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View Full Version : Fit's in 'e' Groat 'is week?



Nwicker60
06-Jun-12, 17:09
Caithness Courier review: June 6, 2012

FIREFIGHTERS in Caithness were pushed to the limit this week, as the county was ravaged by wildfires. At least 70 Highlands and Islands Fire and Rescue Service staff were involved in tackling the walls of flames in Canisbay and Killimster which, at one point, were almost two miles wide and destroyed acres of heath land.

DESCRIBING it as one of the most momentous occasions of his life, a Caithness man is still coming down to earth after being part of the diamond jubilee celebrations. Deputy lord-lieutenant said that sailing with hundreds of boats on the Thames, to mark the 60th year of Queen Elizabeth’s reign, was a tremendous honour. Representing Lord –Lieutenant of Caithness, Anne Dunnett, at the event, Mr Watt was a crew member of the NB Barrogill, owned by Paul and Helen Garfield, who lived in Castletown before moving to England.

PEOPLE in Dunbeath say their lives are being made a misery because of the number of buses stopping in their street, with one developing depression and another thinking about selling up. Three local women are up in arms about the Stagecoach X99 service which they say has robbed them of their quality of life. One Joyce Milne even described it as “torture”.

A RETIRED community council chairman has said Highland Council is destroying vital links between Bower Primary School and Thurso High. Alan Roberts claims that some parents would rather see the primary school closed and the pupils go to Castletown so they can be in the correct catchment area. Bower based Mr Roberts, a grandparent, said the local authority’s hefty travel costs for school transport to Thurso is “stupid” and will destroy key friendships created during the youngsters’ time at primary school.

A CAMPAIGNER has blasted the decision of a wind-farm developer to make its deliveries of equipment during summer, claiming they will be detrimental to the tourist industry. Caithness Windfarm Information Forum secretary, Brenda Herrick, said plans to transport parts for Baillie Wind Farm, from Scrabster harbour to a holding area at the former Dounreay airfield, will cause havoc for tourists. Her comments come after Baillie Wind Farm Limited took its first delivery of 33 blades from the harbour during a three-day operation that began on Monday and is due to be completed today.

DOUNREAY’S experience of cleaning up after radioactive leaks and its decommissioning knowledge are being shared with Japan where the country’s nuclear industry is facing up to challenges on a much bigger scale. The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority invited the Caithness site to take part in a series of workshops in Tokyo to share UK expertise in nuclear clean-up. The workshops were attended by senior figures from the Japanese companies and organisations dealing with the aftermath of the Fukushima Daiichi disaster.

A SURPRISING and musical use has been found for scrap wood from demolished buildings at Dounreay – as an enterprising worker is turning it into banjos. Neil Parkin works as a project supervisor for Dounreay Site Restoration Ltd, the contractor knocking down Britain’s 20th century experiment with fast breeder reactors, but he has more than one string to his bow. He is salvaging wood from the ornate facings of redundant buildings and turning them into musical instruments.

TALENT shone through at the Caithness and Sutherland Provincial Mod in Wick at the weekend. The event kicked off early on Saturday morning with competitions in the town’s Assembly Rooms and Pipe Band Hall. Adjudicator Anne Souter was very impressed with the literary musical and choral performances throughout the day and she told the audience at one point, that the Gaelic was “so good” across the age ranges, that she and her fellow judges were “really have to nit-pick” to find anything to criticise.