Author: Strathdearn (Page 10 of 90)

[Highland Council is preparing its budget for 2026 – 2029. They have sent the following letter to Strathdearn Community Council (SCC), inviting us all to send in feedback and suggestions]

Dear Community Council/ Community Group,

The Council has launched its budget engagement exercise as part of the 2026-2029 budget setting process and we are seeking involvement from members of the public, including businesses, community groups, parents, and young people.

Feedback from our communities will help councillors understand what matters most to people and inform the decisions they take when setting out spending commitments in March 2026.

People can offer their views in a number of ways.

• A budget survey is online and in paper form in libraries and service points.
• Ideas can be posted on an online discussion board.

There is also a specific community group survey for groups to complete. This is also available attached, to ease discussion at group meetings.

We would please ask you to share this with members of your community for individuals to complete but also encourage you as a group to respond.

Feedback to help shape the budget proposal for 2026/27 will be presented to a meeting of the Highland Council at the beginning of March for discussion and approval by elected members.

The Highland Council budget consultation closes on 5 January.

Thank you for completing the survey.

Community Engagement Team

Highland Council

All are welcome to attend a traditional Christmas service at Dalarossie Church on 21st December at 4pm. There will be lessons and carols followed by tea, coffee and mince pies.

Strathdearn Community Council,
Tuesday 9^th December @ 7.00pm in The Strathdearn

This meeting will also be available on MS Teams:
Meeting ID: 315 137 188 480 76
Passcode: o5Bf7dg7
Click this link to join the meeting

(NB: Meeting will be recorded to ensure the minutes are true and accurate)

Agenda

1. Apologies
2. Declarations of interest
3. Balfour Beatty
4. Minutes of the last meeting (View them here)
5. Matters arising
6. Financial report
7. Law and Order
8. Road Safety
9. Applications to the SCCT
   • Snow Clearing
10. Planning Matters

1. Local Place Plan
2. Windfarms – Update from SWIAG

11. Update from SCD
12. Correspondence
13. AOCB

Date of next meeting Tuesday 10th February 2026

TO THE COMMUNITY OF STRATHDEARN 

The Science of Star Wars

Farr Community Hall, Inverarnie, Strathnairn IV2 6AX

Sunday 14th December 2025 @ 7pm

As part of the forthcoming ‘Strathnairn Dark Skies’ Application and community-led initiative, Strathnairn Stargazing Group are hosting an evening with Professor Martin Hendry. 

Photograph | The Milky Way from Loch Ruthven by David Huxtable-Reid / with photo montage by Amy Huxtable-Reid

Professor Martin Hendry is Vice President at the University of Glasgow and Vice President of The Royal Society Edinburgh. As former Head of the School of Astronomy and Physics he continues to be a passionate advocate for STEM education and science engagement with public audiences. 

Professor Hendry is a senior member of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration, the global team of more than 1400 scientists which made the first-ever detection of gravitational waves – a discovery awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize for Physics. Also, is the author of more than 200 scientific articles.

In this talk Professor Hendry explores the science behind Star Wars. Could we travel to distant galaxies or travel through wormholes? For almost fifty years we have marvelled at the Star Wars universe. But how much real science is there on the big (or small) screen? 

Join astrophysicist, black-hole hunter and life-long Star Wars fan Professor Martin Hendry on a journey to a galaxy far, far away. 

To this end, please find below more information about the event and how to buy tickets. 

The Science of Star Wars by Professor Martin Hendry Tickets, Sun, Dec 14, 2025 at 7:00 PM | Eventbrite  

More information about Strathnairn Stargazers can be found here

Facebook  

Finally, please find a poster for the forthcoming event attached for distribution locally in The Strathdearn and inclusion in your social media.  

We hope you can join us and look forward to seeing you there!

ALL WELCOME

Strathnairn Stargazing Group

Supported by Strathnairn Community Benefit Fund

Helen Bailey is at the hall from 10am to 2pm on Thursday 27 November to answer any questions. Helen has copies of Local Place Plans prepared by neighbouring communities for you to have a look at, plus there’s lots of information about the process SCC will be following when preparing the Strathdearn Local Place Plan. 

Come along for a chat, submit your response to our community engagement survey,  if you haven’t already done so (the survey closes on Friday – Helen’s got lots of paper copies with her), try your hand at our fun Local Place Plan jigsaw, and pick up your free Strathdearn Local Place Plan bookmark!

Helen has left maps and literature in the Hub foyer which you can browse at your leisure,

Strathdearn Community Council have been informed by RTS and Highland Council that further timber haulage from Glenkirk has been suspended for this year.

SCC believe it would be beneficial to carry out a review of the Timber Traffic Management Plan (TTMP) with RTS early next year to see if they can find a way to avoid the same situation arising.

Strathdearn Community Council invite you to clear the way and plough ahead with this Name A Gritter competition.

Amey, who run the North East Scotland Gritter Fleet, sent the following invitation to SCC:

We Can Do It – Together! Help Name Our Gritters!

The 2025/26 competition to submit inventive & fun names for our North East Scotland gritter fleet is now OPEN to everyone.

