An alternative to the ‘nuclear option’ over council chaos
In a recent article and letters to the Groat, Dan Mackay, Billy Sinclair and Iain Gregory have voiced their dissatisfaction with two political administrations.
Basically Dan, it seems, would like to see an end to the United Kingdom (and the monarchy), with an independent Scotland running it’s own affairs. “Bring on the Republic” is his battle cry!
Iain and Billy also seek independence, that of Caithness from, as Iain puts it, the “colonial style rule” of “Inverness City Council” (also known as the Kremlin in some quarters). Both favour a referendum in Caithness to enable the county to “take back control of her own affairs”.
Billy has yet to issue a battle cry but it’s surely only a matter of time.
Whilst fully understanding the sentiments expressed by the good gentlemen mentioned above, I would urge caution, or as Aesop said: “Be careful what you wish for”.
Dan doesn’t need me to remind him that Scotland has had perhaps the most powerful devolved government in the world since 1997, but successive administrations in Holyrood have made a total hips of running the country, none more effectively than the current lot who’ve squatted in Holyrood since 2007, and treated us recently to the unedifying sight of Nicola Sturgeon clambering into bed with Patrick Harvie. (That’s a figure of speech for a political union by the way…in case you’re wondering).
Becoming a republic won’t bring with it a magic wand to automatically guarantee us competent or even just plain old, good enough, government.
As with Dan, I’d ask Billy and Iain to be equally careful about their wishes. There’ll be plenty of those among us who remember the days before centralisation in the 1990s when we had a Caithness District Council populated by a variety of pompous tin-pot Napoleons, duffers and chancers. Not many would want to go back to that, better though it might still be than the current parcel of rogues in Glenurquhart Road.
This last two years or so we’ve been treated to a litany of incompetence, obfuscation, questionable conflicts of interest and political skullduggery, evidenced most recently when the current ruling SNP group emulated their former leader by clambering into bed with the Greens to ensure a majority by which to defeat a motion seeking to debate the break-up of Highland Council.
I’ve long believed that party politics is the enemy of democracy and here was a perfect example of that in our own backyard.
Something has to change, and soon. But before we go down the Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) route, we might do well to consider beginning with something a bit less dramatic than the nuclear option. I’m thinking here about community councils.
One of the most common complaints from members of the public is the way in which Highland Council too often acts irresponsibly without clear consultation or even simple evidence gathering. Think, for example, of the Academy Street fiasco which unnecessarily cost the Highland Council taxpayer approximately three quarters of a million pounds (yes, you read that correctly), with precious little consultation, no apology and no apparent shame. Or the recent plan to build a battery storage system directly adjacent to the Flow Country World Heritage Site near Mybster!
Community councillors are placed in office by public vote. They are elected officials, elected to represent local people in their town, or village or rural area. You would expect then that these councils would have a working relationship with Highland Council. However, they are regularly bypassed or ignored. Iain touches on this when he says, referring to “Thurso Parking Proposals 2024” and commenting, for proposals read “this is what we intend to do”.
So, I’m suggesting that local communities start flexing their muscles and take on Highland Council. Iain and Billy are suggesting a referendum in Caithness on the question of separation. I’m thinking of initially a high profile, publicised alliance of community councils in the north with a view to tackling Highland council head on and demand cooperation, which would include clear accountability.
So far as I can make out, there are something like 30 community councils in Caithness and Sutherland and of course many, many more throughout the region, lots of whom have their own issues with Highland Council as we’ve seen reported in the Groat these last few months.
And the community councils are on pretty solid ground here. On the Scottish Government website, under Good Practice Guidance for Local Authorities and Community Councils, it clearly spells out one of the purposes of a community council as: “to ascertain, co-ordinate and express to the Local Authorities for its area and to public authorities the views of the community which it represents, in relation to matters for which those authorities are responsible”.
In return, “the Local Authority (in our case Highland Council) has a duty to consult community councils on how local services are delivered and other issues affecting their neighbourhoods”. Most tellingly, it adds, “A community council can act as a campaigning body in raising awareness of specific local issues”.
Additionally, Section 3.1 of the Scheme for Establishment of Community Councils in Highland includes, “there should be mutual engagement in the establishment of working relationships with the Highland Council and other agencies.”
Well, there hasn’t been much sign of any “mutual engagement” with community councils, certainly not in the north. This was most evident when Highland Council went about dismantling services to vulnerable children, as well as children and families affected by disability, when they decided to close Avonlea children’s home in Wick and Thor House in Thurso.
After more than two years and multiple requests, we’re still no closer to being told the reasons for these decisions and the evidence which supported them.
Lastly, on July 21, 2024 the Sunday Times reported that a survey of all Scottish local authorities had assessed Highland Council as being the worst performing council on the Scottish mainland. How much worse can it get?
Clearly the natives are restless and we shouldn’t be having to put up with this. We could be in for a very interesting year.
Name and Address Supplied
Safety first – who are you kidding?
It is rather ironic that the First Minister tells us that it was not a matter of investment but safety that Caithness expectant mothers have to travel to Inverness (Caithness Courier, January 1, 2025).
On that day the road was closed with snow and ice and the railway suffered a landslip (albeit that there were no services on the 1st). Last Friday, the road was flooded again and there were three more landslips and further flooding on the railway to add to the regular road closures due to accidents.
Will the First Minister please tell us in what way the journey to Inverness is safer than local consultant-led services at Caithness General Hospital?
Mike Grain
MacDonald Green
Thurso
Dounreay believed the radium that paused work on SSEN’s subsea cable route had come from wartime aircraft. Picture: DGS
Where did radium really come from?
I am writing in response to an article by Iain Grant, titled ‘Radioactive earth taken from site’, which appeared on page 3 of the December 20 edition of the John O’Groat Journal.
I am puzzled by the comment in the article that the radium is “thought to have derived from the control panels used by pilots of planes which operated from the World War II airfield at Dounreay.” The comment is not given a source [the link to wartime aircraft referred to an earlier story which contained the source as being a spokesperson at Dounreay – editor] but wherever it came from this source has absolutely no knowledge of the subject on which they are commenting, because nothing ever operated from Dounreay either during or after the war.
Dounreay was never an operational airfield, no squadrons were ever based there, no aircraft were ever stationed there or operated from there and no aircraft were stored there either during or after the war.
The construction of Dounreay airfield began in 1942 and was more or less completed by April 1944, but it was too late in the war to be of use. It was immediately put onto a care and maintenance basis, no equipment was installed and the runways were obstructed for security reasons.
The airfield was passed around between Coastal Command, Bomber Command and the Navy, but none of these ever actually used it. It remained un-commissioned and unused until 1954 when UKAEA purchased the site.
So, wherever the radium came from, it certainly could not have come from aircraft instrument panels, which leaves the question, where did it really come from?
Andrew Guttridge
Marymas Cottages
Dunnet
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