Also in the news / EnQuest performance, STV North petition, Erasmus, Staney Hill tenders and more …
LERWICK Brass Band held their carol evening to a packed town hall this week with local band Loose Ends also taking part.
The concert raised over £1,000 for the Shetland Stroke Support Group and was compered by Morag Mouat.
ENQUEST, the owner of the Sullom Voe Terminal, has described its performance and growth strategy as “robust” – but has expressed disappointment at UK Government’s recent budget announcement.
As part of a quarter four update, the company – which operates in the North Sea and in Southeast Asia – said the “Autumn budget statement was a disappointment for the North Sea oil and gas sector.”
However when asked by Shetland News to provide information regarding the ongoing strike action at the terminal the company declined to comment.
The company added it remained a “top-quartile operator and holds significant UK tax losses, which are important components in the ongoing consolidation of the North Sea.”
JOURNALISTS working at STV North in Aberdeen threatened with losing their jobs are calling on viewers in the North of Scotland to make their voices heard.
The broadcaster currently plans to merge two Scottish news programmes to save money.
Watered down plans for STV News, as put forward by the regulator Ofcom, have been described as not good enough and “still bad for journalism” by the National Union of Journalists (NUJ).
The current proposals would produce a single news programme, anchored from Glasgow, setting a minimum quota of 30 per cent on the content which would need to be specific to each licence area.
NUJ organiser Nick McGowan-Lowe said: “But these watered-down proposals will be cold comfort for viewers in the north of Scotland, or for some of STV News’ best-known faces who are currently facing potential redundancy.
In September it announced plans to cut 60 jobs, of which 30 would be in STV News, and to merge the two separate News at 6 programmes across its two licence areas.
Journalists on the programme asked viewers in Shetland to sign the petition and respond to an Ofcom consultation which is open until 9 February next year.
NORTHERN Isles MP Alistair Carmichael has welcomed the news that the UK will rejoin the Erasmus programme six years after it ended its participation as part of Brexit.
From 2027 students from the UK will again be able to spend a year in Europe as part of their degree course without paying extra fees, and vice versa for Europeans.
“Leaving the Erasmus programme was one of the most unnecessary own goals of the last Tory government,” the Orkney and Shetland MP said.
“There was no cause to do it beyond blind ideology, and it cost younger generations dearly.”
HJALTLAND Housing Association’s chief executive Bryan Leask has confirmed it has received a number of submissions in response to a tender for the first phase of housing at Staney Hill in Lerwick.
He said submissions are currently being assessed.
The housing association had to go back out to tender for 32 properties after a first tendering exercise for 60 units failed to secured a preferred bidder.
LOCALS are being asked to contribute to an inquiry by MPs about how digital connectivity can be improved across Scotland.
Chair of the council’s development committee Dennis Leask is asking people to respond to the survey.
“We need to ensure that the Scottish Affairs Committee has the full-picture of digital connectivity in Shetland, by sharing evidence of the realities of digital provision for our island community,” he said.
“We all depend on reliable digital infrastructure, whether it’s mobile or broadband networks, for so many aspects of modern life.”
The survey can be found here.
FORMER Shetland Arts director Gwilym Gibbons has been appointed to lead Dynamic Earth, Edinburgh’s science centre and planetarium.
He will join Dynamic Earth as new chief executive in May next year.
Gibbons was in charge of arts development agency during the crucial, and often controversial, period in which Shetland’s £14 million cinema and music venue Mareel was built.
After leaving Shetland in 2014, Gibbons became the chief executive of Perth Concert Hall and Perth Theatre.
He has led the Crichton Trust which manages an 85-acre parkland estate near Dumfries, for the last seven years.
He said: “I am honoured to join Dynamic Earth at such a pivotal time. The organisation’s mission to inspire curiosity about our planet and the sciences that explain it is one I am passionate about.”
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