YOUR VIEWS: Highlands health board has acted appallingly over Kingussie’s legacy

I was appalled when I read the article in this week’s Strathy relating to the Burall bequest of £311,000 for St Vincent’s Hospital.

NHS Highland has behaved in a shameful manner, attempting to get the area the bequest was intended to benefit altered, enabling them to utilise the money elsewhere.

They may say that they have a genuine commitment to foster open dialogue and transparency, but the fact that they have only allowed a small (redacted) part of the Burall will to be viewed, tells you everything you need to know.

No-one wanted to see St Vincent’s close but the community were not given a choice, and while they were consulted regarding the new hospital in Aviemore, this was sold along the lines of: if you don’t get on board we will go ahead and build the hospital anyway without your in-put.

The community engaged, attempting to be as constructive as possible, saying what they wanted to see in their new hospital.

This was obviously just a tick box exercise, as precious little of the suggestions made by the community ‘consultation’ appear to have been adopted, and everyone has been sold short as a result.

They didn’t even bother providing decent public transport to their shiny new hospital, despite having promised that they would.

Small communities can do an awful lot with just a little. Imagine what Kingussie would have been able to achieve for everyone in the town and surrounding area, with £311,000.

Despite the entreaties of highly respected community leaders and the excellent options previously presented to them, NHSH seem hell-bent on acquiring the money meant for Kingussie to spend as they think fit, elsewhere.

While they insist on dragging this out, the original monies continue to be devalued.

It is pretty shameful, whichever way you look at it. They really need to reconsider their actions

Ailsa Schofield

Kingussie.

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Highland Council could not sell muck to rose growers in strath

The Strathy has published letters from me about Highland Counci saying that...on glass recycling, they ‘did not know their glass from their elbows’...and their new recycling system was overcomplicated.

Last week's Strathy topped that.

There was a great letter telling us that we were being over binned by bureaucracy and a report that Biffa, the glass collector, was being Biffad about, by the Scottish Government nanny state,

Dig deeper and the Strathy reports that Highland Council’s projected revenue from a weekly parking deal for camper vans has failed to deliver.

It achieved eight per cent of target. 92 of a 100 potential customers said no thanks. Please take time to look up and to read what the council is offering in terms of a week's parking overnight at local authority car parks.

If you agree that the recent instructions of waste collection were not user friendly, then the verbiage to sell camper parking is excrement...and, by the way, on council car parks, there is nowhere to put it.

In these terms achieving eight per cent of revenue is an achievement.

Council marketing could not sell muck to rose growers. The public are customers and should be addressed as such.

Gregor Rimell

Newtonmore.

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Booze taking its toll on Scotland

I AM writing to you after reading in the Strathy last week that 1,277 people in Scotland died due to alcohol in 2023.

I started drinking heavily to blot out the abuse from my now ex-husband. Then, my mum died and a few weeks later my dad was diagnosed with lymphoma and refused chemotherapy.

He just wanted to be with my mum, and he drank every day. A lot of the time I joined him. I thought at the time it made him happier that he wasn't sitting, drinking alone.

Eventually, I had to accept that if I didn’t stop drinking I was going to die. Thanks to support from drug and alcohol charity WithYou, I am now seven months sober. I feel so much better, and loads of people have said that it looks like they’ve got the former me back.

I've got a twinkle in my eye, I feel healthier, I feel more positive about life.

I want your readers to know that there is help out there.

Reach out to your local service, or to use the WithYou webchat to connect with a recovery worker.

To find out more about support for the local area, please visit wearewithyou.org.uk

Name and address supplied.

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Explanation for change of name from Aultmore House

In recent weeks there have been a number of concerns raised both locally and through the letters page of this newspaper surrounding the changing of the name of ‘Aultmore House’, Nethy Bridge.I would like to explain the reasoning behind the change.

Like most other people we were annoyed, and disappointed at this change as the house was built as ‘Aultmore House’, has always been ‘Aultmore House’ and to us locals at least will alway be ‘Aultmore House’.

Several weeks ago we sent a letter to the company owners of Tomintoul Distillery explaining our disappointment and indeed anger at the change which at first sight appeared thoughtless and only done to promote their company at the expense of our historic building.

To the company’s credit we got an almost instant reply and within two days I attended a meeting along with community council secretary Heather Tucker and directors of Tomintoul Distillery.

The meeting was extremely amicable and we discovered the state that the house is really in following years of little or no investment on its fabric. Much work needs to be done or the building will become a ruin.

When the name change was mentioned, and this is the important bit, we were reminded that there is already a distillery called ‘Aultmore’ between Keith and Buckie.

To leave the name on our Aultmore would cause considerable confusion and be very unhelpful to both companies.

There would be an assumption that the two were connected as opposed to competitors as they are.

We can, while still being very disappointed at the need, fully understand the reasoning.

Our ‘Aultmore’ will be known as ‘Tomintoul House’, Aultmore Estate, Nethy Bridge.

The company have spent a large sum of money on its purchase and are set to spend an equally large sum over the coming years on its restoration and bring it in to the 21st Century.

The fabric of the building as can be seen from publicly accessible documents is at best ‘sad’ with a lot of work and money to be spent bringing it up to standard.

They intend as much as possible being done locally and local businesses benefiting and in the longer term guests all coming to Nethy bringing with them attendant spin offs for the village.

