Veteran councillor Maxine Smith in shock resignation from Highland Council
A veteran councillor has resigned from Highland Council with immediate effect citing “serious hate incidents” and social media trolling amongst her reasons.
Maxine Smith was a member of the Highland Alliance group having left the SNP during her 18-year tenure as a representative for the Cromarty Firth area of Easter Ross.
Among her Highland Alliance group colleagues were Caithness councillors Andrew Jarvie and Matthew Reiss, as well as Andrew Sinclair, who left Caithness to represent Inverness South.
Ms Smith, a businesswoman in her own right, resigned on Monday evening.
She said: “Much of a councillor’s work goes unseen as it involves the assistance we give to individuals, which is private and confidential.”
Addressing her decision, she said: “I know it will come as a surprise that I’ve announced my intention to stand down imminently.
”It has been a tremendous honour to be re-elected four times by the people of the Cromarty Firth ward and for the most part I have enjoyed my job.
”However, there have been some extremely stressful and worrying moments during my time as councillor and in the last few years there have been serious hate incidents where I’ve found myself at the centre of false allegations that were headlined in the press; I’ve been trolled on social media time and time again by people with opposing views and I’ve been the victim of bullying and threats from people, mostly for things I was innocent of.
“Nevertheless, I was going to stay until the end of my term in May 2027, but now due to personal reasons I feel I must stand down.”
She added: ”This has become a frightening world to live in and I just want to be an ordinary human being. I’m sure I’ll continue to be far less than perfect in the future but at least I will not have the weight of being a councillor on my shoulders if I made a mistake.
”I thank my voters for the honour of serving them for such a long time. I know I’ve helped bring tens of millions of pounds into the local economy and personally helped hundreds of my constituents but it’s finally time to retire from Highland Council.
”As well as the haters there are some wonderful, kind and compassionate constituents who I’ll never forget and some with whom I’ll retain a lasting friendship. I’ll miss many of my long-serving councillor colleagues too.”
