Lochaber entrepreneur setsLT his sights on council seat
Highland Cinema owner and well-known Lochaber entrepreneur and author Angus MacDonald has thrown his tam o’shanter into the ring as a Lib Dem candidate for May’s Scottish local council elections.
Mr MacDonald, whom lives at Roshven, is to stand as a candidate for one of the four seats up for grabs in his local Fort William and Ardnamurchan ward.
Current ward councillors Andrew Baxter (Conservative) and Blair Allan (SNP) are standing down at the coming election, while councillors Niall Maclean (SNP) and Sarah Fanet (SNP) have both confirmed they will stand for re-election.
And with news that long-serving Caol and Mallaig ward councillor Allan Henderson (Independent) and ward colleague Denis Rixson (Lib Dem) are both to stand down at the election, coupled with the still unfilled vacancy following Ben Thompson’s resignation in the autumn, it means Lochaber is guaranteed to have at least five out of its seven council seats represented by new faces at meetings of the Inverness-headquartered authority.
As well as opening the cinema, Highland Bookshop and Highland Soap Factory in Fort William, and founding the Moidart Trust, Mr MacDonald has built significant businesses in publishing, renewables, online education and recycling, and says he is keen to use his business experience to make change happen here, and to get both Highland Council and the Scottish Government to focus more on Lochaber.
And he says his ambition is for Fort William to win British Town of the Year in five years’ time.
Mr MacDonald believes the Lib Dems offer a real alternative to both the SNP at Holyrood, as well as the Conservatives at Westminster.
‘The SNP have been in power too long and have run out of ideas. The SNP promises of a new Belford Hospital and significant A82 improvements never happen,’ Mr MacDonald told the Lochaber Times.
‘The SNP have fundamentally become a Central Belt party. Edinburgh gets more and more trams and another Forth bridge, the Central Belt gets billions of infrastructure spend.
‘Lochaber has had no real funding. The SNP are obsessed with independence, nothing else seems to matter. Fort William and Ardnamurchan seems to be the poor relation - the SNP has made huge cuts to the Highland Council funding, and the Highland Council doesn’t focus its attention on those of us “way out west”.’
Mr MacDonald said he will fight to change this by working with everyone to bring energy, drive and funding to make a real difference to our area.
He added that on his list of priorities should he get elected when voters go to the polls, will be working to help get the ageing Belford Hospital in Fort William replaced.
‘The SNP promised to replace this in 1999, we are still waiting. And when it is done we insist on a proper maternity unit so our expectant mothers don’t need to go to Inverness,’ he added.
Mr MacDonald also highlighted the poor state of the A82 trunk road and the underpass in Fort William, which he slammed as being in a ‘shocking’ state with broken steps and barriers, graffiti and ‘terrible’ lighting. And he added: ‘What a way to welcome visitors.’
He also mentioned the number of empty shops in Fort William. ‘We need a computer repair shop, a launderette, a dry cleaner, a delicatessen, a shoe shop, garment and shoe repair… we need lower rent and business rates,’ he told us.
Mr MacDonald is also angry about the amount of trash scattered about the local area. ‘It’s just not acceptable. Barriers festooned with banners, a scrap heap in the town centre, rubbish lining our country roads. No council bins in the lay-bys.’
And on the importance of tourism to Lochaber, Mr MacDonald said the season should be extended. ‘Our biggest industry, but too quiet in winter months. We need to focus on extending the season.
‘Other towns are doing this well, Pitlochry is an example. What can we learn, let’s make it happen here.’