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Highland Council is 'sticking two fingers up' to public





Highland Council is to axe service points in Grantown and Kingussie
Highland Council is to axe service points in Grantown and Kingussie

The axe has swung on 23 service points in the Highlands amid stormy political clashes and a warning the local authority was "sticking two fingers up" at the public.

Councillors in Inverness voted by 13 votes to nine along party lines on Wednesday to shut counters across the region saving £160,000, following a heated two-hour debate.

About 30 full-and part-time staff face uncertain futures – although Highland Council has a no compulsory redundancies policy - but opposition leader Carolyn Wilson claimed some of them had already been in tears to her at the prospect.

But she was dubbed "hysterical" by the SNP’s Dave Fallows - chairman of the finance, housing and resources committee – who insisted the move to increased online and phone access would make it easier for the public to pay bills, report faults and book services.

The ruling Nationalist/Lib Dem/Labour coalition said the need to save money, falling demand and footfall for service points triggered the closure programme.

The Independent group tabled an unsuccessful amendment demanding the bases remained open but two-thirds of the service network will shut by June 2015.

Councillor Fallows said face-to-face appointments to access services would be provided if requested and pledged outreach services, ahead of a public consultation.

"The existing model of customer services was appropriate at the time that the network was established in the early 90s," he said. "But we have to move with the times and recognise the way our customers wish to do business and at a time which most suits their lifestyles."

Self-service machines will be installed in Highland libraries.

Councillor Wilson said the group would try to overturn the decision at the full council meeting next month.

She claimed the coalition would not find alternative work for staff, who were mostly female, but would be paid off in voluntary redundancies and be forgotten about.

"I won’t forget about them," she said. "I have met several of them in tears in the last fortnight, they are absolutely devastated. These are real people with real jobs, helping to support their families with salaries. They will not be council redundancies, there will be voluntary severances and in parts of rural Highlands where that will be ill-afforded."

She called for the colaition to defer the closures until it read the letters it had received from outraged community councils in protest.

But council leader Drew Hendry shot back.

"Just to be crystal clear, no staff will be made redundant on a compulsory basis as a result of this review," said Councillor Hendry, who did not rule out voluntary packages. "Some people will be happy about that and some people will be not be happy about that. No changes will be made to any service point, until an appropriate replacement is in place."

He said Councillor Wilson, the resources committee chairwoman in the previous council administration, had been at the helm when two service points were shut in Drumnadrochit and Skye in 2011.

Non-aligned Lochaber councillor Andrew Baxter said the closures would alienate the vulnerable people who depended on service points.

"It seems to me today that rather than extending that helping hand we are taking it away and sticking two fingers up at the people of the Highlands," he said.

The service points to are Bettyhill, Bonar Bridge, Dornoch, Durness, Helmsdale, Lochinver, Lairg, Brora, Gairloch, Lochcarron, Broadford, Kyle of Lochalsh, Mallaig, Acharacle, Kinlochleven, Invergordon, Muir of Ord, Fortrose, Ardersier, Hilton; Inverness, Fort Augustus, Kingussie and Grantown.


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