We need action to deal with Sutherland's economic crisis
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SO, enough is enough.
The economy of Central and East Sutherland is at crisis point, with more than 100 jobs lost to the area in the past year or so, and the Northern Times is campaigning for representatives at all levels to unite and act now to reverse this decline.
That means community councillors, Highland councillors, our MP, MSPs, MEPs, Highland and Islands Enterprise (HIE) and the Scottish Government itself.
Although Serco is still going through the consultation period, it would be naive to think that closure can be averted. A commercial operation will always make decisions based on the balance sheet.
But what grates is that jobs in Brora are being sacrificed for those in Glasgow.
And that is happening across the county as local and national departments and services are squeezed out of Sutherland to Inverness or Caithness.
Now is the time for HIE to mobilise to secure inward investment, for east Sutherland to be given the same economic development package as afforded Thurso/Wick and Scrabster when Dounreay was decommissioned.
Wind and wave energy developments are on our doorstep and yet we have seen little locally in the way of new jobs
The Scottish Government should declare the area an "emergency zone" and look at offering such as rate relief – charities can receive up to 80 per cent discount on their rates and the same should apply, if only for a limited period, to Sutherland.
Government and Highland Council must also consider decentralising their offices – Scottish Natural Heritage led the way in relocating from Edinburgh to Inverness. Others can follow suit.
Our campaign is already being supported.
Fergus Ewing MSP told us this week: "I have obviously had discussions with HIE on the Serco announcement, and I am going to check out some matters with them and get back to you as soon as I can.
"I appreciate that this is very serious news indeed, and we are, as you rightly say, conscious about the impact which such decisions have. I will therefore revert to you as quickly as possible."
Highland Council’s Caithness and Sutherland area leader, Deirdre Mackay, said: "Get Sutherland Working: This is the message which must go to the government. The facts speak for themselves, how many times do we need to present the evidence?
"Sutherland now requires special status and Holyrood must act. I have written to the enterprise minster inviting him to the county to witness at first hand the challenges we face."
Central and East Sutherland councillor Graham Phillips said: "Serco are carrying out a contract for NHS England. Scottish ministers have been asked whether they can intervene with opposite numbers in London, but I expect Brora will be too small fry for them to worry about.
"Partnership Action for Continuing Employment (PACE) has been invoked, and that’s good but it’s reactive. There are too many jobs being lost in a short time with nothing to replace them.
"Inverness has a huge amount of investment and a huge rate of population growth. Dounreay money is pouring into Caithness. Poor old Sutherland is sandwiched between them, getting only piecemeal investment, nowhere near enough, so that when we get shocks like Serco we can’t absorb them."
Fellow ward councillor Jim McGillivray agreed: "Another nail in the coffin of the Sutherland economy, after the Grean liquidation and Dornoch courthouse closure last year, and the Scotch Premier factory shutting down a few years back. And service point closures may kick in next.
"Along with structural national debt, there is obviously structural national economic mismanagement and instability for which ordinary people are paying a very heavy price."
Golspie Community Council chairman Iain Miller told us: "Sutherland is being allowed to be an economic wilderness. Have all the economic options to stay in Brora by Serco already been pursued; has HIE done what they should be doing and pitched in some cash?
"I would like to read some positive thing that they have done – 21 jobs in Glasgow is jack squat but in Brora, or any of our small villages, it is our life blood.
"And the existing businesses in the area which appear to be successful are being crippled by an increase in their rateable values. The right to question such charges is almost denied."
We contacted Rob Gibson, MSP, but so far he has not replied.
Complacency is the mother of decline. We must, to quote Dylan Thomas, "Rage, rage, against the dying of the light".
