News Archive
3/2/2011
Successful commissioning of first bi-directional turbine
ZIJDEWIND, THE NETHERLANDS / FORSS, UNITED KINGDOM TOCARDO installed and commissioned its first bi-directional turbine at its testing and demonstration facilities in Den Oever, The Netherlands. After having a uni-directional turbine in full operation and grid connected for 3 years, this new addition with reversible blades is considered to be a highly constructive and significant step towards full scale deployment of commercial offshore Tocardo technology.
1/2/2011
New Refuse And Recycling Collections For Caithness
Blue wheelie bins to be rolled out to more households in Caithness Over the next few weeks residents of Caithness will receive notification of a change to their refuse and recycling collections, which take effect from Monday 4 April 2011. Residents who currently have a recycling box collection will be given blue wheeled recycling bins which will accept a wider range of materials - paper, cardboard, plastic bottles, food tins and drink cans.1/2/2011
Caithness Employers Thanked For Supporting Pupils
Caithness businesses are being invited to attend an award ceremony to receive thanks from The Highland Council for the ongoing and valuable contributions they make in supporting pupils through skills for work; work experience; and enterprise projects. An invitation from The Highland Council's, Education, Culture and Sport Service has gone out to local businesses to attend the ceremony at Park Hotel, Oldfield, Thurso on Thursday 10 February at 6:45pm.1/2/2011
Scams Alert Campaign by Trading Standards
Scams Alert Campaign Launched by Highland Council Trading Standards Highland Council Trading Standards in partnership with The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) annual Scams Awareness Month is reminding consumers to be ever vigilant against possible scams. The nationwide 'Scamnesty' campaign runs from 1st to 28th February 2011 and aims to warn consumers not to be fooled by mass marketed scam mailings that bombard UK consumers every year.1/2/2011
Tackling Poverty and Unemployment In The Highlands
The Highland Council has agreed a fresh approach to tackling poverty and unemployment in the Highlands. Organisations are being invited to develop innovative approaches to assisting people with barriers to employment into training, work experience and jobs.1/2/2011
Five Premises In Caithness Fail Alcohol Test Puuchasing
Police Operation Reveals Five Breaches Of Licensing Laws POLICE are disappointed at the failure of five premises to comply with licensing laws during a test purchase operation in the North. Following the commencement of Northern Constabulary's Test Purchasing operation, which involved youths entering licensed premises under controlled conditions to purchase alcohol, 18 off-sales premises were tested in Wick and Thurso on Saturday the 29th of January 2011.29/1/2011
Regeneration Partnership Update - Week Commencing 24 January 2011
Weekly update, 24th January Week commencing 24th January I met with Caithness area Highland Councillors and HIE's Area Manager Roy Kirk to discuss the ongoing issues regarding the future of the tax office in Wick, which is scheduled for closure in 2012. HIE remains keen to incorporate the skills represented in the Wick office into its developing campaigns for inward investment in the priority "business services" sector.28/1/2011
Time To Enrol Children For School
Parents and guardians of children are being informed by The Highland Council that its time for enrolment into pre-school and primary school in the Highlands. The next school session starts on 16 August 2011.28/1/2011
Lybster Police Station To Close As Part Of Savings Measures
Lybster Police Station To Close As Part Of Savings Measures By Northern Constabulary Police Stations were the focus of a meeting ot he Joint Northern Police Board today when it was agreed to close 15 police stations in the latest round of cuts and savings measures being announced by public bodies right across the UK. Lybster police station will now be covered by Wick police station.27/1/2011
Regeneration Partnership Update - Week Commencing 17 January 2011
Week commencing 17th January From Eann Sinclair - Programme Manage The Partnership's Delivery Group met this week, and discussed progress on our two priority areas of energy and business services. Roy Kirk, HIE's Area Manager reported progress in existing businesses and with targeted inward investment research and campaigns in specific areas of both energy and business services.27/1/2011
Tall Ships Opportunity For Young People In Highland
Tall Ships opportunity http://www.highland.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/D17A9CA4-C88D-4A22-89DE- (Pdf) Tall Ships application form http://www.highland.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/CAD08E77-536D-43A5-862C- (Pdf) In partnership with Ocean Young Trust, Young Scot and COSLA, The Highland Council is offering 2 young people the opportunity to participate in the Tall Ships Races 2011. The opportunity includes travel to and from the vessel and all costs incurred while taking part in the project.27/1/2011
Budget Bill Debate - £1.3 Billion Cut
Ahead of the Budget Bill debate in the Scottish Parliament today, Finance Secretary John Swinney said:"I look forward to Stage 1 of the Budget Bill and debating a budget that will protect jobs and frontline services, promote economic recovery and support the move to a low carbon economy. Scotland's budget next year has been slashed by £1.3 billion as a result of Westminster cuts, planned by the previous UK Government and extended by the current UK coalition.27/1/2011
UK GDP Figures - Warning From John Swinney
Speaking in response to the publication of UK GDP figures, which show the UK economy contracted by 0.5 per cent during the fourth quarter of 2010, Finance Secretary John Swinney on Tuesday said:"Today's shock UK figures entirely vindicate the Scottish Government's decision to defer the UK coalition Government's Emergency Budget cuts for 2010/11 to next year, so that we can continue investing and building recovery now. Clearly, Westminster's cuts go too far and too fast, and are choking off the UK's recovery.27/1/2011
Go ahead for A90 Upgrade - Aberdeen - Ellon
Transport Minister Keith Brown today gave the go ahead for the upgrade after considering the findings and recommendations of the public local inquiry. The improvements will provide continuous dual carriageway between Aberdeen and Ellon and remove the bottleneck caused by the existing single carriageway.27/1/2011
Farm Income Estimates 2010
Scotland's Chief Statistician today published Scottish Farm Income Estimates 2010, containing the first release of aggregate Total Income From Farming (TIFF) estimates for 2010 and average Farm Business Income (FBI) estimates for 2009-10, along with revisions for previous years. Main findings: Total Income From Farming (TIFF) increased by £122 million to £618 million between 2009 and 2010.27/1/2011
Glasgow 2014 Digital Game Competition
Budding computer games designers are being given a unique opportunity to design a digital game for the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games. Any student studying in Scotland is eligible for the competition which will see both the winner and runner up take home a cash prize of £2014.27/1/2011
Law Change To Protect Tenant's Deposits
Regulations governing the approval of a national Tenancy Deposit Scheme were laid in the Scottish Parliament. The regulations are expected to become law in March.27/1/2011
THOUSANDS IN FIRING LINE AS CUTS BITE
UK Housing Benefit changes will penalise the poor Around 60,000 households will face severe hardship when UK housing benefit changes take hold in Scotland, Housing and Communities Minister Alex Neil said today. In April, 55,000 households will be given nine months to either lose housing benefit or move out of their home.25/1/2011
Highland Emergency Restrictions On Use Of Road Salt Removed
A 2,000 Tonne load of salt delivered to Inverness yesterday (24 January 2011) has boosted total stock on salt for Highland Council roads to 14,800 Tonnes. With a further 8,300 Tonnes due later in the week, stocks are now sustainably above the 12,800 Tonne threshold at which Councillors decided last week that restrictions should be lifted.25/1/2011
