New Aith head teacher Michael Spence.

Unst man Michael Spence is following a family tradition by being appointed as the new head teacher for Aith Junior High School.

His father Charlie was formerly head at Mossbank and Sound Primary Schools, while his uncles Andy and Ian were in charge at Baltasound Junior High School and the Anderson High School respectively.

Mr Spence is due to start on Monday 13th August following the retirement of the current head teacher Barbara Morris. He started his career in education as a maths and physics teacher at Scalloway Junior High School. In 2000 he was appointed as a physics teacher at Brae High School, and in 2006 he was appointed to principal teacher of physics at the AHS.

Mr Spence said he was looking forward to the challenge of his new appointment at Aith, and leading the school during the final stages of the implementation of Curriculum for Excellence.

He said: “I am looking forward to getting to know the pupils, staff, parents and the wider school community to continue to provide an excellent educational experience which helps to equip all the pupils with the flexible skills and positive attitudes to prosper.”

A letter has gone to parents of children receiving violin tuition through the school, expressing “regret” that this will not continue.

When the tutor, Alan Gifford, retired the question of whether or not to replace him went before the council’s vacancy management panel – every vacant post is now scrutinised in this way. The decision was made at that time to replace him and the post was advertised in January. One person applied but was not appointed, apparently because of lack of qualifications and experience.

Schools service quality improvement officer Jerry Edwards said: “The post was approved and advertised but there were no suitable applicants.”

Although Mr Edwards had heard of several people who might have been able to do the job, he said: “If they apply they apply. We don’t headhunt.”

In any case, he explained, no appointment would now be made so close to the election of a new council, which will decide on budget savings. An instrumental review was currently under way and no permanent changes were being made meantime.

Mr Edwards said: “It wouldn’t be right to start children now with a new tutor who might [shortly] be made redundant.”

Other instrument tuition was on-going, he said. “They are all on established contracts until the council decides what it wants to do.”

Some pupils have been fortunate enough to continue lessons in a private capacity but Mr Gifford, and others, have no more vacancies.

Parent Gideon Johnston, whose 11-year-old daughter, a Bell’s Brae pupil who lost her tuition, said: “It’s getting nae better, if Orkney can do it [provide free music tuition] why can’t we. My lassie has had no lessons since before Christmas.

“It’s something that’s always been, always should be. We’re not really short of money, that’s absolute codswallop. They [the council] should be advertising in The Scotsman. They’re no trying hard enough. If it goes on any longer she’ll lose interest. It will be a year [of no tuition] by the time they decide anything.”

Parent Theresa Wyeth said her 10-year-old daughter had also had no official tuition since Christmas. But one of her daughter’s friends was having private tuition with the retired violin tutor – and after her class she came to teach Ms Wyeth’s daughter what she has learned.

Ms Wyeth said: “It [the situation] is completely desperate, but otherwise the fiddle won’t see the light of day again.”

She also feels more could be done to recruit tutors who are not necessarily highly qualified, when many pupils play mainly for enjoyment.

“What baffles me is that the island is full of competent and able players. Surely some tuition is better than no tuition. Possibly they need to lower the bar.”

Both these parents willingly paid for individual violin tuition. Although introducing charges for music tuition was, and remains, highly controversial – councillor Rick Nickerson resigned as culture and recreation spokesman in protest about the “tax on talent” – there is still a large waiting list.

Current council figures show 688 pupils throughout Shetland are receiving tuition in a wide range of instruments, with 121 on the waiting list. Pupils entitled to free school meals, clothing grants, or who are taking Standard Grade or Highers in their instrument, get tuition free of charge.

Piano and fiddle are the most popular choices, with 219 and 204 pupils respectively, with drums (49) and accordion (43) next. Other instruments on offer include cello (18), trumpet (17) cornet (11) alto sax (two) and mandolin, oboe and viola with one pupil each. However, not all schools offer the same instruments and there is only one tutor each for drums, brass and accordion.

The new North Ness offices.

Staff from eight of Shetland Islands Council’s offices are about to move into the new £7.3 million headquarters at the North Ness in Lerwick.

The centralising of around 200 employees under one roof is intended to streamline operations and provide a central point for people to access some council services, including finance, transport and the grants unit. The move will leave a number of empty office buildings around the town.