It was explained that when they took over the Tomintoul Distillery there were approximately 10 employees while there are now around 30 and they hope that this increase will also have benefits and an increase in staff for the house.We may have lost a name but we have saved a house.

Sandy McCook

Chairman of Nethy Bridge and Vicinity Community Council.

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Turning off the turbines is costing nation dearly

Our politicians have been led by the nose by the green soothsayers to mythical green pastures where electricity produced by wind turbines is reliable and cheap.

The reality is different.

Electricity prices are rising and one of the reasons is that companies are paid to turn off their turbines when it is not needed or the grid cannot cope.

Since the grid cannot cope, why have the developers been allowed to build yet more turbines?

Surely a sensible government would allow the developers to submit their planning applications but warn them that they would not be allowed to switch on their turbines until the grid could cope.

The Viking wind farm in Shetland has already, in only two months, been paid £3 million in constraint payments.

Over the past decade £650 million has been added to electricity bills.

The National Grid Electricity system operator has forecast that constraint payments could rise to as much as £2.5 billion per year by the middle of this decade.

So much for politicians' claims of cheap reliable green electricity.

Clark Cross

Springfield Road

Linlithgow.

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‘Highland Council is railroading unlawful short term let policy’

Q: What do the USA Democrats and Highland councillors have in common?

A: They both believe in the weaponisation of the legal system to remove something they dislike

The test of any national legal system is to whether it can stand up for what is or is not lawful and keep that separate from local political point of view.

Some of you might not like short term lets, even more might positively hate Donald Trump, it does not justify weaponisation of either legal system to unlawfully remove.

I have read many a supporting legal opinion from Democrat lawyers who have no love for Trump but that are horrified by the attempt to weaponise their legal system to prevent him standing in the election

Points of view are notoriously fickle and often transient. Principles of law are not .

Scots Law is founded on Principles first expounded by our institutional writers and are there to defend our liberal democracy, protect individual rights and mark us out from a liberal (or otherwise) autocracy.

Majority dictatorship is not really any better than a minority one

For the third time our Scottish legal system has had to intervene and prevent Edinburgh Council’s attempt to weaponisation our law to remove pre-existing legitimate STL businesses commenced before control area.

This third attempt was around demanding pre-existing operators apply for change in use planning or certificate of lawfulness as a condition of obtaining a licence despite new legislation giving no retrospective powers

On sight of Senior Kings Counsel opinion that this was unlawful Edinburgh has accepted unlawful and backed off.

Highland Council has a similar policy but as at the writing of this letter has not.

Edinburgh has the pain of unsuccessfully defending two Judicial Reviews costing rate payers over £400,000 pounds - apparently Highland needs that pain for common sense to apply but let’s hope not

Of course if Highland accepts existing operators did not require planning or certificate of lawfulness and it was a condition of licence that we applied and paid ( in my case £1,800 an application for planning and the similar request for a certificate of lawfulness ) it does make their refusal to return everyone’s fees surely untenable .

Perhaps that explains their tardiness to accept what Edinburgh and other local authorities are now accepting

Gordon Thomson

Kingussie.

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Putting plight of town hospital in public eye

May I congratulate the Strathy editorial, a couple of weeks back, particularly on the history of the once vibrant St. Vincent’s cottage hospital in Kingussie.

With a front page follow up article on the forgotten large donation and the state of St. Vincent’s now, the Badenoch community is indebted to the Strathy journalists and indeed to its local Highland councillors.

Incidentally, in danger of once again annoying the genial Geoff France from Holmfirth, I firstly thank him for his encouraging comments and agree that passion and tenacity in what we believe in, must be expressed.

After all words are the currency of our democracy and culture; but to me on being “somewhat gentler”, I take on board!

However from the Office of National Statistics, the gross domestic product (GDP) recorded zero growth. i.e. the UK economy flatlined in July for the second month in a row.

Without the huge sporting events and service industries this summer, it would have been far worse.

Why is it that other European countries have growth expansion, while so called Great Britain has zero growth?

It is undoubtably due to that disastrous Brexit deal, the jovial roque Boris Johnson signed, which none of the Westminster unionist parties wish to talk about - but the fishermen and farmers do!

Grant Frazer

Newtonmore.

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Feeding hungry kids in Ethiopia

Earlier this year, Mary’s Meals ran an appeal for children suffering in the war-torn, drought-stricken Tigray region of Ethiopia.

Witnessing a truly appalling humanitarian catastrophe – one already taking lives by starvation and robbing children of their futures by preventing school attendance – we wanted to expand our school feeding programme as quickly as possible.

Mary’s Meals feeds more than 2.4 million hungry children in 17 of the world’s poorest countries, including Ethiopia, every school day. The promise of a nutritious meal at school attracts these children into the classroom, where they can gain an education and hope of a brighter future.

The response to our Crisis In Ethiopia appeal was yet again overwhelming and beautiful.

Each gift given is already making a tangible difference in children’s lives.

Instead of providing 24,000 children in Tigray with daily meals – as we were previously – we are now reaching more than 110,000!

Schools on the verge of closure have new life. Hope is being reborn in the form of smiling children filling school classrooms. Lives are being saved. Dreams of a better day are once again alive.

Even in the most challenging situations, donations become simple school meals that transform everything.

Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow

Founder of Mary’s Meals.

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