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Caithness gets a ‘pittance’ claims Thurso community councillor





Caithness is getting “just a pittance” in levelling-up funding while “millions are spent on vanity projects in Inverness”, it has been claimed.

Thurso community councillor Billy Sinclair stressed the aim of the fund is to create jobs, drive growth and to invest in infrastructure.

However, he said infrastructure in the far north is “falling to bits” while the Highland capital gets no shortage of funding.

Thurso community councillor Billy Sinclair claims Caithness is being left behind.
Thurso community councillor Billy Sinclair claims Caithness is being left behind.

“Inverness gets millions for vanity projects but we have no indoor sports facilities for people. How many roads in Inverness look like the ones here? It is time we got some improvements because all we see is cutbacks and more cutbacks,” he said at Tuesday night's meeting.

Thurso and Northwest Caithness councillor Struan Mackie agreed with Mr Sinclair but said the focus should be on the UK government rather than Highland Council.

He stressed that applications had been made to the levelling-up fund but had been rejected as they did not meet the criteria and, it was stated, some should have been funded by local government.

“Inverness applications ticked the boxes on things like net-zero and tourism,” said councillor Mackie, who added that people have to work together to bring forward projects which are “shovel ready”.

Mr Sinclair argued that Highland Council is supposed to represent all people in the north and not just Inverness. He said Caithness gets “very little money” from either the levelling up fund or the City Region deal.

“What we get is just a pittance. If people are working for Highland Council they should be working for the whole area and not just Inverness,” he said.

Councillor Mackie, who is the provost of Thurso, said there needs to be “a massive restructuring of local government” as the present set-up is “not acceptable”.

In a letter in today's John O’Groat Journal, Mr Sinclair says: “Caithness will continue to be ignored as long as we remain under the auspices of an Inverness dominated Highland Council. We are out of sight and therefore out of mind. There is no light at the end of the tunnel, the tunnel is only getting longer and darker and there is little hope that conditions will change.”

He adds: “Surely we could do better, we did in the past.”


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