The 3,000 square metre three-storey building is owned by Shetland Charitable Trust’s property and development company Slap which will lease it to the council under a 30-year commercial agreement. The twin wings are connected by a glazed atrium which houses the services to be shared by the departments.

The building has been completed on time and within budget by local contractor Hunter & Morrisons who will formally hand it over on Tuesday at 11am. The three weekends following will see staff flitting to their new offices.

SIC chief executive Alistair Buchan believes the new offices present the council with “a huge opportunity to improve the way we work”.

He said: “There are the obvious tangible benefits like the fact we will be able to reduce time wasted travelling between offices and save money on energy costs. But there are also intangible benefits in the way services will now be able to work more closely with improved day-to-day contact.”

He said the move went “to the heart” of the improvement work that has been progressing in the local authority for the past 18 months. “I’m aware that a move like this has been talked about for some time so it is a real achievement for everyone involved to finally see it happening.”

Retiring council political leader Josie Simpson said the new building would give staff much better working conditions, adding: “I wish them well in their new offices.”

The first four groups to move in will be the capital programme service from the Greenhead, performance and improvement from the Hillhead, human resources from Hayfield House and executive services from the town hall.

They will be joined the next weekend by finance, internal audit and human resources from Montfield and governance and law from Market Street.

The final flit on the weekend of 5th May involves adult learning leaving the old library, community planning moving from the Solarhus, the grants unit from Hayfield, human resources from St Olaf Street and Montfield and transport planning/ZetTrans from Commercial Road.

Tuesday saw the council hold a “democracy day” at Lerwick Town Hall, where interested parties came along to find out more about being a councillor. Those elected will face a series of unappetising decisions as the council seeks to make colossal spending cutbacks in the next two years.

SIC returning officer Jan Riise said the open day had gone “very well” and he was pleased that a number of young people had turned up to find out more.

“There were between 35 and 40 members of the public who came along,” Mr Riise said. “Some picked up nomination packs, others didn’t. Everybody that came felt the information supplied had enriched their knowledge of the election and what being a councillor was like. A number of councillors turned up and held little surgeries – that went quite well too.”

Betty Fullerton, the chairwoman of the key children’s services committee, this week confirmed she is to stand down. Her departure takes the number of members standing down ahead of the 3rd May ballot into double figures.

The former NHS Shetland chief, who first became a Central ward councillor in 2007, has been at the children’s services committee helm since last year. She told this newspaper she had decided her family had to come first.

“It has been a hard decision as I have a great interest in Shetland,” she said. “However, I have decided that at this time my family is more important.”

Only three existing councillors – Florence Grains, Robert Henderson and Cecil Smith – have yet to make their intentions known. Ten of the 22 are stepping down and a further nine are hoping to win another term.

Meanwhile, former Whalsay head teacher and current Shetland Arts chairman Jim Johnston has announced he will stand in the North Isles. He became Scotland’s youngest secondary head teacher in 1984 in the Western Isles, eventually spending 17 years teaching at Whalsay.

When living in Harris, he managed Leverhulme Memorial School, chaired the community’s council for social services and worked as an auxiliary coastguard. He and his wife Marilyn also owned a successful tearoom and restaurant in Tarbert until the birth of their son, Ross.

Mr Johnston spent two years as a senior education official with the SIC, which he said taught him a lot about how the council works.

He said: “My hope is that within the next council, there is a core of councillors with real ability and vision, with an urge to work as a team to get things done. I look forward with relish to the challenge of working with them, if elected.”

Mr Johnston believes Shetland is in a very strong position for future negotiations with Holyrood, Westminster and Brussels. Possible areas he would like to see discussed include the creation of restricted grounds around the islands for the local fishing fleet, whether Shetland can be granted tax benefits similar to those in the Channel Islands and whether it can keep income from renewable energy projects.

“Let us see how we can get the best deal for Shetland,” he said. “The current constitutional debate and its outcome with a vote in 2014 could put us in a very strong position. If, as Alex Salmond insists, the oil revenues are all down to geography, then, given oil field distribution, we must be in a strong position to benefit.”

The SNP has confirmed the identity of its candidates for the two Lerwick wards. Teacher Danus Skene, 67, will stand in Lerwick North while nurse Iain Morrison, 42, will run in Lerwick South. It is possible a third SNP candidate might run in the South Mainland.

