Shaky birth for High Life board

TWO people with Caithness connections are now among the 12 board members of High Life Highland, the new arm’s-length organisation set up by the Highland Council to run community learning and leisure services.

Bet McArdle, a former editor of the Groat and Caithness Courier and editor-in-chief of Highland News Group, is one, and the other is Kenneth Nicol, socioeconomic manager for Dounreay Site Restoration Ltd.

Four of the directors are councillors, and eight are people from other walks of life who have come through a fairly rigorous selection process. There were 35 applications for the non-councillor seats on the board.

Twelve good men and women, all unpaid for their work on the board. And important work it is. They will be in charge of the council’s art galleries, archives, museums, libraries, sports facilities and a lot more besides.

They are charged with advancing the arts, heritage, culture and science, encouraging public participation in sport, maintaining recreational facilities, advancing education and health and community development.

In view of all that, and although I have absolutely no reason to doubt their manifest talents and experience, you may have thought their choosing would have been given a little more publicity than they appear to have attracted.

The final decision to form HLH to take over the community learning and leisure services was taken at the Highland Council meeting in Glenurquhart Road on May 12. The reasons for this step are financial – it should save money. As a company with charitable status and with its own trading arm, HLH will be exempt from non-domestic rates – as long as the law remains as it is – and will be able to apply to outside sources for charitable funding. This could save over £1 million in the long run, said director of education Hugh Fraser on March 10.

“There is not only the opportunity to save £182,000 in rates but there is a real opportunity to properly market our archives not only in Inverness but in Wick, Fort William and Skye, and link into genealogical services and other aspects that will attract people from all over the world,” said council leader Dr Michael Foxley (Lib Dem, Fort William and Ardnamurchan) on May 12 – just before there was a vote for which councillors should be on the board.

Some councillors demurred over the haste with which this business was being pushed through, and the SNP group tabled a motion councillor members should be subject to interview just like the others. But that was not to be. The motion was defeated, though only by four votes, a clear sign many more than just SNP party members had concerns about what was happening.

THE four councillors who received the votes of their colleagues to go on the board of HLH were independent Jaci Douglas and Dave Fallows, of the SNP, both from Badenoch and Strathspey, and Skye councillor Drew Millar, of the Lib Dems, and Peter Corbett, independent for Inverness Central.

The outcome of the selection process for the non-councillor – I keep wanting to refer to them as civilian or lay – members of HLH was presented to the council meeting on June 23.

Carolyn Wilson (independent, Cromarty Firth) said it had been a privilege to chair the committee that had short-listed and interviewed the candidates. “We were all completely taken aback by the quantity and quality of the applicants,” she said, “…we are all encouraged that we have an absolutely first-class board to recommend to you today. We could have got two boards out of the people that came forward. We are giving this organisation absolutely a first-class opportunity to get off to a flying start. These people are of the highest calibre.” In the press gallery, we found her enthusiasm both reassuring and frustrating – reassuring because we want good people for the job, frustrating because at no point did she name any names.

The councillors were a step ahead – they had a list with the chosen eight – but this did not seem always much of an advantage.

“I don’t know any of them,” protested Donald Cameron (ind alliance group, Fort William and Ardnamurchan). “All I’ve got is eight names on a piece of paper. No background. We’re being asked today if we approve these appointments. I can’t do that. And I would like that to be noted, minuted...”

“It is a bit much just to give us a list with no information,” said Donnie Kerr (SNP, Inverness Central). “Just a small paragraph would help us all understand exactly who they are.”

“I know most of them,” said convener Sandy Park (ind, Nairn), trying to pour some oil on increasingly choppy waters, “I would ask you to support them.”

“Are we going to find out who they are after we appoint them?” cried Mr Cameron. To a chorus of grumbles rising on all sides, Sandy Park began, “Well…” and gave the floor to Ms Wilson to conduct the defence.

“The council agreed the process at the last meeting,” she argued. “I’m very sorry you haven’t a biography of each of the candidates but we as a group were not asked about that.”

With hindsight, she admitted perhaps the information should have been provided. “I can only say the calibre of the individuals in front of you is first class,” she ended.

The eight names were of course approved and now they wait for their first briefing session at the end of this month, I understand. I wish the board well, and I’ve forgotten already its somewhat shaky birth in the council chamber.

IT was all golf in Inverness last week, with the Scottish Open being played or interrupted by torrential thunderstorms at the Castle Stuart course near Ardersier, and I was reminded of the summer when I took up – albeit briefly – this ancient sport.

My interest was sparked by working as assistant greenkeeper on the Thurso course. A pleasant outdoor summer job on the whole, although not without danger as, now and again as I went around with my petrol mower, the ball from a sliced drive would ricochet and clang from the machine.

I got my revenge by collecting lost balls from the long grass and the ditches and selling them to the players for £1 each. That was a lot of money back then. My weekly salary was £5, collected every Saturday midday from Mr MacGregor in his chemist shop.

I enjoyed working at the golf course although there were certain drawbacks. The greens were laid out around the town dump so that, no matter the airt of the wind, there was always a fairway or a green with a drift of noxious smoke from the bonfires kept alight by the chiel who worked there. Carbon emissions were unknown.

Sheep and cows shared the fairways with the golfers. One night a bull broke in from a neighbouring farm and chose to have a head-to-head with the resident bull on the 18th green. In the morning it resembled the scene of a recent ploughing match.

Then there was the time when the boss went off to the Orkney Show and told me to cut the fairways in his absence. Normally he did that himself, as it involved sitting on the tractor and roaring up and down the land all day.

Backing the Fergie out of the Nissen hut that served as our HQ and workshop, I knocked the wooden end. The whole wall sprang on the nails. If you are familiar with Nissen hut architecture you will understand the disadvantages of a sprung end.

I solved that problem by using the tractor to ram the wall from the other side, knocking it back on. Nobody was any the wiser. I now declare statute of limitations on any damage claims.

Anyway, watching golf sparked a brief enthusiasm for playing it. With borrowed clubs and balls, I struck out for Scotland but after three rounds, with my score mounting instead of falling, I decided “the gowf” was not for me.

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