Three Business Gateway advisers specialising in helping businesses to develop through accessing finance, winning public contracts, and recruiting staff will be available for one-to-one clinics in Brora, Thurso or Lochinver on 26 August, 2 September and 3 September, respectively. Local small to medium sized enterprises can book one-hour meetings with these advisers throughout these days to get advice and practical guidance tailored to their business.
Police Scotland in the Highland and Islands will be running information sessions to assist people thinking of becoming a police officer or special constable with their applications. The candidate briefing sessions are open to anyone who is interested in applying to become a police officer or special constable.
Helmsdale Community Transport takes another step forward with the arrival of a new community minibus. The group responsible for the new bus are inviting the community to the launch.
Area Leader Deirdre Mackay said, ‘I was absolutely shocked to hear this news which came out of the blue. It is a tragedy for anyone to lose their job, and 21 jobs under any circumstance is significant but in a community such as ours, where opportunities are so limited, this is truly devastating.
Entrepreneurs in Highland and Moray are now able to access personal loans to help start their own business thanks to the new government-funded Start-Up Loans scheme which is locally delivered by Business Gateway and Highland Opportunity. For Moray businesses, this is an especially important development.
This year Strathnaver Museum, with the help of the local community, are staging a programme of events to mark the bicentenary of the Strathnaver Clearances. The Bicentenary Festival will commemorate the tragic events of the Clearances but also celebrate the heritage and culture of the north Highlands.
The biggest fibre cable laying project undertaken in the UK in recent years has begun on the West Coast of Scotland to deliver superfast broadband to some of the country's most remote island communities. Thousands of homes and businesses are set to benefit from the publicly funded digital network being built to bring world class connectivity to Scotland.
The Highland Council has appointed Garry Cameron to the post of temporary Ward Manager for North, West and Central Sutherland. Garry, who previously held the position with Police Scotland as Area Commander for the North, will take up his post on Monday 11th August and be based in the Council Offices at Drummuie, Golspie..
A brand new children's food festival will take place in the North Highlands in the summer of 2015 it has been announced. Created and organised by the North Highland Initiative (NHI) in partnership with Scotland Food & Drink, the festival will take place from 5 and 6 June 2015 and aims to highlight the importance of local food production, how to make great cuisine and good food choices and the variety of career opportunities in food production and service.
Trials of a new method of repairing roads have got underway in Sutherland. The technique, known as road recycling, involves re-using the existing road surface materials to create a new road surface, rather than importing large quantities of new materials.
From councillor Deirdre Mackay, Highland Council ‘This is Brora not Beverley Hills and it's a classic example of what we are now seeing at family events across Highland. ‘Since I first raised this issue in June the responses from Police Scotland become ever stranger.
Residents and businesses in areas of Ross-shire, Orkney and Sutherland are to join the growing number of people able to access fibre broadband in the Highlands and Islands as part of a publicly funded project. Roll-out started in Buckie in Moray in February and 14,500 premises in Moray and Highland can now get better connected through the Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband project.
Queen's Baton Relay Route in Highland 9th - 12th July 2014 Wednesday 9th July Ullapool Ferry in at 9am Baton Bearing starts 0925 Route follows from pier, along Shore St and Mill St to Morefield. Visits Macphail Centre [AT] Ullapool High School Short welcome and photo opp at Pier.
Forestry Commission Scotland are currently reviewing the Land Management Plan for Rogart, Achormlarie & Dornoch forest blocks situated between Dornoch, Bonar Bridge & Rogart. The Land Management Plan will set out the long term vision for management of the forests and details felling and replanting for the next ten years.
Highland Councillors have approved £20,000 funding towards the appointment of a Project Manager to spearhead the establishment of a Highland Science Academy on the new Inverness Campus at Beechwood. The new post will be responsible for taking forward an action plan to progress the Science Academy project over a 2 year period.
The next Highland Council budget forum will be held at 6.30pm on Tuesday 8 July in Strathy Village Hall, Strathy, Sutherland. It is the latest in a series of budget events being held to consult the public over spending priorities between 2015-2019, during which time the Council has to find savings of an estimated £63 million.
A new community-owned sports facility is being formally opened in Sutherland later this week. The Scourie Sports Pavilion will be opened on Saturday 7 June by Lady Jane Grosvenor followed by the annual Far North Shinty Sixes competition.
Members of the Council’s Education, Adult and Children’s Services (ECAS) Committee have agreed to £600,000 funding towards two Care and Learning Service projects - a wireless installation project in Highland schools; and a housing development for adults with complex needs. An additional £550,000 for the second phase of a project to create wireless environments in all Highland schools by April 2015 was endorsed by Members.
A national multi-agency doorstep crime operation, led by Police Scotland, has been a major success in preventing and beating the rogue traders and doorstep con men. Police and other agencies detected over 1,000 offences during the dates of operational activity, with over 200 individuals being subsequently arrested.
North Sutherland held its first Seashore Festival to celebrate the heritage and culture of the seashore at the weekend with Strathnaver Museum and The Highland Council’s Caithness and Sutherland Countryside Rangers arranged a fun-filled day of art and craft activities, music, history and natural history identification skills. Visitors began arriving on Saturday at 10am and helped to create a colourful wall of fish and a seashore collage depicting Bettyhill Fishing Station and Torrisdale Bay made from items found on the shore.
