LAST month saw the end of an era at Huntly House when the staff and residents said farewell to their manager of the last six years, Alex Campbell. Mr Campbell, during his term of office has introduced numerous innovative ideas at the Salvation Army home in Huntly Place. Among them was the idea of having workshops in the garden where the 54 residents based at Huntly House could learn and develop a range of skills.

Last year Charles Kennedy MP officially opened the first workshop in which residents can re-discover their creative skills in pottery, woodwork and computer graphics. On Friday 20th June, following an informal barbecue for residents, staff and friends, a second workshop was opened which has five computers, one of them connected to the internet. Action Team for Jobs funded this latest workshop on the basis that so many work opportunities these days asked for some degree of IT knowledge. The Action Team for Jobs, which has offices in Grant Street, will also be holding regular surgeries at Huntly House.

The garden has also been refurbished and besides their putting green there is also now a water feature worthy of Charlie Dimmock that lends a tranquil air to the scene.
Or it would, were it not for the adjacent building project currently underway!
This is the new resident’s lounge that will replace the first floor lounge, which is to be converted into four bedrooms. This will not increase the number of residents in the main building, but it will mean that no-one will be required to share any more.

This is just the latest in a stream of initiatives that Mr Campbell has seen come to fruition, projects that have made Huntly House the foremost in Scotland in its field. He has mixed feelings about his departure. “The last six years in Inverness have been the best in my working career,” he told News & Views. However, he feels that, at the age of 36, it is time at this stage in his career to hand over the baton and move on to fresh challenges. Originally from Clydebank, Mr Thompson had been in Toxteth in Liverpool before coming North, and is now London-bound, where he will be Director and General Secretary of the Methodist Church’s Queen Victoria Seamen’s Mission. This not only involves caring for 200 former seamen but also a mission role to the Methodists’ missions in Germany and the Philippines.

Mr Campbell will be missed beyond the walls of Huntly House: for the last four years he has been chairman of the Inverness Drug and Alcohol Forum and he is a member of the Highland Drug and Alcohol Action Team. He has also chaired the Inverness Council for the Single homeless.
Deputy manager, Sandy Frame, who will be acting manager in the meantime, paid tribute to Mr Campbell’s achievements in Inverness. “He will be missed, not only by the Salvation Army and our residents, but also in the wider community.”