Councillor Graeme Smith

[COACHMAN]

Councillor Smith the Councillor who Blocked ASDA with his vote is now threating to QUIT the LIB DEMS and become a NON ALIGNED Councillor over the issue of "THE CENTRALISATION OF COUNCIL POWERS".
Local Matters would of been Better served if he as a Local Councillor had passed the Planning for ASDA in Thurso.

[Cattach]

Councillor Smith the Councillor who Blocked ASDA with his vote is now threating to QUIT the LIB DEMS and become a NON ALIGNED Councillor over the issue of "THE CENTRALISATION OF COUNCIL POWERS".
Local Matters would of been Better served if he as a Local Councillor had passed the Planning for ASDA in Thurso.

Well said, Coachman.

[Rheghead]

Councillor Smith the Councillor who Blocked ASDA with his vote is now threating to QUIT the LIB DEMS and become a NON ALIGNED Councillor over the issue of "THE CENTRALISATION OF COUNCIL POWERS".
Local Matters would of been Better served if he as a Local Councillor had passed the Planning for ASDA in Thurso.

Didn't he first resign from the Lib Dems over the sacking of Charles Kennedy? It seems he treats party politics with contempt if he just joins and rejoins a party so whimsically to suit his political needs!

[Murdina Bug]

Local Matters would of been Better served if he as a Local Councillor had passed the Planning for ASDA in Thurso.

Do you not get sick of trotting that statement out? Get over it.

[Gogglebox]

Didn't he first resign from the Lib Dems over the sacking of Charles Kennedy? It seems he treats party politics with contempt if he just joins and rejoins a party so whimsically to suit his political needs!


I think if Councillors stand on a party platform and then decide to sever ties they should stand down totally as a lot of people vote for a party rather than a person.

Let the electorate decide, but they should remember that people will soon get fed up of political posturing for personal notoriety.

I alway thought Bob Maclennan should have gone back to the electorate when he left Labour in the early 80s and that the local electorate were short changed locally by going to SDP away from the official opposition.
Although a lot reckoned he was very good as an MP for local matters, party influence might have benefitted all our lives

[Tony]

Bye.:)
Gordon Brown stated the way to keep prices down was to have competition. I take it he won't be joining the Labour party then.

[Cattach]

Do you not get sick of trotting that statement out? Get over it.

If a statement is true it is worth saying over and over again until someone accepts the truth therein contained - keeo saying it Coachman.

[peter macdonald]

and remember the 3 other councillors !!!

[Cattach]

and remember the 3 other councillors !!!

We certainly do - one two frightened to stand at the election lasy year knowing he would be defeated and other other one defeated. And then there was one but time will catch up with him too.

[hotrod4]

Maybe I am in a minority but I think he has done quite well as a councillor. You always read about something he is doing nearly every week, can you say the same for other councillors who sit back do nothing and still claim the pay cheque(+expenses of course)?
You may not always agree with what he or any other councillor says but I think he was right to object on this matter. I can see both sides of the coin but agree with him on this matter.
Sorry if i am not conforming to the previous opinions but i think he is doing a grand job.

[peter macdonald]

I would have hoped he might have resigned over the decision to spent a heck of a lot of money on council buildings in Wick when WHS is in a deplorable state, services are being reduced , and school cleaners are having their wages cut
Nah
PM

[tootler]

Maybe I am in a minority but I think he has done quite well as a councillor. You always read about something he is doing nearly every week, can you say the same for other councillors who sit back do nothing and still claim the pay cheque(+expenses of course)?
You may not always agree with what he or any other councillor says but I think he was right to object on this matter. I can see both sides of the coin but agree with him on this matter.
Sorry if i am not conforming to the previous opinions but i think he is doing a grand job.

I'm with you, HotRod.

Graeme Smith is actually one of life's good guys, only because he always says it like he sees it.

I have not always agreed with him (I'd have loved an ASDA in Thurso!) but this time I think he's right - Caithness has lost the little democracy it had left. Now we have no way to influence the council to meet the needs of our odd wee corner of the Highlands. And our needs are quite different to those of Inverness or those of the outlying rural areas to the West.

