Encouraging tourism at the Ward Forum

There was a full house at the new Burghfield Campus of North Highland College in Dornoch last Monday (5 October). The East Sutherland and Edderton Ward Forum listened to Scott Armstrong from Visit Scotland and Colin Simpson, Tourism Coordinator from the Council talk about the summer 2009 season, which has been very successful for operators in Sutherland.

A number of issues were raised by the audience including a degree of frustration by representatives from Highland Wildcat and Historylinks at the difficulty of getting brown tourist signs in place for these and other important attractions. The Councillors made a commitment to help move this along.

There was also some discussion about how the communities of East Sutherland could work together to promote the area as a whole and to get visitors to stay a little longer and visit other attractions and communities in the area. Similarly there could be initiatives to promote outdoor activities such cycling routes, something that Councillor Ian Ross, a keen cyclist himself, is interested in trying to promote.

Councillor Deirdre Mackay who raised the joint marketing idea said: ”It would be good to get the area to pull together and develop a brand or some joint promotion. I would be keen to hear from community groups or businesses that are interested in working on this.”

There was also discussion on the location of the speed camera on the A9 at the Mound, which is a good place to overtake slower moving traffic because of the good visibility. The Ward Forum will write to the Northern Safety Cameras Partnership, who operate the cameras, to outline community concerns.

The Forum was chaired by Councillor Jim McGillivray who was pleased with the evening’s meeting.  He said:  “We’ve had good discussion this evening and it’s been a real pleasure to see the Burghfield up and running again.”