Securing long-term government support is a priority, says new chairman
AFTER A troubled year which saw the North West Highlands Geopark resort to crowd funding to ride out a financial crisis, followed by the resignation of three of its directors, the organisation is looking to the future in time for the next annual general meeting, writes Anne Macdonald. This will take place in Scourie Hall on January 20.
“I don’t think it was as bad as it was being portrayed at the time,” said David MacLeod, the geopark’s new chairman, “but it isn’t easy when you lose your officials and everyone is telling you you’re broke.” Mr MacLeod previously served the geopark as a “community” director for the Tongue area. He added: “In reality, funding is always a problem and that’s the case with every committee I’m on. But I’m fairly confident that things are going to carry on being stable. I don’t know that we’ll ever be in a position where we can say we have money in the bank and everything is okay.”
In his view, a more burning problem is the lack of political support at government level. “I feel we get ignored at the higher levels of the Scottish Government and given that we have a UNESCO designation, I would have thought they would be much more interested in what we’re doing. The feedback I’m getting is that when we speak to MSPs on an individual basis, they’re very encouraging, but at some point, it just seems to fizzle out.”
Graham Phillips, a new addition to the geopark staff in 2017, is also preoccupied with this issue. Mr Phillips is a Golspie-based business consultant and former member of the Highland Council.
He has a part-time business development remit for the geopark, scheduled to last for eighteen months, from July 2017.
This story is from the No 315, January 2018 edition of Am Bratach.
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This story is from the No 315, January 2018 edition of Am Bratach.
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The Postie's Post
WHEN YOU consider that we really don’t have that many roads in the Highlands, the ones we do have seem to get a story from most people you talk to.
Council Gritters Fall Short In Assynt
‘I took to social media in the vain hope that somebody would notice’ — Cllr Currie
Bookends
“She Said He Said I Said: New Writing Scotland 35”, edited by Diana Hendry and Susie Maguire, Association for Scottish Literary Studies, 2017. £9.95.
Graeme At Large
Graeme At Large
A 19th Century View Of 'Wild' Land
A 19th Century View Of 'Wild' Land
Geopark Means Business This Year
Securing long-term government support is a priority, says new chairman
Fraser Darling's View Of Highland Medical Care
The “West Highland Survey: an essay in human ecology”, edited by Frank Fraser Darling, was published by the Oxford University Press in 1955. Fraser Darling (1903-79) was an English ecologist, ornithologist, farmer, conservationist and author who between 1939 and 1943 brought derelict land into agricultural production on Tanera Mòr in the Summer Isles. In January 1944 he met Tom Johnson MP, Secretary of State for Scotland, who was aware of Fraser Darling’s published works which included a popular weekly column on agricultural science syndicated in several Highland newspapers. They agreed his plan for a social and biological investigation into the problems of the West Highlands and for establishing an agricultural advisory and demonstration centre in the crofting areas. In Fraser Darling’s own words, the West Highland Survey was established “in order to examine in a spirit of scientific inquiry, to gather a solid body of facts for analysis and synthesis, which would serve as a foundation for a future policy for the region”. He continued: “The argument was maintained that if the problem were understood in its wholeness, solution would be possible”. In June 1944, a team which included Frank Fraser Darling as director and four young Gaelic-speaking field officers, began work. The resulting 438-page book includes the following account of the Highlands and Islands Medical Service, launched in 1913 and forerunner of the Scottish National Health Service. After thirty years, the surveyors regarded the service as an unqualified success, an enviable situation underlined by the number of able medics seeking work in the post-war Highlands.
From Our Archives
Long service nurse to be honoured by community
The Postie's Post
IF YOU are a regular reader of my postie’s posts you will probably sigh when you realise that I am talking about roads again this month. But I do have an excuse and that is because the Highland Council aren’t really that good at managing them at times.
Bookends
George Gunn, “The Great Edge”, Grace Note Publications, 2017. £12.99.
