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Friday, February 10, 2012

SNP to restore area committees if they win the May 3rd election

If the SNP win the elections to Highland Council on May 3rd and form the administration they are promising to restore the area committees across the Highlands their web site states:

"The Manifesto pledge would mean that, as soon as possible, all Councillors elected in May, will serve on Area Committees throughout the Highlands, including Caithness, Lochaber, Nairn and Badenoch & Strathspey, Wester Ross, Sutherland and Skye as well as Ross and Cromarty and will be more available to their electors. Once these committees are established an SNP Administration will work to make sure that as many decisions as possible are taken at local level, including local planning and licensing but also, crucially, revenue spend on roads and community services."

This observer comes away disappointed with that, Nairnshire will be lumped in with Badenoch and Strathspey. No doubt Badenoch and Strathspey would like to be left on their own too. But it has to be seen as a step forward in terms of planning decisions etc. Could this be an ideal opportunity to go much further should this vision come true in the spring? A restored area committee could easily have the chairs of all of Nairnshire's Community Councils sitting with them to help prioritise what needed doing in the County of Nairnshire. Should this come to pass then this observer is sure that our massed ranks of Community Council usual suspects would prove an extra advantage in making sure that Grantown and Aviemore etc didn't get the upper hand on us and all was fair in the division of the dwindling amounts of cash available for the budgets.

The SNP also take a swipe at the current administration and to this observer that administration deserves it. One wonders especially, how the Liberal Democrats, who are supposed to be all about decentralisation, have allowed so much power to drip away to Inverness? They have to shoulder the greater part of the blame as they effectively pull the strings in Glenurquhart Road. Anyway here's what the SNP say:

"The SNP Group believe our commitment to more effective, local democracy will make a huge difference to the energy and enthusiasm of the whole of the Highlands. All areas, including the City of Inverness to make better, more relevant decisions on its growth and development.”

He added. “The current Independent/Lib Dem/Labour Administration has slept through the calls for decision-making to be brought home to communities and has allowed it to be taken away from public scrutiny. There is rarely any good reason for the workings of the Council to be kept from the public, support for change is strong and an SNP Administration will bring democracy and decision-making much closer to your home.” "

This policy has gone done well with the Inverness Courier: "Nationalists promise to bring power back to the city'," says a headline on the frontpage this morning. Inside the paper's editorial makes favourable noises too, beginning:

"How Inverness is run has been a subject of debate ever since the city lost its district council and was subsumed within Highland region. That provoked complaints from both sides, with Invernessians unhappy at politicians from Caithness and Lochaber exerting undue influence on developments in the Highland Capital, while people in the wider Highlands perceive the city to be swallowing up more than its share of the budget."

So we are promised an area committee comprising Nairn, Badenoch and Stratheyspey – a step forward and more than anyone else is offering but to be fair we await the individual manifestos of the rest of the candidates for our area.

More on the SNP website

8 comments:

  1. Spurtle10:28 AM

    Spurtle is cancelling his Gurn subscription until after the May elections ( no refund required)

    Having seen this portal as fairly politically broad based over the years of its existence, it seems to have suddenly become not so.

    It doesn't matter who you vote for, the government always win.

    Wake me up when the bun fight is over.

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  2. Anonymous6:16 PM

    I have been let down by politicians of all parties and do not support any party. I am very worried that our rights are being eroded and most people do not even realise this.

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  3. porridge stir7:28 PM

    Ooh... open season to make comments about Spurtle on the Gurn until May then, longer if no-one wakes him up!

    I wonder if he's given up buying newspapers, listening to the radio, and watching TV as well?

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  4. Spurtle said elsewhere recently:
    "The people of Nairn, and the Highlands at large, should follow follow Orkney's example and have a Council made up solely of independents."

    The independents of course organise themselves like a party to go into administration with Labour and LibDems on Highland Council. Actually there are three lots of independents now. Sort of Real Independents and the Independents that don't like all the other Independents or something like that. Anyone that can be bothered to go to the Highland Council website can find out their designations.

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  5. Anonymous7:56 PM

    SNP are they taking us into the devastation that is Europe ..or will they be clever and get us out. Just a simple yes or no, is the only answer we need.

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  6. vote for Gurn8:00 PM

    Spurtle could be off the Gurn for longer than May should this esteemed publication start making any political comment re Independence

    I'm sure the Gurn would be happy to give white space to almost any party that cared to make contact, witness the Lib Dem position on venison recently covered in this very organ!

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  7. As the side bar says:
    "Will you be standing for the Nairnshire ward in the Highland Council elections in May? If you are and have a Facebook Page or other internet presence please let us know and we'll link to you here."

    Even if you are going to be standing and don't have any of that, please send us a snail mail and we will oblige.

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  8. It's a bit like Andrew Lloyd Webber saying he would leave Britain if the Labour Party got into power. Well they did and he didn't unfortunately.
    It's a bit sad when people value their own opinions above everybody elses to such an extent, that they actually start to believe they can influence hearts & minds, by having a strop & chucking their toys out of the proverbial perambulator. Dearie me. P xx

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