SIC on the ‘right track’, says Buchan

SHETLAND Islands Council would not have been able to make tens of millions of pounds worth of savings without the necessary ‘nuts and bolts’ put in place as part of its ambitious improvement plan.

As the architect of that improvement programme, chief executive Alistair Buchan is on his last week with the SIC before rejoining Orkney Islands Council, the council chief official said he was “satisfied” that the SIC was now on “the right track”.

Mr Buchan was brought in from Orkney OIC at the height of the crisis when the Accounts Commission held its public hearing into Shetland Islands Council, describing the local authority as “poorly led and badly divided”.

On Monday, Mr Buchan said the council had been “in a very dark place” after difficulties, particularly the ever increasing budget deficit, had been building up over many years.

“I think dramatic progress has been made; and we have done so while we managed to maintain day-to-day services.

“I often have referred to this as a super tanker, and I very much feel that the ship has been turned around and is now moving in the right direction, but there is a long way still to run,” Mr Buchan said.

He continued saying that there was no alternative for the council but to stick to a more prudent regime, and was realistic enough to concede that there would be set-backs along the way.

“Shetland Islands Council is not going to fail. The community is not going to allow it to fail. Reducing the scale of the budget deficit is a daunting prospect, but it will have to be managed,” he said.

And he congratulated councillors on appointing former Wiltshire Council corporate director, Mark Boden, as the SIC’s new chief executive. 54 year old Mr Boden will start his new post on Friday.

Mr Buchan added that he wished to say thank you to everybody he has worked with during his two years and three months in Shetland, and said that it had been a pleasure to work with council staff, councillors and the many members of the public he had met.

“I have happy memories of Shetland and all the people here, and I wish everyone the best for the future,” he said.

Mr Buchan will travel to Edinburgh at the end of the week to represent Shetland at the CoSLA leaders meeting and will then return to Orkney.

Paying tribute, council convener Malcolm Bell said on Monday night: “I think it would be easy to forget just how difficult things were when Alistair arrived here two years ago.  In that time he has provided leadership and stability, setting the council on a clear course towards recovery.

“I look forward to the day when the SIC will once again be regarded throughout the UK as an excellent council and I know that will happen.  We are well down that road and much of the credit for that lies with Alistair Buchan. 

“I am personally very grateful for all the help and advice Alistair has provided to me as a new councillor and convener.  I speak for all councillors’ thanking Alistair and wishing him and his family every best wish as they move back to Orkney.”

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