One and a half cheers

In last week’s Nairnshire Telegraph editorial Iain Bain muses on the SNP’s promise to resurrect Area Committees if they win the Highland Council elections in May. He applauds the initiative but limits himself to one and a half cheers. Iain states that the Nairnshire has been calling for steps in this direction ever since the Highland Council was created.

He continues later in the editorial: “It is locally disappointing that no future is seen for a separate Nairnshire which must coexist in a possible committee with Badenoch and Strathspey, an area with which Nairn shares nothing but adjacency on a political map. An it is somewhat worrying that Inverness is to be given more primacy in the region. This usually means counting Nairn as one of its suburbs.

The move must be welcomed but we wonder if the truly radical path would be to involve community Councils which, in this area at least, are bidding to be the real lower tier of democracy.”

Will the SNP follow a “truly radical path” if they win power at Glenurquhart Rd? Rob Gibson MSP who has been the driving force for a move a way from centralisation in local government within the party in the Highlands would seem to want to go further if you analyse his suggestions. Over the weekend one of the Caithness SNP candidates tweeted: