Latest News
1 February 2015
Caithness and North Sutherland Regeneration Partnership - UpdateCrowd Funding Project In Arran - Great Idea - Could It Work In Caithness?
Local business support as Arran Community Land Initiative www.arranland.org/ goes crowdfunding for farmland project. This looks like a winning project giving the opportunity for many people to get involved using the power of the internet and crowd funding which is growing all over the place.
Man Arrested After Smoke Bomb Incident At Football Match
31 January 2015
Top 50 Signs Of A MumBuying gallons of milk, always
having a packet of wet wipes to hand and
knowing the words to ‘Let it Go' are just some of the signs of being a
mum, it has been revealed.
They'll also be yearning for a long lie in, have photos of their
children as a screensaver and have learnt how to swear under their
breath.
The findings emerged in a study of 2,000 mums which looks at the
tell-tale signs of someone who has clearly had children.
Home Heating Oil Prices May Be Dropping But Thieves Still Targeting It In The North
Police Scotland issues warning and security advice following reported thefts of heating oil across the north
Following a number of reported
thefts of heating oil and kerosene from rural properties in the north
Highlands, Police Scotland are advising local farmers, commercial
premises owners and householders to take appropriate security measures
to secure their fuel tanks and supplies.
Operating in secluded areas where oil tanks can be easily approached in
darkness or under the cover of trees can make the those within the
rural communities especially susceptible to this type of theft.
The Highland Line: donations to NHS Highland keep growing - David Ross Blog in The Herald
Wick Rotary Looking For Two Young People For Fun Excitement and Leadership Awards
Rotary is well know for its
fund-raising and charity work but it is about much much more.
One of its aims is to help young people to learn leadership skills.
This year once again Wick Rotary club is sponsoring two places at RYLA
(Rotary Youth Leadership Award). Wick Rotary will pay the
full costs and travel for the week for the successful candidates.
Click
through for more information if you are aged 15 - 18.Hi-Scot Credit Union Has Another Successful Year
The Hi-Scot Credit Union that covers Highland, Orkney and the Western Isles recently held its annual general meeting and the chairman who like all the directors is an unpaid volunteer was able to announce increased membership and a rise in the savings of its members. The amount of loans also continues to rise due to the excellent lending terms for members but the Hi-Scot Credit Union now has a very good amount of capital available for new borrowers. With more people joining credit unions each year the increased publicity from government and churches has helped push membership higher than ever for this members only based savings and lending organisation. It is owned by members with all profits going back into the pot for members benefits and to pay dividends to members once a year. Worth checking out it you are thinking to save or borrow. A very small staff runs it all with an unpaid board of volunteer directors - no fees to directors. Money is safe covered by the Financial Services Guarantee. Check it out.
30 January 2015
Police in Wick appeal for information following vehicle fire29 January 2015
Another Drug Dealer Caught As Police Keep Increasing ActivityDo We Still Need The Committee On Radio Active Waste Watchdog?
A review of the committee that provides independent advice to the UK Government on the long-term management of radioactive waste has been announced. It is the second Triennial Review of the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management (CoRWM), part of the government's commitment to ensuring non-departmental public bodies "continue to have regular independent challenge". The CoRWM also provides independent scrutiny on the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority's proposals and programmes for geological disposal, storage and long-term management solution for nuclear waste in the UK. Stakeholders are being invited to comment on the future of this committee. CoRWM Web site
28 January 2015
22 year-old man charged with serious assault following incident in WickWind Turbine Blades Move Slowly Through Wick
TRAFFIC was held up for a short
time to allow these wind turbine blades
to negotiate the roundabout at the foot of Cliff Road, Wick, today, and
as you can see it was a case of easy-does-it.
27 January 2015
Met Office Predicts Snow In The North For WednesdayFrequent snow showers, some heavy, giving slight to moderate falls, even on low ground away form the west coast. Strong to gale westerly winds, causing drifting on high ground. Maximum Temperature 5C.
PLAY AND LEARNING INTO PRACTICE - Six Day Course
Are you a newly appointed
member of staff or an existing member of an EARLY LEARNING AND CHILD
CARE team seeking to increase or refresh your knowledge and practical
skills prior to commencing a formal qualification to meet SSSC
requirements? This practical six day training course delivered by CALA
and HiMATS provides learners with an introduction to the value of play
and learning. The course has the SQA NC unit "Child Development and
Health" embedded within it, therefore is an ideal introduction to study
for those beginning to work towards a relevant qualification.
Application Form HERE
Pilot of choice based lettings to be launched in Caithness
Next Wednesday (4 February
2015) the four housing partners of the Highland Housing Register in
Caithness will be hosting special sessions in Wick and Thurso to let
people know about an exciting new way of allocating some of its
properties, giving applicants much more choice about the housing they
will be offered. For a period from 16 February 2015 onwards, vacancies
will be advertised to promote choice. Instead of waiting to receive an
offer of housing, applicants will be able to choose which properties
they are considered for by responding to an advert. Vikings Venture On Board for Up Helly Aa - Watch It Live Today
NorthLink Ferries' iconic
Viking, Magnus, was brought to life today (Tuesday, 27 January) during
celebrations at Shetland's world-renowned fire festival Up Helly Aa.
Acting as King Magnus the Good, 13-year-old Lewis Harkness led 15
members of the Junior Jarl Squad on board the MV Hjaltland followed by
over 100 members of family and friends to enjoy a lunch hosted by
NorthLink Ferries.
NorthLink Ferries is also a proud sponsor of this year’s Up Helly Aa
webcam which provides visitors to the NorthLink website the chance to
enjoy the festivities. To
watch the event unfold visit www.northlinkferries.co.uk/uphellyaa
Caithness Junior Orchestra - new members welcome!
The Caithness Junior Orchestra
was created last September to give an opportunity to all young
musicians aged 8 and over to make music together. The orchestra now has
24 junior members from 10 different schools across Caithness and north
Sutherland. The weekly rehearsals are a great chance for the children
to make new musical friends. We're currently working towards our next
performance which will be an afternoon concert at the beginning of
April, and we're also planning to perform at the Music Festival in
June, so now is the ideal time to join in the fun.
Rehearsal 2nd February 2015
Joint Ward Forum - Thurso, Wick, Landward Caithness - 10th February Open To The Public
Updates from Police and Fire - If you want to find out more go along and ask questions.
26 January 2015
New venue for this week's Caithness District Partnership Meeting - Open To The PublicThe scheduled Caithness District Partnership will still take place on Friday 30 January 2015 in Thurso but people should be aware that the venue and start time have been changed from what was originally promoted. The Partnership meeting will now take place at 10.30am in the Pentland Hotel, Princes Street, Thurso. Issues to be discussed will include updates on Caithness General Hospital and the Children's Care Partnership.
23 January 2015
Marine Mammal Medic Course - Wick 25 AprilThe course is a full day's session, usually with 20-30 delegates. The course fee is £90 - this includes your first year’s supporter’s fee and third party insurance while on a rescue.
Caithness and North Sutherland Regeneration Partnership - Update
22 January 2015
Three Cheers As Faster Broadband Launched in CaithnessNext generation fibre broadband is available now to the first customers in Wick and Thurso
More than 6,000 homes and
businesses
in the two Caithness towns are able to order fibre based broadband now,
with speeds of up to 80 mbps, delivered through the Digital Scotland
Superfast Broadband project.
Services will be available to another 700 plus premises soon, as
cabinets currently in the final stages of activation in Wick go live.
(In the old Bignold Hospital and Louisburgh St areas of the town.)
This is just the start for the North which will see roll-out continue
in the towns and across a number of new areas of Caithness in 2015.
Caithness District Partnership - meeting 30th January to include update on Caithness General Hospital
The Caithness District
Partnership meetings are open to the public and this is probably the
first opportunity for you to hear first hand the latest position on the
hospital services and what is happening on redesign and out of hours
services that have been so much in the news recently due to staffing
problems. Also
on the agenda is a presentation from Bill Alexander, director of Care
and Learning for highland Council on the way forward for District
Partnerships that came out of the changes agreed for integration of
health and social Work services 3 years ago. Also on the
agenda is anothe important topic - Adult
Social Care Initiatives - Joanna Macdonald, Director of Adult Social
Care and Deborah Jones, Chief Operating Officer, NHS Highland. Meetings
of the Caithness
District Partnership
chaired by Bill Fernie are held 4 times a year and topic covered can
include those suggested by members of the public. Questions
from
the public are taken at the end of the meeting or following pesentations. This meeting has some
important issues being presented and this is an opportunity to get
questions asked. Changing
Services
Still
changing
The Caithness District Partnership meets 4 times a year and has no budget. It is a meeting point for health, social work, third sector and the public to hear about issues and get updates and for discusion of topics raised by all parties. New topics require to be submited in advance of the meeting and forms are available for this.
