Business Gateway hits the road to inspire Highland entrepreneurs Entrepreneurs across the Highlands will be able to access free expert advice and connect with other local business owners this autumn when the Business Gateway and Enterprise Europe Scotland's Connect, Inspire and Grow roadshow comes to town. The roadshows will offer new and existing business owners the opportunity to share ideas, tips and concerns with other local entrepreneurs.
Trading Standards Officers from The Highland Council are warning residents that a Council Tax scam may be operating in the region. The scam involves unsuspecting consumers receiving a phone call from an individual pretending to be from the Council or from the UK Treasury and offering a refund on their Council Tax.
The Highland Council, working in partnership with NHS Highland, can announce that Carr Gomm Scotland has been contracted to provide home based respite services across most of the Highland Council area, with effect from October 2011. Carr Gomm Scotland is a charity and not for profit organisation, with a track record of delivering a person centred approach.
Eighty probationer teachers who will be working in Highland schools in the new session were welcomed to the Highlands at their induction in Inverness by Councillor Bill Fernie, Chairman of The Highland Council's Education, Culture and Sport Committee, and Hugh Fraser, Highland Council's Director of Education, Culture and Sport. The new teachers will be starting work in schools across the Highlands on Tuesday 16th August 2011 when pupils return to school following their summer break.
Communities and developers are being invited to have their say in shaping a revised policy aimed at managing the provision of houses in multiple occupation in the Highlands. For nearly three years The Highland Council has had in place a policy to manage the concentration of houses in multiple occupation, which has been implemented through partnership working between council services across Highland.
A new £50,000 fund offering grants of between £500 and £10,000 has been launched by Zero Waste Scotland to help local communities tackle flytipping by providing them with cash to remove dumped waste and take steps to prevent future problems. Open to community groups, landowners and land managers who are experiencing persistent problems of flytipping, applications to the fund can be made at www.dumbdumpers.org/flytipping.
Council extends timescale of pressured area status on social rented housing Around 12,830 homes in the Highlands will be able to remain within social rented housing stock until at least 2020 due to a 5-year extension of the Highland's pressured area designation status. Tenants with a modernised right to buy entitlement living in communities covered by the pressured area designation will have their right to buy suspended for the maximum period of the 10 year designation.
Council responds to UK Government consultation on rural fuel duty The Highland Council is committed to campaign for fair and equitable fuel prices across the Highlands and Islands and yesterday (Thursday 11 August 2001) members of the TEC Services Committee approved a response to the UK Government's consultation on the Rural Fuel Duty Rebate Pilot Scheme. Chairman of the TEC Services Committee, Councillor John Laing said: "We strongly support the introduction of the scheme, however in our response we stress that it must be set up in such a way as to actively encourage local fuel retailers to participate.
The Highland Council has achieved a top national award for customer service. The Cabinet Office has awarded the Council the Customer Service Excellence standard in recognition the service it provides via face to face contact with the public at its network of 35 Service Points, via telephone its Service Centre in Alness and via the Registration Service.
Members of The Highland Council have this week welcomed the second Antisocial Behaviour Strategy for the Highlands covering the period 2011 to 2016. A report considered by the Council's Housing and Social Work Committee, following public consultation, outlined a joint Antisocial Behaviour Strategy prepared by The Highland Council and Northern Constabulary.
For the first time in the Highlands, 16 and 17 year olds will be able to seek election to their local Community Council. The change is a core feature of a new scheme for the establishment of Community Councils agreed by The Highland Council earlier this year.
Statutory consultations on the provision of Primary Schools in Wick Caithness have been welcomed today (9 August 2011) by members of The Highland Council's Education, Culture and Sport Committee. Following a presentation on the Sustainable Schools Estate Review for Wick Primary Schools option appraisal by Caledonian Economics Limited to the ECS Committee members agreed that statutory consultations will be undertaken for two options.
Major investment, totalling more than £57 million, is being planned for schools in Wick over the next five years. As well as the construction of a new community secondary school within the existing site of Wick High School, at an estimated cost of £37 million, the Council will consider commencing a Statutory Consultation on the possible replacement of the town's primary schools with two new purpose built facilities.
Highland schools have again performed well in SQA results. At Higher level, 322 candidates passed 5 Highers, 47 of them with five straight A passes.
The Highland Council will complete a phased introduction of new opening hours at its network of 35 Service Points next week. Opening hours have already been amended at Fort Augustus, Grantown, Hilton (Inverness), Golspie, Brora, Tain, Invergordon, Alness, Kingussie and Aviemore.
An innovative new approach to planning will guide future major development in the Highlands and in particular the Inverness and Inner Moray Firth areas. The Highland Council and Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) have been working to produce guidance on 'green networks' to complement the Highland-wide Local Development Plan.
The Highlands will get a welcome boost towards the end of the summer tourist season when 120 delegates from across Europe gather in Inverness for a conference looking at promoting sustainable tourism in mountain communities. The Mountain Communities Leading Europe in Finding Innovative Solutions Conference is being organised by Euromontana in partnership with The Highland Council to put the spot light on current issues surrounding developing tourism in mountain areas across the world.
Highland householders are being urged to seek advice from the Home Energy Scotland Hotline to insulate themselves from rising fuel prices. The Home Energy Scotland Hotline, funded by the Scottish Government, can provide energy saving advice and assistance to help households save money and keep their homes warm.
The Highland Council is working with the Office of Fair Trading to warn the public of doorstep visits from rogue traders offering to carry out home repairs and gardening work. They are urging householders to be extra careful when accepting building and maintenance repair offers from cold callers.
The Highland Council has appointed a corporate property asset manager to spearhead its plans for maximising the benefits of its property portfolio. He is Graham Bull, a property manager with the Council's Housing and Property Service, who is a Chartered Surveyor with degrees in both Architecture and Building Surveying.