Centre marks 30 years at the heart of the community

A CIVIC Dinner was held in Inverness Town House last month to mark the 30 years since Merkinch Community Centre was opened by Mabel Skinner. Present were those who had worked for, supported, and generally contributed to the Centre's success over the years.

Provost Wynd introduced Anne McCreadie who has been involved with the Centre since the start and has served as a director of the Centre's management team for many years.
She briefly outlined its history - that it had been funded by Urban Aid and that the first manager was Bob McKinnon; funding had passed from the local authority's Social Work Department to Community Education Culture & Sport - these days this consisted of staff wages plus a grant of £7500 per year. This year had seen the Centre being refurbished and upgraded and she believed it to be friendly and welcoming. "We have only had three people working in the office in the last 30 years," she said in evidence. To round off the speeches, former councillor Chrissie Cumming sang a verse of "When you're Westering Home to the Ferry"!

Top Left: Bob McKinnon in thoughtful mode. Top Right: Lisa Baxter of Mums & Tots (left) and Merkinch Partnership Officer Anne Sutherland lend a sympathetic ear to Councillor Peter Corbett.

Bottom Left: Provost Wynd (right) gets his point across to Highland Council's Inverness chief executive David Haas and Anne McCreadie. Bottom Right: A general view of the dinner.

Meet Maria

MEET Maria Throp - she's the new part-time Development Officer with Merkinch Development Ventures (MDV) in Grant Street. MDV's main activity so far has been focused on the successful Ness Soaps.
Her remit, over the next six months, is to look at the feasibility of other social enterprises within Merkinch and to try to identify another good idea which can be developed into another solid social enterprise.

Born in Spain, Maria came to Britain when she was seven. She has lived in Scotland for 16 years, first in Edinburgh and for the last seven years in Inverness. She has an Open University degree in Social Sciences and has worked as a volunteer with the CAB.
Maria and her husband have two daughters and her main hobbies are hill-walking and car boot sales!

We've let you down, police chief admits

WHEN it comes to community policing, the Northern Constabulary have let Merkinch down in recent months, Superintendent David O'Connor of Inverness Area Command has admitted. Members of Merkinch Community Council at their September meeting heard from Councillor Peter Corbett that Supt O'Connor was aware of the lower standard of visible policing in the area. "They are actively looking for new community police officers for the area," he said.

"We had great community policing in the area," Ivor Bisset of ACTRA said, "but the old days are coming back."

Other members agreed that the current community police provision was not up to scratch. No police had attended community council meetings for some time and there was not even a police report sent to meetings.

It was agreed to write to both Northern Constabulary and Highland Council about the situation.

• Community Councillor Jimmy Fraser attracted the condemnation of members when he verbally attacked Joanna Peebles from Scottish Water. She had come to explain details of the company's plans to bring a pipeline for macerated sewage to the pumping station on Kessock Road. Mr Fraser refused to believe that the Kessock Road facility had the capacity to deal with it, despite being reassured by Ms Peebles and other community councillors.

 

• Eventually he was told to be quiet and advised that he would be officially disciplined if he did not. Ms Peebles left the meeting and members agreed to write her a letter of apology.

 

• Members pointed out to Cllr Kerr that, Highland Councillor or no, he had not been invited to the Community Council but had indeed been previously expelled until such times as he apologised under Standing Order 5 of the Constitution which he himself had agreed to. Cllr Kerr once again refused to apologise and accused members of living in the past. He said he was appalled at their hypocrisy and warned that there was a new national constitution coming out for Community Councils which would render their present one ineffective. He then left the room.

 

• Ali Locke reported that SKEC were hoping that the Local Nature Reserve would be not only the first in the Highlands but also the 50th to be declared in Scotland. The 61 hectares of the proposed reserve encompasses the West Field, the Muirtown Pools between the railway and the canal, right out to the low water mark. If successful, a consultant will be invited to draw up a five-year management plan.

