Jobs pledge from new council leader

The new man at the helm of Highland Council has pledged that supporting jobs and helping employers is vital to the authority, and is already in action.

Freshly elected council leader Drew Hendry said it had worked hard to help workers employed by the financially stricken Highland construction firm UBC Group.

It lurched into administration after the council elections at the start of the month and 98 staff lost their jobs in Inverness alone.

But there was a small chink of light this week when 30 jobs were saved by the sale of a company subsidiary, Wyvis Roofing, to its management.

The council actively supported the sale because helping jobs and families were key aims of the new-look leadership, said Councillor Hendry, who formally took up the reins of power after a council meeting in Inverness last week.

The SNP group leader will head up the new regime for the next five years in a controversial rainbow coalition with the party’s previous political opponents the Liberal Democrats and Labour, who ran the last administration with the Independents.

The three parties joined forces in the council’s first full political alliance and shut out the Independents, who had been expected to lead a new coalition because they had 35 councillors, the largest total of any group.

Councillor Hendry said the coalition had been working hard since joining forces to agree on a progressive programme of policies. A revamp of the current set-up, which sees most meetings centralised and decisions taken in Inverness, is on the cards with a year-long pilot of a resurrected area committee structure.

The Inverness city committee and a new Caithness and Sutherland area committee will be given more powers, including the ability to make decisions on road investment, resources and economic development decisions.

He said the latter power could be connected to major developments sited locally, like Global Energy Group’s plans to create 2000 jobs and create a service hub for the renewable energy industry at Nigg in Ross-shire.

"There are general developments which are very important, like Nigg for example, which would have an impact on Inverness and Caithness and Sutherland," he said. "It will be an opportunity to see decision making locally. The people that I have been speaking to have been delighted that we are doing this and the general feeling is that it is long overdue."

The rainbow coalition will also set up a community challenge fund for local groups to bid into and introduce a "living wage" of about £7.20 an hour for up to 300 lowly paid council workers.

Councillor Hendry will be assisted by Lib Dem David Alston, who has become depute leader ,and Labour’s Jimmy Gray, the former Inverness Provost, who is the new convener.

Councillor Alston (Black Isle) nominated Councillor Hendry for the leader’s job at the meeting last week and described him as dedicated and hard working.

Independent Ross-shire councillor Fiona Robertson proposed veteran colleague Alasdair Rhind. She said he was the peoples’ choice and had the moral authority to carry out the role.

However, 44 councillors to 32 voted for Councillor Hendry.

The 47-year-old father-of-four from Tore, near Muir of Ord, was elected to the council for the first time in 2007 and represents the sprawling Aird and Loch Ness ward.