Badenoch watchdog looks for answers after poor election response

KINCRAIG Community Council which has been run for many years with 15 members came perilously close to folding after a disastrous response to its call for new candidates to contest November’s election.

Now the watchdog is to look at ways that it can attract more new blood and move with the times.

At their latest meeting in the community hall, members looked at reasons behind the dismal result of its unprecedented leaflet drop.

Every household on the electoral roll in the area had been canvassed but no new names came forward and only four of the existing 15-strong council put their names forward to continue.

Initial reaction had laid the blame firmly at the feet of "apathy".

Retiring member Mrs Kate Christie suggested it was time that the council considered being "a bit more innovative".

"I don’t think there’s that much apathy, it’s just that people are incredibly busy and can’t make it," she said. "Kincraig is known to be a really vibrant, buzzing community.

"Some people who might want to join the council may think it’s incredibly onerous, meeting every month and in the evenings, when full-time workers already have so many responsibilities."

And she offered: "We live in a technological age now and so much more can be done through the likes of email. We ought to be thinking of new ways of doing things."

Alvie factor David Kinnear agreed that meetings need not just have to be at 7.30pm on the second Tuesday of each month.

He suggested they could be varied, sometimes arranged for mornings or afternoons, to enable more people to attend.

Vice-chairman Dave Brown, of Insh, said: "We are missing out on the important elements of the community we want to attract – women, younger folk. We have to make the meetings more accessible to them."

Local Highland Council member Dave Fallows suggested rotating meeting times, to find the most appropriate to suit the community.

The new council, with just four members, will be entitled to co-opt three more and names have been put forward for the December meeting, first of the new council.

The current council’s final meeting is to be held at the community hall on November 8.

In Badenoch and Strathspey, only Carrbridge attracted enough interest in people wanting to join the community council to trigger an election next month.

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