A Nairn charity has taken ownership of a town of a community hall.
Green Hive has taken ownership of the Seaman’s Hall in Nairn from the current trustees.
The Seaman’s Hall, also known as the Seaman’s Victoria Hall, will benefit from £1.5million of investment at the premises in Fishertown, and will be a hub for the charity’s initiatives.
The aim is to create a community and environmental sustainability centre that embraces the heritage of the Fishertown while providing a supportive space to bring people together and reduce isolation.
A wonderful development
It will also offer space for learning and skills development, a retail space to support upcycled products made in the Green Hive workshop.
It will also be a place that offers support for micro businesses to trial retailing of their eco products and provide a way for locals and visitors to take up more active travel, using Green Hive’s e-bike hire and activities offered by partner organisations.
The charity has been established in the town since 2016 and runs various activities and workshops throughout the year.
Simon Noble, chairman of Green Hive said: “This is a wonderful development for the people of Nairn having such a historic building coming back into use for the community and we at Green Hive are proud to become guardians of Seaman’s Hall.
“We have a plan and will do all in our power to secure it for future generations.
“Over the coming months, there is much renovation work to make the building safe for limited use while a programme of fundraising is undertaken throughout 2023 for major re-development work.
“This work aims to commence in 2024 when the building will be closed so that contractors have full access to create the vision that has been developed for the hall.”
Deal will ensure future generations can enjoy hall
Ninian Coggs, convener of the hall trustees said: “Green Hive have shown enthusiasm and commitment to take on the task of being custodians of Seaman’s Hall for the future and ensuring that generations of Nairn’s residents can enjoy using the hall.
“Throughout this year plans have been drawn up and been through community consultation so that Green Hive know what funds are required to be raised to implement the vision for the building to bring this back into full community use. Full details of these plans can be viewed on the Green Hive website.
The initial timeline is to have the hall available for limited use from spring.
A new role of operations officer for the Seaman’s Hall has been created with recruitment ongoing in November to have in place to drive the project over the coming tw0-and-a-half years.
Over the winter Green Hive is asking for some patience from the community so that necessary upgrades can be made and would welcome hearing from anyone who wants to get involved with the project to get in touch.
Conversation