So we get a lovely theatre at Eden Court and some smashing new schools in the other counties of the Highlands, but what do we actually get in Caithness? Maybe a better road out, if we're very lucky, and loads of windmills!:lol:

Glad to see Councillor Smith standing up for what he believes in & I'll be right behind him when he starts the inevitable campaign for making Caithness independent of the rest of the Highland Council.

Independent councillors should be just that, but as they've formed a bizarre "Independent's Party" in order to get hold of the reins, they seem to have lost much of their independence as individuals. Next time I think I'll vote for a "non-aligned Independent" - a better class of common sense!

It's a strange old world, the world of HC... but well done Councillor Smith for standing up for the things you believe in. Sincerity counts for a lot in my book & you're one of the most sincere councillors I've met.

[Rheghead]

Maybe I am in a minority but I think he has done quite well as a councillor.

You are right, he was the councillor that was the biggest proponents of the Highland Renewable Energy Strategy which ultimately led to the Baillie Windfarm proposal to be rejected so all I can say is 'Well done Graeme' for preventing a monstrous proposal being inundated on to the residents of west Caithness.:D

[ywindythesecond]

You are right, he was the councillor that was the biggest proponents of the Highland Renewable Energy Strategy which ultimately led to the Baillie Windfarm proposal to be rejected so all I can say is 'Well done Graeme' for preventing a monstrous proposal being inundated on to the residents of west Caithness.:D

Not so Reggy. What led to Highland Council deciding not to support Baillie Windfarm was the groundswell of public opinion against it, helped by a hugely inept and biased report by the Planning official in its favour which really got up the noses of the Planning Committee, which Cllr Smith was not on.
It is too soon to say that Baillie Windfarm has gone away, because it is in the hands of the Scottish Government now and they are a loose cannon regarding windfarms.
The first windfarm planning meeting after adoption of the Highland Renewable Energy Strategy was Forss Extension which is in an area with with a presumption against windfarm development for both local and national scale windfarms. Cllr Smith voted for it against HRES, but perhaps not surprisingly because the Planners Report didn't say so, indeed it manipulated what the official thought HRES said to be able to recommend its acceptance.

[Rheghead]

Groundswell of public opinion? Hardly. There were a lot of letters and petitioned signatures in support, more than that for rejection if i recall. The vote was hardly damning either, a minority voted against but lack of feedback made sure that it went against. You obviously have a different version of events than me, but if I am not mistaken, if I heard it once then I heard it quite a few times from objectors at the planning meeting that part of the baillie site was in an area which had a presumption against. I thought at the time that carried a lot of weight in favour of rejection. A rather ironic twist since it was them who were the biggest critics of the HRES and yet they were waving it around to make a case for rejection of the Baillie planning application.

[ywindythesecond]

Groundswell of public opinion? Hardly. There were a lot of letters and petitioned signatures in support, more than that for rejection if i recall. The vote was hardly damning either, a minority voted against but lack of feedback made sure that it went against. You obviously have a different version of events than me, but if I am not mistaken, if I heard it once then I heard it quite a few times from objectors at the planning meeting that part of the baillie site was in an area which had a presumption against. I thought at the time that carried a lot of weight in favour of rejection. A rather ironic twist since it was them who were the biggest critics of the HRES and yet they were waving it around to make a case for rejection of the Baillie planning application.

There was no vote taken at the Baillie hearing. The two or three Cllrs who might have supported it didn't force a vote because it was clear that they would have lost.

Regarding support for HRES by those who opposed it initially, it was the opposition to it which led to a huge turnout at the HRES public consultation at Halkirk which led to the removal of all Caithness "Preferred" and most Caithness "Possible" development areas for large scale and national scale windfarms being dropped from HRES.

That is why it was a case for rejection of Baillie, and remains a case for rejection of all other large windfarms in Caithness.

But watch this space, the Scottish Government are not signed up to HRES.

