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Membership of new Argyll and Bute Economic Forum

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In a pretty clueless and alienating process, members of the business community of Argyll and Bute were approached and asked to put their names forward to be participants in the new Economic Forum being set up by Argyll and Bute Council under the chairmanship of Nick Ferguson, Chair of Sky, who comes from and has a house in south west Cowal.

It emerged that these approaches were not invitations to participate but invitations to put themselves on a selection list, with several shocked to be informed later that they had been rejected – in a ham-fisted letter that treated them as if they had been pushing at the gate and would be disappointed.Needless to say. this letter was sent by a senior council officer, so it cojld be said to be par for the course.

However, the names of those selected – and the selection is said to have been made by Nick Ferguson himself [with the selection criteria unknown] are, in alphabetical order:

  • Alastair Barge of Gigha Halibut
  • Iain Jurgensen, General manager of Portavadie marina
  • John Forteith, Oban businessman
  • Jane MacLeod, of MacLeod Construction and Mid-Argyll Chamber of Commerce
  • Tracy Shimmield, Development Officer at SAMS business company
  • Neil Wells of Loch and Glens Holidays

The other members of the Forum are representatives of Argyll and Bute Council, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and the Scottish Government.

The first meeting of the Forum is next Tuesday, 17th March [someone had better bring the shamrock].

Thereafter, the Forum is to meet four times a year.

There is as yet no information on the enabling establishment behind it, or any news that this is being considered or planned to be put in place.

It the Forum is to impact positively on the flagging economy of a richly resourced place with a directionless and unfocused local authority management, it will need a clear management structure and an  active and permanent secretariat to implement its emerging strategies and specific recommendations.

Without this robust ‘can do’ mechanism, the Flrum can be nothing other than a box-ticking talking shop whose simple existence let’s Argyll and Bute Council avoid direct  responsibility for the state of the Argyll economy – which, in this scenario, would be an abuse of the time of those selected to participate in it.


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