Castletown community leaders back bid for local control
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A CALL for more power to be returned to the people of Caithness has been backed by Castletown community council.
Members agreed at their meeting on Thursday night to support local MSP Rob Gibson’s bid for more
decision-making responsibilities to be transferred from the Highland Council to Caithness.
Mr Gibson accused the
local authority of being "distant" from the Far North and said people in the county were "hungry for local
control".
His stance found favour with Castletown community councillors. Chairman Doug Fraser claimed the Highland Council was too centralised and said: "We do want local control and to be in charge of our own destiny."
He argued that a bigger authority could save on costs but thought people would benefit if more decisions were made locally.
Mr Fraser said he was not convinced the 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." He pointed out that the Highland Council is cutting senior management posts to save money but claimed that power is not coming down to the local areas but is being retained in Inverness.
"We need to get money going to the coalface and decisions made here," added Mr Crowden.
Brenda Herrick broadly welcomed the proposal but wondered where the money would come from to put it into action.
As reported in last week’s Courier, Mr Gibson has launched a consultation to get people’s views but his rallying call met with a mixed response from Caithness councillors.
Wick’s Graeme Smith supported the consultation but expressed concern that the council is ruled by diktats from the Scottish Government.
Landward councillor David Flear said a change would not be cost-effective and he worried the consultation would raise false hopes of a return to a Caithness council.
His Landward colleague, Robert Coghill, described the consultation as "pub talk" and said it was up to the councillors to make the current system work for the county.
But Thurso councillor John Rosie said the loss of the area committee system had been a "disaster for Caithness".
Mr Gibson’s consultation, entitled "Small Works", asks locals if they think that matters such as planning, culture and leisure, economic development, environmental management and licensing should be returned to community control.
For a free copy of the consultation, call Mr Gibson’s parliamentary office on 0131 348 5726.
