Good morning Gurnshire. Regular students of the democratic deficit in our part of the world might be wishing to make a cuppa or pour a huge dram and listen to the discussion that was held on Thursday at Glenurquhart Road. Start the video below and move forward to 7.17 in. The mannie that is in charge of the Commission is quite frank about the cynicism that is out and about there in the Highlands when it comes to what people think about how much democracy they have in the local government sense.
Perhaps you don't want to go the whole hog so here are a few highlights you may wish to have a look at.
Well worth listening to Inverness Councillor Donnie Kerr who appears at 31.00 minutes into the video. He suggests that consultation is going through the motions and the council has a game plan that continues after consultation anyway. He thinks the Highland Council has had its day and Invernes should have a city council.
You can see Kate Stephen at 35.11. She laments how the unanimous consensus in Ardersier was ignored when it came to the controversial new waste water plant. It seemed that the voice of a whole community was ignored.
On at 37.19 was Alasdair Rhind, oh dear he has a very bad opinion of Tain Community Council.
Then at 38.50 we had oor Laurie. He told the meeting that it was unfortunate that they hadn't been at the Nairn River CC meeting the previous night. There the first thing they would have learnt is that Highland Council is an officer led council and not a council led council. He thought that Nairn was more than capable of taking over its own duties and responsibilities again. He thought that to make the organisation a real Highland Council it should be moved to Dingwall.
Then Michael Green at 55.45 who mentioned the disconnect where everyone had said no to South Nairn and still it went ahead.
There you are folks some weekend video action for you
3 comments:
also perhaps of interest - John Finnie our Green MSP speaking up for Nairn and Moray Firth against ship to ship oil transfers at Scottish First Ministers questions ( 15 minutes in) Unfortunately as was pointed out this is a reserved matter to UK government so Holyrood have no direct influence over the licence decision to be made in London. Permitted consultees ( who will advise UK Transport minister) include Scottish Natural Heritage and SEPA - who have already raised objections to the initial application on environmental grounds. We await a decision by Highland Councillors in early 2017 on whether to oppose the ship to ship proposal as so far they have taken a neutral position
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b085zcfz/scottish-first-ministers-questions-15122016 link to Holyrood First Ministers Questions (John Finnie on Ship to Ship Oil Transfer proposals for Moray Firth)
And I thought we had the mostest ever powerfullest devolved government ever anywhere in the known universe? Surely "Better Together" didn't lie through their teeth?
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