Author: Whistle Blower

23/24 tax year sees the Planning department cost taxpayers £2.2million. They fail to process 290 applications in a year.Remember the applicant pays fees as well from a few hundred to a few thousand. So let’s say they also raise a conservative £55,000 if an average of £250 is paid. In one case the total was £758. Craig Wilson, head of planning is a liar.Offers to help people, blackmails them. Then ignores their emails and calls and messages. He should not be in charge of anything.Each planning application costs the taxpayer £7,580 to process. Worth noting the fixed cost is the…

A former Highland Council employee is to be reported to the procurator fiscal for alleged corporate fraud. Due to a council blunder, the casual worker was wrongly set up in the system as a full time permanent employee, and was consequently overpaid by almost £30,000 over a three-year period. The mistake only came to light when the individual resigned from their post. Following an interview under caution, the individual agreed to repay the overpayment in instalments. The matter has been highlighted to councillors on the Audit & Scrutiny committee in an internal audit review. The review also highlights an expenses…

To learn more about how “oversight” was so rife at HC they overpaid staff who had left £800,000. In the 22/23 tax year.Staggering!A total of 602 overpayments were made to 593 ex-workers, totalling £863,000. The highest amount paid to one individual was £57,067 in gross pay, or £42,272 net. Highland Council mistakenly overpaid more than £800,000 to former members of staff after they had left the local authority. Auditors found there were issues with how leavers were being recorded on the organisation’s systems, which led to the payroll error. A total of 602 overpayments were made to 593 ex-workers, totalling…

Highland Council is being urged to act quickly to prevent a potential “flooding catastrophe” affecting a 200-year-old property in Wick. David Buchanan is concerned about the amount of grit and other loose material that gathers in a gully outside his front door at the top of the historic Black Stairs. Mr Buchanan, a private chef, bought the adjacent Blackstairs House in August 2023. In an email to Highland Council’s head of roads, Tracey Urry, Mr Buchanan told of a “colossal downpour” a few weeks ago that caused the gully to fill with water. He said he was trapped inside the…

A private chef who is looking to invest around £1 million in two properties in Caithness has accused Highland Council of “staggering incompetence” over planning delays. David Buchanan wants to cater for North Coast 500 tourists by providing upmarket hospitality but says he is getting nowhere with the local authority and claims much-needed investment in the town is being stifled as a result. Mr Buchanan (41) bought Blackstairs House in Wick in August 2023 and has been running a series of Secret Shebeen supper clubs there over the past six months. A former pupil of Pulteneytown Academy, he made his…

The 75-year-old woman who carried out her own pothole repairs in Halkirk has admitted she was “gobsmacked” by the level of media interest she attracted. Jenny Paterson was so fed up with the state of the road outside her house that she decided to fix it herself, and the story was picked up by national newspapers and BBC Radio Scotland after being reported in the John O’Groat Journal two weeks ago. She also had a request to appear on ITV’s Good Morning Britain but turned it down. Mrs Paterson is now keen to move on, having “got a result” – after…