As readers will be aware, Highland Council has voted on numerous occasions to use bilingual signage throughout the authority area and Foram Gàidhlig Inbhir Nis fully supports this policy.

Just as the inclusion of Gaelic on signs in the city is a simple but important tool for promoting the Gaelic identity of the area and communicating a message on the pride the Highlands and Inverness has in our Gaelic community, so too the exclusion of Gaelic on signs communicates a negative message to the community that Gaelic should be replaced with a monolingual identity for the city.

We see bilingual signs as part of the environment required to develop and grow Gaelic.

We are fortunate to have a rich Gaelic culture of which many young people growing up in the area are rightly proud.

So too Gaelic posts within Inverness provide an important boost to the local economy and help attract young people to the city.

We would request that those against bilingual signs clarify if they wish this economic boost to relocate to another area where public representatives support the language and which has a more enlightened attitude to Gaelic.

Our position at Foram Gàidhlig Inbhir Nis is clear: We fully support Highland Council with its bilingual signs policy.

Elected members in Inverness who are unable to live with a council decision which was agreed by a majority vote on more than one occasion should take a good hard look in the mirror.

If they are unable to live with democracy they may be unable to remain part of the system that grants them their titles and influence.

Their partisan and unreasonable behaviour flies in the face of the Gaelic Language Act and Highland Council's own Gaelic Language Plan — both of which accept the place of Gaelic as a language deserving "equal respect" to English. It's about time they showed some respect.

Donald Morris, Chairperson, Foram Gàidhlig Inbhir Nis (Inverness Gaelic Forum), 5 Mitchell's Lane, Inverness

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