News Archive
11/12/2017
Brakes Are Off As Reactor Clean-up Moves Forward
Engineers at Dounreay have raided a scrap car and a kitchen can opener to help decommission one of the site's reactors. The handbrake from a vintage 1968 Ford Cortina has been used to help steer a camera, attached to wheels taken from can openers, into the Prototype Fast Reactor (PFR) where a detailed survey inside the plant was completed.
11/12/2017
New West Link Road, Inverness Opens To Traffic Today
THE West Link distributor road will be fully open to traffic from noon on Monday 11th December 2017. The completion of the first phase of Inverness's West Link road will be marked by an opening ceremony at 09:30am, followed by the road, which links the A82 to Dores Road, being fully opened to traffic at noon.
11/12/2017
Screen Sector Benefits From Major Film
Principal photography for Outlaw King, the new feature film from Scottish director David Mackenzie and one of the biggest productions ever made in Scotland, has completed. Based on the story of Robert the Bruce, Outlaw King is produced by Glasgow-based Sigma Films, backed by Netflix and funded by the Scottish Government and National Lottery.
11/12/2017
Footage Shows Dounreay Fast Reactor Element Removal
Never seen before footage of Dounreay workers removing the last remaining radioactive fuel elements from one of the site's iconic reactors has been made available in a new film. Work started earlier this year to remove material which has been stuck inside Dounreay Fast Reactor for several decades.
11/12/2017
Scottish rural businesses see digital technology as key to growth
Scottish rural businesses see digital technology as key to growth but face skills and training barriers. · New research by Scotland's Rural College and Rural England finds nearly four in five rural businesses say digital technologies like cloud computing, 5G, Internet of Things and artificial intelligence are important to their growth.11/12/2017
Sales Of Million Pound Houses In Scotland Fall By A Third
Scottish million pound property sales fell by over a third (35%) in the first half of 2017 compared to last year. Million pound property sales suffered the most in Scotland compared to the rest of Great Britain.
11/12/2017
Scottish Exports Continue To Grow
Overseas Scottish food and drink exports were worth £4.3 billion in the first nine months of 2017, an increase of almost £500 million compared to the same period last year. Food exports were valued at about £1.2 billion increasing by 20% - around £200 million more than the same period in 2016.
11/12/2017
Organisations Unite In Life Sciences Collaboration
Three organisations from across the Highlands and Islands have teamed up in a new collaboration to boost life sciences in the region. Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE), the University of the Highlands and Islands, and NHS Highland have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) as they progress joint initiatives on Inverness Campus.11/12/2017
Building Scotland's Future - Scottish Budget Day Thursday 14th December
Budget will prioritise growth and innovation. Finance Secretary Derek Mackay has said his priority is to build Scotland's future as he prepares to present his second Draft Budget to Parliament.11/12/2017
Community ownership is increasing in Scotland
Scotland's Chief Statistician has published the Estimate of Community Owned Land in Scotland 2017 publication. The publication presents the area of land in community ownership, the number of land parcels/assets in community ownership and the number of community groups that own land parcels/assets.10/12/2017
Spittal Substation Progress
Spittal is a new electricity convertor station and is part of the £1.1bn Caithness-Moray project which represents the largest investment in the north of Scotland's electricity network since the hydro development era of the 1950s and is the largest capital investment project undertaken by the SSE Group to date. It is also the largest Living Wage contract ever awarded in the UK, demonstrating SSEN's strong commitment to ensure all employees working on its sites get a fair day's pay for a fair day's work.
10/12/2017
Piles All In Place In Moray Firth
The Beatrice project reached a significant milestone yesterday as the final cluster of foundation piles was safely installed marking the end of the piling phase of offshore construction. A total of 86 clusters of four piles (344 individual piles) are now in place in the Moray Firth.
10/12/2017
Caithness And North Sutherland Regeneration Partnership - Update
Week commencing 4 December 2017. Energy & business services: The installation of all 86 sets of foundation piles for the Beatrice Offshore Windfarm was completed this week - a major project milestone for the company.8/12/2017
Council's Winter services in action
With Storm Caroline hitting the Highlands yesterday, today's heavy snowfall and the forecast for a drop in temperatures over the next 48 hours, the Highland Council's crews and winter vehicles have been busy in action. The fleet includes 105 gritters, 42 footpath tractors and over the coming months 200 plus staff will be providing winter maintenance services.8/12/2017
Brexit: European Commission Recommends Sufficient Progress To The European Council (article 50)
The European Commission has today recommended to the European Council (Article 50) to conclude that sufficient progress has been made in the first phase of the Article 50 negotiations with the United Kingdom. It is now for the European Council (Article 50) on 15 December 2017 to decide if sufficient progress has been made, allowing the negotiations to proceed to their second phase.7/12/2017
Highland Council winter road condition and school closure report for Thursday 7 December 2017
Road condition reports by The Highland Council's Community Services for the morning of Thursday 7 December 2017 are as follows: Caithness and Sutherland: Most roads are affected by snow and ice. Treatment in progress.7/12/2017
Storm damage - Wick Campus
The high winds during Storm Caroline today have caused some damage to part of the roof of the Wick campus gym, causing the metal flashing around a roof light to become detached. The school was already closed to pupils today due to the adverse weather.7/12/2017
Scotland's roads are deteriorating from budget cuts, says UNISON report
Council road budgets have been cut by 21% since 2012 which is having a serious detrimental effect on Scotland's road network, says a UNISON report released today (Friday 8 December 2017). UNISON Scotland's report, Road to Nowhere, consulted council road teams across Scotland including: road workers, engineers, technicians, team leaders and managers.
7/12/2017
Council reminds landowners to check wind damaged trees
Following the high winds forecast and experienced this week due to Storm Caroline, The Highland Council is encouraging landowners to check trees and vegetation near to public roads which may have been damaged. Roads affected by fallen trees this morning were near Beauly; Achnagarron near Invergordon and Lochaber which staff are clearing.7/12/2017