 

• SKEC is also to make improvements to Coronation Road and to the old ferry ticket office. The building is to remain open each Sunday afternoon until the end of the month when there will be a Hallowe'en Scary Walk in conjunction with Arts in Merkinch. Dell McClurg reported that Tullochs have assessed the building and say it can be saved as it has good foundations though it needs a lot renewed.

 

• The two picnic tables for Merkinch Primary School had now been installed and painted green. The community council had contributed £230 towards the cost, which included a special surface around the area.

 

• Colin Downie, Chief Executive of Merkinch Enterprise was appointed Returning Officer for the coming Community Council Elections.

 

• The first meeting of the new Ward Forum was held on 17th September in the Town House. There was a presentation on flood prevention.
  Ward manager told the Community Council that they would decide what issues were important to their area and how the local authority could serve the public better.

 

• The harling on the flats at 30-32 Kessock Road was in poor condition but Cllr Corbett said it hadn't been decided what was being done about it. On Grant Street, some progress had been made regarding Sammy Lee's former premises. There was no word yet about what was happening at the former B&Q site.

 

• The Tool Club is to close after 15 years. Ali Locke said tools were cheaper nowadays.

 

• Even officials were taken aback at the size of the buildings in Kessock Court South (to be known as Mill Court). There have been a number of objections to the plans for Kessock Court North.

 

• The next meeting will be on Thursday 18th October in the Community Centre at 7.30pm.

Calling on adults to help at sports

MERKINCH Partnership is drawing up a Sports Development Plan for Merkinch. We would like to offer local young people the opportunity to take part in a wide range of sports activities, both in Merkinch and at other locations throughout the city of Inverness.

For instance, we may be able to provide transport, pay for equipment and carry out improvements to local sports facilities.

We are keen to hear from parents who are interested in helping with sports activities or would like to gain coaching qualifications.

For more information please contact: Anne Sutherland, Merkinch Partnership Officer, tel: 01463 718989
Or Peter Corbett, Merkinch Partnership Chair and Ward Councillor, tel: 01463 238159.

Affordable fresh fruit and veg scheme comes to Merkinch

Healthy eating is what it's all about. Cath Finlay of Food 1st offers young Lee Kane a tasty selection to publicise their latest scheme at the Janny's Hoose.

IN 2006 the Partnerships for Wellbeing embarked on a healthy eating initiative for the Inverness area called Food 1st. The aim of Food 1st is to promote healthy eating to low income and vulnerable communities; this has been made possible by funding from Lifescan Scotland , Scottish Community Foundation and Lloyds TSB. Its local representative is Cath Finlay who is well-known at the Janny's Hoose.

Two new Veg Out developments are based locally - The Janny's Hoose, open Wednesdays from 2pm to 3pm. And if you miss that, there's always the James Cameron Centre, on Thursdays from 10am to 12noon.
The Veg Out barrows offer communities a chance to buy fresh fruit and vegetables, locally, at affordable prices. Veg Out are also registered to take Healthy Start vouchers, these can be exchanged for fruit and veg.

Food 1st and the Janny's Hoose also work with families to increase their skills in using the produce.
Food 1st can be contacted on 01463 72997 or foodfirst@pfw.org.

briefs…

• ABBEY Cameron Tenants & Residents Association held their AGM on 25th September in St Michael's & All Angels church hall. ACTRA covers Cameron Square, Carse Road, Telford Road, Lochalsh Road, Abban Street, Dunabban Road and Gilbert Street. For further information call Ivor Bisset on 01463 220089.

 

• FILM showing at this month's Silver Cinema on Monday 8th October is "Vengeance Valley" with Burt Lancaster. Be at the Community Centre for the 2pm start; entry costs £2.50, carers free.

 

• GUEST speaker at the Merkinch Partnership's Celebration Day on 5th October is Tom Maclean, Morar. The all-day event, which will include presentations by local groups, is by invitation only.

 

• ANN-Marie Maclennan and Carol Ann Still, both attendees at the Corbett Centre, have qualified as First-Aiders and have received their badges and certificates. Ann-Marie is also currently taking computer lessons.

 

• LUCKY winner of the September Nicol's Killer Quiz is Linda Mackinnon of Garage Doors, Carsegate Road. Well done!

