News Archive - January 2015

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.  

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....................

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

Across the north of Scotland high winds are still causing problems for electricty and many roof lsoing slates.  In many places trees have come down and are still being cleared.  Council workers were out early yesterday working througout the day to clear them from roads.  Many trees still have broken branches waiting to fall so everyone should take care near trees. Private owners of land are responsible for trees on their property and should check them carefully for loose branches or to see if particular trees need to be felled.  A few have been weakened and have roots already showing and they may be ready to fall any time another wind hits.

Highlands and Islands (Scottish Labour) MSP, David Stewart has said that the recent storms which have battered the Highlands and Islands and have caused damage to buildings and led to major travel disruption across Scotland highlights the importance of the introduction of new legislation that will give Local Authorities the necessary powers to tackle dangerous and defective buildings.

Highland MSP and Scottish Labour Shadow Sport, Health & Mental Minister, Rhoda Grant is to write to NHS Highland to ask for figures relating to the number of patient's across the health board that are dying in hospitals whilst waiting on a delayed discharge list. Mrs Grant is seeking figures after the Scottish Labour Party revealed at the weekend that across Scotland more than 400 patients a year died in hospitals whilst on a delayed discharge list in the previous two years, however, NHS Highland has failed to produce figures.

Parents and guardians of children are being informed by The Highland Council that it's time for enrolment into primary school in the Highlands. All children who will be five on or before 29 February 2016 are eligible to be enrolled for Primary 1 starting August 2015. Enrolment will take place in the week commencing 26 January 2015. Enrolment will take place at local primary schools at 3pm each day from 26 January to 30 January 2015.