Ross-shire councillors reveal 2025 wish lists
A reversal of “obsessive centralisation” of national government, an end to political posturing within Highland Council and solid progress on delayed school projects are amongst the items on the 2025 wish lists of councillors representing you.
The Ross-shire Journal asked local councillors to reflect on what they would most like to see in 2025 and got a wide variety of responses.
Maureen Ross (Tain and Easter Ross) said: “I have to say all three councillors work hard, are committed and able, working well together for the good of the area, unlike some wards”.
Top of her 2025 wish list: 1. Tain gets a new swimming pool. 2. Portmahomack and Inver get a bus service. 3. Fearn finally secures funding to finish their pavilion and through the Active Travel scheme the school children get proper safe passage to the playing field there. 4. Highland Council will be successful in securing retrofit funding to complete the Balintore project. 5. I will get a new hip very shortly!
She said: “On the council side of things it would be not having to listen to the nonsense some councillors come out with in chamber. Many of the comments are destructive and show this lack of understanding of the bigger picture. You know them from the smirk on their faces, hellbent on mischief and a love of their own voice speaking to the gallery of reporters, then rushing outside for their photoshoot. There is a lot of good work being done by council perhaps that needs to be shared more. Let’s buck the trend and start doing that.”
Morven-May MacCallum (Black Isle) said she had been amazed “at the incredible work from the community and the council staff” over the last year, flagging “some fantastic changes happening over the Black Isle”.
She intends continuing work to make the Black Isle more disabled friendly by getting more dropped curbs into villages, improving road safety and working with communities to fulfil their goals. “I also have big plans for my new role as the Cadets and Reserve Champion,” she said.
Nationally, she’s keen to see more done “to correct the worrying tend in violence towards women”, and wants to see drink, vape and injection spiking dealt with and made a criminal offence and more done to address depopulation.
John Edmondson (Cromarty Firth) wants to see “the obsessive centralisation of the Scottish Government and local authorities reversed so that communities and people have a greater sense of belonging and feel that things are done for them, rather than to them”. He wants substantial progress on making improvements to the A9 junctions in the ward.
Sean Kennedy (Dingwall and Seaforth) is looking for solid plans for a new St Clement’s and Dingwall Primary School and welcomes “long overdue” investment in Dingwall Business Park and the prospect of the Hector Macdonald tower being reopened. He also wishes Muir of Ord Golf Club best wishes for 2025 for their 150th centenary.
Sarah Atkin (Black Isle) said that a bloody war on European soil “isn’t something I thought I’d witness again in my lifetime, so my hope for 2025 is for an end to the war in Ukraine”.
Closer to home, she hopes the political ‘limbering up’ for Holyrood 2026 doesn’t spill over too much into the Highland Council chamber. “Sadly, I fear my first hope has more chance of happening than my second!”
Councillor Lyndsey Johnston (Black Isle) wants more unpaid carers to know about changes to employment law where they can now get unpaid leave from work to assist with looking after friends and family. She said: “I would like to see children and young people have better mental health and more opportunities to be young and have fun. And I hope life gets a bit easier for everyone, in whatever way makes a difference.”
Margaret Paterson (Dingwall and Seaforth) wants to see the end of wars and peace all over the world and, closer to home, the building of the St Clement’s special school and “my beloved Ross County to stay in the top league”.
She wants to see houses built as “everybody deserve a home”. And “I would love a solid promise that we are on the list for a new Ross Memorial Hospital in Dingwall as soon as possible”.
She’s also keen to see progress on development at Dingwall Business Park.
Biz Campbell (Wester Ross, Strathpeffer and Lochalsh) also flagged more affordable housing and “more money available for communities who strive to improve their communities”. She wants more money for roads, Kishorn Port to land more decommissioning work and Lochalsh Leisure Centre success in opening the leisure centre in Kyle and getting the funding needed to open the swimming pool again.
She wants the heating allowance for pensioners restored, for the needy, and an end to the war in Ukraine and fighting in Palestine. She wants an end to constituents having to rely on foodbanks to survive.
Maxine Smith (Cromarty Firth) wants to see local community views considered by Scottish Government over wind farm and battery plant applications.
She wants to see a group set up regarding the common good asset, the Bouchardon bust, “to decide how to spend £125,000 per annum on Invergordon”.
She wants a new voluntary group set up to oversee the paid-for maintenance of the Rosskeen woods after houses are built and one to promote and organise the rebuilding of Milnafua Hall, Alness.
Her wish list includes funding packages to sustain the Perrins centre, Alness Heritage Centre and Fyrish Gymnastics Club.
Building of affordable housing “for the many who need them” and a look at the school estate as a whole for the Cromarty Firth ward “to enable a new and holistic approach to education and development of the primary and secondary schools”.
Graham Mackenzie (Dingwall and Seaforth) is looking forward to early movement on the Highland Investment Plan “which seems like very good news for Dingwall and Seaforth”.
He said: “I’m very confident that we will be able to secure funding for the repair works to be done in the Macdonald Tower allowing it to be re-opened to the public.
He said planning is well underway for Dingwall 800 in 2026 and looks forward to potentially exciting works at Pefferside Park and Dingwall Business Park: “This will allow more businesses to be located in Dingwall with the attendant economic benefit.”
Liz Kraft (Wester Ross, Strathpeffer and Lochalsh) wants to see the continued roll our of the investment plan to repair roads and schools and build more houses: “This will make such a difference to the lives of the people who live here.”
She said: “We all want to make life better! I want EU nationals living with us and left in limbo following Brexit to be given the security of status they were promised with physical proof and an end to the evisas.
“And of course I want decisions for Scotland to be made by the people who live here. Globally I want wisdom and pragmatism to prevail and for the suffering we see too much of to end.”
Derek Louden, Tain and Easter Ross said: “It will be great to see Tain’s 3-18 Campus finally open”.
Laura Dundas (Tain and Easter Ross) wants to see the new Tain 3-18 campus completed “and for our children and young people to have an educational building fit for purpose”. The lack of leisure facilities proposed at the campus “is a huge current concern”. She said: “It is imperative that our communities have the TRACC leisure facilities retained once the campus is open until new funding streams are sought to allow a new leisure facilities to be built.”
She went on: “The last few months saw over 100 houses in the Balintore housing scheme have a much-needed retrofit including new windows, doors, heating systems, external cladding, roof tiles and solar panels. She said: “It would be great to see the continuation of this and allow all houses in the scheme have this works carried out.”
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