by Colin Campbell

EVEN if we now want to escape from the Gathering Place saga – and I admit I was still too demoralised by the outcome to lay a finger on a keyboard 24 hours after Tuesday’s decisive meeting – we can’t. Because it’s a matter of fact that it’s far from over. Continue reading “Councillors will come to rue the day they made riverside decision”

by Colin Campbell

HELEN Smith looked shattered by what she had witnessed. Del McClurg, ashen faced, said she was speechless with anger, and left. Other members of the public filed out of the council chamber, saying little or nothing, many clearly angry and stunned by the outcome. Continue reading “Gathering Place approved amid fury over a 300-second ‘farce’”

FORGET the conventional wisdom that council meetings by default are turgid, dreary and boring. Tomorrow’s debate on the Ness arts programme and in particular the planned £300,000 riverside Gathering Place, at Glenurquhart Road HQ, will provide a splash of real drama as councillors thrash out the pros and cons of one of the most controversial schemes in years, and decide whether or not it will go ahead. Whether you’re there in person or watching live on the council website, COLIN CAMPBELL reviews the participants and things to look out for. Continue reading “Gathering Place decision day will provide a splash of drama”

HIGHLAND Council leader Margaret Davidson has made an astonishing intervention into the Ness riverside Gathering Place dispute, just days before a crucial meeting on the issue.

 She has written to rebuke Councillor Ron MacWilliam – a fierce critic of the project and the way it’s been handled – for comments he has made on the Gathering Place debacle, and has demanded that he apologise for his criticism.  Ms Davidson said in her letter: “I have become increasingly uncomfortable with some of the statements I read in the press that are attributed to you. I give you some examples here and will explain why I am uneasy with these statements.” Continue reading “Council chief makes ill-judged attack on leading critic”

by Colin Campbell

WITH criticism piling up amid claims of extensive financial confusion and mismanagement of the River Ness Arts scheme, it might seem an act of almost pathological folly to throw good money after bad by spending still more on the “Gathering Place”, a wall and concrete pathways that virtually no-one wants on a natural and unspoilt stretch of riverside. Continue reading “As protesters make the running, outcome too close to call”

INVERNESS MP Drew Hendry hasn’t fully climbed aboard the “independence is now inevitable” bandwagon but he’s lagging not far behind it. Following the publication of a single poll that found 52-48 per cent support in Scotland for the break-up of the United Kingdom, his unmissable Twitter site hasn’t gone into the kind of hysterical overdrive we saw after Nicola Sturgeon announced she was “going for it” two years ago last March, but it’s certainly getting into gear. Continue reading “Nationalists want to cash in on Brexit and bring new turmoil”

SO the music is set to die at the Ironworks venue in Inverness. Another “victim” of Brexit, as some would see it, and of which there’s no doubt. The building which occupies a prime site in Academy Street will be replaced by a 180-bed hotel. And what other than Brexit can explain the literally overwhelming influx of foreign visitors we’ve seen in Inverness and the Highlands, and has left some wandering the streets after midnight unable to find anywhere to sleep? Continue reading “Music venue to be replaced by £200 a night hotel”