THE SNP has pledged to resurrect area committees across the Highlands in a bid to put "power at the heart of communities" - if it wins control of the region's local authority in May.

The party's group on Highland Council yesterday (Thursday) announced the first of its manifesto policies ahead of the election. It wants to undertake a radical overhaul of the current set-up which sees the vast majority of meetings and decisions taken centrally in Inverness.

The SNP said the move would see the 80 new councillors serve on new area committees - with spending powers - in Caithness, Lochaber, Nairn and Badenoch and Strathspey, Wester Ross, Sutherland, Skye and Ross and Cromarty and meet in these communities.

The eight old area committees, which took decisions on a host of key issues including transport, education, housing, culture and sport, were axed across the region in a controversial 2007 reorganisation.

Decisions since then have been taken at a Highland-wide level.

Local licensing boards and committees were replaced in 2010 by a regional body which meets in Inverness, while more recently area planning committees which were held in towns like Dingwall, Tain, Golspie, Dornoch and Wick were also scrapped.

In their place came two north and south planning committees, both of which are now held in the Highland Capital.