Looking back on the week – fundraising highs, ‘exceptional’ staff and a first Shaetlan scriever
SOME folk may be reading Shetland News this week from their sun loungers in sunnier climes, but here in dreich and windy Shetland the work to deliver the news to you continues apace.
The school summer holidays have done nothing to dull the flow of news stories, with our team of three divided between visiting energy ministers, Lerwick Sheriff Court duties and interviews aboard the NorthLink ferry Hrossey – all while juggling those out of school activities ourselves.
Despite being at reduced capacity during parts of the week we have served up 37 stories since Monday, as well as three news round-ups, and we hope you’ve enjoyed reading our big stories across the past seven days.
Monday saw MSP Hannah Mary Goodlad reveal her “exceptional” staff team, who will assist her day-to-day and help deliver on her ambitious election promises.
Predictably the social media comment section degenerated into questions over sexism and the lack of male representation, but Goodlad insisted that she had picked the best candidates for the roles.
“These are four incredible women, who are experts in communication, strategy, execution, negotiation and integrity,” she told Shetland News at Lerwick Harbour on Monday.
“We couldn’t ask for more.”
There was also a focus at the start of the week on the world of sport, and namely on a superb showing from team Shetland in Orkney at the annual inter-county last weekend.
Both the Shetland hockey and football managers spoke about their pride in securing narrow victories for their respective sides in a famous county double – the hockey team triumphing 1-0 before the footballers edged out the reds 4-3.
There was a major milestone on Tuesday in the form of award-winning musician Claire White, who has been hand-picked by the National Library of Scotland to be Shetland’s first ever Scots scriever.
White will be given a 12-month residency to produce original work in Shaetlan, and she spoke this week of her delight at the appointment.
Claire White selected as first ever Scots scriever from Shetland
More positive news came from the Sullom Voe Terminal on Tuesday, with the Scottish Government announcing funding of almost £760,000 for the development of a clean fuels hub.
That coincided with energy minister Stephen Gethins’ visit to Shetland this week, and at the Grand Hotel on Wednesday morning shortly after breakfast he spoke to reporter Chris Cope about the isles’ energy future.
Gethins said that community councils should have their say on future energy infrastructure in Shetland, ahead of a public meeting later this month which is expected to call for a stop to energy projects until a coherent plan is in place. However, he did not explain how this will be achieved.
Up at SaxaVord Spaceport in Unst, a first expected rocket launch later this month could be in jeopardy after “an issue” was discovered in the flight vehicle.
Rocket Factory Augsburg said it had made the decision to “de-stack” the vehicle, with a five-week launch window due to begin on 10 August.
Wednesday and Thursday brought busy days at Lerwick Sheriff Court, which you can read all about by going to the court section of the Shetland News website.
On Wednesday, we lent our backing to a campaign from local news publishers in Scotland for the Scottish Government to set up a Scottish Local News Fund.
The campaign is also calling for investment in public advertising in local news, and in the next generation of local journalists to keep the industry going for years to come.
Finally we shared the fundraising campaign for the family of young Rosie Robertson, who has been diagnosed with Wilms tumours in her kidneys aged just 22 months.
Fundraiser launched to help family support young daughter’s cancer journey
Organised by Alan Page in aid of his friends Jamie and Bethany Robertson, the fundraiser had raised around £5,000 when first shared by Shetland News – but a huge groundswell of support saw that figure more than quadruple to over £21,000 by Friday morning.
That story was testament once again to the power of the Shetland community as a force for good, who are always ready and willing to leap to support people in need.
Thanks for all your support this week, with Shetland News continuing to provide news and views free of charge. Remember that if you like what we do and feel able to, you can become a supporter here.
More stories from the week:
- Hillswick Wildlife Sanctuary to launch animal welfare charity shop
- Objectors raise complaints over proposed Cunningsburgh church
- Paul Bendix to represent Shetland at Parkinson’s table tennis championships
- No formal proposals put forward for future of Scalloway Pool
- BP looking to sell North Sea assets
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