Local Authority News
2/10/2012
Living Wage For Highland Council Employees By April 2013
The lowest paid employees of The Highland Council will benefit from the introduction of a £7.20 an hour wage from April next year. The national UK minimum wage from 1st October is £6.16 per hour (see below for details of age rules and amounts) Members of the Council's Finance, Housing and Resources Committee today agreed to introduce the Scottish Living Wage by applying a living wage supplement to all employees currently paid less than £7.20 per hour to bring them up to £7.20 per hour from 1 April 2013.2/10/2012
Highlands Awarded Fairtrade Zone Status
The Highlands have been awarded Fairtrade Zone Status by the Fairtrade Foundation. The good news was announced at The Highland Council's Finance Housing and Resources Committee by Council Vice-Convener Councillor Hamish Wood, who has led the Fairtrade campaign over the past two years.
1/10/2012
Special meeting date set to discuss midnight door entry policy
The Highland Licensing Board has agreed to hold a special meeting on Tuesday 6 November at 2:30pm to consider consultation responses received on its door entry policy for premises with late night opening hours, which requires admission by midnight. A report presented to the Licensing Board today (2 October) said the special meeting will allow more time for members to read and consider all responses and invite a number of parties from each of the "for/against" sides of the argument to make a presentation to the Board on their position.27/9/2012
Get Bids In Fast for Play Parks
Community groups to benefit from Landfill Community Fund. Highland community groups are being invited to make a bid for a new tranche of £100,000 of funding, to develop or enhance children's play areas.26/9/2012
Council Goes for Preventative Spending
£3 million preventative spending aims to promote wellbeing of young, old and deprived. The Highland Council has published proposals to improve the circumstances of young people, older adults and those struggling with deprivation by committing at least £3 million of the Council's budget each year on earlier interventions to stop situations getting worse.26/9/2012
Big Council Office Reductions Proposed For Inverness and Dingwall
Office review in Inverness and Dingwall identifies scope for rationalisation. Highland Councillors have been advised that reducing the number of Council offices in Inverness and Dingwall from 22 to 4 by 2020 has the greatest potential to deliver significant benefits and improved value to the Council when compared to retaining the current office estate.26/9/2012
New Secondary School for Inverness
Council welcomes funding boost for IRA replacement. The Highland Council has warmly welcomed confirmation that Inverness Royal Academy is one of the 67 schools in Scotland to benefit from major funding from the Scottish Government's "Scotland's Schools for the Future Phase 3" Programme.24/9/2012
Contracts awarded for early design work on A9 dualling programme
A9 dualling Perth to Inverness "Work to dual the A9 by 2025 is gathering pace with the award of two major contracts this week" said Transport Minister Keith Brown today. The Minister was speaking as he announced details of two consultants appointed to undertake preparatory work for dualling 80 miles of the A9 between Perth and Inverness.24/9/2012
Council deals with weather impact in the Highlands
Highland Council's Transport, Environmental and Community Services (TECs) staff are currently dealing with weather-related incidents in Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey and Lochaber. TEC Services staff have cleared one fallen tree on the B970 at Insh and three trees on Carr Road at Carrbridge.23/9/2012
Consultation on Shaping Scotland's Court Services Launched
With the Scottish legal system about to embark on the most significant changes in over a century, The Scottish Court Service (SCS) has today launched a three month consultation on its proposals for court services in the High Court, sheriff courts and justice of the peace courts. Civil and criminal justice will be reformed in the coming years following the recommendations arising from the reviews by Lord Gill, Lord Carloway, Sheriff Principal Bowen and the forthcoming Victims and Witnesses Bill.22/9/2012
Council Action On Thurso Sheltered Housing
Council responds to concerns at Thurso sheltered housing scheme. The Highland Council has responded to concerns about warden cover at a sheltered housing scheme in Thurso by visiting residents and promising to advise them soon of the outcome of the consultations.20/9/2012
Caithness District Partnership Meeting
The new Caithness District Partnership will meet in full for the second time on Friday 28 September, as part of the new arrangements under the Planning for Integration (P4i) partnership between the NHS and The Highland Council. Partners will consider a report from the NHS steering group, who are recommending a Stakeholder Engagement Plan.20/9/2012
Street Lighting Trials To Continue
The Highland Council's Transport Environmental and Community Services Committee has noted the progress being made with trials to achieve energy and carbon savings in street lighting. Members were told that the introduction of new technology energy efficient white lights with associated 25% dimming between midnight and 6 am has generated annual savings of £60,000.19/9/2012
Opening of Thurso Toilets
New public toilets in Thurso are now open for use by visitors and locals. On Monday (17 September 2012) Jannetta Sutherland, Visitor Services Advisor with VisitScotland, whose office is opposite the new toilet block, was invited to cut the ribbon to mark the completion of the project.
19/9/2012
New Town Tornagrain Gets Go Ahead From Highland Councillors
A proposal to build a new town to accommodate up tp 10,000 residents in over 4000 new homes to be built over a 30 - 40 year period finally got the go ahead today The proposals relate to the creation of a new community on 259 hectares of land on the A96(T) just to the north east of Tornagrain and south of Inverness Airport. It is envisaged that the town will have a population of around 10,000 when built out over an estimated 30-40 year period.18/9/2012
Highland Deposit Guarantee Scheme
Questions and Answers for Private Landlords and Applicants What is the Deposit Guarantee Scheme? The Highland Deposit Guarantee Scheme (here after referred to as the scheme) provides the 'Guarantee' of a deposit instead of a tenant providing cash deposit immediately. The Guarantee is to assist people having difficulty raising a cash deposit at the initial stage of the tenancy.18/9/2012
Capital Investment For Highland Communities
Capital investment by the Highland Council over the last 18 months has delivered £1.6 million of environmental improvement projects across Highland communities. Members of today's PED Committee had the opportunity to see photos of some of the projects which have been implemented by the Planning and Development Service in support of economic development.12/9/2012
UK Parliamentary Boundary Changes
The Boundary Commission for Scotland today (Thursday 13 September 2012) begins an eight week final consultation period with its Sixth Review of UK Parliament Constituencies. The final consultation period allows comments to be made to the Commission concerning any of its revised proposals for constituencies.11/9/2012
Bin your butts campaign proves a success in Inverness
A Highland Council campaign aimed at reducing smoking related litter on the streets of Inverness has seen a 25% reduction in litter with smokers helping out and 'Binning their butts'. The Highland Council ran a week long campaign which saw Officers out and about in the Inverness City centre speaking to smokers and raising awareness of the problems of tackling cigarette litter.8/9/2012
