Public confidence is not something a council can demand.
It is something it earns through every decision it makes, every explanation it gives and every opportunity it takes to demonstrate fairness, consistency and transparency.
Highland Council makes decisions every day that shape lives across the Highlands.
It grants licences, determines planning applications, enforces legislation and oversees the spending of millions of pounds of public money.
Most of those decisions pass without controversy.
Some do not.
The latest case to attract attention centres on Horsepower Cars, a long established family business that is appealing Highland Council’s refusal of a Certificate of Lawful Use together with an Enforcement Notice that could ultimately threaten the future of the business.
For many readers, the Horsepower Cars appeal is not simply a planning dispute.
It has become another test of confidence in Highland Council’s decision making.
The owner says the business has operated from the site for around fifteen years and now supports five local families whose livelihoods depend upon it.
The appeal therefore extends far beyond planning policy and raises wider questions about how public bodies reach decisions that can have profound consequences for established local businesses.
Documents released under Freedom of Information include internal planning correspondence following a council site visit.
Those emails appear to record officers describing the business as much smaller than expected, having a low impact on local amenity and not carrying out vehicle repairs or professional valeting from the site.
Those observations now sit alongside an Enforcement Notice that the owner says requires the business to stop activities he maintains have never taken place there.
The contrast between those internal observations and the eventual decision lies at the heart of the appeal.
The Freedom of Information response also did not include all of the information requested, with a substantial amount of material withheld from disclosure, meaning the full decision making process has yet to enter the public domain.
Highland Council has said it cannot comment while the appeal remains ongoing.
The Horsepower Cars case is not the first council decision to attract significant public scrutiny.
Earlier this year the authority faced widespread criticism after granting a taxi operator’s licence to a convicted rapist serving a prison sentence, prompting serious questions about judgement and public confidence.
More recently, concerns have also been raised over the governance of the Whole Family Wellbeing Fund after Freedom of Information disclosures revealed significant operational spending alongside large sums that remained unspent.
Speaking publicly on that issue, Councillor John Edmondson questioned the level of accountability surrounding the fund, telling fellow councillors there was “no real accountability to anyone.”
Each of these cases is different.
They involve different legislation, different officers and different decision making processes.
Yet they all touch upon the same principle.
Public confidence is not measured by whether every decision is popular.
It is measured by whether decisions are transparent, properly explained and capable of withstanding public scrutiny.
That is why the Horsepower Cars appeal matters.
It is not simply about one planning dispute or one family business.
It is about whether people can have confidence that decisions affecting livelihoods, public safety and public money are being reached fairly, consistently and transparently.
Highland Council will continue to make difficult decisions on behalf of the communities it serves.
The question raised by Horsepower Cars, and by other recent controversies, is whether those decisions continue to inspire the confidence of the people who are expected to live with them.
