CHANGES to a number of Polling Districts and Polling Places in the Highlands were agreed today at the meeting of the Community Safety, Public Engagement and Equalities Committee. The Review of Polling Districts and Polling Places in Highland commenced in November 2013, in line with duties under the Electoral Registration and Administration Act 2013.
The Highland Council has been taking action to reduce radon in nine properties which include five schools. Testing earlier in the year showed all properties had radon above the statutory Action Level of 400 Bq/m³.
Two opportunities have arisen for people with an interest in community learning and leisure services in Highland communities to become involved as Directors of the Board of High Life Highland to deliver these services on behalf of The Highland Council. High Life Highland (HLH) is a charity registered in Scotland and a company, limited by guarantee, wholly owned by The Highland Council.
The Highland Council is supporting the Scottish Government's Ready Scotland Campaign and urges people in the Highlands to take some time to get ready for winter and all kinds of severe weather. See - 7 http://www.readyscotland.org/are-you-ready/winter-weather/ Councillor Graham Mackenzie, Highland Council's Chair of Community Services Committee, said: "We have had a very mild start to this winter and we want people to think ahead and be prepared for a change in the temperature and all types of severe weather.
Highland Council has raised concerns regarding Council tenants who are affected by Universal Credit, at a meeting of the Resources Committee on 26 November. Chair of Resources, Maxine Smith said: "The exact number of people affected is unknown, however, we are aware of 32 households who are in receipt of Universal Credit of which 30 households are in rent arrears.
Highland Council has saved a total of over £476k and cut carbon emissions through reduced business mileage over the past 4 years. Councillors' total expenses have reduced by 10.1% and the cost of reimbursing employees for mileage has reduced by 15.9%.
The next phase of The Highland Council's on-going programme to check its properties for levels of naturally occurring radon gas is to take place in 34 schools throughout the region commencing in December 2014. The programme is risk based, with previous testing focused on housing and schools considered to be in higher risk areas.
The SNP/LibDem/Labour Administration of Highland council today announced that, having listened to the concerns of the public regarding proposals to reduce the primary school week, they have decided to remove the proposal from year 1 (2015/16), to allow further work on the detail and to minimise any impact on schools. Budget Leader, Maxine Smith (Scottish National Party) said: "We are currently considering the responses to our consultation and listening carefully to what people are saying and early feedback suggests there are major concerns regarding the primary school week.
A huge number of responses have been received as part of the phase two Budget Consultation. There were 4 key strands to this phase of the consultation including surveys of the Citizens' Panel, the Highland Communities Panel, ten Focus Groups with hard to reach groups and an online survey as well as general comments which were received.
Highland Council Licensing Committee is voicing its concern that a small number of licensed taxi and PHC operators are failing to take appropriate steps to ensure their vehicles are safe and meet the standards required. This follows three hearings at each of the last two Committee meetings, on 14 October and 11 November, following the receipt of reports from Trading Standards.
Over one hundred delegates will be welcomed to The Highland Council's second Carbon CLEVER Conference on Monday 17 November, in Inverness which this year is titled "Working Together for a Low Carbon Highlands". Highland Council Convener and Conference Chair, Councillor Jimmy Gray said: "The range of speakers and delegates who have signed up to the conference shows real commitment from organisations in Highland to address climate change, and is testament to the vision of Carbon CLEVER.
Building work has begun on a new enterprise and research centre at Inverness Campus. The building will house a new collaboration between two of the region's key strategic organisations.
As winter approaches householders are reminded that Garden Waste Collections will cease for a period of 3 months from the end of November. There will be no brown bin collections in December, January or February.
Members of the public are being invited to an event in Thurso to consider the Main Issues Report for a new Caithness and Sutherland Local Development Plan (CaSPlan). The first event is in Thurso on 18 November at Caithness Horizons, High Street.
North businesses are being invited by The Highland Council's Procurement team and Business Partners to join them at Mackay's Hotel, Wick on Tuesday 25 and Wednesday 26 November to find out about new opportunities in public sector business. This is a free advice and information event aims to help interested businesses bid for public contracts, whether they have worked with the Council before or never considered public sector contracts.
The construction works to provide a safe cycle route from the Inverness Campus at Beechwood to Inverness city centre are now complete. The completed route forms part of the link from the new Inverness Campus and the recently constructed golden bridge over the A9 in the east, through Raigmore housing estate to Millburn Road, where it continues to the city centre.
The addition of new materials to the blue bin will be introduced next year and could save around £70,000. A report on the first phase of a waste compositional analysis study, which was carried out on household kerbside collections in June 2014 in the Inner Moray Firth area, has been considered by the Community Services Committee.
The Community Services Committee today considered the implications of a report on the cost of running the Corran Ferry, which, despite fare increases, continues to run at a deficit. Under European State Aid tests, there is a real possibility that the public funding of the Corran Ferry service deficit may be viewed as State Aid.
A major public consultation is now underway to help prepare a new 20 year Local Development Plan for the Caithness and Sutherland area, to be known as CaSPlan. The Main Issues Report was published on 30 October 2014 and it is the first formal stage of preparing the new CaSPlan.
A report on the latest results from a survey of the Citizen's Panel shows generally positive trends and improving satisfaction with most services in the Highlands. 93% say they rate quality of community life in the neighbourhood they live in as very or fairly good and almost 97% rate their locality as very or fairly safe.