Mr Skene, one of this newspaper’s Spaekalation columnists, was an independent councillor in Perthshire in the 1980s. He stood unsuccessfully as a parliamentary candidate four times, most recently for the Liberal Democrats in Moray in 1987.

His teaching experience has encompassed senior management positions, including sitting on the board of the Scottish Qualifications Authority and running two schools overseas. He continues to work to support schools in Kenya.

Mr Morrison has worked for NHS Shetland as a staff nurse on wards, in A+E and in operating theatres. Latterly he has had an educational role, supporting nurse training including working in partnership with Shetland College.

Well known on the Shetland music scene, Mr Morrison has participated in the Shetland Folk Festival and performed at various special events. In common with Gussie Angus, who is standing down from the same Lerwick South constituency, he teaches bagpipes to young people.

Mr Skene said: “This is an important election in Shetland: there are big decisions ahead, and the seas are rough. There are two basic reasons why the SNP is entering the fray.

“First, Scottish independence offers Shetland a great opportunity. An SNP presence on the council will enable us to secure good relations with the Scottish government, achieving the best deals for Shetland. We will work to ensure that a high degree of centralised autonomy for Shetland is written into a future Scottish constitution.

“Secondly, voters need to know openly the political ideals and ambitions of their candidates and councillors. The SNP has sound policies in place to improve public services, and to deliver them through effective local government that can make its own mind up.

“The SNP insists on the highest standards of personal conduct in public life. If elected, Ian and I will be happy to be held to account by voters as SNP councillors.”

A fortnight ahead of the deadline for nominations, no other political parties have announced they will be fielding candidates. This week Maurice Mullay said the Conservatives, for whom Clive Richardson stood unsuccessfully in the Central ward by-election in December, would not be contesting any seats.

Scalloway community councillor and retired SIC accountant John Hunter said he was “99 per cent certain” he would stand in the Central ward, where by-election winner David Sandison is the only other confirmed name so far. Mr Hunter was unsuccessful in the same ward at the 2007 election.

Definitely not in the running is colourful former council chief executive David Clark, who recently wrote in Shetland Life that he felt SIC cutbacks were much too drastic.

Speaking from London this week, Mr Clark said there was far too much going on with his company, Dalzell Projects, though he did not dismiss the idea that he might stand at a future election.

Among those weighing up their options are Millgaet Media mogul Malcolm Younger, who said yesterday he was thinking about standing but it was “a big decision that can’t be taken lightly”. A contrasting media figure, former Shetland Times editor Vaila Wishart, is also giving the idea some thought.

Last week Theo Smith, Jim Reyner, George Smith, Malcolm Bell and Steven Coutts all threw their hats into the ring. Ex-councillor Drew Ratter and Sustainable Shetland chairman Billy Fox had previously announced their candidacies.

Mr Coutts, 29, was born and raised in Yell. His varied career has encompassed working in the aquaculture, business support, retail and youth sectors. Through his own business consultancy he assists small businesses and social enterprises, and undertakes work on behalf of the Energy Saving Trust.

He is married to physiotherapist Cathrine, and the couple have a young son, Rasmie. Mr Coutts is treasurer of Shetland Football Association and is involved in the community’s credit union.

He is standing for the North Isles, where “unfortunately the challenges and barriers” faced by organisations and businesses “keep mounting up”.

Mr Coutts said: “The next council has a lot of tough decisions to make over the next term and personally it would be all too easy to sit back and accept what comes. I, however, feel passionately that I can bring a positive new perspective to the council.

“I have become increasingly frustrated at the continued centralisation, lack of vision, and the speed and scale of the proposed cuts which will impact on some of the most vulnerable people in Shetland – cuts that are largely being proposed without sufficient assessment of their wider social and environmental impacts.”

Following the election count fiasco in 2007, when local government and Scottish Parliament elections were held simultaneously and many thousands of ballot papers were spoiled, new procedures are in place.

The count will begin at 9am on Friday 4th May and, all being well, Mr Riise anticipates counting in all seven wards should be completed by around lunchtime.

• Nominations must be lodged no later than 4pm on Thursday 29th March, and Mr Riise said anyone who wanted more information could either visit the SIC’s office at 4 Market Street in Lerwick or call (01595) 744554. There is also information on the council’s website at www.shetland.gov.uk/elections.

