Death knell for Thurso Community Council after mass resignations – statement references ‘bombastic bully’ as issue
Thurso Community Council (TCC) has gone into “immediate abeyance” after a mass resignation of its members with one individual highlighted as the source of discord within it.
Yesterday afternoon, speculation was rife online after a social media post leaked information about several resignations with “more to follow”.
TCC member Alexander Glasgow forced it to go into abeyance six years ago when he resigned due to “personality conflicts” within the organisation and was also highlighted as the source of the current problems.
Mr Glasgow talked of a “public crucifixion” and being singled out when interviewed about the matter on Thursday and said the issues came on the back of a “grossly discourteous email” he had recently received from a TCC member.
Highland Council confirmed there were four resignations yesterday and speculated that TCC could still run if it had at least four members. However, the organisation confirmed at 3pm today (February 14) that 11 members out of 13 had resigned and, as a result, had gone into “immediate abeyance”.
It said that further to the media release issued on February 13, a statement has now been made in “respect of the recent resignations of members of Thurso Community Council” and shared the information on its Facebook page.
The statement continues: "Thurso Community Council had a total of 13 elected members. At time of writing, resignations have been submitted by 11 of those members, as well as the volunteer secretary.
“In accordance with the regulations, this information has been passed to the relevant officers in the Highland Council in order that they might take the mandated steps required.
“It is our understanding that – under these circumstances – TCC will be placed into immediate abeyance. This is deeply regrettable, but members felt that they had no alternative but to resign.
“Notices of resignation included various forms of words – all referring to the conduct of a single individual. Examples are: bombastic bully; threatening; slandering; harassment; insulting behaviour; mistreatment; toxicity; fabricated accusations; insulting correspondence; troublesome; disruptive; manipulative; bullying; unpleasant; disgraceful attitude; totally unacceptable; defamatory; fears for health and wellbeing and ‘family member now unwell’.
“All of the resigning members are highly respected individuals, one of whom recently achieved the age of 90 years, and between them they have many decades of dedicated commitment to TCC, to the public, and to the wider community.
“Their only wish was to serve the people of Thurso, and they have done so with honesty, integrity, commitment, and decency, but have each decided, individually, that it is now impossible to continue.
“It is for individual members to comment publicly as they see fit but it has been decided that this statement will be confined simply to the basic facts.”
The statement ended by reaffirming that 11 members had resigned.
Mr Glasgow became aware of the publicly available post this afternoon and said: “I am shocked at that Facebook posting which is entirely subjective and anonymised.
“None of these complaints have been made to me. I work with a large number of other committees and groups within the support and partner agencies in the third and voluntary sectors and have had none of these difficulties that I am aware of.”
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