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View Full Version : Fit's in 'e Coorier, e' day



Nwicker60
21-Nov-12, 11:25
Caithness Courier review: November 21

TWO Caithness Highland councillors have blasted a decision to give one of the country’s biggest organisations £10,000 of public money to restore a tract of peatland. Robert Coghill and Bill Fernie heavily criticised Caithness and Sutherland area committee for approving an application from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds for financial support from the Landfill Community Fund. Both councillors said the RSPB, Europe’s largest conservation charity, could afford to bankroll the project on its own and claim the fund is supposed to be earmarked for project such as community playparks and the restoration of buildings for which funding is a struggle.

A CREDITORS’ meeting is due to take place next week after a Caithness firm ceased trading because a major contract fell through. Geddes Windows and Doors Ltd, which had 16 employees and was based at Halkirk, was unable to continue in business after being dropped from a contract to supply windows at an Inverness primary school.

THE taxpayer is having to fork out a small fortune to keep workers at Dounreay in gloves. In the past year, over 79, 000 pairs were bought for use at the site, the Caithness Courier can reveal. The sky-high turnover results from gloves having to be discarded after being worn just once during work to decontamination former nuclear fuel or waste plants. It is also understood moon-suited operatives can have to wear four or five pairs, before going into some high-radiation cells at the former fast reactor complex. That is more than the average household will use in a year.

MORE firms need to take on apprentices to give unemployed youngsters an opportunity to make their first step into the world of employment. Thurso councillor Donnie Mackay said that school leavers are being forced to leave the county to find work giving way to an ageing population. He said that, until more businesses in the area offered employment opportunities to high school leavers and graduates, young people would continue to leave Caithness with no inventive to come back.

EASTER broadband is to be a welcome boost to local businesses in Thurso ahead of a next generation roll-out expected next year. Bt announced this week that the Caithness town is one of six in the far north to now have access to faster Internet speeds courtesy of an £8 million new fibre transmission ‘spine’ running from Inverness to the northern Highlands and islands.
THE energy sector and the food and drink industry have helped improve the north Highland economy by £7 million from last year, it has emerged. Highlands and Islands Enterprise area manager, Roy Kirk, said that developments in renewable as well as the success of several food companies has boosted the business sector in Caithness and Sutherland.

STEVE Paterson believes Wick Academy are good enough to win the Highland League, claiming the Scorries home record will be a major factor in the destination of this year’s title. The former Aberdeen and Inverness Caley Thistle manager paid tribute to the Caithness club after he watches his Formartine United side continually knock at the door of the Academy goal only to be kept out by a terrific defensive display in a tussle which the Scorries won 3-1.