Thor House news welcomed, Thurso parking plans flawed and Scrabster A9 calls
Welcome return for respite care
Many will have been delighted to read in last week’s Groat that “Thor House respite care [is] set to return” by the summer.
Families, especially, will be relieved that this essential service is to resume after an absence of several years. And members of Thurso community council, who continue to ask Highland Council uncomfortable questions about why it was withdrawn in the first instance, will doubtless await answers about the closure of Avonlea children’s home in Wick and the transfer of children from there to Thor. A decision, as yet unexplained, which, overnight, resulted in the termination of respite care and short breaks.
The complete absence of openness, transparency and accountability over this – indeed, any – issue can only lead to suspicion and distrust.
As the original former manager of Thor House, it seems to me there has also been a catastrophic breakdown in data collection and forward planning within the council’s children’s services which should have evidenced the growing demand for respite care. That a senior manager in social services could say publicly that Thor House, as originally designed, could not continue to justify four-bedded provision is beyond baffling! Actually, it is disturbing.
I have a copy of a joint NHS and Highland Council “Caithness Locality Planning” document for learning disabilities which evidences that, in the late 1990s, 18 children were using Thor House, each for an average of 30 days per year. At the same time, adult usage (bookings alternated between adults and children) was 19 adults, for up to 37 days per year.
In the meantime, the number of people with autism spectrum conditions has grown exponentially with statistics soaring eightfold since Thor House opened in 1993.
Encompass Caithness, a pressure group formed to seek improvements to local social care provision, carried out its own survey last year with overwhelming results highlighting the scale of unmet needs in the county. Indeed, its independent collator described the results as “gut-wrenching”.
I resigned my role as group adviser and as a trustee with immediate effect from Encompass Caithness last month but not before presenting our survey results to local councillors and asking them to prepare a Caithness-specific local improvement plan. Will it ever be forthcoming, I wonder?
And when will the impenetrable wall-of-silence that is NHS Highland say anything – yes, any utterance whatsoever – about the delivery of respite care for the families of adults with additional support needs – a service provision that falls within their remit.
It should be noted that the allegedly cash-strapped NHS Highland has a glut of local managers and lead improvement officers – although what they are improving remains to be seen. There are less needles in a hedgehog than the number of local NHS managers!
But, for now, a time to celebrate that Thor’s respite provision is to return – and not before time!
Dan Mackay
Randolph Place
Wick
Make Thurso a free parking haven
I (and 200 others) were at the parking meeting. Councillor Karl Rosie was not. We heard all the explanations and many gave their opinions. He was free to give his if he had been there.
He now says Thurso should look at the parking proposals. I think he should look at the streets of Thurso. Most days they are empty of vehicles and people from morning to evening. This cannot be allowed to continue – Thurso will die.
Shops and businesses need help, not the rug pulled out from under them. There was a small number of people with parking problems; the solution the council came up with was the one they use everywhere – the usual one fits all plan – stop everything and everyone parking and make everyone pay instead.
This in many places that are nothing but holes joined together pretending to be roads and car parking areas.
Let’s not spend all this money on plans, meters, signage, paint, permits, wardens etc etc. Spend this money making the parking areas useable, putting paint on the junctions so no-one is in any doubt about where to park. Make Thurso the go-to place for free parking and welcome the customers to our town.
We need them and we need to be able to park to go shopping, to go for coffee, for lunch, haircuts, new clothes, go to the doctors – wherever. I am told they won’t even let people park to attend funerals if these restrictions go ahead. It’s total madness.
Remove all the ones we already have that are completely unnecessary – six different ones in one street alone.
This area has so many problems with its hospitals, schools, wind farms, battery storage, that all require sorting out – please leave our lovely wide town centre streets alone, unless it involves tarmacadam!
Sandra Campbell
Millbank Road
Thurso
Scrabster A9 issue needs collaboration
I write in response to Cllr Matthew Reiss’s call for an “avalanche shelter” on the A9 at Scrabster. Whilst a more serious suggestion than his earlier social media comments and public admonishments, his proposal lacks detail and relevance to similar works: such as those at Stromeferry, which also employ gabion baskets to stabilise some of the most unstable rock faces near a public road in western Europe.
Cllr Reiss, as former depute convener of Highland Council’s corporate resources committee, was aware of these challenges before some say conveniently stepping down ahead of the 2022 elections. In his Saturday, January 11 post, he dismissed potential responses from Maree Todd MSP.
However, Ms Todd has already identified funding for A9 improvements – confirmed in a letter from the cabinet secretary dispersed in November 2024 – and facilitated initiatives like the Golspie Flood Action Group in response to resident and stakeholder concerns.
He asserts to have lobbied on this issue for years, including during his time in administration. Yet, despite raising the matter through him and other representatives, I have seen little beyond discussions in sympathetic meetings in public and social media postings.
I have contacted both Sir Edward Mountain and Maree Todd’s offices. Both have been sympathetic. I am glad to see the latter will host a drop-in session with Transport Scotland representatives at the Pentland Hotel from 2-4pm on Valentine’s Day.
The problem predates March 2017. Scrabster was cut off for 72 hours after a 2006 landslip, leading to the installation of gabion baskets.
I am seeking the text of a report post-2017.
Highland Council successfully secured UK government levelling-up funding for the Ullapool to Bettyhill route based on tourism. With effective lobbying from Thurso-side councillors and the MP, additional funding could have been leveraged for the A9, recognising its role in international trade.
As Stanley Baldwin noted, seeking power requires accepting responsibility. Opposition should not be a mere obstruction but a commitment to collaborative solutions on critical issues like this; setting aside pettifoggerous partisan politics and hidden agendas.
Alexander Glasgow
Tower Hill Road
Thurso
