A COUNCIL is to press ahead with a controversial plan which will see Gaelic-only signs appearing in some parts of the Highlands.
The scheme was put forward by the Highland Council's director of transport services, Mr Philip Shimmin, who is English. He seemed surprised by the media interest in his plan. He said: ``It seems that an Englishman should not dare to bring up the subject of Gaelic place names.''
Members of the transport services committee unanimously agreed to back the plan although there were reservations about any additional cost to the council.
Easter Ross councillor James Paterson said: ``I have to question whether this item should be on the agenda at all, given the serious financial problems that this council has. I know my constituents just want good roads and signs are not very high on their list of priorities.''
Concerns have been raised by motoring organisations and the Scottish Tourist Board that changing some signs to Gaelic would confuse tourists.
But Mr Shimmin, 58, said bilingual signs already in existence in Gaelic-speaking areas were ``too cluttered'' and in some cases were not needed because the place names were so similar in both languages.
He added: ``We would be able to cut the size of some of these signs in half by using only the Gaelic name which will save us money. I am not trying to confuse anyone and it will be up to the local communities if they want such signs.''
The committee agreed to ask the full council to set up ``appropriate consultation procedures'' on the use of Gaelic-only signs.
Councillor Francis Keith, of north-west Sutherland, said: ``Many of the existing English language signs on our roads have so many letters missing that they might as well be in Gaelic.''
All non-standard road signs in Scotland, including ones using Gaelic, require specific consent from the Scottish Office. Only the West Highland areas of Skye, Ardnamurchan, and Morvern have this consent.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article