Thursday 7th April 2011 Venue: Mackays Hotel, Wick Time: 12:30 - 14:30 Business Mentoring is a service that is provided through the partnership of Scottish Chambers of Commerce (SCC), Highlands & Islands Enterprise (HIE) and the European Social Fund (ESF) through the Highlands & Islands Partnership Programme (HIPP). The service is being led locally by Caithness Chamber of Commerce and the strategic aims are to contribute to the improved performance of Highlands & Islands businesses and the economy by assisting and encouraging more businesses that are seeking to develop and grow, within the Highlands, throughout the UK and abroad.
Highland householders are reminded by The HighlandCouncil of new and extended ways of paying their Council Tax, rent and other Council bills, which took effect from Friday 1 April - the start of the new financial year. The public will be able to pay by cash at any Post Office and more than 300 PayPoints and Payzones throughout the Highlands.
Town and Country Planning (Development management Procedure) (Scotland) Regulations 2008 Planning Application Pre-Application Consultation The Highland Council's Housing and Property Service are conducting pre-application consultation on the following development proposal; Redevelopment of the existing Council office buildings at High Street/Market Place, Wick, KW1 4AB Further information can be obtained from The Highland Council's Housing and Property Service, Town House, Inverness, between 9:00am and 5:00pm Mondays to Fridays. Public consultation briefings will be held at the Assembly Rooms, Sinclair Terrace, Wick , on Friday 1st April 2011 between 1:00pm and 5:00pm and on Saturday 2nd April 2011 between 9:00am and 1:00pm.
We received this item offering the possibility to share a chartered flight to the Faroes. the flight is already booked but has spare seats and the writer is trying to fill the spare capacity.
In response to recent press items and letters Steve Barron, Director of Housing and Property for Highland Council has issued the following letter. Dear Sir Council Reassurance on Caithness Heat and Power Further to the article in the 25th March edition of the Journal I write to reassure your readers that Highland Council is confident that the Caithness Heat and Power (CHaP) project can be successfully transferred to Ignis, such that loyal customers can continue to enjoy the benefits of low cost heat and hot water.
Please could you help us let people in your area know about the energyshare grant fund which has just launched with up to £500,000 for community renewable energy projects? We're calling for communities across the UK to register their interest. To apply see www.energyshare.com/fund/about-applying/ energyshare is a 100% renewable energy community giving everyone in the UK the opportunity to get involved in sourcing, using, and generating your own renewable energy.
Through working closely with the trade unions and following effective vacancy monitoring and redeployment policies, The Highland Council has been able to avoid making any grounds maintenance staff redundant following the outsourcing of routine grass cutting work to a private contractor. When the Council decided to invite the private sector to compete for grass cutting contracts last year, it was estimated that 22 staff would transfer to the successful bidder under the TUPE Regulations, and that a further 33 posts would be at risk of redundancy.
A total of 15 candidates across the three Highland constituencies are seeking election to the Scottish Parliament on Thursday 5 May. In Caithness Sutherland and Ross, four candidates are seeking election.
New refuse and recycling service begins in Caithness and Lochaber next Monday The new refuse and recycling collections in Caithness and Lochaber begin next Monday, 4th April. From this date householders will receive a fortnightly refuse collection, alternating with a fortnightly recycling collection from blue or blue-lidded recycling bins.
DINGWALL, Dingwall & Highland Marts Ltd., (March, 29th) sold 68 prime cattle. Prime bullocks (30) averaged 169.5p (+3.5p) and sold to 180p per kg and £1,195.40 gross.
The Highland Youth Voice Apprentice Day is running for the 6th time on Wednesday, 30th March with 14 young people aged 15-17 from Lochaber, Nairn, Wick, Fortrose, Dingwall, Kingussie and the Inverness area taking part. Highland Youth Voice, the elected Youth Parliament for the Highlands, holds an annual 'Apprentice Day' on which members of the Highland Youth Voice shadow Senior Managers.
Due to increasing demand from our visitors we have started working on several upgrades to our property section. To begin with we are focusing on the Property for Sale section.
•Public Notice - Revised Taxi Fares The public is being asked for its views on proposals by The Highland Council to revise the scale of maximum taxi fares in the Highlands. The public have until Friday 22 April to respond.
Bosses at Dounreay agreed that they won't now be spending £500,000 on a repaint of the sphere. They money saved will go instead towards actual decommissioning work.
The clearance of tens of thousands of tonnes of radioactive waste from the redundant nuclear site at Dounreay today moved a step closer. Dounreay Site Restoration Ltd announced the formal award of a contract to develop a disposal site for low-level waste from the decommissioning and closure of the site.
Getting rid of Britain's 20th century experiment with fast breeder nuclear reactors is illuminating the history of human settlement on Scotland's north coast stretching back 6000 years. Archaeologists hired as part of the closure of the nuclear site at Dounreay have pieced together the legacy left by previous generations who occupied the site as long ago as 4000BC.
The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority has published the latest edition of the UK's radioactive waste inventory. This sets out the type and volumes of radioactive waste at sites such as Dounreay, as of April 1, 2010.
Cash from the closure of the fast reactor site at Dounreay is set to breed a new generation of engineers and scientists in the Scottish Highlands. The money from the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority will fund half the cost of a £50,000 project to increase the number of school-leavers skilled in science, technology, engineering and maths.
Climate Challenge projects share £8m Caithness projects were among the successful applicants for funds from the Climate Change challenge funding programme. Latheron Lybster and Clyth Community Development Company - £44,345 Dunnet Forestry Trust - £26,613 130 projects have been announced as the latest community initiatives to receive awards totalling over £8 million from the Climate Challenge Fund (CCF).
Business Services: I will be coordinating a meeting this week with representatives from the Pensions Administration Office to update local stakeholders on plans to move the PAO's base from Thurso to the Forss Business & Technology Park. The work done by staff at the PAO is a good example of the type of high-quality employment we would like to encourage as part of the economic transition process taking place over the coming months and years.
