HIE chairman backs decision over job loss

THE chairman of Highlands and Islands Enterprise has defended a decision which saw his chief executive being forced to leave his post to avoid a possible conflict of interest.

The development agency has invested 25 million in a plan to create an education and business park on land it owns at Beechwood Farm on the outskirts of Inverness.

The boundary of the land is 50m from the home of Sandy Cumming, HIE's chief executive for the past nine years, who has been told he now has to leave his 100,000-a-year post.

After HIE's board meeting yesterday, chairman Willie Roe said: "The board and senior management team were unable to find a way to resolve the conflict between where Sandy lives and the development at Beechwood.

"The place where he lives is adjacent to land that we own and that could be developed in the next couple of years. I had to make a judgment whether there was a conflict of interest in this situation, and the conclusion I reached was there is a conflict of interest here."

Sandy Brady, HIE's acting chief executive, said Mr Cumming could have been involved in a number of discussions about the site.