Sainsbury's popular Taste the Difference Meatballs, made from Mey Selections beef in an authentic tomato and smoky bacon sauce with added Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, beat off four other finalists to win the meat and poultry category of the Grocer Own Label Award Excellence Awards for 2007 at the Savoy Hotel, London yesterday. The award follows the product's success as the Best New Meat Product in the Meat Industry Awards in London last year.
Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) has extended two contracts through which all of its new properties are built, after an independent report gave it a five star value-for-money rating. The network's board was told at its public meeting in Thurso today (Tuesday May 15) that the contracts had been awarded in 2004 following a decision the previous year to make HIE's method of property procurement more efficient.
WORKERS REWARDED FOR ZERO ACCIDENT RATE Workers at Dounreay are set to tuck into a free cooked breakfast as a reward for improving the site's safety record. Earlier this year, the site announced it would provide for a free breakfast for every worker whenever the site went 60 consecutive days without an accident that required more than localised first aid.
Dounreay has hosted a visit by delegates from the Ministry of Economy & Central Project Management Agency in Lithuania from 7th-10th May. During their time on site, the group toured a number of facilities being decommissioned, including the Prototype Fast Reactor and former Fuel Cycle Area, and saw how the site manages the waste produced.
Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) will report on a year of record investment in the Highland economy when it delivers its annual review to the May board meeting on May 15th. Head of strategic planning and research, Alastair Nicolson, will tell board members in Thurso that all primary measure targets were exceeded and significant progress made against key strategic projects in a year that saw the network invest £118m in the regional economy.
An Inverness life sciences company will showcase its business to an influential group of international investors and key biotech companies this month as part of BioEquity Europe 2007 - Europe's largest investment conference for the life sciences sector. IVMD, based in Inverness, develops and manufactures medical devices for near patient testing and monitoring.
THE drive to create a university for the Highlands and Islands has received a major boost from Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE). The enterprise network this week announced a funding package of nearly £5m over the next three years designed to facilitate specific outputs which UHI Millennium Institute needs to attain to satisfy the Quality Assurance Agency that university title is appropriate.
Head Teachers in Caithness are concerned that local businesses may be approached to sponsor books. The schools know nothing about these approaches by a company selling the books.
Thurso High School is one of eight schools to make it through to the final of the Big Green Challenge. Eight schools from the Highlands and Islands are to battle it out for a coveted place in the final of the region's first debating competition tackling one of the most talked-about subjects of the 21st century - renewable energy.
Summary The March 2007 unemployment figures were released on 14th March 2007. During the month, February 2007 to March 2007, the number of people claiming unemployment benefit in Great Britain fell by 1.9%, from 948,577 to 930,094 (18,483 claimants).
Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) will be holding its next public board meeting at the Pentland Hotel in Thurso on Tuesday May 15, 2007. Chair for HIE Caithness and Sutherland Pat Buchanan will begin proceedings by welcoming the board to Caithness.
Caithness and sutherland unemploment fell as at March 2007 to 722 claimants for benefit with the percentage dropping for unemployment benfit claimants by 3% between Feb 07 and March 07. The precentage drop between March 06 and March 07 was 11.6%.
Passenger numbers at airports in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland have increased by 7% in the past 12 months to a record total of 1,232,782. Figures released today by Highlands and Islands Airports Limited show that an additional 80,000 passengers have used its 10 airports in the year to 31 March 2007 compared to the previous operating year making it the sixth consecutive year of passenger growth.
Farmers are going to be increasingly dependent upon irrigation to grow their crops along the east coast according to climate change predictions. Some east coast rivers are already over-abstracted and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) is concerned that water may run out in some of the small burns which farmers depend on if the current dry weather continues.
Caithness Horizons, the new visitor attraction and community facility that will be housed in the refurbished Thurso Town Hall and Carnegie Library, made its first appearance to the travel trade at Expo 2007 in Edinburgh and received a welcome level of interest from potential buyers. The Centre, which will become the hub for the area and act as a signpost for the many attractions and sites of interest in Caithness, attracted the attention of UK and overseas-based tour operators - as well as the media - who were all interested in receiving a special preview of the project.
An exciting new business venture is set to open up opportunities for craft people in High Street, Wick. "Made In Caithness" is a new shop given entirely over to high quality craft items.
Today (1 May 2007) marks the first anniversary of the introduction of the digital tachograph to all new commercial vehicles over 3.5 tonnes registered in the United Kingdom. Since 1 May 2006 some 40,000 new lorries have all been required to fit and use the new technology following almost 25 years of the analogue tachograph since its progressive introduction in the early 1980s.
Inver House Distillers and North Highland Products launched the first ever North Highland Blended Malt Scotch Whisky, Barrogill, as part of the prestigious Mey Selections range of food and drink products, at the Castle of Mey in Caithness today. Mey Selections Barrogill Blended Malt Scotch Whisky takes its name from the history and heritage of the Castle of Mey, the most northerly castle on the Scottish mainland just a few miles from John o'Groats.
PUBLIC RESPONDS TO PARTICLES CONSULTATION The second stage of consultation on the options for dealing with radioactive particles in the marine environment has come to a close. The consultation focussed on the relative importance of the criteria used to assess the 11 combined options identified by a scoring panel as most likely to succeed following the first round of consultation.
The NDA North Highland Regeneration Fund Ltd., the loan fund company established by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority to help entrepreneurs start up and grow in Caithness & Sutherland. Since the start of the year five local firms in the Dounreay travel to work area have benefited from investment by the NDA North Highland Regeneration Fund.
