Council blasted as Thurso service point forced to close
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A THURSO councillor has blasted the Highland Council after the town’s service point was forced to close on Tuesday.
Donald Mackay is furious the office was unable to open as all staff were absent – and said his colleague, John Rosie, felt the same.
The local members were inundated with calls from residents who were angry they were unable to access the facility in Rotterdam Street.
They believe the office has been understaffed for too long and more personnel is required to provide an adequate service.
Mr Mackay said the public has been let down by the Highland Council and it is unacceptable the temporary closure was allowed to happen.
“This is the first time I can ever remember the Thurso office being closed due to a lack of staff,” he told the John O’Groat Journal.
“The service point is supposed to be open on weekdays from 9am until 5pm. However, we found out it was forced to shut after all members of staff were absent either due to holidays or illness.
“Both myself and Mr Rosie took up the issue with council headquarters in Inverness to voice our disapproval. The Highland Council need to take a good look at what has happened and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
He added: “It is not right that the doors to such a vital service in the town were closed all day. People who had arranged meetings to go in the office that day have been left greatly inconvenienced.
“The closure could have been easily prevented if there were an adequate amount of staff. What Tuesday has shown is that there clearly isn’t at the moment.”
The service point reopened as normal on Wednesday morning.
The Highland Council has a network of 37 such facilities which offer face-to-face customer service to the public.
In April, the authority closed its service points in Drumnadrochit and Dunvegan and reduced the hours at its Durness office as part of a customer services review.
Both councillors have campaigned for a number of years for the council to provide more staff at the Thurso outlet.
Mr Mackay said the council needs to come up with a better solution to serve residents in the town.
“Outwith Inverness, Thurso is the largest town in the Highlands,” he said. “It is deplorable that a situation such as this has arisen.
“This is an issue which we have reiterated to the Highland Council for a number of years. We have warned them in the past that changes needed to be done but nothing has ever come from it.
“The Highland Council need to come up with a service point that Thurso deserves and fast. The closure affected everyone in the town and we want to let the public know we are fighting to improve the situation.”
A spokesperson for the Highland Council confirmed the Thurso service point was closed due to a lack of staff on Tuesday.
“This was due to exceptional circumstances which saw all four members of staff off work, due to a variety of reasons,” he said.
“We apologise for the loss of service for the day but this was unavoidable.”
He added: “This had nothing to do with the current review of customer services. It was just a set of circumstances that were exceptional and not experienced before.”