The action taken over Torana Bland from Leaside in Firth, who helped run the busy five-day-a-week OAP lunch club, has sparked real concerns surrounding freedom of speech.

Her letter is understood to be in the hands of the council’s legal team which, it is believed, could choose to either discipline or dismiss her.

Ms Bland sent a letter to The Shetland Times criticising the council’s decision to consider clos­ing the centre during their recent mammoth talks in the town hall. The eight-hour SIC meeting last month was aimed at curbing its public spend­ing by £15.2 million by 2013/14, although £7 million-worth of the proposed cuts have been  held over and are now awaiting a “review”.

The centre’s lunch club, worth £80,000, is one of the 30 services whose fate still hangs in the balance. Ms Bland’s letter insisted the
SIC had been “sneaky, secretive and made a bloody pig’s ear of the jobs they have been entrusted with”.

She added: “Why don’t you grow up and do the job you are paid to do, and not pick on the vulnerable, and those who cannot speak for them­selves. You are nothing but a set of bullies. You are slowly turning Shet­land into a ghost town.”

Ms Bland was sent home in light of the letter’s publication on 2nd March. She did not comment to The Shet­land Times about her circumstances and this paper did not learn of Ms Bland’s current situation from her.

The case has been highlighted in two letters to this week’s Readers’ Views. Frances and Kenneth Loynes, from Voe, have warmly regarded the lunch club as a chance to enjoy a “wonderful” meal and meet new people. Ms Bland’s letter, they said, was “heart-felt” and “true”.

Mr Loynes later told The Shetland Times: “When we were in town we used to go there for our lunch. All the people who worked there were very good. It’s a good facility for all the people who go there.”

Asked about Ms Bland, he said: “She had to go to a meeting and they told her not to go to the centre. She was just going to be at the centre that day.

“She was only expressing her opinion. She was only saying what everybody was thinking. If you can’t voice your opinion you might as well not say anything. I’d like to see her get her job back.”

Someone else who put pen to paper for the letters’ page this week was Lerwick man Jimmy Wiseman, from Haldane Burgess Crescent. Mr Wiseman is also a regular user of the centre, which on Wednesday was feeding over 30 people within its walls.

“It’s typical council, they are picking on the people who can’t speak back – can’t defend themselves,” he said. “She’s no supposed to run down the councillors, because the councillors are her employers, apparently.  You’re not supposed to knock your employer. But she was just saying what she saw, and that was that.

“She’s no here so she’s bound to be gagged. She can’t say what she thinks. It’s okay for me and the boys to say what we think because they can’t touch us; we’re just supposedly old folk and she’s working for the council.”

Mr Wiseman defended Ms Bland’s position, and criticised high salaries among senior-ranking SIC officials.  Cutting just five per cent off the wages of top earners would go a long way to make savings, he said. “They are trying to cut this place, and there are heaps of places they could cut.”

Among the diners at the Freefield on Wednesday was Doreen Williamson, from Leslie Road, a regular visitor who last month mounted a protest against the £80,000 saving and gained the support of Lerwick Community Council.

She submitted a petition with over 1,500 signatures against the centre’s closure to the council this week and she had been shocked to learn that Ms Bland was no longer able to turn up for work.

Mrs Williamson said: “What happened to freedom of speech? It’s bloody ridiculous. She got on extremely well with people. She hadn’t been here long, but you’d think she’d been here all her life.”

Her friend Amy Mouat added: “When she was working here and we all heard the news everybody was down in the dumps. It’s been the talk all the way along. It has put everybody in a fighting mood.”

Another regular is former Lerwick town provost Bill Smith, who also chaired Shetland Islands Council’s education department. Mr Smith had not heard of Ms Bland’s circumstances, but was highly critical of the council’s actions in cutting services.

“There is little, if any study, that has been done into the impact of the cuts at that level,” he said. “I have experienced squeezes and freezes in past years. This is not the first time the council has been short of money. When I was concerned with it I would have fought it tooth and nail.”

The council refused to confirm this week what Ms Bland current position was, while her union representative was also unable to comment on the issue.

The local authority is likely to turn to Shetland Charitable Trust for funds despite being told last year that it had none to spare.

