WestInverness.org.uk

Consultation is now under way on where to place the Faith, Hope and Charity statues once they return to Inverness following their purchase by the Inverness Common Good Fund.

A paper detailing options went before the City Committee on 17th March 2008 and a short list of five options has been identified:

• The Castle embankment
• In front of Ness Bank Church
• Cavell Gardens
• UHI Executive Office gardens (old RNI building)
• Old High Church facing Bank Street

Photo impressions of what these could look like are on the web at:

http://www.greeninverness.com/Documents/FHC%20Options.pdf

Forms are available at the Town House reception desk (Castle Street entrance) or you can download a copy of the options form from the web at:

http://www.greeninverness.com/Documents/FHC%20Options%20List.pdf

Forms should be returned to Highland Council, Town House, Inverness, IV1 1JJ after completion. Closing date is the end of April.

• Council tax is frozen at last year’s level — average Band D property pays £1163. Water charges are not frozen so bills will still rise;
• Charges for Council services WERE increased, with burial charges increases of 50% being the most stark example;
• The Independent/SNP administration backed off on cutting teacher numbers in small rural schools;
• Highland Community Care Forum was given a six-month “stay of execution” — the phrase used by the Council Vice-convenor — whilst consultation on its role took place;
• The Administration clearly failed to consult on its proposals, many of which impacted heavily on service users and the voluntary sector;
• Liberal Democrats put down 18 motions in an attempt to protect services such as teaching posts, the Highland’s play development officer, and reducing school cleaning cuts. None were accepted by SNP and Independents;
• Inverness West councillor Alex Graham put down a marker that the Liberal Democrats were concerned about the level of council house rent increases;
• The budget information provided to councillors was greatly reduced from previous years.

Excellent piece by Helen Paterson in the Inverness Courier on the history of Inverness Common Good Fund, not an easy subject to cover but the article gives a very clear sense of its historic nature. The Common Good Fund, of which the councillors are effectively trustees, dates back hundreds of years, and includes parts of the Longman Industrial Estate, the Ness Islands, the Victorian Market, the Town House (rented to the local authority) and sizeable financial investments.

The article can be found here:

http://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/news/fullstory.php/aid/4931/

Concerns about how it is applied are not confined to recent years, with a major problem in recent decades being the size to which the Fund has grown as compared to the limited nature of clearly accepted uses.

Highland Council administers eight Common Good Funds inherited from predecessor authorities, with Nairn being in the news recently due to the huge increase in its value as a result of 86 acres of land at Sandown on the western edge of the town being developed for housing. The sale proceeds, which have not been divulged, were in excess of £14 million.

A paper showing the current year’s income and expenditure for Inverness Common Good Fund is at this link (as a PDF document) is here.

Highland 2007 will be remembered mainly for the use of £250,000 of Inverness Common Good Fund on a 14 minute fireworks display.

There was massive opposition in Inverness to the use of Common Good Fund money for this closing event. The fireworks were good but the Inverness Common Good Fund should not have been used to pay for them, seems to have been the genral opinion.

One aspect of Highland 2007 that watered down its credibility — apart from its solidly top-down nature culminating in the astonishing call in the P&J by former HIE Chairman Jim Hunter that people should stop moaning and enjoy the show — was the manner in which activities of all kinds have been rolled into its list of achievements.

Improvements costing £440k in total at the Ness Islands — owned by Inverness Common Good Fund as it happens — have been widely hailed but to include them as a H2007 cultural year achievement on the basis of a £30k donation is stretching matters.

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