STORIES
The Access Officer, then Alex Sutherland, was telling porkies. I knew he was telling porkies - the same as I knew I was being told porkies by the current Access Officer, Matt Dent.
I was chair of the Caithness Access Riders Group. There was a big meeting in Wattan, with the BHS and all in attendance. I did not chair that day, as I had my own agenda. The Access Officer had told us that the budget for the whole of the Highlands was £25,000. I got the real figures from Andrew Thin (you will all no doubt know the name, but am copying him here anyway) As suspected, the budget was £250,000 (around 2005 I think). This financial analyst cum journalist smelt a rat. She presented the figures to Mr. Gibson and he agreed to come to the meeting with me and two local residents, Betty and Bernard Heath of Mountain Bothy fame.
When the Treasurer was reading her report, she said £25,000. We had given the said Access Officer the opportunity to refute them. He didn't. Mr. Gibson asked what had happened to the balance and said "I will see you in Inverness". He did. Mr. Sutherland was never seen in Caithness or Sutherland again. I did, though, bump into his daughter one day in Inverness at an event. She knew immediately who I was. She would. Her father has a picture of me in the kitchen and he sticks pins in it." Mr. Gibson is now on the back benches of the SNP. Mr. Thin is retired, sadly.
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