The Caithness District Partnership meets 4 times a year and has no budget. It is a meeting point for health, social work, third sector and the public to hear about issues and get updates and for discusion of topics raised by all parties. New topics require to be submited in advance of the meeting and forms are available for this.
21 January 2015
New Noss Primary School
Latest photos of the
Noss primary school construction project showing the damaged corner
dismantled awaiting a rebuild. CAITHNESS ARTIST Selected for national exhibition of outstanding graduates
Work by Magi Sinclair of
Latheron,
Caithness has been selected to appear in an exhibition of work by
outstanding arts graduates in London.
FBA Futures 2015 picks work by recent graduates from Degree and MA
shows across the country. More than 40 Art Schools were visited by the
selectors, who are all members of the Federation of British Artists and
18 students have been selected.
‘Forsinard Ebb and Flow' is one of two pieces which will be exhibited
by Magi, from her charcoal studies of the Flow Country.
Gills Sees Work Begin On Tidal Electricity Scheme
The 24 metre-long multi-cat
vessel C-Salvor is paying her first 2015 operational visit to Gills
Harbour this week.
The little rectangular-shaped 145-tonne ship is using the Scottish
mainland's most Northerly port for conducting diver-led survey
operations for tidal electricity developers MeyGen Ltd at its Crown
Estate lease site, 1 mile off the little port, and just offshore from
its planned cable-landfall site at Ness of Quoys, that lies 1 mile
along the Gills Bay coast east from the harbour.
This is also the first operation being carried out for MeyGen Ltd by
James Fisher Marine Services Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of James
Fisher & Sons plc, a major group with its headquarters at
Barrow-in-Furness, in NE England.
Apprentice Designer, Mechanical Nuvia Limited - another apprentice opportunity in our Jobs Section
See the full jobs listing HERE
For employers - Our job ads section is completely FREE to advertise positions and we remove ads at the closing date or soon after or at any date earlier if you email us. Place ads as often as you require. Easy to do - just join the forum and start. All job ads are closed to comments in this part of the forum.
Wick & District Pool League - Week 9
Retro1 put in the performance
of the night to defeat Bayview1 7-5 in week 9 of the 201415 Wick
& District Pool League season. In their debut season in
division one, Retro1 remain undefeated and sit in third place in the
league. Your World War One Ancestors - Course Starts 28th January
Come along and join the
Caithness Archivist in the first of 4 weekly sessions and learn how to
find out more about your Caithness World War One ancestors who fought
in World War One, and the communities they left back home. The courses
will feature online resources such as Ancestry.com, as well as the
archives held in the Caithness Archives in Wick Library.
20 January 2015
Repairs to Pipes at Service Bridge, Wick
JGC and Dounreay Looking To Recruit Engineering Apprentices
This could be the start of a great career so get applying.
Highland Homecoming Quilt at St Fergus Gallery, Wick Until Saturday
St
Fergus Gallery and High Life Highland would like to invite you to view
the beautiful Highland Homecoming Quilt 2014 at our gallery from 10th -
24th January 2015.
If you cannot make it to the gallery by 24th January you can check some
of the details and names of the contributors to the quilt in our photo
gallery - see link above. Some are from Caithness but there are names
from all over Highland.
To see close ups of the patches go HERE. Remebr to get an even larger image you can right click on the image and open it in a new tab or window. Then click on it to enlarge again.
Last Days To See Abstract Artist Fred Pollock Picture
If you have time up until
Saturday you can still see some pictures from the Highland council
collection. Take in the Fred Pollock picture seen here but much better
in full size in the St Fergus Gallery, Wick until Saturday 24th January
2014.
Social Media Workshops for Local Food and Drink Businesses
Early
in February the first two in a series of workshops specifically for
anyone working in the local food and drink sector will take place to
highlight how social media can be best used to increase profit, support
other local businesses and promote the area.
The workshops follow on from the project The Highland Council ran last
year across the Highlands to investigate the potential and appetite for
developing an industry-led local food and drink network that could
co-ordinate and drive future activities to support the local food and
drink sector in the region. The sessions will feature case studies,
provide lots of step by step practical advice on how to make Facebook,
Twitter and LinkedIn work better for businesses, networking
opportunities and the chance to share best practice.
The first workshop takes place on Monday 2nd February at the Duisdale
House Hotel, Sleat, Isle of Skye and on Thursday 5 February Mackays Hotel
in Wick will host the Caithness workshop. Both events are
free and will run from 11am to 3pm.
