The Highland Council has confirmed a freeze on the Council Tax for a fourth year in succession. The tax for 2011-12 is: Band A: £775.33; Band B: £904.56; C: £1,033.78; Band D: £1,163; Band E: £1,421.44; Band F: £1,679.89; Band G: £1,938.33; Band H: £2,326.
Cross party group to review assistance provided in primary school classrooms The Highland Council has agreed to set up a cross-party working group to review - before this summer - the level of assistance provided in primary school classrooms. In doing so, it agreed to reduce the amount of savings to be taken from classroom assistants in 2011/12 from £883,000 to £319,000.
The political make-up of The Highland Council has changed as a result of the resignations of two councillors from the Liberal Democrat Group, Councillor Janet Campbell, Inverness Central and Glynis Sinclair, Culloden and Ardersier. Miss Campbell has joined the Independent Members' Group and Mrs Sinclair has confirmed she is now non-aligned.
A public meeting is being held at 7.30 pm on Wednesday 23 February at Wick High School to give interested parties the chance to have their say on the design of the proposed new state of the art secondary school for the community. The Council has appointed an expert team to prepare a detailed brief for the new £34 million High School and the co-located community facilities and want to explore the requirements of the new facility at the public meeting.
A powerful group of speakers is coming to Inverness as part of a follow-up event to the successful P4 Digital Healthcare conference held last September. Organised by Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE), the" P4 Digital Melting Pot: Exploring and Connecting" conference will take place on 10 and 11 May 2011 at the Centre for Health Science in Inverness.
The UK Government today announced a consultation on options for the long-term management of plutonium currently held at Dounreay and Sellafield. The consultation paper set out three options: Reuse as fuel.
The February 2011 issue of the site newspaper, Dounreay News, has now been published and is also available online. The successful completion of the project to de-clad the out-of-reactor breeder material is featured in the paper and on the front cover.
Budget supports ambitions of a new generation Boost for college places, modern apprenticeships and college bursaries A 34.5 million pounds package to support thousands of additional employment, training and college places was announced today as part of next year's Scottish Budget. Despite a 1.3 billion pounds cut imposed on Scotland by the UK Government, the Budget will deliver a total of 46,500 training opportunities, invest an extra £15 million in college bursaries and boost college places by a further 1,200.
FORT WILLIAM, Dingwall & Highland Marts, (February, 10th) sold 527 sheep of all classes. Lambs (266) averaged £41.33 and sold to £62 gross for a pen of Blackfaces from Blarmacfoldach, Fort William.
People in the Highlands with an interest in the history of the area can now take advantage of drop-in sessions being provided by The Highland Council Archive Service in Inverness. Starting this week, from 9 February on Wednesday afternoons between 3 and 7pm at the Highland Archive & Registration Centre, staff will be available to explain how the Archive Service works and to provide an introduction to the extent of the information held on the history of the Highlands.
ZIJDEWIND, THE NETHERLANDS / FORSS, UNITED KINGDOM TOCARDO installed and commissioned its first bi-directional turbine at its testing and demonstration facilities in Den Oever, The Netherlands. After having a uni-directional turbine in full operation and grid connected for 3 years, this new addition with reversible blades is considered to be a highly constructive and significant step towards full scale deployment of commercial offshore Tocardo technology.
Blue wheelie bins to be rolled out to more households in Caithness Over the next few weeks residents of Caithness will receive notification of a change to their refuse and recycling collections, which take effect from Monday 4 April 2011. Residents who currently have a recycling box collection will be given blue wheeled recycling bins which will accept a wider range of materials - paper, cardboard, plastic bottles, food tins and drink cans.
Caithness businesses are being invited to attend an award ceremony to receive thanks from The Highland Council for the ongoing and valuable contributions they make in supporting pupils through skills for work; work experience; and enterprise projects. An invitation from The Highland Council's, Education, Culture and Sport Service has gone out to local businesses to attend the ceremony at Park Hotel, Oldfield, Thurso on Thursday 10 February at 6:45pm.
Scams Alert Campaign Launched by Highland Council Trading Standards Highland Council Trading Standards in partnership with The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) annual Scams Awareness Month is reminding consumers to be ever vigilant against possible scams. The nationwide 'Scamnesty' campaign runs from 1st to 28th February 2011 and aims to warn consumers not to be fooled by mass marketed scam mailings that bombard UK consumers every year.
The Highland Council has agreed a fresh approach to tackling poverty and unemployment in the Highlands. Organisations are being invited to develop innovative approaches to assisting people with barriers to employment into training, work experience and jobs.
Police Operation Reveals Five Breaches Of Licensing Laws POLICE are disappointed at the failure of five premises to comply with licensing laws during a test purchase operation in the North. Following the commencement of Northern Constabulary's Test Purchasing operation, which involved youths entering licensed premises under controlled conditions to purchase alcohol, 18 off-sales premises were tested in Wick and Thurso on Saturday the 29th of January 2011.
Weekly update, 24th January Week commencing 24th January I met with Caithness area Highland Councillors and HIE's Area Manager Roy Kirk to discuss the ongoing issues regarding the future of the tax office in Wick, which is scheduled for closure in 2012. HIE remains keen to incorporate the skills represented in the Wick office into its developing campaigns for inward investment in the priority "business services" sector.
Parents and guardians of children are being informed by The Highland Council that its time for enrolment into pre-school and primary school in the Highlands. The next school session starts on 16 August 2011.
Lybster Police Station To Close As Part Of Savings Measures By Northern Constabulary Police Stations were the focus of a meeting ot he Joint Northern Police Board today when it was agreed to close 15 police stations in the latest round of cuts and savings measures being announced by public bodies right across the UK. Lybster police station will now be covered by Wick police station.
Week commencing 17th January From Eann Sinclair - Programme Manage The Partnership's Delivery Group met this week, and discussed progress on our two priority areas of energy and business services. Roy Kirk, HIE's Area Manager reported progress in existing businesses and with targeted inward investment research and campaigns in specific areas of both energy and business services.