The council is also set to look at how it can improve its own stock of houses which has been missed out in recent schemes to improve heating and insulation.

Social services chairman Cecil Smith and councillor Allison Duncan led a move at today’s meeting of the executive committee for real progress to be made in tackling the fuel poverty problem, which is getting worse due to spiralling fuel costs and falling household income.

The problem is being exacerbated by the new policy of keeping more old people in their houses by providing care at home rather than in residential care centres.

Mr Smith said it was not right for the council to stand by and remark that it had not been a bad winter, then for a bad one to come along, forcing people to wrap up in blankets. “We have to do something for the people of Shetland,” he said. “We have a duty to do so.”

A full report on how to ramp up action is to be tabled to the new council after May.

Councillors are also annoyed that the effects of wind chill in making houses cold are still not being taken seriously by governments when calculating the need for fuel assistance. Mr Smith said the Scottish government did not understand it, despite attempts to put Shetland’s case across to infrastructure and capital investment minister Alex Neil.

Education and families chairwoman Betty Fullerton voiced serious concerns about fuel poverty among older people, some of whom she said were now “really suffering”, living in drafty old houses which cost more to heat. “We really are coming into, I think, a very serious situation,” she said.

If there were no funds available from the council then it should take them from a budget which is of lower priority, she said. She hoped more could be done in time for next winter.

Councillor Caroline Miller said radical improvements were needed if there was to be any chance of meeting the target to eradicate fuel poverty by 2016. “We’re not going to make it at this rate,” she said.

Other councillors said many old Shetland folk were too proud or too embarrassed to complain or take up their entitlement to fuel poverty benefits. Mr Duncan said the inclusion of the word “poverty” did not help.

Councillor Gary Robinson warned that all efforts must be made to ensure support that is available from national schemes is taken up first before the council or the charitable trust starts “throwing money up the lum”.

Many of the hundreds of council house tenants around Shetland are living in homes which are not up to today’s standards. Development chairman Alastair Cooper raised their plight during the meeting and complained that the council had no money to do anything about it.

The executive committee agreed that the problem should also be looked at in the forthcoming report.

The former NHS Shetland chief, who first became a councillor in 2007, has chaired the council’s education and families committee since last year. She told this newspaper she had decided her family had to come first.

Her departure takes the number of members standing down ahead of the 3rd May ballot into double figures.

“I have finally made up my mind not to stand for re-election to the next council,” Mrs Fullerton told The Shetland Times. “It has been a hard decision as I have a great interest in Shetland. However I have decided that at this time my family is more important.”

Meanwhile, former Whalsay head teacher and current Shetland Arts chairman Jim Johnston has announced he will stand in the North Isles. He became Scotland’s youngest secondary head teacher in 1984 in the Western Isles, eventually spending 17 years teaching at Whalsay.

When living in Harris, he managed Leverhulme Memorial School, chaired the community’s council for social services and worked as an auxiliary coastguard. He and his wife Marilyn also owned a successful tearoom and restaurant in Tarbert until the birth of their son, Ross.

Mr Johnston spent two years as a senior education official with the SIC, which he said taught him a lot about how the council works.

He said: “My hope is that within the next council, there is a core of councillors with real ability and vision, with an urge to work as a team to get things done. I look forward with relish to the challenge of working with them, if elected.”

Mr Johnston believes Shetland is in a very strong position for future negotiations with Holyrood, Westminster and Brussels. Possible areas he would like to see discussed include the creation of restricted grounds around the islands for the local fishing fleet, whether Shetland can be granted tax benefits similar to those in the Channel Islands and whether it can keep income from renewable energy projects.

“Let us see how we can get the best deal for Shetland,” he said. “The current constitutional debate and its outcome with a vote in 2014 could put us in a very strong position. If, as Alex Salmond insists, the oil revenues are all down to geography, then, given oil field distribution, we must be in a strong position to benefit.”

With just over a fortnight until the registration deadline, the SNP has confirmed the identity of its candidates for the two Lerwick wards. Teacher Danus Skene, 67, will stand in Lerwick North and nurse Ian Morrison, 42, will run in Lerwick South.

Mr Skene, one of this newspaper’s Spaekalation columnists, was an independent councillor in Perthshire in the 1980s. He stood as a parliamentary candidate four times, most recently for the Liberal Democrats in Moray in 1987.

