Highland Council Trading Standards and Police Scotland Highland and Islands Division are to host a Facebook chat event on the topic of rogue traders who call at your door offering to carry out works on your home. The event will take place on Tuesday 24th March at 6pm.
Highland Council Trading Standards are to hold two drop-in sessions aimed at traders who conduct works on domestic properties. The sessions will take place on Friday 27th March from 2pm till 4pm and again on Wednesday 1st April from 9am till 11am.
Members of the public are being invited to take part in a consultation on the Council's Onshore Wind Energy Supplementary Guidance which, when approved, will be used in the consideration of planning applications for wind energy developments in the Highlands. New national planning policies published in June 2014 changed how Councils are required to plan for Onshore Wind Energy development and Highland Council are therefore in the process of reviewing their planning policies and guidance.
A by-election is being held in Nairn on Thursday 7 May to find a successor to Councillor Colin Macaulay (SNP) who has stepped down. Nomination papers are now available from The Highland Council Service Point in Nairn as well as from www.highland.gov.uk/yourcouncil/elections/ .
The Highland Council members will consider ed a report on Thursday 12th March 2105 which sets out how Highland Council performs compared to other Local Authorities in Scotland. The benchmarking framework reports on how much councils spend on particular services, service performance and how satisfied people are with the major services provided by councils.
The Caithness and Sutherland Local Development Plan Main Issues Report (CaSPlan MIR) was published in October 2014 as a discussion document that set out initial ideas for what the plan needs to achieve for people and places in the area and the Council's initial preferences for where new development might be located. The consultation for the CaSPlan MIR finished on 6 February 2015.
Taxi and private hire car operators (PHC) and drivers in Highland are being invited to meet with The Highland Council's Taxi/PHC Sub Group to provide Members with their views on a number of issues relating to the trade. There will also be an opportunity for the trade to raise any issue which they wish with the sub group.
A significant new city centre visitor attraction proposed for Inverness has received a major funding boost when Members of The Highland Council City of Inverness Area Committee approved £100k Inverness Common Good Funding. The project which will see two public viewing platforms providing a 360 degree vista from the North Tower of Inverness Castle; and development of shop and interpretation area is anticipated to attract over 25,000 visitors within its first year.
During a meeting of the Partnership Board held in Inverness last week, the Highland Community Planning Partnership agreed to promote Gaelic in relevant areas of their work. Organisations including The Highland Council, NHS Highland, HIE, SNH, Police Scotland, Fire and Rescue Scotland, UHI, Highlife Highland and the Highland Third Sector Interface agreed to adopt a joined-up approach to Gaelic Strategic Planning and Development through the sharing of experience, skills and resources.
Closing dates Deadlines for applications in the following areas are as follows: Skye, Ross & Cromarty - 24 June, 2015 Lochaber - 14 July, 2015 City of Inverness - 30 July, 2015 Caithness & Sutherland - 5 August, 2015 Nairn, Badenoch & Strathspey - 12 August 2015 Purpose The Carbon CLEVER Community Grant Fund has been established to help Highland communities reduce their own greenhouse gas emissions, take leadership on carbon reduction, engage with others, raise awareness of climate change issues and promote low carbon behaviour. Local projects will help achieve our Carbon CLEVER target of a carbon neutral Inverness in a low carbon Highlands by 2025.
The Highland Licensing Board has launched a consultation on whether to introduce a supplementary policy statement on extended opening hours for special events of national and local significance. The aim of the supplementary policy statement, if introduced, would be to promote consistency of decision-making and to give advance notice to applicants of the Board's likely approach to determining applications.
Massive implications for people looking for Housing in Caithness. The way in which housing is allocated in Caithness has changed.
The first ever National consultation on the future management of flood risk in Scotland begins on the 2nd March 2015. For a period of 3 months, the draft ‘Flood Risk Management Strategy', and ‘Local Flood Risk Management Plan' for the Highland & Argyll Local Plan District will be available to view, and the public are invited to provide comment and influence the future of how flood risk management will be carried out over the next 6 year period.
Highland Council's Revenues and Business Support section in the Finance Service has won a Bronze COSLA (Convention of Scottish Local Authorities) award for their "Highland Helping Those in Need" project. COSLA Excellence Awards are held annually to reward and recognise projects and developments which establish excellent delivery of services to communities.
SIX Digital Champions are to be nominated to assist with promoting the Digital First Programme and the availability of online services. Digital First Programme aims to greatly increase access to online services, enabling at least 40% of transactions to be carried out online by April 2017.
Members of The Highland Council's Resources Committee have today agreed proposals to localise the Carbon CLEVER Community Grant Fund in 2015/16. The Carbon CLEVER Community Grant Fund, agreed in June 2014, is a £200,000 capital fund which aims to provide communities with financial support to implement relevant and innovative projects to tackle climate change.
The Highland Council has created a new way of keeping people up-to-date on the preparation of Development Plans in Highland and giving information of how and when people can get involved. The Development Plans Newsletter provides detailed information on what is happening across the Highlands in a more readable and accessible way making it more appealing to communities and stakeholders.
Digital First Programme aims to have at least 40% of transactions online and deliver £1.3 million in savings over next four years. THE Highland Council Digital First Programme aims to greatly increase access to online services, enabling at least 40% of transactions to be carried out online by April 2017.
FOLLOWING the resignation of Councillor Colin Macaulay (SNP), a by-election will be held to elect a Member for Ward 19, NAIRN Ward. Nairn is a four-member ward.
Following a successful meeting with the Lord Lyon and The Flag Institute with local community and Highland Council representatives, a competition for the design of a new flag for Caithness is launched today. Caithness Civic Leader, Councillor Gail Ross said: "This is a great chance for people to get creative and design an eye catching flag that will become the public symbol for Caithness.