News Archive - November 2016

 

Wick Fun Day 2016
Wick Fun Day 2016
The decorated umbrella parade turned the Market Square in Wick to a colourful display with many having lights on to brighten the evening.  Santa and helpers were around all afternoon as kids queued to see him in his hut.




Groat Headlines

CHAT Stall At Wick Fun Day Raises Great Amount For Fighting Fund

Paul Monaghan MP Joins In To Downgrade Caithness Maternity On Safety Grounds

CHAT  - Open Public Meeting Tonight Friday 25 November - 7.00pm
The maternity downgrading issue wilbe discussed at a public meeting tonight in Assembly Rooms, Wick. The meeting starts at 7.00pm. Items in the John O'Groat Journal today include front page articles, a report from CHAT secretary Nicola Sinclair and hard hitting editorial from the paper itself.

On Tuesday 29th November NHS Highland Board will discuss the item on the removal of obsyetricians from Caithness General hospital n safety grounds. As this is barely a week after the document proposing changes was made CHAT is calling for the decision to be dalayed by onlyone more boardmeeting to allow times to putin some suggestions to make sure safety issues can be covered and ensure that other apects of the proposal are looked at in depth.

NHS Highland board meeting on Tuesday next starts at 8.30am in Invernes and CHAT has arranged to take a 51 seater bus to Inverness to make representations. Anyone with an interest is invited the demonstartion to be held outside the boards offices. CHAT chairman councillor Bill Fernie said "We do not feel it is unreasonable to ask for a slight delay in the process to allow CHAT and the general public to put in views on the topic for services that have been running for 11 years since the last time it was felt necessary to go for a major change."
CHAT Will Lobby Councillors In Demo At Wick Town Hall - From 9.20am Tuesday 22 November
Protest intensifies following NHS Highland report on maternity services at Caithness General
Caithness Health Area Team - CHAT members and supporters will demonstrate outside Wick Town Hall when the Caithness Committee meets on Tuesday 22nd November 2016. The Caithness committee meeting starts at 10.30  Meeting is open to the public but may be restricted once seats are full. The group are asking anyone who can manage to gather at Wick Town Hall from 9.20am.
Public Vote on Cash For Local Groups In Caithness
Participatory Budgeting - Caithness votes
On Saturday 19th November members of the public voted on which groups who had applied for funds would be successful. The event was held at Puleteney Centre, Wick and once again the hall was full for the third event. This ws the third event heldusing money agreed by Caithness councillors to come from the discretionary fund for the public to decide on grants rather than councillors. This is part of an initiative in Highland to reconnect local people to decision making at a local level. £30,000 was up for allocation this time.

Funding for 3rd sector culture and leisure groups decided
Hats off to hat-trick man Sam -  
Wick Academy 3 Keith 1
Wick Academy 3 Keith 1 - 12 November 2016Reporter Noel Donaldson. 
A SECOND, consecutive match hat-trick from Sam Mackay secured all three points for the Scorries and was a further step forward in recovering their home form. Keith were no pushovers, however, and stuck to their task right to the final whistle. Academy playing towards the Harrowhill end goal, took the lead following a promising start, Sam Mackay slotting home from the spot after Davie Allan was upturned in the right side of the box. Academy came under pressure as Keith pressed for the equaliser and Luke Barbour levelled things before half-time with a simple tap-in from keeper Sean McCarthy's best efforts.  Photo Gallery

Remembrance At Wick
Remembrance Wick 2016






Caithness WASPI Meetings

Tickets For Elise Lyall School Of Dance Big Show Still Available
Elise Lyall School of Dance 'Time to Sparkle' Show still has tickets available depsite runours sayng theyare sold out.  They may be soon so get going to get yours for this great show .  18 and 19 November.

Thurso Rotary Fireworks Display
Fireworks Display Thurso






Caithness Volunteers enhance habitat for the Small Blue butterfly
Caithness Countryside Volunteers Help Smallblue habitat
Members of the Caithness Countryside Volunteers turned out in force on Sunday (30 October 2016) to assist with a habitat enhancement project for a rare butterfly species in the Dunnet Bay area. Dunnet Bay is home to the most northerly colony of the Small Blue Butterfly whose caterpillars depend solely on kidney vetch as a food source. The volunteers concentrated on planting out kidney vetch in the dunes and Castlehill area where there are existing colonies. The volunteers also scraped back vegetation to open up areas of bare ground to encourage the natural colonisation of the kidney vetch plant. This event is part of a large project lead by the Caithness Biodiversity Group called "Small is Bluetiful".
Small Blue Butterfly at Dunnet






Rare geese return to Caithness for the winter
- Surfbirds

Caithness broch project is an example of community-led activism at its finest
- The National




























--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------