 

• YOU may think it is a bit early to think about Christmas, but if you have relatives in Australia, Russia, South America and such non-European places and you aim to send their parcels by surface mail, it should be posted by 1st October to be guaranteed to get there for the day. By the 15th your surface mail to the Middle East and the Far East (with the exception of Hong Kong and Singapore) should be away. For the two latter destinations, along with the USA, Canada and South Africa the posting date is 29th October.

 

• MERKINCH Enterprise is holding its AGM on Tuesday 9th October at 3pm.

Traders support summer blooms

THE following members of Merkinch Traders once again funded the beautiful floral display in the area's hanging baskets this summer: Ann's Barber Shop, Black Bridge Launderette, the Charity Shop, Charlie's Chip Shop, Clach Shoe Repairs, Evergreen Chinese Takeaway, Gow's Bakery, Heavenly Nails, Inverness Model Shop, Ladbroke's, Macdonald's Newsagents, Merkinch Enterprise, Merkinch Community Centre, MP33, Merkinch Post Office & Stores, NessBet, Ness Soaps, Nicol's Corner Shop, Rowlands Pharmacy and the Royal India Takeaway. Merkinch Traders are particularly pleased at the work done by the new watering contractor Mr Colin Tucker of Moy.

Busy autumn at the Janny's Hoose

WELL the time has really flown since the schools went back after the summer holidays. We're almost at the October break. The Janny's Hoose will be shut the first week of the holiday - Monday 8th to Friday 12th October) and for the second week we have family activities planned. On Monday 15th we are going on a trip to the Loch Ness Monster exhibition in Drumnadrochit, Tuesday is Hallowe'en cookery, Wednesday is Hallowe'en arts and crafts and Thursday is a trip to the Folk Museum in Newtonmore.

If you fancy joining in the activities you'll need to get in touch as we have limited places on each one and they will fill up quickly. The midwife and health visitor clinics will be operating as normal during the holiday period. And last but not least, the baby clinic will be 1.30 - 3pm as from the first Thursday in October. The Janny's Hoose will be open as usual from Monday October 22 with the usual activities and some new ones as well. Why not pop in some time between 9am-3pm weekdays to find out what we're up to.

Jean Mackay
The Janny's Hoose
(01463 226348)

Escape Group take another step toward John Muir Award

EVERY Wednesday, apart from the school holidays, you'll find a group of Merkinch women out in the hills - when they are not helping out in the Corbett Centre community garden. Originally formed under the MP33 umbrella, the Escape Group became independent around three years ago. They have a wide range of activities and have been known to renovate furniture and try various arts and crafts.

But it is the enthusiasm and dedication which the group have shown for hill-walking that has particularly flourished. Their first big push led to them tackling Ben Nevis, then the Great Glen Walk - all 76 miles of it - a bit at a time.

This June the women conquered Snowdon with the backing of Aviemore-based Caroline and Izzie from Wild Walks, and they are pictured right at the summit. This was not just an outing for the group; they completed the first stage of their John Muir Awards. These comprise three environmental challenges and the women have been working in the Corbett Centre Garden for the conservation aspect.

Partnership form sports, arts and environment plans

MERKINCH Partnership held its August meeting in the Newstart Highland premises. Last year the Partnership awarded Regeneration Funding to Newstart for a Training Centre within the new recycling and re-use facility at Carsegate Road North in Inverness. Trainees are given the opportunities to learn practical transferable skills and gain qualifications in electrical repair, mainly domestic appliances, and warehousing.

Mary MacDonald, Project Manager for the Training Centre, attended the meeting to give an update on the project.

One disappointing fact to arise from the update was the lack of volunteers at Newstart who reside in Merkinch - out of 55 volunteers only 3 are from Merkinch. The Partnership feels this is an issue which needs addressing.

Merkinch Partnership has recently signed a contract with JobCentre+ to set up an Outreach Service in the Merkinch area. The new service is being funded by Deprived Area Funding and will be carried out by Working for Families, who already has a presence in Merkinch in the form of Jane Wilson, Project Worker.

