The P&J tells us today that the City Deal for Inverness could be on its way. OK yes, different pots of money etc and Drew Hendry and others were working on it before the General Election and it is best to take these things than let them pass you by. It does make this observer pause for reflection however: at a time when Highland Council could just about fall apart as it has to make £50 million pounds of cuts we hear of this
possible anticipated for Inverness.
The P&J states: "Highland Council is bidding for a £300 million agreement which civic chiefs hope would help pay for a proposed new regional sports centre, visitor attraction at Inverness Castle and cultural development with a museum, library and Gallery."
Lucky Inverness but what will we get in Nairn? Just imagine what just £1 million could do for our sports facilities or museum or library or the town centre? It's the way of the world and governments - on one hand services are facing financial annihilation in the Highlands and on the other there still seems to be cash to be shovelled into Inverness. It seems to be a bit weird to understand but there will be a political and procedural rationale behind it. At least we can all get a free haggis however if we follow the instructions in the Press and Journal.
More on the City Deal for Snecky in today's P&J.
--- it would be nice if we were asked what we'd like it to be spent on first (and how much), before we get perhaps a tram system we dont need at twice the price :)
ReplyDeleteMaybe Nairn could even pay for it's now not so new community and arts centre
ReplyDeleteIt is a City + Region deal for Highland. So we should see c5%
ReplyDeleteSo the Scottish Councils have had a Council tax freeze imposed for the past 8yrs by the Scottish Government, with said body making up the shortfall directly (supposedly, but various Cllr's e.g. in Moray etc. have been stating that the shortfall is not fully met & therefore Council still short). There was an SNP minister recently taking about this on TV & effectively blaming Westminster also due to the situation re the Barnet formula.
ReplyDeleteSo where has this £300 million come from then that the Councils can bid for??? & why does it appear to only be able to be spent on frivolous items? Mind you as reported on this site earlier if we did win it Cllr Green would most probably spend the whole lot accommodating cruise ships in Nairn harbour!!
Has anyone in power really looked at the state of our road network? We need £billions to fix it to the standard that it should be! & that's before we start asking for bypasses & the full dualling of the A9 & the A96 which should have happened decades ago.
Common sense, two words being eradicated from the English language.
so Inverness has missed out then?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-35423953
Some might say that Aberdeen should have invested to diversify when the "times were good" for Oil revenue, rather than cry havoc when the price dropped and expect pots and pots of cash from anyone and everyone now Oil has hit the floor.