SRUC/Post Mortem facility to remain in Inverness

18th May 2016

Highlands & Islands (Labour) MSP David Stewart has welcomed the announcement from the SAC Consulting, Edinburgh, that the delivery of Veterinary Disease Surveillance in Scotland will continue from an Inverness facility.

David Stewart said " I championed the cause for Scotland's Rural College ( SRUC) to keep the post-mortem facility in Inverness and working with concerned staff and the farming community we put up a very good case for the need for such a facility to be based here within the Highlands. At times it appeared that our message was not getting through, but in a statement issued today the SAC advised “It was clear that local stakeholders felt we needed to maintain a facility in the Inverness area and so we revised our plans to ensure we could support local requirements."

“As part of these changes the Drummondhill site, which up until recently housed our veterinary disease surveillance, research and consulting presence in the region, will be placed on the market. Research and consulting staff are in the process of moving to An Lòchran, a new state of the art facility on the Inverness Campus.

Veterinary services staff will remain in their current facility until they move to the new post mortem facility, which is expected to be by the middle of 2017.”

David Stewart continued “ It has always been clear that such decision needed to be widely consulted on. In this particular case that did not appear to be happening, but thanks to the intervention of so many interested parties, common sense has finally prevailed.”