Care homes protest at Highland Council meeting Glenurquhart Road 24 June 2010

Top picture: protesters take over the entrance to the Council chambers. Second picture: John Finnie leader of the opposition addresses the demonstrators. More pictures here on the Gurn flickr pages.

Protestors and those that spoke against the administration earlier today seemed to be concerned by a perceived 'creeping privatisation agenda' within the Council. More from the speeches at the meeting over the next few days.

Care homes issue causes upset

Sandy Park and another senior councillor visited a care home in Fort William, the visit didn't seem to go down too well:

'John McIntosh of Grant Place, Claggan, the founder of a campaign group initially established to save it from closure, was unimpressed by what he heard.
“It was rather heated, actually.
“They weren’t listening. And we had one old friend who was in tears today, asking ‘are they going to take my home away?’ It’s so sad.”

Are the Highland Council administration preparing to drop a promise made? More on the P&J site.

Secret talks to privatise Highland Council care homes?

The Press and Journal is on the case this morning, Iain Ramage reports in today's edition:

'The privatisation of every care home run by Highland Council is back on the agenda.
The Press and Journal can reveal that e-mail messages exchanged by senior officials have confirmed that the controversial option has been discussed by senior members of the local authority’s administration at secret talks.
The correspondence was obtained by the opposition SNP group on the council.'

See the full article here. And the P&J on the council's smoking dilemma here.

UPDATE Tuesday : a new article in Press and Journal
Care homes to stay in council hands
highland leader gives assurance privatisation is no longer on local authority agenda