The revised Highland Council manifesto has been condemned as “half-baked” and “lightweight” by opposition councillors.
The rewritten programme for the remaining two years of the current council has been drafted by the new minority independent administration.
It has replaced the SNP, Liberal Democrat and Labour coalition which collapsed when Lib Dems walked out on their alliance with the nationalists.
The 12-page dossier, seen by the Press and Journal, promises a “community led, well served and fairer Highland.”
About 30 councillors discussed the detailed document at a private meeting last Friday and are expected to agree a revamped programme within the next few days, ratifying it at a special meeting on August 13.
Council leader Margaret Davidson said there will be greater emphasis on two areas of considerable interest in the Highlands – faster broadband speeds for all and combatting alcoholism, in the wake of former MP Charles Kennedy’s recent death.
Liberal Democrat group leader David Alston accepted that policies would change, but accused the fledgling administration of “abandoning” a good manifesto.
He said: “They have left out whole swathes of policy, with less that half the previous number of commitments remaining, and the result is a half-baked dish.
“It is almost silent on the council’s commitment to carbon reduction and mitigating climate change which is blinkered. Perhaps councillor Davidson has done this to appease climate change deniers in her group.”
SNP group deputy leader Richard Laird added: “It’s lightweight. The new programme contains less than half of the commitments that we produced and many don’t relate to the business of the council They’re an attempt to get government to change its mind on various issues.
“This suggests to me that perhaps the independent group has difficulty uniting around council policies and is, instead, focussing more on putting pressure on other public bodies.”
The new leadership faces considerable work to address policy changes in an era of unprecedented economic challenge with a £36.3m black hole in funds predicted.- far worse than previously envisaged due to fresh UK Government figures.
Mrs Davidson denied that anything substantive had been dropped and dismissed the “policy light” criticism.
“We’ve got a strong commitment on connectivity because you ask anyone what they want and Broadband and 3G connections are key. BT will deliver 84%. It’s not acceptable to think that parts of the Highlands won’t benefit, so we need to be pro-active.
“And we have added steps to tackle alcoholism which has been an historic problem in the region.
“When Charlie Kennedy died I made a commitment to work on that. While it’s not currently in our commitments, I would like to add that and have cross-party support for it.”