Castletown community councillors back bid for more local control
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COMMUNITY councillors in Castletown have backed a call for more power to be returned to the people of Caithness.
Members agreed at their meeting on Thursday night to support local MSP Rob Gibson’s plea for more decision-making responsibilities to be transferred from the Highland Council to the Far North.
Mr Gibson accused the local authority of being “distant” from Caithness and said people in the county were “hungry for local control”. He has launched a consultation to find out the strength of feeling in the North.
His proposal found favour with Castletown community councillors. Chairman Doug Fraser claimed the Highland Council is too centralised and said: “We do want local control and to be in charge of our own destiny.”
He argued that a bigger authority can save on costs but thought people would benefit if more decisions were made locally.
Mr Fraser said he was not convinced Highland Council has been a success.
“We don’t want several tiers of management taking money out of the pot but we do want to make decisions locally,” he stated.
John Crowden agreed and said: “We had more control before and were a lot better off. We need to get money going to the coalface and decisions made here.”
For full story and other community council news see Wednesday’s Caithness Courier.
