Great news for local engineering firm.

[focusRS]

Aberdeen company secures Caithness engineering jobs.
Twenty-six jobs at a financially troubled Caithness firm have been secured.
Mowat Technical and Design Services (MTDS) was put into administration last month due to cash flow problems.
It has now been taken over by Aberdeen-based Enterprise Engineering Services Limited.
The new owner said the far north firm's name will be retained and all the staff have been given an assurance that their jobs were secure.
MTDS offers a range of services including surveying and fabrication work.
It has a turnover of about £2m and its contracts have included work at Caithness's Dounreay nuclear plant.
The Achlibster-based company was set up in 1997.

[Droopy]

Excellent news.

I wonder how much assistance HIE or the Chamber of Commerce have been in the aftermath of the company struggling?

That for me would be a true test of how effective these organisations are in a real world situation.
All we ever seem to hear is their usual rhetoric when a company folds......but how much do they actually do.?

Theres was a story in the local paper this week that a public quango with strong ties to HIE were next to no help at all to redundent employees after Norfrost went under.

Be interesting to know if the The Chamber or HIE were of any useful assistance to MTDS and saving the jobs of 28 local people.

[focusRS]

I can tell you that they offered no help whatsoever while the firm was struggling.

[Droopy]

I can tell you that they offered no help whatsoever while the firm was struggling.If true that is very very disappointing.

We can't pick a paper up these days without reading how much they're doing to secure employment once Dounreay winds down. But I suppose they can harp on about that for years as until it actually does wind down all the talk is really just pointless rhetoric anyway, and tides them over until retirement and their public funded final salary pension.

In reality if big business comes to Caithness in the shape of renewables it will come with or without HIE I'd guess. Infact if any business comes due only to HIE assistance, I'd say that proven history suggests that that's reason enough to predict it will go belly up anyway.

So fear not the 2000 employees of Dounreay we have a cinema open and a secret award winning one man band mystery company to put all our hopes in to for the future of Caithness.............thanks HIE......we couldn't have done it without you.

[Droopy]

After reading the article in the Groat about the local quango being no real help whatsoever when Norfrost went in to administration, it got me thinking...where does HIE give the tax payers money to?
I went on to their website and browsed through their approved list and found this:

http://www.hie.co.uk/common/handlers/download-document.ashx?id=a5890399-3acd-477f-87a3-068011121140

The payment that took my attention was the 100k one to 'The Renewables Directory Ltd' which was approved for payment under the conditions of an employment grant. I've never heard or seen of the company up here and so delved a little further in to the company on the Internet.
There are 2 directors, one in the Central Belt and the other in London...!!!

And they have a website which is really just a list of businesses in the renewable field, nothing a kid with a laptop couldn't do really. One of the directors previous directorship was in a now dissolved company that built house extensions.......

Has anyone else seen this company up in Caithness....? or can someone from HIE explain why they have received approval for £100,000 in October 2012 but there's not a single jot of employment up here that I can see. And if the payments been paid.....why?

[rob murray]

If true that is very very disappointing.

We can't pick a paper up these days without reading how much they're doing to secure employment once Dounreay winds down. But I suppose they can harp on about that for years as until it actually does wind down all the talk is really just pointless rhetoric anyway, and tides them over until retirement and their public funded final salary pension.

In reality if big business comes to Caithness in the shape of renewables it will come with or without HIE I'd guess. Infact if any business comes due only to HIE assistance, I'd say that proven history suggests that that's reason enough to predict it will go belly up anyway.

So fear not the 2000 employees of Dounreay we have a cinema open and a secret award winning one man band mystery company to put all our hopes in to for the future of Caithness.............thanks HIE......we couldn't have done it without you.

Well put, but out with Caithness there are many documented cases of huge incentives from Scottish Government / Scottish Enterprise enticing big companies to set up in Scotland...so HIE should be side stepped and let the big boys in to deliver something large and of substance, thats if they care because they only intervene in areas of political importance or am I a cynic...

[DunnetKnowe]

can someone from HIE explain why they have received approval for £100,000 ?

It's quite simple. The people in HIE have no business experience and don't even have business sense. The less they understand something the more they pay out. Just look at the career history of some of the entities that represent HIE in Caithness alone - staggering that these people are put in charge of public funds let alone have to make business decisions on them.

Then there is the 'bandwagon' factor. A few years ago, if you put the word 'internet' or 'e-business' on a proposal the money flowed to you like a tap. Then it was 'lifelong learning' which was the squandering button to be pressed. Now it is 'renewables'. The present HIE guy 'in charge' of renewables for HIE has zero background in that field, and indeed has zero business experience. A few years ago he was HIE's expert on 'digital technologies' - a subject very close to 'renewables' ?

[Droopy]

Here's another instance that HIE should provide answers to.
Click on the link below and you will see the BBC report from July 2012 which tells about the encouraging prospects at The Huna Mill.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-19060779

OK...... now click on this link and you'll see that Caithness and Sutherland Enterprise (HIE) approved £23,000 (100%) grant funding to North Highland Initiative in October 2012 to do a "Huna Mill Feasability Study"........(while your on the page, note the approval at the top for 5k!)

http://www.hie.co.uk/common/handlers/download-document.ashx?id=a5890399-3acd-477f-87a3-068011121140

So the question is.........what stage is the feasibility study at, or is it finished and what are the findings of the £23,000 report? Also, was there any conflict of interest registered in this instance, as there are siblings that work for each of the groups in question here......one for HIE and the other for North Highland Initiative.

Nice work if you can get it.........
And for an added insight into what quangos are really all about I took the time to google what on earth 'symposium' means for you all........

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symposium

So there you have it Caithness, if your in the know you can get 5 grand for a drinking party..............brilliant..!!!!