Pathways to the core truth

This week, it was reported in the press and on TV - but perhaps most notoriously in the Daily Record - that Roseanna Cunningham had been forced, through letters from MI5 and Westminster, to do a u-turn and not include two paths close to Balmoral in the Cairngorms National Park Core Paths Plan. There were calls for her resignation, and all manner of righteous indignation.

The truth of the matter, as reported in a public meeting of the board of the National Park on Friday, is that the park board had decided, before submitting their recommendations, that these two paths should not, in fact, be included. The board had recognised representations made by Balmoral Estate that the proximity of parts of these paths posed a security issue, and that, even though locally they were used by custom and practice, their publication as core paths would not be helpful.

In the course of statutory consultation, there were a number of unresolved objections which meant that a public inquiry would be needed, one of which was an objection that these paths should, after all, be included. The reporter who conducted the inquiry decided that he was not persuaded of the park board's view and recommended their reinstatement as core paths. The minister in fact said she was 'minded to accept' the reporter's recommendations, but nevertheless felt she needed a view on the security issue from the appropriate sources in London, and wrote accordingly.

The advice she received was clear and unequivocal that it was indeed considered that a security threat would be posed, so in the end, the Minister directed that the board of the Park should formally adopt their plan, as they had proposed, without these two paths. The media only reported the leaked letters from London - none of the rest of the facts.

Perhaps, one might think, journalists were simply being lazy and not bothering to discover the full context - but that would be a charitable view that is extreme in it's gullibility. These are 'professional' journos, interested only in a story; 'Minister considers all available advice and accepts park core paths plan' is not a story; and it doesn't give them any opportunity at all for their avowed and oft-evidenced propensity toward Nat-bashing. They were not lazy - they set out deliberately once again to deceive and to mislead. Plus ca change......

First of the many

It's a bit on the wierd side to be sitting here tonight, gone 61 years of ancient, yet posting my first blog. I took this notion for no particular reason other than to try to get across what it's like being an SNP Elected Councillor in a Scottish Local Authority. Truth be told, I'm also a nominated member of the Cairngorms National Park Authority and, when I get the chance in between, an Artist - in which capacity, my claim to fame is having painted the pictures for Susan Hampshire's starring role in the BBC TV series 'Monarch of the Glen'. That's it, then, the briefest of introductions over - and time to put some meat in the sandwich.
So lets try and make a start.
This morning saw me make the trip which my sit up and beg Ford Fusion can now make on its own, up to Inverness - the Headquarters of almost all things Highland Council - for a meeting of the Audit and Scrutiny Committee - the only committee chaired by the official opposition - which we in the SNP currently are. It's role is to scrutinise and audit pretty much anything and everything - if it moves, scrutinise it till it stops, then audit it.
OK, so that's not really what it's about, but it has a serious role in ensuring that decisions are taken properly, policies and procedures are fully followed, and money is spent appropriately. Most interesting issue this time was an audit of job appointments, in which, amongst other things, it was discovered that five out of a sample of thirty five new appointments didn't get issued with contracts of employment. The audit recommendation was to ensure that all service managers informed human resources as they should so that contracts could be issued. But I know that there are many people washing around in the Council system who have never had a contract of employement, so I asked what they were going to do to track these down and fix it. They seem to have something planned, so we'll see.
After a bite of lunch - HQ's notoriously unidentifiable sandwiches - it was back home to log on to have a look at the test site for the National Park's new web portal - not yet launched, but intended to link to via local tourism marketing organisations' sites. The more I dug, the worse it got - inconsistent results and problems with some businesses not being found, or not being linked to. There is still some way to go with this, so I needed to take a trip down the four miles to Grantown to talk things through with the staff involved and agree what I was going to say at tomorrow's board meeting, and why. Perhaps there'll be more on this subject later. For those with a high boredom threshold and a death wish, watch this space.