Trading Standards officers of The Highland Council are launching an initiative to tackle the sale of counterfeit goods within the workplace. They have written to local employers to advise them of the damage caused by counterfeiting to local businesses, which sell genuine goods.
A new rector for the 756-pupil Wick High School was appointed on Tuesday 32st August 2010. He is Mr Thomas McIntyre, deputy head teacher at Ladymead Community School Technology College, Taunton, Somerset.
In a move to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill by households and commercial businesses, The Highland Council begins a 6 month trial of an alternate weekly waste collection scheme in Skye and Lochalsh on Monday (6 September 2010). From this date, collections of the blue recycling bins will become fortnightly, alternating with a fortnightly collection of the general refuse bin.
The Highland Council's Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross Education and Enforcement officer James Sanderson is appealing to members of the public in Brora, Golspie and Helmsdale to help provide information which will help him identify persistent dog fouling offenders. Mr Sanderson says a minority of dog walkers are continuously flouting the law by failing to clear up after their dogs.
Ten fines issued during Inverness city centre litter crackdown A recent anti-litter purge in Inverness city centre resulted in 10 Fixed Penalty Notices of £50 each being issued for smoking related offences. Officers from The Highland Council's Transport Environmental and Community Services based in Aviemore, Dingwall and Invergordon were drafted in to Inverness to help mount the crackdown on Thursday 26th August 2010.
The public is being invited to have their say on the choice of two sites for the new Wick High School. A consultation by The Highland Council runs from Friday 23 August until Friday 1 October.
A new online gazetteer providing a single authoritative source of information on Gaelic place-names was launched today (19 August 2010) at The Highland Council's Gaelic Committee. The National Gazetteer of Gaelic Place-names is the culmination of 10 years of research by Ainmean-Àite na h-Alba (AÀA), the national advisory partnership to research and establish Gaelic place-names.
A number of key strategies, which are aimed at delivering more efficient services and significant savings, have been agreed by The Highland Council's Resources Committee. The reviews surround making better use of council properties, sharing services with partner agencies, reducing the costs of back office support for council services and making it easier on the web for the public to access information and pay for/book services.
The Duke of Rothesay has attended a workshop at the Castle of Mey looking at future opportunities for marine energy in Caithness and North Sutherland. The event was jointly organised by The Prince's Foundation for the Built Environment and the North Highland Initiative in association with the partners in the Caithness and North Sutherland Regeneration Partnership.
Pupils in Highland secondary schools are to receive guidance on mobile phone safety as they return to school this week. Advice in a joint letter from The Highland Council and Northern Constabulary to parents and carers of secondary pupils aims to raise awareness and specifically highlight the dangers of young people finding themselves in uncomfortable, compromising or illegal situations as a result of inappropriate use of mobile phones.
More than 31,000 pupils go back to school in the Highlands today (Tuesday 17 August 2010). Some will be returning to schools which have been upgraded over the summer holidays and others will benefit from major projects which will begin during the school session.
Probation teachers receive a warm welcome in the Highlands For 2010 Seventy five probationer teachers who will start work in Highland schools next week attended an induction day in Inverness today. The probationers were welcomed by Chairman of The Highland Council's Education, Culture and Sport Committee, Councillor Bill Fernie, and Hugh Fraser, Highland Council Director of Education, Culture and Sport.
Trading Standards Officers have joined forces with Money Advice Service colleagues on The Highland Council to tackle the "unacceptable and aggressive practices" of debt collectors. Gordon Robb, principal trading standards officer, highlighted the joint effort to address the problem while presenting the annual report of the Council's trading standards service to a meeting of the Transport Environmental and Community Services Committee.
Throughout Scotland's Housing Expo a series of seminars, organised by Sust, will offer an opportunity for housing and building specialists to hear expert opinion on a range of special interest topics related to the industry. Sust is the Scottish Government's Sustainability in Architecture Programme which is part of Architecture and Design Scotland.
The Highland Council's Finance and Trading Standards teams have been alerted to the fact that Highland residents are currently being targeted by a Council Tax rebate scam. The "phishing" scam involves attempts by callers to obtain bank details over the phone, on the false promise of being entitled to receive a rebate on their Council Tax payments.
Highland Council to consider delivery of community learning and leisure services by arms length organisation. Members of The Highland Council's Education, Culture and Sport Service have agreed to the principle of setting up an arms length organisation to deliver the local authority's community learning and leisure services.
The Care Information Scotland telephone helpline and website offers a single point of information on the care available for older people throughout the country. Care Information Scotland (CIS) was launched earlier this year by the Scottish Government.
A Council spokesman confirmed that officers from the Council's Environmental Health team had visited the farm at Auldearn yesterday (Tuesday) to interview the farmer who owned 2 of the bulls born in the UK from embryos from a cloned cow. The visit was to confirm information on the bulls and their offspring.
Move to benefit more applicants and help smaller projects Changes are being made to the Scotland Rural Development Programme (SRDP) to ensure rural Scotland gets maximum benefit from the Programme. This will increase the number of business development proposals financed through the SRDP and strengthen the role of local decision-making in community development projects.
Highland Councillors are being asked to consider investigating the feasibility of a pioneering new model of providing much-needed affordable homes in the Highlands. It could see a new build programme of 650 houses over a five year period.