19 January 2015
Loch Seaforth The New Ferry For Western Isles Visits Scrabster
The MV Seaforth was
in Scrabster on its way to the Western Isles today.
MV Loch
Seaforth is
the new Caledonian MacBrayne ferry being built for the Stornoway to
Ullapool crossing. She was launched on 21 March 2014 and was delivered
in early November 2014. She will replace the 1995-built MV Isle of
Lewis as the main ferry on the route.
A replacement vessel for the Stornoway-Ullapool route was announced by
Scottish Transport Minister Keith Brown MSP on 8 June
2012. Two
weeks later on 22 June, Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited announced
that the contract to construct had been signed with Flensburger
Schiffbau-Gesellschaft MBH and Co KG in Germany. Still Time To Sign Up For New Spanish Courses - starting February 2015 Thurso College
If Spanish is not what you are looking for then check out all the courses on offer at North Highland college by peeking at the lot HERE Why not fill in a winter night with some learning or activity.
English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) Starts in Wick - Tuesday 20 January
FREE classes
Informal
Open to all levels - Beginner to Advanced
Practise speaking, reading, writing and listening.Class starting Tuesday 20 January 2015 6.30-8pm
Rhind House, West Banks Avenue, Wick.
Calling Parents Of North School Pupils
Are you interested in getting
online?
Do you want to feel more confident using your laptop or tablet?
Would you like to learn how to help your child with their school project, access various services or just send an email?
Billion Pound Cable To Link Caithness And Moray
Scottish Hydro Electric
Transmission (SHE Transmission), a subsidiary of SSE plc, has confirmed
that it will accept Ofgem's proposals for the funding of the new
Caithness-Moray electricity transmission link at a cost of £1,118m.
The project is now set to help support over 100 new energy careers
across the north of Scotland, including via SSE’s industry-leading
apprentice, trainee engineer and graduate programmes. In total, the
subsea cable and associated work at sites located right around the
Moray Firth will support over 600 jobs during construction.
Wind Farm Cash Making a Lasting Difference to Local Community
Local
groups and charities are celebrating awards from the E.ON Camster
Community Fund. The latest awards panel awarded over £65,000 in the
first of two rounds in the fund's second year bringing the total
invested in the area to over £200K since it opened in the summer of
2013, making a positive difference to the local community.
New Community Index16 January 2015
Caithness and North Sutherland Regeneration Partnership - UpdateWould you like to support adult learners in your community?
Wick & District Pool League - Rockwater Shield Quarter Finals
Martin Hill's fantastic
performance
on Monday night helped play a big part as his Crown1 side earned a 6-2
first leg victory over Blackstairs Lounge. The Crown side look to be
big favourites to progress, requiring just three frames in the next leg
to make it through to the Rockwater Shield semi finals. Hill made an
outstanding 8-ball clearance in his singles, and would seal victory for
his team with a 6-ball finish in his doubles game....................15 January 2015
Senior citizens celebrate at their exclusive party in Wick
Who said the festive party
season
was over?....not a band of Wick pensioners.
They were again the guests of honour at their annual treat, its 51st
anniversary, in the Assembly Rooms. Bad weather took its toll on the
attendance which was down on the previous year, but those that braved
the elements were rewarded with another memorable evening. The main
hall was decked in bunting, balloons, Christmas crackers and after an
excellent meal and refreshments, the Wick RBLS Pipe Band set the scene
for the entertainment programme with a superb display.
40
Photos HERE'e Courier in Two Minutes
Pentland Gale - Painting by Jane MacRae
This painting by artist Jane
MacRae is currently on show at the exhibition at Caithness Horizons in
Thurso. Our
artists gallery is open to any artist producing pictures of
Caithness or other subjects either resident here or elsewhere.Artists Gallery Index
14 January 2015
Snowy Caithness
12 January 2015
58° North - A Modern Pilgrimage around the GlobePolice appeal for information following break-in to premises in Thurso
Fire On Keiss School Bus To Wick High
Everyone got off safely.11 January 2015
Highland Schools UpdateDamage At Wick High But Will Open On Monday
Canisbay Roof Damage - Power Off - School may open Tuesday or Wednesday
Brora Primary - Roof Damaged - May Open Tuesday
New Noss Primary Construction Site Has Wind Damage
The new Noss primary
construction site sustained some damage to one corner with the high
winds of the last few days. The
damage is not thought to be major but some of the framework has been
pushed over but will not cause much delay at this stage.Missed The Last Few Days Items - Over 15 Years Indexed - Front Page Archive >
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