His teaching experience has encompassed senior management positions, including sitting on the board of the Scottish Qualifications Authority and running two schools overseas. He continues to work to support schools in Kenya.

Mr Morrison has worked for NHS Shetland as a staff nurse on wards, in A+E and in operating theatres. Latterly he has had an educational role, supporting nurse training including working in partnership with Shetland College.

Well known on the Shetland music scene, Mr Morrison has participated in the Shetland Folk Festival and performed at many special events. In common with Gussie Angus, who is standing down from the same constituency, he teaches bagpipes to young people of all ages.

Mr Skene said: “This is an important election in Shetland: there are big decisions ahead, and the seas are rough. There are two basic reasons why the SNP is entering the fray.

“First, Scottish independence offers Shetland a great opportunity. An SNP presence on the council will enable us to secure good relations with the Scottish government, achieving the best deals for Shetland. We will work to ensure that a high degree of decentralised autonomy for Shetland is written into a future Scottish constitution.

“Secondly, voters need to know openly the political ideals and ambitions of their candidates and councillors. The SNP has sound policies in place to improve public services, and to deliver them through effective local government that can make its own mind up.

“The SNP insists on the highest standards of personal conduct in public life. If elected, Iain and I will be happy to be held to account by voters as SNP councillors.”

Last week Theo Smith, Jim Reyner, George Smith, Malcolm Bell and Steven Coutts all threw their hats into the ring. Ex-councillor Drew Ratter and Sustainable Shetland chairman Billy Fox had previously announced their candidacies. 

In its submission to the Scottish government’s draft ferries plan, the SIC highlights that in peak season, the cost of two adults and two children travelling from Lerwick to Aberdeen and back with a car is £702.60. An equivalent family return trip between Stornoway and Ullapool costs just £135.40.

Scottish civil servant Cheryl Murrie was in Lerwick for Friday morning’s development committee to update the SIC on the government’s draft ferries plan and the tendering process for the new north boats contract. Members took the opportunity to bemoan the council’s exclusion from the so-called “competitive dialogue” negotiations with the four remaining bidders.

They were equally as exercised about the need to find a fairer system for setting fares. The Western Isles has benefited greatly from the introduction of RET (road equivalent tariff), but the government recognises that is not suited to Shetland as the 200-mile distance to Aberdeen would see ferry prices go up further still.

ZetTrans chairman Allan Wishart said he still had a “sinking feeling that we’re not really being listened to in Edinburgh”. He issued a reminder that Orkney benefits from six passenger ferries a day to Shetland’s three a week while one of the vessels is in dry dock. “RET is a badge that fits for the west coast,” he said.

Ms Murrie was asked by councillor Jonathan Wills to imagine how people in the central belt would feel if parts of key roads and motorways were frequently shut down in similar fashion. “The subsidies towards the ferries are part of the social contract,” Dr Wills said. “There are subsidies for the London Underground and the M8 too.”

Councillor Betty Fullerton was “quite dismayed” and urged the government to reduce inequalities in the standard and frequency of ferry services for different island groups. She described the discrepancy in fares as “exorbitantly unequal”.

Several members highlighted the lifeline ferry service’s importance not just for passengers, but for industries including seafood which contribute greatly to the wider Scottish economy. Councillor David Sandison said such businesses desperately needed equal access to their marketplace. “There has to be a strong recognition that freight is integral to the entire service,” he added.

The new six-year North Boats contract, which kicks in from July, will be awarded later this spring. The four candidates still in the running are current operator NorthLink, ex-operator P&O Ferries, international services firm Serco and Shetland Line, which operates the government’s freight contract for Orkney and Shetland.

Outgoing councillor Gussie Angus recalled 2006 research by Professor Alan Baird, which was very critical of the design of the current passenger vessels Hjaltland and Hrossey. They were described as “two of the most unsuitable vessels running in northern Europe” and Mr Angus has never heard any rebuttal of that finding, yet it looks inevitable they will continue to be use by the successful bidder until 2018.

Mr Wishart is concerned Shetland won’t get the opportunity to propose adjustments once the contract is awarded, but Ms Murrie assured him officials will be happy to talk through any community concerns.

She said the government was looking at all available evidence, including information contained in the Baird report. The ferries review is at a draft stage and she said communities were free to come back and say if they were unhappy with any aspects of it.

