Caithness facing dramatic drop in population
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CAITHNESS is facing the prospect of depopulation at an alarming rate.
Projections from Highland Council's corporate plan say there will be a 21 per cent decrease in the population within 20 years.
Donna Manson, the chief executive of Highland Council, told a meeting of the Association of Caithness Community Councils that one of the key priorities was depopulation and its impact on the county.
Figures in the council's corporate plan forecast dramatic declines between now and 2041 with the population of Caithness expected to drop by a fifth.
Meanwhile, NHS figures for Caithness show a projected decline from 26,000 to 22,000 between 2017 and 2037 – a drop of 14 per cent.
Mrs Manson acknowledged there were "real challenges in terms of young people leaving the area", adding dramatically to the depopulation. "Many young people leave and don’t come back or come back with debt."
She added that the council was looking into "developing areas so young people no longer need to leave the area to learn public-sector jobs".
She told the meeting in Halkirk: "We will look at partnering with other agencies to allow young people to stay within their communities."
Mrs Manson went on to say that the council could offer housing packages and was looking into taking that proposal forward. "At the moment the outlook is quite frightening for young people."
Councillor Matthew Reiss, who represents Thurso and Northwest Caithness on Highland Council, said: "The biggest single long-term challenge for Caithness and north Sutherland, plus to a lesser extent other parts of Highland, is population decline.
"It's deeply concerning to everyone, the sense of drift and decline."
Councillor Reiss thought the matter could be sorted by the Scottish Government embracing decentralisation wherever possible, intervening to bring back tourist information centres, not cutting Wick John O'Groats Airport's hours and getting a grip of all the transport challenges. "Finally the broadband programme needs speeded up. This is all so urgent that there's not a day to spare," he said.
Councillor Struan Mackie, Thurso and Northwest Caithness, said the depopulation estimates outlined in the corporate plan "make stark reading".
"I believe the local authority is acutely aware that if we don’t act quickly then we will compound long-standing issues, especially around retaining our young people," he said. "We know that young Highlanders leave the area for further and higher education and then stay south because of a bigger pool of employment opportunities. I am one of a handful of my school year who returned after university – that has to change and it does not need to be this way."
He said there should not be a strategy "dictated by Edinburgh or London" and opportunities need to be offered that keep folk in the county and attract newcomers.
