Council Officer Ian honoured by City Committee

Long serving Council Officer Ian Burnett was given a surprise gift as he prepares to retire after 23 years looking after Inverness Town House and a succession of provosts.

Mr Burnett, who retires on 25 November, the day before his 65th birthday, was presented with a framed photograph of the Town House ahead of his last Inverness City Committee meeting on Monday.

Depute Provost Alex Graham paid tribute to Mr Burnett’s long and devoted service to the council in proudly overseeing the running of the city’s civic home.

He said: “Ian ensured that the Town House operated efficiently and effectively at all times, meeting the challenge of hosting Council meetings and a wide variety of functions and events. He provided tremendous support to the Inverness councillors and the Provosts over the past 23 years. Ian will be hugely missed by staff and councillors and we all wish him a long and happy retirement."

Mr Burnett joined the former Inverness District Council in 1988 after 23 years service with  the Gordon Highlanders, latterly as a Colour Sergeant, serving all over the world, including Germany, Singapore, North Africa and Northern Ireland.

He has hosted visits of all the Royal family, Prime Ministers Tony Blair and David Cameron and First Minister, Alex Salmond as well as a host of other VIPs from throughout the world.

He has also served under five provosts, including Allan Sellar, Bill Smith, Bill Fraser, Bob Wynd and the current provost, Jimmy Gray.

He said: “It has been an honour and a privilege to work in the Town House looking after a building with so much history attached to it and preserving the history for our future generations. It was always a joy to see the faces of groups of school children  when they were shown all the rooms and the artefacts etc that adorn the walls of the building.

“I hope my successor finds as much pleasure in looking after the Town House and all its heritage as I have.”