The funding will be directed at helping the long-term unemployed in the area, through one-to-one support and mentoring as well as job specific courses. For more information on this service, please contact Jane Wilson on 710469 or Anne Sutherland, Partnership Officer, on 718989.

Merkinch Partnership is currently working on the following projects:

Sports Development Plan

The Partnership has identified this issue as a priority and a steering group has been formed to take the Plan forward. The Plan will focus on:

• improving existing sports facilities and activities in the area
• identifying gaps in the provision of sports facilities/activities
• address the issue of young people accessing activities outwith the area.

As a first step the Partnership is organising a "sports taster" day in Merkinch School on 24th October. Leaflets have been sent home to parents and the children have been busy completing questionnaires. The "taster day " will allow children from Primary 4 -7 to experience different sports with the aim of encouraging them to take up sports activities and lead more active lives. A similar "taster day" will be held at Inverness Sports Centre on 6th November.

The steering group is also keen to hear from parents who are interested in gaining coaching qualifications.

Arts/Culture Plan

Due to the many diverse arts activities happening in Merkinch, the Partnership is keen to see an overall, long-term Arts and Culture Plan for the area. Initial work on the Plan is being done by Elsie Normington, Annie Marrs and Anne Sutherland and Elsie will be doing a presentation to the Partnership at their next meeting.

Environmental improvements

The Partnership is looking at ways of making improvements to areas such as the Grant Street shopping precinct and of adding road safety features to Anderson Street and Harbour Court. These plans are in the very early stages and the Partnership is keen to get some input from the local community. If you have any ideas about how the shopping precinct could be improved, please contact Anne Sutherland on 01463 718989.

As part of her job, the Partnership Officer has been helping local groups to source funding and develop their projects e.g the Boys Brigade and Escape Group. Any local groups needing help with getting a project off the ground should contact Anne on the above number.

The October meeting is provisionally arranged for Tuesday 23rd at 3.45pm in Merkinch Community Centre.

Theatre group launched on Silver Tides

MERKINCH Theatre Group made its debut on a flood of praise with its first production, "Silver Tides", at the Community Centre on 15th September. Writer Marilyn Reid worked in collaboration with youngsters at Inverness High School each Thursday morning over nine weeks early in the spring to do the research and create the play and several scenes were written by the group members themselves.

Rehearsals continued on Thursday evenings at Merkinch Community Centre.

The Theatre Group is run by Arts in Merkinch's Community Arts Worker Annie Marrs and AiM is grateful for the support of Eden Court's outreach programme, Out of Eden, in particular Director Lynsey Thompson and Choreographer Libby Daye, not forgetting John Gordon for lighting and tech support and Amanda Luscombe. The whole project was funded by Highland 2007.

Besides Richard Merrit, the cast included Angus Fraser, Michelle Gunn, Shannon Leckie, Christopher Leplongeon, Caitlin MacLean, Jacqueline MacPherson, Gemma McPhee, Dorothy Morrice and Kirsten Stoaling.
The story of Silver Tides showed the history of Merkinch through the eyes of an itinerant who was a regular visitor. In the play he stravaigs through the centuries meeting some of the people who featured in the area's history, from witches to kings, community leaders to football fans.

AiM chairman Bette McArdle praised the entire cast and crew for launching the Merkinch Theatre Group in such style.

"We're delighted that the Group has got off to such a brilliant start and hope they will build on this fine beginning and go from strength to strength. There is a lot of talent in Merkinch and AiM has always been keen to see it brought out and for people to have a platform for those talents.
"With the installation of the theatre facility at the Community Centre there is no reason why all those with an interest in acting, production, scene-painting, sound and lighting, and costume could not make Merkinch Theatre Group a great success."

The Group have a week off before they start rehearsing for their parts in the community panto "Little Red Whittington" on Thursday evenings. Anyone interested in taking part should contact Annie Marrs on 01463 240085 or email annie@merkinch.com

Where last month could you find the spirits of Macbeth, the witch Isobel Gowdie, Dan Corbett and Mabel Skinner, not to mention a couple of ferrymen and some bonny fisher lassies? Why on the stage at the Community Centre when the Merkinch Theatre Group put on their first public performance, the play Silver Tides.

