# General > Doanalsin's Diary >  Fit's in 'e Groat 'e day

## Nwicker60

John O’ Groat Journalheadlines for September 16, 2016


SCOTLAND’S First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is being urged to give an assurance that problems with the new £48.5 million Wick High School campus will be sorted.  Iain Baikie, the chairman of the school  parent council,made the call amid  concerns about ongoing problems with the project.


CAITHNESS Drug and Alcohol Forum has signed up to NHS Highland’s Reach Out campaign to tackle social isolation and loneliness.  The campaign asks people to do small things like saying hello to people on the street or visiting someone who lives alone ' in a bid to reduce the significant impact on people's mental and physical health which loneliness causes.


THE number of councillors representing Caithness at Highland Council, is set to drop from 10 to eight after Scottish ministers agreed to go along with the proposed new local government boundary changes.  Under thenew set-up, Caithness landward will disappear with the county being split into two wards called Thurso and North West Caithness and East Caithness.  Each will be represented by four councillors after next May’s general elections.

WORK to transform historic buildings in Wick’s waterfront into a support base for a cluster of 84 giant wind turbines due to go up off the east Caithness coast is scheduled to start in January.  Beatrice Offshore Windfarms Ltd is ready to submit a planning application for the renovation of two buildings at Harbour Quay which is to base its £10 million venture.

FOR the first time,more than 1000 people in Caithness have been fed by emergency food parcels in a single year as volunteers struggle to keep up with demand in the county.  Caithness Foodbank has had to dip into its own funds to buy certain items which have been running low and has distributed almost 14.3 tonnes of food in the past year.

ARE public phone boxes in the far north set to become a thing of the past? The question arises after BT revealed the latest batch of kiosks in Caithness and north Sutherland which are facing the chop due to lack of use.  The days look numbered for the surviving red booths a familiar part of the British streetscape due to the exponential growth in mobile phones.

BRORA RANGERS came out on top in the north derby as two goals early in the first half were enough to take all three points back to Sutherland despite a spirited second-half comeback from Wick Academy.  The final score – Academy 1……Brora…..2.

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