Highland councillors in dark over homeless hostel blunder

SENIOR councillors were not told that a blunder by officials had effectively shut down Inverness’s only hostel for homeless women, it has emerged.

And they are also in the dark about a review of the council-owned facility in Assynt Road which could see it being closed completely and turned into private homes.

The Inverness Courier revealed on Friday that Highland Homeless Trust, which runs the hostel, had been forced to send 10 of the 12 residents into bed and breakfast accommodation because council officers had failed to renew the licence required for it to operate legally.

The move means the women, many of whom have significant social problems, no longer have ready access to the support services.

Yesterday, Councillor Bet McAllister (Labour), a member of the housing and social work committee which oversees the hostel, admitted she knew nothing of the problem.

“I haven’t been informed about it, which makes it all a bit of a shock,” she said.

“Not renewing the licence is quite appalling because it impacts on vulnerable people — that’s what I’m concerned about.

“This is bad because was it a deliberate lapse of the licence or just an administrative error? Anything like that shouldn’t happen.”

Committee colleagues, Councillor Janet Campbell (Liberal Democrat) and John Finnie (SNP) were also unaware a review of the hostel was imminent and demanded a full report on the matter.

Conservative MSP Mary Scanlon believes the licence should be renewed even if the hostel’s future is to be reassessed.

“It is irresponsible and heartless to deliberately put women at risk in order to review the Assynt Road premises,” she commented.

Murray Cochrane, the council’s area housing and property manager last week said various options for the building would be put to councillors soon.

The crisis comes just a month after Steve Barron, the council’s director of housing and property, admitted homeless people were being placed in unlicensed premises because of the growing pressure on the local authority to find suitable accommodation.