in post-COVID. More details on the CAP (and its associated community survey) are available on our website.