Wick plea over updates from local Highland councillors
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Community councillors in Wick are keen to develop better lines of communication with the town's Highland Council representatives to ensure they are kept up to date on local issues.
"Highland councillors' report" is a regular agenda item at monthly meetings of the Royal Burgh of Wick Community Council (RBWCC), giving an opportunity for its members to be updated on a range of projects and activities being dealt with at local authority level.
The Wick and East Caithness ward is served by four Highland councillors but Raymond Bremner is the only one in recent times who has provided a detailed report on a regular basis. In May this year he became Highland Council leader, with a consequent increase in his workload.
RBWCC members feel that if Councillor Bremner is not in a position to give them a report – as was the case at their September meeting, on Monday of this week – then one of the other three ward councillors should be able to step in.
Chairperson Joanna Coghill said: “We know he is busy. He said [on becoming council leader] Wick would still be his priority, but he has got three others that he works with.”
Community councillor David Dunnett commented: “Raymond gets a fair bit of abuse but he always comes back. He's done a lot more than the lot before him.”
Vice-chairman Allan Farquhar said: “We've got the biggest proportion of population on the east side of Caithness. If Raymond can't manage to do it, the message should get back to the others: can you please put this information straight to us?
“We're getting silence from the [other] councillors but we've always been asking them to give us the information a week before our meeting, so we can go over it, digest it, and then ask questions back.
“They don't have to be here. If we get the report early we can do something about it.”
Mrs Coghill said later: "We do realise that Raymond may not always be able to be at our monthly meetings, seeing the workload he now has, but if he knows in advance that he will be unable to join – in person or via Zoom – then perhaps he could ask one of his fellow councillors to deputise for him.
"There will be times when it is too short notice, though.
"We contact each of our four councillors prior to our meetings to see if we can get a monthly report from them. If this doesn't happen we do nudge them with a reminder email afterwards."
Councillor Jan McEwan, who was elected to Wick and East Caithness in May, did attend Monday's RBWCC meeting but she arrived after the discussion about the councillors' report.