Dr Wills floated the idea of investing in two suitable combined passenger and freight vessels as a “spend to save” measure which would massively reduce the ongoing subsidy required to keep Shetland and Orkney connected to the mainland by sea.

Others taking the plunge ahead of the deadline for declarations on 29th March are former teacher and Hayfield official Jim Reyner, architect Theo Smith and Yell man Steven Coutts. All five men are to stand on independent tickets. No new female faces have declared their candidacies yet.

While those five are seeking to enter the political arena, the number of current SIC councillors set to exit the stage has swelled to nine. Ex­perienced and prominent Lerwick South member Gussie Angus, who unsuccessfully stood for the local authority’s political leadership last year, is bowing out.

So too is North Mainland coun­cillor Bill Manson, while his constituency colleague Addie Doull is understood to have indicated to his local community council that he has had his fill of the town hall chamber after a single term.

Mr Manson had been wavering but has now decided to call it a day. He is not sure whether he wants to remain involved with Viking Energy (he is company chairman) and Shetland Charitable Trust, which he also chairs.

Now 71, Mr Angus said he had decided some time ago to bow out. “I never had any intentions at the very start of this council of standing again – that was my intention then and that’s my intention now,” he said. “I signed up for a four year council, and we got a five year council. I think it’d have been better all round if it had ended when planned in 2011.”

A raft of councillors – including political leader Josie Simpson and convener Sandy Cluness – had already decided to say their fare­wells. The other four definitely not seeking re-election are Laura Bais­ley, Jim Budge, Andrew Hughson and Rick Nickerson. West Side veteran Florence Grains is also thought unlikely to stand, although she remains officially undecided.

The eight councillors who have concluded they do have the appetite for another five years in public life are: Caroline Miller and Allan Wishart (Lerwick North); Jim Henry and Jonathan Wills (Lerwick South); David Sandison (Shetland Central); Allison Duncan (Shetland South); Gary Robinson and Frank Robertson (Shetland West).

That leaves only Alastair Cooper, Betty Fullerton, Mrs Grains, Robert Henderson and Cecil Smith to clarify their positions.

Theo Smith has been a partner in architects PJP for over quarter of a century, an association he plans to end if he is elected to serve the people of the West Side, where he lives. As former chairman of the local Liberal Democrats his political allegiance is no secret, but the 59-year-old said it seemed “kinda pointless standing on a party ticket in a non-political council”.

The SIC has just agreed to a huge programme of spending cuts over the next two years, and Mr Smith is worried about the pace and scale of those cutbacks.

“I think personally that we’re cutting too much, too fast and I fear that by doing that we could wreck our economy, which I think is far more fragile than a lot of people think it is,” he said.

His involvement in the construc­tion industry prompts him to voice serious fears about the consequences of the council signing up to the “HubCo” model, a public-private partnership venture designed to help local authorities get schools and other large projects built.

“I’m concerned that a lot of money may be creamed off by companies outwith Shetland and leave the scraps for the local con­struction industry in Shetland, which is a huge employer,” Theo Smith said. “That worries me greatly.”

His namesake George Smith, who retired as college director a year ago after nearly three decades’ employment with the SIC, is standing as an independent in the South Mainland. He positioned himself as a strong supporter of public services and vowed to work together with other councillors in an “open and honest manner” if elected.

“It will be important for the new council to be a ‘listening’ council, taking on board community views in an inclusive way but, at the same time, providing strong and decisive leadership,” he said.

George Smith said that when making spending cuts, it was crucial people within the SIC were con­scious of its wider role in the economy too, because “any dramatic moves, without planning, can de­stab­ilise things very, very quickly”.

Ex-councillor Drew Ratter is trying to form a group of like-minded people to stand together in May, and George Smith said he was heartened by “the commitment shown to working as a team by those who have already declared them­selves as candidates”.

Sustainable Shetland chairman Billy Fox, whose views on the divisive Viking Energy windfarm project are the polar opposite of Mr Ratter’s, has criticised the Ollaberry man’s manoeuvrings, however.

Although he agrees that candi­dates should commit to working together where there is common ground, Mr Fox – who is standing in Lerwick South – feels that Mr Ratter’s failure to get in touch with him suggests their respective views “may not entirely gel”.

