First meeting of reformed community council

MEMBERS of the newly-reformed Fort William Community Council (FWCC) held their inaugural meeting last week, almost a year after the organisation was officially dissolved, writes Neill Bo Finlayson.

Following its first meeting last Thursday, FWCC’s new chairman heralded a fresh start for the new community council and hopes it will be ‘a forward looking organisation’.

Ten newly-elected community councillors met last week to appoint office bearers before having a general discussion on their aims and aspirations.

Alex Farquhar, appointed chairman at last Thursday’s meeting, said: ‘A lot of people have been hoping it would reform after the resignations. There has been a few attempts since but this was the first time an attempt to reform has been successful.’ In January 2016, FWCC was disbanded following a mass resignation from members, triggered by what they perceived to be a lack of understanding and attention paid to their concerns by the Highland Council.

Since then three attempts have been made to re-establish the community group but to no avail and FWCC was officially dissolved in November last year.

When asked why this attempt has been successful, Mr Farquhar explained timing was probably the most important factor.

He said: ‘A lot of people interested in reforming the community council stepped forward at the same time.

‘There is an awareness at the moment that Fort William is a very changing town. Fort William in 10 years is going to be very different to the one we have today, so it is important the town, as the biggest community in Lochaber, has a voice.’ Lochaber councillor Andrew Baxter also welcomed the news, saying: ‘The community council is vital for Fort William. There are issues in Fort William that affect everyone, such as the A82 and the High Street, so if community councils can work together on these then so much the better.’

Mr Farquhar said that although no definitive set of priorities are in place, some key issues will be the focus of the community council.

He added: ‘There are possibly three main priorities for FWCC. These are the new aluminium factory, the new Belford hospital and the traffic. We’re seeing in Skye and on the North Coast 500 how a lack of facilities and infrastructure is causing problems. We can see it happening already on Ben Nevis.’