Category: Highland Council
So the Scottish Parliament election has come to an end and the results are in. The SNP increased their vote share and did really well but didn’t manage a majority despite an increase in votes. This is because the current voting system in Scotland is designed to prevent a single party from being able to get an outright majority forcing parties to have to work with others. The 2011 SNP majority was a pure fluke that was never meant to happen and is unlikely to be repeated easily. Why is this? It’s because of the D’Hont system. There seems to be much confusion amongst voters in Scotland over how the D’Hont voting system works, some confuse it with STV while others have little understanding of the formula behind it or simply misinterpret it.
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The Highland Council
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For all those within the Nairn River Community Council area, remember to post your ballot papers back by the 4th of December.
Final Results for Highland
| Party | Vote Count |
| Scottish National Party (SNP) | 28,681 |
| The Brexit Party | 13,854 |
| Liberal Democrats | 13,416 |
| Conservative and Unionist Party | 7,577 |
| Scottish Green Party | 7,052 |
| Labour Party | 3,109 |
| UK Independence Party (UKIP) | 1,619 |
| Change UK – The Independent Group | 1,199 |
| Edgar, Gordon | 286 |
| Parke, Ken | 124 |
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EU election 2019 Count
The counting of the votes for the EU parliament elections 2019 will begin today. Ever wondered what happens to all those ballot papers after closing of polls on Thursday? The Electoral commission shared the following images on twitter…
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Pride Ness
The Pride Ness parade takes place in Inverness on the 6th. This video is worth another share, MFR interview the man behind the petition to try and prevent the event from going ahead.
The front page of the Nairnshire this week features the story on Fit housing coming to Nairn (you can view a larger PDF version of this here). This innovative project in partnership with NHS Highland, Carbon Dynamic and Albyn Housing could pioneer the future of health and social care across Scotland and has already won a top innovation award.
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End of term update
Having no previous experience or knowledge of working in local government the last two years has been a huge learning curve but during that time I have learnt so much and have built a good working relationship with many groups in Nairn.
**press release from the Highland Council SNP group**
As time passes and the Highland Council approach the eleventh hour with regard to the setting of the budget the SNP Group are pleased to acknowledge that the proposed cuts will be nowhere near what was originally proposed by the Independent Group.
Talking about this, Cllr. Maxine Smith, who leads the Opposition and the SNP Group in Highland Council said, “The Scottish Government will be raising money from the highest bandings of Council Tax, in order to assist local authorities in balancing their budgets. This rise by Scottish Government will only affect the very large houses in Highland and there will be mitigation measures for those living alone or people with little income.
Originally it was thought that this £5m, which will be raised would go directly to schools suffering in the educational attainment gap. However, subsequently the Scottish Government decided to fund this initiative separately so the whole £5m will assist Highland Council with balancing its own budget without being ring-fenced. At the full council the Independents formed a last minute motion to write to the Finance Minister, and now they are claiming it was their letter that effected a change of mind in Holyrood. This I found amusing, as I had told them time after time that the money raised by the “Council Tax multiplier” was always going to come back to Highland, but they didn’t listen! Now they see this was in fact correct.
Further to this some of the media releases submitted by the Independent Administration have been less than genuine. They were looking at a budget gap of over £29m just a few weeks ago, but since being given their grant settlement figure, are now only looking at a gap of £22m. They pontificated about the cut from Scottish Government being worse than they were expecting, when the truth of the matter is that the Scottish Government under the current economic situation, have given Councils a good settlement, as best they could and Highland Council are now looking at £7m LESS cuts than they were a few weeks ago. Surely, this is a good news story?”
ENDS