Just occurred to me that now Cllr Smith is his own man, perhaps he would like to give us his views on the forum/

[Loch not Lock]

Councillor Smith the Councillor who Blocked ASDA with his vote is now threating to QUIT the LIB DEMS and become a NON ALIGNED Councillor over the issue of "THE CENTRALISATION OF COUNCIL POWERS".
Local Matters would of been Better served if he as a Local Councillor had passed the Planning for ASDA in Thurso.
He is just about the most two-faced man that I have had the displeasure to meet. Please don't vote in him again![evil]

[hotrod4]

He is just about the most two-faced man that I have had the displeasure to meet. Please don't vote in him again![evil]

He'll get my vote! Go graeme :)

[weeboyagee]

Graeme Smith? Who he? Awwww.... him. OK...... nite, nite,.......zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

WBG :cool:

[peter macdonald]

WBG he is the man how is predicting an anti Gaelic backlash !!!!! (in case you forgot) I would have more time for him and the rest of the councillors if they would explain their stance over £4m ++ being spent on a building when pensioners are being charged more for wardens and helpcalls
http://www.johnogroat-journal.co.uk/news/fullstory.php/aid/4828/Raw_deal_for_Thurso_pensioners.html

I hope the lady does not mind me putting it on here
PM

[zappster]

If you ask me He should get a REAL job!:D :p

[ywindythesecond]

If you ask me He should get a REAL job!:D :p
Like him or not, Cllr Smith and all other Cllrs have real jobs, and we gave them the job to represent us. Councillors are generally hardworking, concientious, and underpaid. If you don't like the way they do the job from your point of view, vote them out next time.
By the way zappster, did you actually vote in the last Council elections?

[weeboyagee]

Like him or not, Cllr Smith and all other Cllrs have real jobs, and we gave them the job to represent us. Councillors are generally hardworking, concientious, and underpaid. If you don't like the way they do the job from your point of view, vote them out next time.
By the way zappster, did you actually vote in the last Council elections?
I voted for David Bremner - and would vote for him again. If mr Smith was my Councillor he would not get my vote, personally. I believe that he has made some good decisions along the way - others he has made on a self promotional basis and not in the best interests of the public he represents (bilingual signs aside - just to get that one straight).

I am sure that he has had real jobs in the past - one wonders why he would have left them to campaign to be a Highland Councillor - best interests of the public at heart? So convicted that he gave a real life up to be low paid, overworked or to boost his rather redundant and deflated ego?

Like ywindythesecond said - if you don't like them - vote them out the next time - and that's up to the Wick lot to do that - the rest of us can have an opinion but he doesn't represent us - although we will be affected by his judgements, assessments and actions - as the ASDA issue proved.

WBG :cool:

[zappster]

Like him or not, Cllr Smith and all other Cllrs have real jobs, and we gave them the job to represent us. Councillors are generally hardworking, concientious, and underpaid. If you don't like the way they do the job from your point of view, vote them out next time.
By the way zappster, did you actually vote in the last Council elections?
see that wee smiley face with the tongue sticking out..well that was put there to represent the fact that it was said in a joking manner...so chill out..By the way YES I DID VOTE...but not for him..

[Tony]

Like ywindythesecond said - if you don't like them - vote them out the next time - and that's up to the Wick lot to do that - the rest of us can have an opinion but he doesn't represent us - although we will be affected by his judgements, assessments and actions - as the ASDA issue proved.


No disrespect to any people on the Wick side but be he was given the opportunity to vote on a Thurso issue and did not represent voters within this area. These voters were not in a position to do anything about this. Internet petitions were ignored.
One of the other reasons for him voting against could be to boost trade on Wick at Thurso expense and keep Wickers shopping in Wick. Highland Region on the other hand appear to be only Interested in Inverness and would likely prefer people from up North traveling down for shopping to boost trade rather than be self sufficient. In my opinion Highland Region does not represent Caithness adequately.

[tootler]

In my opinion Highland Region does not represent Caithness adequately.
I'm laughing, Tony, because on this issue you agree wholeheartedly with Graeme Smith!:lol:

And I agree with you both!

I love it when people are in agreement on the org!;)

[Alice in Blunderland]

I love it when people are in agreement on the org!;)


OOOhhh Id be careful there harmony on the org call in the wooden spoons and get them stirring it all up quickly . :lol:

[hotrod4]

OOOhhh Id be careful there harmony on the org call in the wooden spoons and get them stirring it all up quickly . :lol:

Harmony, NO chance I thoroughly disagree with your statement there is no harmony(well none where I am grumping from! ;)

[Alice in Blunderland]

Harmony, NO chance I thoroughly disagree with your statement there is no harmony(well none where I am grumping from! ;)

OOOhhh Yessss there is...........well sometimes at least :lol:

[veritas]

all THREE Thurso Councilors voted against ASDA Take note!!!