News / In brief – 23 March, 2010
Huge turnout for Sport Relief
MORE than 200 people turned out to take part in the Sport Relief Mile Challenge in Baltasound, on Unst, on Sunday.
Participants ranged in age from a few weeks to 70 years, and people ran, walked and used stilts to cover the distance of one, three and six miles.
Between they them completed a total of 739 miles and raised £1,000 to help transform the lives of disadvantaged and vulnerable people in the UK and some of the world’s poorest countries.
Cold weather contingencies
LOCAL MP Alistair Carmichael has joined the call for an urgent review of cold weather contingency planning after new figures revealed the enormous cost of the recent wintry spell.
Small and medium sized businesses were hit to the tune of £7.3 billion by the recent snow, according to new research.
Mr Carmichael said: “The extent of the disruption that the recent period of bad weather caused for businesses across the northern isles was severe. Local efforts to cope with the snow were hampered by the failure of the UK and Scottish governments to put adequate contingency plans in place to provide sufficient salt supplies.”
Marine consultation
A PUBLIC consultation on the third edition of Shetland’s draft marine spatial plan was launched yesterday (Monday) and will run until 14 June.
The project run from Scalloway’s NAFC Marine Centre began in 2006 intends to show how local authorities, the government and other public agencies can work together to improve the management of the marine coastal environment.
It aims to establish an overarching policy framework for economic activity in local waters, from marine renewable energy to aquaculture.
The full plan and strategic environmental assessment documents can be found at www.nafc.ac.uk/SSMEI.aspx
Hard copy requests, responses and any questions about the consultation should be directed to Dr Lorraine Gray at Lorraine.Gray@nafc.uhi.ac.uk
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