ROB WARE

Secretary of Sleat Community Council

Some people think that when one retires to a new life in the Highlands and Islands you will be sitting around looking for things to do. Wrong!  After a life-long career in aviation, travelling the world and many different roles retirement means that life is busier now than ever after 32 years in a major UK airline.

Retiring to a place like Skye means simply that if you are not going to work full time then you need a plan to keep the grey cells ticking over. Living in the small but vibrant community of the peninsula of Sleat has brought a new view of life and what I can do for the area that my wife and I chose to make our home. Skills learned in a long professional career have now been put to good use, and putting something back in to the community that has been so kind to us has seemed the perfect way to enjoy our later years. We are so fortunate to live in such a beautiful environment with magnificent scenery, amazing wildlife, entertainment, the seas around us and so much more.

So after 8 years permanently in Skye my days are taken up with a range of voluntary work that is both rewarding and challenging but giving something to the community in which we live:

• Chair of the Visit Sleat Tourism group, managed under the auspices of the Sleat Community Trust promoting Sleat as a preferred destination of choice to visitors.
• Secretary of the Sleat Community Council, one of the most active Community Councils in the Highland region, acting as a conduit between our residents and the key public service agencies including the Highland Council, NHS Highland, Police Scotland, Scottish Water, transport providers, Scottish Fire and Rescue and many more.  I am a member of the Sleat Transport Forum.
• Keen amateur photographer with an image library of 1000’s of photographs of Scotland’s west coast, forming a stock collection for websites.
• Website Manager for a number of sites, including Visit Sleat, Sleat Community Council, South Skye Camera Club, Kinloch Lodge, Calum’s Seal Trips in Plockton and a host of self-catering cottages and local businesses. Website designer using template based systems.

Whilst I would not describe myself as a campaigner, activist or environmentalist I see a clear role in using the voluntary work that I do to inform our community where I can, to promote Sleat as a first class holiday destination, and to play a part in protecting and preserving our environment for the generations to come. With tourism remaining so important for Scotland’s beautiful west coast we all need to play a part to preserve the special place in which we call home.