In brief for 9 June 2010
Tougher safety
NEW energy secretary Chris Huhne has pledged to strengthen environmental inspections on North Sea oil rigs after the Deepwater Horizon drill rig disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.
The number of government inspectors based in Aberdeen who investigate and enforce environmental standards will rise by 50 per cent from six to nine. The government says the number of inspections will be doubled.
Mr Huhne said that the UK’s regulatory regime was fit for purpose, but added: “The Deepwater Horizon gives us pause for thought and, given the beginning of exploration in deeper waters west of Shetland, there is every reason to increase our vigilance.”
Meanwhile energy minister Charles Hendry told a conference in London on Tuesday that there would be no stopping deep sea drilling west of Shetland. “Be in no doubt safety considerations will be paramount,” he said.
Rural cash
THE SCOTTISH government announced on Tuesday that it is to hand over more than £3 million to the northern isles under its Rural Priorities programme.
Almost 30 projects in Shetland and Orkney are to receive funding out of the £330 million pot, though the government was struggling to identify which Shetland projects had been successful by Tuesday afternoon.
On the blink
AROUND a dozen Shetland Islands Council sites were cut off from telephone contact on Tuesday morning after a glitch in the authority’s network system.
Staff set about solving the problem as soon as it was discovered and eventually traced it to a faulty piece of communications equipment, getting the phones back on by 1pm.
ICT manager Stuart Moncrieff said the phones went down because the network started “oscillating” as it tried to find a pathway around the faulty equipment. “It was dealt with as a top priority,” he said.
Intellectual assets
PUFFIN Poo heroine Gillian Ramsay who faced down supermarket giant Asda over the right to use the name will be the guest speaker at a Shetland seminar on “intellectual assets” being run by Scalloway business consultants AB Associates.
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The evening seminar, to be held in ABA’s Kirk Business Centre offices on 17 June, will feature an introduction to intellectual asset management and one-to-one sessions for individual businesses and organisations.
The seminar begins at 5.30pm and includes a buffet dinner. It is free to attend and anyone interested can contact ABA on 01595 880852 or at lizzie@abassociatesltd.com.
The intellectual assets may include a company’s brand, patents, trademarks, design rights, copyright, database rights, trade secrets, technical info, contracts, people, contacts, accreditations and show how.
The effective management of a firms’ IA involves the process of both capturing and managing knowledge, and fully exploiting it for commercial gain.
Yachtsmen
SHETLAND yachtsmen Leslie Irvine and Andrew Wood made it to Kinsale in the early hours of Tuesday after a dramatic first leg of the Shetland Round Britain and Ireland Race.
The two men arrived just before 1am rowing their vessel Streamline into the busy port having raced most of Monday on 22 to 32 knot winds after setting off from Plymouth on Sunday.
The pair have two days of rest in the County Cork port before setting sail for Barra on Thursday.
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