Nwicker60
18-May-12, 09:39
John O’ Groat Journal review: May 18, 2012
LOCAL decision-making is set to return to the Far North following a pledge to create an area committee in Caithness and Sutherland. The move, by the newly-formed NSP Liberal Democrat and Labour administration, has been welcomed by Caithness councillors who say it is a positive one which will return democracy to local people. Meeting in Inverness, yesterday, for the first time since the elections, Highland Council announced its intention to establish five new area committees. Each is expected to be given financial powers over education and housing and infrastructure as well as other issues in its area. It is hoped that they could be up and running as soon as August.
CONCERNS about a new primary school on the Wick High School campus are unfounded, according to Highland Council. A recent meeting of the Royal Burgh of Wick Community Council, heard that there was worry amongst parents at Pulteneytown Academy that the new amalgamated school, expected to open in three years time, was just a “wing” of the planned replacement secondary school. However, council education culture and sport head of support services, Ron Mackenzie, has said that this is “simply not true”. He said: “We are looking at the campus layout for the new Wick school. And very roughly, the layout is three buildings on one side of a covered street and community facilities on the other. Two of the three buildings make up the secondary school and the other is a primary school.”
FARMERS have every right to shoot dogs if they believe they pose a threat to their livestock. That was the blunt warning from Chief Inspector Matthew Reiss to irresponsible owners who allow their pets to roam the countryside off the leash. The message comes after he revealed that incidents of sheep worrying were on the rise in Caithness, with the total number of deaths of lambs in the area recorded at 16 so far this year. The latest incident was at a farm on the outskirts of Thurso, in the early hours of Wednesday morning when a loose dog is thought to have killed two lambs. Its owners have been charged and a report sent to the procurator fiscal.
RELAY runners in Caithness helped smash a Guinness World Record this week in their effort to raise money for a brain tumour charity. Wick-born mother-of-one led local runners into the pages of the famous book of achievements as part of new charity fundraising event, Relay GB. The local sprinters, joggers and runners were just a handful of the hundreds of people taking part in an attempt to cover 2600 miles around the coast of Britain in over 100 nonstop marathons to raise £500,000 for Brain Tumour UK. On Wednesday night, the world record for distance relay running, previously held at 1923 miles, was broken near St Andrews and by yesterday afternoon 70 miles further on, runners were still going strong, with the finish line in London all prepped for the Baton’s arrival next Thursday.
A MARINE mammal rescue group, which has one of its main bases in Caithness, has been nominated for Scottish Charity of the Year – and supporters have until the end of the month to vote for it to receive the award. The British Divers’ Marine Life Rescue has been named in the final five for the main prize at the Scottish 2012 Charity Awards next month in Glasgow. The Scarfskerry-based organisation is manned by volunteer medics and supports who rescue marine mammals at risk. In the last year alone, the local team has attended over 50 seal rescues and eight stranded dolphin and whale incidents across Scotland.
CHANGES to how benefits will be paid are causing widespread anxiety throughout the Far North and the number of people seeking advice has shot up. Caithness Citizens Advice Bureau has reported an upsurge of 40 per cent from the previous year from members of the public who are looking for benefit advice and who are worried about the amount of money they are entitled to. The figures were released by CAB manager Jill Smith who said that staff based at its Thurso and Wick offices have seen their workload increase significantly in the past year.
WICK Groats completed a back-to-back double over town rivals Thistle with Monday’s 2-0 victory keeping them top of the county league division one. Coming on the heels of their 4-0 cup win over the Jags, it extended to eight the number of games Groats have gone this season without conceding a goal. Thistle made a decent fist of keeping their opponents at bay until James Mackay opened the scoring with a spanking left-foot volley, five minutes from halfl-time.
LOCAL decision-making is set to return to the Far North following a pledge to create an area committee in Caithness and Sutherland. The move, by the newly-formed NSP Liberal Democrat and Labour administration, has been welcomed by Caithness councillors who say it is a positive one which will return democracy to local people. Meeting in Inverness, yesterday, for the first time since the elections, Highland Council announced its intention to establish five new area committees. Each is expected to be given financial powers over education and housing and infrastructure as well as other issues in its area. It is hoped that they could be up and running as soon as August.
CONCERNS about a new primary school on the Wick High School campus are unfounded, according to Highland Council. A recent meeting of the Royal Burgh of Wick Community Council, heard that there was worry amongst parents at Pulteneytown Academy that the new amalgamated school, expected to open in three years time, was just a “wing” of the planned replacement secondary school. However, council education culture and sport head of support services, Ron Mackenzie, has said that this is “simply not true”. He said: “We are looking at the campus layout for the new Wick school. And very roughly, the layout is three buildings on one side of a covered street and community facilities on the other. Two of the three buildings make up the secondary school and the other is a primary school.”
FARMERS have every right to shoot dogs if they believe they pose a threat to their livestock. That was the blunt warning from Chief Inspector Matthew Reiss to irresponsible owners who allow their pets to roam the countryside off the leash. The message comes after he revealed that incidents of sheep worrying were on the rise in Caithness, with the total number of deaths of lambs in the area recorded at 16 so far this year. The latest incident was at a farm on the outskirts of Thurso, in the early hours of Wednesday morning when a loose dog is thought to have killed two lambs. Its owners have been charged and a report sent to the procurator fiscal.
RELAY runners in Caithness helped smash a Guinness World Record this week in their effort to raise money for a brain tumour charity. Wick-born mother-of-one led local runners into the pages of the famous book of achievements as part of new charity fundraising event, Relay GB. The local sprinters, joggers and runners were just a handful of the hundreds of people taking part in an attempt to cover 2600 miles around the coast of Britain in over 100 nonstop marathons to raise £500,000 for Brain Tumour UK. On Wednesday night, the world record for distance relay running, previously held at 1923 miles, was broken near St Andrews and by yesterday afternoon 70 miles further on, runners were still going strong, with the finish line in London all prepped for the Baton’s arrival next Thursday.
A MARINE mammal rescue group, which has one of its main bases in Caithness, has been nominated for Scottish Charity of the Year – and supporters have until the end of the month to vote for it to receive the award. The British Divers’ Marine Life Rescue has been named in the final five for the main prize at the Scottish 2012 Charity Awards next month in Glasgow. The Scarfskerry-based organisation is manned by volunteer medics and supports who rescue marine mammals at risk. In the last year alone, the local team has attended over 50 seal rescues and eight stranded dolphin and whale incidents across Scotland.
CHANGES to how benefits will be paid are causing widespread anxiety throughout the Far North and the number of people seeking advice has shot up. Caithness Citizens Advice Bureau has reported an upsurge of 40 per cent from the previous year from members of the public who are looking for benefit advice and who are worried about the amount of money they are entitled to. The figures were released by CAB manager Jill Smith who said that staff based at its Thurso and Wick offices have seen their workload increase significantly in the past year.
WICK Groats completed a back-to-back double over town rivals Thistle with Monday’s 2-0 victory keeping them top of the county league division one. Coming on the heels of their 4-0 cup win over the Jags, it extended to eight the number of games Groats have gone this season without conceding a goal. Thistle made a decent fist of keeping their opponents at bay until James Mackay opened the scoring with a spanking left-foot volley, five minutes from halfl-time.