“The group he proposes could therefore be more of a selected cabal rather than a forum designed to incorporate the views of the full council,” he suggested.

One of those up against Mr Ratter in the North Mainland ward will be former teacher and education official Jim Reyner. Writer and former Shetland Life editor Malachy Tallack is also mulling over whether to contest that ward.

Mr Reyner, who lives in Muckle Roe with wife Linda, moved to Shetland in 2001 as head teacher at Burravoe, before moving into officialdom soon after. In a varied career in education he has worked with age groups from infants to adults, teaching in schools in the UK and the Middle East.

He said: “There have been far too many negative stories in the press lately – we have to accept that we are no longer the wealthy authority of the oil-boom days, but we must avoid the temptation to throw out everything that is so good about Shetland, simply to save money in the short term.

“The future of our services for our most vulnerable groups, includ­ing the vitally important voluntary sector, will be at risk unless a more positive and pragmatic ap­proach to solving our problems is adopted.”

Announcing his candidacy for the Lerwick North ward, Mr Bell im­mediately vowed this week to fight any attempt nationally to merge the SIC with other local authorities.

He feels such a prospect would be an “unmitigated disaster” for Shet­land.

Calling for “strong, effective and cohesive leadership”, Mr Bell warned the SIC must guard against sleepwalking into a future where the community is “reduced to sending a handful of representatives to meetings of some future strategic ‘Highlands and Islands Authority’ in Inverness”.

Mr Bell retired from the Northern Constabulary in late 2009, having become the first Shetlander to hold the islands’ chief police post. He has remained active in various walks of public life, including sitting on NHS Shetland’s board and acting as honorary sheriff.

“We are, without a doubt, stronger together,” he said. “If elected, I would continue to strive, with others, to ensure partnership work­ing is as effective as possible in order to maintain and where possible improve standards and remove barriers to delivery.”

Weisdale-based Mr Coutts is standing as an independent in his native North Isles, having been raised in Yell and lived there for quarter of a century.

A member of the Scottish Greens, the 29-year-old is the youngest declared candidate for 3rd May by more than a decade. A business con­sultant working mainly with social enterprises and voluntary organisa­tions, he has regularly carried out work for the Energy Saving Trust.

The SNP has said it will field at least two candidates in Lerwick, while the Conservatives are also thought to be planning to contest some seats.

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Shetland’s former chief police inspector Malcolm Bell has announced he will stand for election to the SIC later this spring and sounded a warning that the very future of public services in the islands could be under threat.

Mr Bell will stand in the Lerwick North ward and has immediately vowed to fight any attempt to merge the council with other local authorities, which he said would be “an unmitigated disaster for Shetland”.

In a reference to various crises which have afflicted the local authority, Mr Bell said he had been “disappointed” at some of the headlines the SIC has attracted in recent years.

He said it was vital the council gained more confidence within the community by providing “strong, effective and cohesive leadership” in what is set to be a “make or break” period.

Mr Bell warned that the SIC must guard against sleepwalking into a future where the community is “reduced to sending a handful of representatives to meetings of some future strategic ‘Highlands and Islands Authority’ in Inverness”.

Police and fire services are already being centralised and the number of health boards could also be reduced, and Mr Bell warns that if it doesn’t get its act together, the SIC could be next.

“We must remain responsible for our own destiny and with it the ability to apply local solutions to local problems,” he stressed. “I firmly believe that Shetland’s best days are still ahead of it but we will only realise this if we build trust and make fair, considered, transparent decisions.”

Mr Bell retired from the Northern Constabulary in late 2009, having become the first Shetlander to hold the area commander post in the islands. He is an honorary sheriff, sits on NHS Shetland’s board and is involved in adult protection and several voluntary organisations locally.

“One key factor of my entire public career, from the police to NHS Shetland, is my strong belief that the only way to get things done is through working openly and honestly as part of a team,” Mr Bell said.

“Throughout my career I have always believed that working with honesty and complete integrity is not only right but produces the best results. I’ve always put Shetland first and have worked hard to build strong, trusted and effective partnerships.

“We are, without a doubt, stronger together. If elected, I would continue to strive, with others, to ensure partnership working is as effective as possible in order to maintain and where possible improve standards and remove barriers to delivery.”