The Highland Council and partners from both public bodies and leading companies in the Highlands are working to deliver a science academy for the Highlands aimed at children of all ages from pre-school to further education. The aim is to open up opportunities for Highland young people to benefit from thousands of future skilled job opportunities in the decades to come.
Fund to help deliver 6000 affordable homes. Hundreds of millions of pounds are to be spent across Scotland on increasing the supply of affordable housing, creating jobs and boosting the economy, it was confirmed today.
The Leader of The Highland Council Councillor Drew Hendry has revealed an exciting new proposal which could see The Highland Council co-locating with the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, NHS Highland, Police Scotland, and possibly other partners such as the Scottish Ambulance Service and Scottish Water in a new control centre hub in Inverness. The suggestion is that the agencies share new premises in the city, each having their own control centre within the hub.
Highlands and Islands (Labour) MSP David Stewart lodged his Defective and Dangerous Buildings (Recovery of Expenses) (Scotland) Bill today. This is the first opposition Member Bill this session to reach this stage and aims to encourage Local Authorities to deal with the increasingly large amount of defective buildings before they become dangerous and unsightly.
The Highland Council is to host a major conference early next month to launch its Carbon Clever Highlands initiative which aims to achieve a carbon neutral Inverness in a low carbon Highlands by 2025. Keynote speakers at the event on Friday 8 November at Council HQ, Inverness, are Connie Hedegaard, the European Commissioner for Climate Action, Scottish Government Minister, Fergus Ewing MSP, and Willie Printie, of LifeScan Scotland.
Five candidates will contest the forthcoming by-election to elect one councillor to serve The Highland Council’s Ward 4 – Landward Caithness. The candidates are: · Ed Boyter, Scottish National Party (SNP) · Kerensa Carr, Scottish Conservative and Unionist · Tina Irving, Independent · Matthew Reiss, Independent · Winifred Sutherland, Independent The by-election will be held on Thursday 28 November and voting will take place at 14 polling stations between 7.00 am – 10.00 pm.
The Leader of The Highland Council, Councillor Drew Hendry, has written yet again to the UK Government urging a re-think over its under-occupancy policy, which he says is impacting heavily on the Highlands and in particular remote and rural communities. In a letter to Lord Freud, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Welfare Reform, the Leader urges the Government to back a recommendation from one of its own committees – the Environment Food and Rural Affairs Committee – to exempt settlements of fewer than 3,000 people.
Highland Councillors have unanimously accepted changes to the Council’s Service structure to align teams into five Services rather than the current seven, delivering year-on-year savings of £350,000 from 2014/15. The current seven Services are: Education, Culture and Sport Health and Social Care Finance Chief Executives Service Housing and Property Planning and Development TECS The proposed new Services are:- Children, Education and Adult Services Finance Corporate Development Capital and Development Community Services The changes will be implemented in two phases.
The Highland Council is fully supporting the Scottish Government’s Ready for Winter Campaign which was launched today (Monday 21st October 2013). The national campaign focuses on being prepared in the community; at home; on the move and in the workplace and encourages people to use the “extra hour”, when the clocks go back at the weekend to “Take an Hour” to make themselves better prepared.
Highland Councillors will be asked next week to amend the Council’s Service structure to align teams into five Services rather than the current seven, delivering year-on-year savings of £350,000 from 2014/15. New Chief Executive Steve Barron has prepared a report for consideration by the Council at its meeting on Thursday 24 October, which recommends changes - to be introduced in two phases - to improve the efficiency, effectiveness and performance of the Council’s services.
The Highland Council’s commitment to biomass as a heat source has enabled a Lochaber-based green energy company to employ two new apprentices to help service a four-year £1.2 million per year contract with the Council. Biomass heat specialists, HWEnergy, who are based at Torlundy, Fort William, now have an in-house team of more than 50 who install, maintain and service biomass boilers as well as supply wood chips and pellets.
The Highland Council has welcomed a breakthrough in the national campaign to outlaw the compilation of construction industry blacklists, which detail covertly gathered information on construction trade unionism and the employment history of employees. Eight large construction firms have announced that they intend to compensate workers who were unlawfully blacklisted and denied work for long periods as the result of being blacklisted.
The first scheme arranged through The Highland Council’s Community Challenge Fund has started today Monday (14 October 2013). The Fort Augustus and Glenmoriston Community Company have taken over the street cleaning and grounds maintenance in their villages, including the grass cutting in the cemeteries of Auchterawe, Kilchuimen and Strathoich.
Link to nomination forms The timetable for the election for the return of a councillor for Ward 4 (Landward Caithness) of The Highland Council has been confirmed today (Friday 11 October 2013). Candidates have until 4pm on Monday 28 October 2013 to confirm they are standing.
The Highland Council has fully endorsed the need for a national strategy and a long term campaign aimed at tackling littering and fly-tipping. In a submission to the Scottish Government’s consultation on “Towards a litter-free Scotland”, the Council backs stronger penalties for littering and fly-tipping and increased emphasis on education and awareness.
A call for people’s early suggestions of sites and ideas for the new Caithness and Sutherland Local Development Plan – CaSPlan – is in to its last fortnight. It is therefore important that people take up The Highland Council’s invitation to submit suggestions for inclusion in the new plan for the future of Caithness and Sutherland, before the deadline on 17 October 2013.
Council and E.ON work together to improve Highland homes. Home owners in four Highland Council Wards are the first to be offered free energy saving measures in a £6.4 million project with energy company E.ON.
Getting a better deal on air travel for rural regions, such as the Highlands and Islands, was top of the agenda for The Highland Council Leader Drew Hendry when he addressed delegates at the General Assembly of the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions in St Malo, Brittany, France. Councillor Hendry won the support of delegates for further research to be carried out by CPMR for present to the European Commission.
Trading Standards officers from The Highland Council and Police Scotland are asking Highland residents to think again before they consider buying potentially lethal power tools that are being offered for sale door to door and from the back of vans. Following reports of generators, chainsaws and power washers being offered for sale by itinerant traders in the Nairn, Skye and the Badenoch & Strathspey areas, officers acted last week and 25 items were seized.
Leader of The Highland Council, Councillor Drew Hendry has been elected Vice-President of the Conference of Maritime Peripheral Regions (CPMR). He is the first Scots to hold the post.