A RETURN to Highland Council area committees - as the SNP group have pledged to do should they win power this May - would be very welcome.
Since the local government re-organisation of 2007 Highland Council has grown ever more centralised in Inverness and party political.
Whilst nothing much can be done to prevent the latter which in any case adds more colour to council chambers, a return to more local democracy is required.
Highland Council has had a habit in the past decade of growing their strategic committees and their geographical areas.
A case in point is planning. First Badenoch and Strathspey was merged with Nairn, then later came under the auspices of Inverness and now we have a South Highland Planning committee. The same has happened with other council services and licensing.
There was a pledge five years ago when the changes were made that controversial planning applications affecting our part of the world would be heard in the local community but that never transpired.
Strathspey Thistle's planning application for ground improvements at Seafield Park in Grantown, Highland Council's objection to the Allt Duine wind farm near Kincraig and others were determined in Inverness.
The upshot is decisions affecting our local communities are often taken more than 30 miles away in the Highland capital, and some do not even surface there, by Highland councillors who have limited knowledge - some may also claim limited interest - of the real issues.
It is likely the access dispute involving the Macdonald Aviemore Resort swimming pool and today's row over proposed charges by High Life Highland to use the new football pitch on land belonging to the Aviemore community would have come into the public domain much early if area committees had still been in existence.
In recent years the detail - and so often the stumbling point - has been lost within the bigger picture at Highland Council headquarters.
Re-forming area committees for Badenoch and Strathspey and for our communities across this vast region would help readdress that balance.
