Almost £10 million worth of fraud and errors have been identified following a national detection exercise by Audit Scotland working together with other public bodies. The 2006/07 National Fraud Initiative (NFI) formed part of the audits of 74 participating bodies, including councils, police forces, fire and rescue services, health boards, the Scottish Public Pension Agency and the Student Award Agency for Scotland.
For the first time in The Highland Council's history, the four political groupings on the Council have signed an agreement to work jointly and co-operatively to achieve a review of the Crown Estate in Scotland so that the resources involved, including Scotland's seabed and much of its foreshore, produce greater benefits for local communities. Drew Hendry, SNP, Chair of Planning, Environment and Development and Councillors Richard Durham, Independent, Michael Foxley, Liberal Democrat, and Jimmy Gray, Labour, have signed the agreement on behalf of the Council's cross party working group, which aims to achieve changes to current policy and operations of the Crown Estate in the Highlands and more widely.
Fairways of Wick was established in 1981 by Ernest Adams. The shop began in rented premises on Bridge Street before moving to its current store at 118 High Street in the mid 1980's.
People in Caithness are benefiting from further expansion of The Highland Council's kerbside recycling collection service for paper, cans and garden waste. Mr William Nicolson from Battery Road in Castletown is one of 500 households benefiting from the roll out of the scheme, bringing the total number of households in Caithness to 8,000 and around 70,000 in total throughout Highland.
When Toby MacLean's parents decided to move from Shropshire to the Highland coastal resort of Portmahomack his first request was to insist they take him with them. The family had holidayed in the area for many years and moved permanently in 1998 to be closer to Toby's grandparents.
The tiled floors have been laid, the classroom furniture is in place and the finishing touches applied to The Highland Council's new replacement secondary schools in Dingwall and Portree. After two year's of construction work, Morrison Construction, part of Galliford Try group, has handed the keys over to the new Dingwall Academy and Portree High School following an independent inspection and both are now ready for the Council to fully prepare to welcome pupils and the community.
Since February, 125 volunteer households in Culbokie, Ross-shire have been taking part in The Highland Council's 6 month innovative recycling trial. Households taking part have been provided with 3 new wheeled bins in which to separate their waste.
BT is proposing to remove 194 payphones from the network in Highland. BT say the increase in mobile telephone ownership has resulted in the number of calls made from payphones in the last three years being halved and therefore believes that there is a need for them to re-examine payphone provision.
Old Pulteney Single Malt Whisky is delighted to announce details of this year's charity ball, which will take place on Friday 30 May at Pulteney Distillery in Wick - the ball, which is held to mark the anniversary of the repeal of prohibition in Wick, is the second to take place since the prestigious annual event kicked off last year. Tickets are on sale now and demand is expected to be high.
BT call centre workers are set to work from home in a trial which could create new jobs and revolutionise the way the offices are run, the telecoms giant has announced. Around 15 volunteers at the centre in Thurso, Caithness, will operate online from their homes, using high speed broadband links in a practice known as "homeshoring".
DINGWALL, Dingwall & Highland Marts Ltd., (April, 29th) sold 75 prime cattle. Prime bullocks (54) averaged 160.1p (+8.3p) and sold to 175p per kg and £1,127.25 gross.
The Saltire Prize The Challenge The Scottish Government has created the opportunity to award one of the biggest international innovation prizes in history through its plans for the Saltire Prize - a £10 million ($20 million) challenge prize for advances in clean energy. The Saltire Prize draws inspiration from great innovation prizes of the 20th century including aviation prizes that led to the first crossings of the English Channel and the Atlantic, the Ansari X Prize that led to the first private spacecraft launch and, more recently the Virgin Earth Challenge which saw Richard Branson challenge scientists around the world to come up with a way to remove CO2 gases from the atmosphere.
The Highland Council has appointed open space experts, Kit Campbell Associates, to help achieve high quality open spaces in new housing developments. Council planners will work alongside KCA to produce draft guidance that will be used to make sure that residents have high quality and well maintained open spaces close to where they live.
Trading Standards officers of The Highland Council are advising the public to show the door to itinerant traders, who offer to carry out a range of work on the home. And residents should not hesitate to report to the police any trader who is menacing and threatening in trying to secure a contract and cash payment.
Tenants of The Highland Council are being urged to consider insuring the contents of their homes to avoid the cost of having to replace furnishings and equipment lost by a major incident, such as flooding, burglary or fire. With its insurance partner Allianz, the Council is providing low cost home contents insurance for tenants.
KP Technology Ltd, a high-tech company, located in Wick in the far north of Scotland, has been awarded the prestigious Queens Award for Enterprise in Innovation for research, design and manufacture of specialist Scientific Equipment called Kelvin; Probes. The Queens Awards for Enterprise is an awards programme for businesses and other organisations who excel at international trade, innovation or sustainable development.
You might think the problem of untaxed vehicles is a minor one and that car tax evaders are just trying to 'get one over' on the Government. The truth is, as well as costing taxpayers an estimated £79 million per year, the blight of untaxed vehicles is also linked to the more significant issues of crime and road safety.
The public is to be asked for its views on proposals by The Highland Council to revise the scale of maximum taxi fares in the Highlands. The recommended increases will be advertised widely in the Highlands and the public will have a month in which to respond.
DINGWALL, Dingwall & Highland Marts Ltd., (10th April) sold 1593 store sheep of all classes. Lambs (1003) to £60 for Cheviots & Cross lambs from Simpsons Croft, Kildary & for Texel crosses from Tulloch Muir, Invergordon.
Study Reveals Social, Economic and Environmental Benefits Scottish furniture reuse projects helped more than 105,000 people - more than half from low income families - furnish their homes last year, according to a major new study from Scotland's national community recycling body. The study, carried out annually by The Community Recycling Network for Scotland (CRNS), revealed that as well helping people to move out of poverty, furniture reuse projects have a host of additional benefits.
