A duo of High Life Highland employees have marked an incredible 45 years’ service with the charity and The Highland Council.
Clerical assistant Avril Budge and mobile library van driver Alistair Sinclair were recognised alongside other long serving members of the High Life Highland team at a special event in Inverness yesterday (26 November).
They joined The Highland Council in the same year that ‘Call Me’ by Blondie was the biggest selling single of the year, Ronald Reagan became the 40th US President and the question on everyone’s lips was ‘who shot JR’!
Avril – who is based at the East Caithness Community Facility – started as a clerical assistant in local government in 1980 with the then Caithness District Council and then with The Highland Council following local government reorganisation in 1996. She worked in a variety of service areas including Education before transferring to her current post in the Business Support team at High Life Highland when it was created in 2011.
Meanwhile Alistair has been the friendly face of the mobile library van service for 45+ years. Alistair has driven quite a few different vans over the years, navigating the roads of Caithness and Sutherland in all weathers! He is looking forward to the new mobile library vans joining the fleet in 2026.
High Life Highland hosted the special afternoon tea at the Bught Park Pavilion to celebrate a host of long service achievements spanning 20 to 45 years, with more than 30 awards presented. The library service was particularly well represented with seven staff clocking up 210 years between them! 
The septet includes mobile library driver Alistair along with Head of Libraries Julie Corcoran who started work at Inverness Library 35 years ago in 1990. She said: “It’s amazing that we have clocked up over 200 years service between us – it goes to show what a great environment and organisational culture we have here – and of course, everyone knows that libraries are great places to work!”
Also marking 35 years is Linda Moore who works at Kinlochleven Library while Ruan Peat at Thurso Library is celebrating 30 years. In Mallaig, Judi Wiseman-Cairns has clocked up 25 years of library duties and marking 20 years with the charity’s library service is Dingwall Library duo, Linda Martin and Susan Kruse.
Steve Walsh, chief executive of High Life Highland said: “It is absolutely wonderful to see all our staff at High Life Highland recognised for their dedication to the organisation and the hard work that they do making life better for people in the Highlands. Particular congratulations and thank you to Avril and Alistair who have made a massive contribution throughout their 45 years.”
High Life Highland was set up by The Highland Council in 2011 as an arm’s length external organisation and operates seven services previously looked after by the local authority. They are: archives, countryside rangers, leisure facilities, libraries, museums and galleries, music development and sports.
