Ex-Highland council licensing member left ‘speechless’ by vote of no confidence meeting

A former Highland councillor and ex-licensing committee member has been left ‘speechless’ by what he called the lack of remorse by the majority of those who faced the vote of no confidence.

Retired Black Isle councillor Craig Fraser said “I was absolutely shocked, speechless” after watching the full council meeting on Thursday, September 17, where five councillors suffered a vote of no confidence from their peers after they made the decision to not revoke the taxi operator licence of convicted rapist David Brown in June.

He said most of the councillors showed a lack of “remorse and regret” for the decision they had made, adding: “I was astonished by the apparent lack of procedural understanding displayed by the male committee members, as well as their disregard for the professional guidance provided by the council’s legal clerks”.

The former SNP representative served as a Black Isle councillor for 15 years during which time he was also on the licensing committee for a number of years.

Mr Fraser explained: “During my tenure, committee members strictly adhered to the factual, legal advice provided by officers.

“Licensing is a quasi-judicial process. Officers exist to guide councillors through statutory obligations, legal boundaries, and their specific decision-making remits.

“Members of a licensing committee must act like judges.

“They are legally obligated to arrive at decisions based entirely on factual evidence, free from personal opinion, sentiment, or political bias.”

Recalling his time on the committee, Mr Fraser said there were cases where the committee would give the “benefit of the doubt” but in the case of Brown it was “black and white”.

He added the committee discussion “should of lasted about five minutes” as the only decision to make was whether Brown was a fit and proper person to hold the licence.

Although he felt the private papers containing the details of the case should never have been leaked, he did say it “shone a light onto potential issues in that committee for a long time”.

He added: “The actions of the six male councillors on the committee represent a grievous error of judgment.

“By ignoring established legal guidance and substituting objective reasoning with personal opinion, they have fundamentally undermined the quasi-judicial process and brought the very competence of the Highland Council into question.”

In response, Highland Council did not comment directly; instead, it pointed to the motion passed at the meeting on Thursday which will see a full independent review carried out into the council’s licensing service.