You can submit your entries at the below link until Friday 19th December:

Can you match Den-ice Law, Clearopathra or Thaw: God of Thunder

Our vehicles, in their distinctive bright orange livery, are a regular sight on the north east trunk roads during winter and your name could be emblazoned on the side of one!

Good luck!

The entry form can be accessed HERE directly, or you can use this Facebook Link.

Stagecoach Bus Clarifications

I am Dave Simpson the service delivery director at Stagecoach North Scotland. I am reaching out directly as I have been speaking to Paul regarding the above and believe there may be some confusion after my teams response. 

For the X37 the bus will no longer have a lay-by to pull into unfortunately, As my team have responded this is an express service and ties in with school runs. We have checked the usage of this from the Lay-By on the A9 near Tomatin and numbers average out at less than one person a day using it. The increase in time for this to come off and come through Tomatin would be damaging to the service. 

The 37 is where the confusion comes in and it even started to confuse myself with talk of the turning circle.  For clarity there will be no change to the current 37, This will continue to come through the Village as it does just now, south-bound coming through and heading for Findhorn bridge and back onto the A9 and in reverse going North bound. This service is where the passenger numbers are and will remain unaffected. 

If I can be of any further assistance please feel free to reach out and if you would ever like a sit down and a coffee I would be more than willing to meet you and discuss further.  

Regards 

Dave Simpson 

Service Delivery Director

Stagecoach North Scotland 

Strathdearn Community Council has issued an update on two concerns raised at their most recent meeting on 11 November:

Timber extraction from Glenkirk forest

SCC heard from members of the public that timber was being extracted from Glenkirk Forest outwith the agreed schedule. SCC received the following reply from RTS (Robbins Timber Services) who are managing the extraction:

“Thank you for bringing forward the community’s concerns regarding the haulage operations at Glenkirk.

Firstly, I would like to sincerely apologise for this situation. The haulage proceeded largely as planned until mid-October, after which there has evidently been a breakdown in communication between the timber buyer and the haulier, leading to these recent issues. As we discussed on Tuesday, it is extremely disappointing from my perspective to be in this position. The operational delays have resulted from challenging timber market conditions, which initially caused slow uplift from site—an issue that also occurred last year. Please be assured, it has never been our intention to extend operations beyond the end of October.

Addressing your points, I will respond to the second matter first: responsibility for the lack of communication with the Community Council rests with me. I had applied for an extension to the haulage, which was granted by the Roads Department. However, I should have informed the Council, and I apologise for this oversight. The current extension runs until the end of the month, and the final cutting of edge trees within Glenkirk is underway. Harvesting within the forest will be concluded early next week.

Regarding your first point, I have requested data from the timber buyer and will share this information with you once received.”

Buses through the village

The council discussed the closure of both bus stops on the A9 and the relocation of bus stops to the turning circle near Tomatin’s new temporary access junction. Would City Link and other long distance buses divert off the A9 to the new turning circle or would we lose those services altogether? Would the 37 service continue to run through the village or would its only stops be at the turning circle? SCC received the following replies from Stagecoach and Ember:

Re EMBAR Bus routes

“Thanks for your email. We run two routes along the A9 – our E8 route runs between Inverness and Glasgow; our E9 route runs between Inverness and Edinburgh. At the moment these are unregistered services, meaning we cannot have less than 15 miles between stops. This prevents us from stopping at Tomatin at the moment.

We are in the process of registering the E8 and E9 services, allowing us to add more stops. Without making any promises, we are very likely to add Tomatin as one of those additional stops. We have been provided details of the changes being made to bus stops around Tomatin by the Highland Council and have incorporated this into our plans. The registration process takes about three months so we expect to add additional stops in the first quarter of next year.”

RE: Stagecoach Bus Service

“As promised, I’ve followed up with our commercial department regarding the recent changes affecting services 37 and X37 in the Tomatin area.

Decisions around bus stops and routing are never taken lightly, and I want to reassure you that careful consideration was given. Service 37 continues to operate through Tomatin and will now serve a newly established stop within the village. Service X37, as an express route, has never entered Tomatin but previously stopped at the junction. Due to its express nature and time – sensitive schedule, it cannot accommodate a detour from the A9.

To clarify: the route for X37 remains unchanged. However, the stops it previously served at the junction have been removed, and new stops have been placed at the turning circle. These changes were outside our control.

According to data provided by the commercial team, the impact on passengers is expected to be minimal. On average, only one one-way trip per day was made to or from the affected stop, and the majority of passengers prefer service 37, which continues to serve Tomatin directly.

We appreciate the council’s concern for local accessibility and remain committed to ensuring reliable service for the community.”

Due to poor weather conditions, Overnight temporary traffic signals and convoy system will now be in place on the A9 south of the Tomatin north junction for approximately five days from 24 November. From 28 November, both lanes of the A9 will be temporarily realigned until Autumn 2026.

The existing access junction to Tomatin will be closed from 5 December with a temporary access junction for residents becoming operational.

We may require to change these dates further due to further changeable weather conditions. Please visit A9dualling.co.uk/a9-dualling/roadworks for the most up-to-date information.

We apologise for any inconvenience this causes and we thank you for your patience while we undertake these works.