MP Drew Hendry: Highland Council candidates should get behind the Inverness 2035 vision saying 'to create the city we want, we need to challenge the status quo'

It’s that time again – candidate posters adorning lampposts, letterboxes full of election promises, and thousands of local voters have already cast their postal votes.

In a couple of weeks, well-kent faces will return to the Highland Council chambers, along with new colleagues. All of them ready to serve you, their constituents.

With this introduction, you’d be excused for thinking that this is about to become an election pitch.

After all, I’m a politician, and it is election time.

In a way, it is a call to action, just not the one you might expect.

You already know that I wholeheartedly recommend my SNP colleagues standing for election, but that is not what this column is for. Moreover, I doubt the editor would thank me for a party political broadcast – so I won’t give one.

Instead, I’m making a different pitch – one of collaboration and vision.

At the end of last year, the Inverness Futures Group set out the Inverness 2035 Vision – a story of a welcoming, successful, green and sustainable city in the heart of a thriving Highlands.

Since then, we have been chatting about the possibilities for Inverness with anyone and everyone. With every new conversation, I am more encouraged by the collective ambition for our city.

With projects such as Inverness Castle already under way, we can finally see the possibilities for a city that knows where it is going – one that puts the people who live and work here at the heart of decision-making.

Still, where there is possibility, there is always hard work ahead, and

the Highland Council is rightly at the heart of this work.

The councillors we elect on May 5 will become these very decision-makers.

To create the city we want, we need to challenge the status quo, find common ground and accept when we got it wrong. Instead of consulting local folk on already formed plans, we need to hear their ideas, and we need to understand how we will create a welcoming, successful, green and sustainable city.

We have the vision created. We have talent in abundance across organisations to deliver it. What we need now is the collective will of decision-makers.

That’s why I’m calling on all candidates standing for election in Inverness wards to get behind Inverness 2035 and – whether elected or not – become part of this exciting new chapter for Inverness.

Related Story – DREW HENDRY: We need to work together across all political divides to make Inverness Vision work

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