LEFT… Writer Marilyn Reid and Director Lynsey Thompson, from Out of Eden, pictured at the after-show party.
RIGHT… Actor Richard Merrit gets on his make-up backstage to transform him into Farquhar Maclennan, the old tramp who watches Merkinch as it develops down the centuries.

Out of school

Pudsey helps celebrate REAL grant

CHILDREN in Need mascot Pudsey visited the High School to congratulate them receiving a £55,000 grant to develop their Youth Work Services - the REAL Project - over the next two years. REAL INVERNESS extends opportunities for young people well beyond what can normally be offered in a secondary school.

The price of two-course school lunches is now £1.55 for primary pupils, £1.75 for secondary pupils and £2.75 for adults.
The October holidays begin on Friday 3rd October and school resumes on Monday 22nd October.
Primary 7 Parents' Open Evening is to be held at Inverness High School on Tuesday 30th October.
The High School held its Prizegiving Day, postponed last summer, on 20th September and the following day saw the school's main fund-raiser, the Sponsored Walk.
New staff at IHS include Miss N Mackay, Science; Miss C Grant, History; Mr K Wilson and Mr S Cullen, both Technology.

Wanted - volunteer sports coaches

INVERNESS High School is looking for people who can spare an hour or so per week to help with after-school sports clubs. They are looking for parents, senior pupils, individuals with coaching skills or with an interest in sports and fitness. Funding is available to help volunteers attain specific qualifications, first aid etc.

For further information please contact Susan Blackwood, Active School Co-ordinator, Inverness High School; you can phone 233586 on Monday or Tuesday afternoons or email susan.blackwood@ inverness.highland.sch.uk

A Quick Guide for Paying for Christmas

SAVING for Christmas can be a daunting task as food bills and gift lists appear to become larger and longer every year. Some highly organised consumers start their Christmas shopping in the January sales or spread the cost of Christmas, by buying a few items every month.

The rest of us however may struggle to control the cost of Christmas which may spiral out of control before even the festive season has begun. Highland Council Trading Standards are highlighting a useful tool to consumers which may help them decide how to save for Christmas and hopefully avoid the boom and bust spending sensation. Low income families have in the past relied upon savings clubs or hamper companies but following the collapse of Farepak last year, these clubs have suffered a loss of confidence by consumers. Help is on hand, however, and the Office of Fair Trading has launched a saving awareness campaign for Christmas to help consumers understand the options available to them. The Office of Fair Trading has planned a programme of meetings with community groups and partners across Scotland, in a bid to inform consumers of the most secure and convenient way to save for Christmas. The campaign programme - called "Save Xmas" equips consumers with the necessary skills to assess the options available to them:

• Assisting consumers in budgeting realistically based on what they can afford;
• Comparing the advantages and disadvantages of all saving schemes and deposit accounts;
• And highlighting the benefits of low cost saving schemes for families on a restricted or persons on a low income.

The Office of Fair Trading has published a Comparison Chart on their website which compares information between savings accounts for banks, building societies, credit unions and other savings clubs. By following the questions on the chart, consumers can make a clear choice of which sort of saving scheme best suits their needs. For instance, some local shops and supermarkets offer a savings stamp scheme to their customers. This way of saving is easy to understand and shows a gradual increase in saving stamps accumulated by the customer. The disadvantage, however, is that it ties the customer to one particular store or chain of shops.

For more information go to the website at http://www.consumerdirect.gov.uk and search for 'Save Xmas' or telephone Consumer Direct Scotland on 08454 040506.

Little Struan Cuthbert from Bruce Gardens was one of the visitors to a felt-making workshop run by Ruth Black (also pictured) as part of the Highland Open Studios week. Struan is a great Caley Thistle fan, as can be seen from the piece of felt he made. Well done, Struan, they need all the help they can get these days!

This project is being part-financed by the European Union under the Inverness and Nairn CED programme.