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Last Day For Staff At Wick Branch Of Alliance & Leicester
The staff at the Wick branch of the Alliance & Leicester were today saying farewell to the customers they had served for many years.  with Alliance Leicester closing a number of branches around the country similar scenes are being repeated elsewhere.  The staff in Wick were treating their customers and friends to a different day at the bank.  Tea and coffee and even a glass of wine was on offer with tables laid out with cakes and sandwiches.  Staff were over-whelmed with the responses in cards and gifts showered on them by customers making their last visits to transact business.  All of the staff have obtained other jobs mainly with the other banks in the town who have spotted the chance to get people with years of banking experience.

Council Will Build Recycling Centres At Wick And Thurso
HIGHLAND COUNCIL WELCOMES £49 MILLION FOR IMPROVEMENTS TO RECYCLING
The Highland Council has today (Wednesday 29th September) welcomed the award of £49 million from the Scottish Executive's Strategic Waste Fund (SWF) to help improve recycling throughout the Highlands.  A five-point plan of action is geared to increasing the waste recycled to 27,264 tonnes ~ 17.6% - by March 2006.

North Action Group Heads For Glasgow Demo

Local Photographer John Baikie Launches Caithness Photographic Web Site
John Baikie is setting out to make his mark in the photography world with his new web site.  Her recently went full time after several years of part-time work and winning the Photographer of the Year Award in the Highland Media Awards in 2003

Volunteers Flock To Keiss Beach Cleanup
Almost 30 volunteers turned out last Saturday to take part in a local beach clean and monitor at Keiss beach. The clean-up was organised by the rangers in The Highland Council's Planning and Development Service as part of the national Beachwatch event, the most extensive monitoring programme in Europe for coastal and marine litter. The volunteers cleared large amounts of unwanted debris and litter along the rocky section of the shore between the harbour and Stain. Members of the Caithness Critters and the Caithness Countryside Volunteers turned out in force and with help from local residents, created a strong hit squad. The types and quantities of litter were recorded and removed to ensure that the surveyed stretch of beach was rubbish free.

August 2004 CASE Monthly Report

Lantern Procession ‘Wick, A light in the North’ - Report And More Pictures
On Saturday evening, 11 September 2004, over a thousand people turned out to watch and follow a spectacular community procession through out Pulteneytown and ending out at South Head Quarry, which was organised by Wick Youth Club and Lower Pulteneytown Townscape Heritage Initiative Management Committee. This procession marks the final stage in the permanent display of the Community Public Arts project, “New Media Meets Old” in Telford Street with the switching on of two new media artworks created by commissioned artist Tamsin Williams and young people in Wick.

Range Rover Discovery Put Through Its Paces In Caithness - Life's A Beach
The world's press are arriving daily in Caithness testing the new Range Rover Discovery models.  With its many different road types across Caithness and North Sutherland the are is regarded by motor companies as one of the best locations to try out new vehicles.  Wick in particular is suitable with an airport right on the doorstep of the varied terrain required to try out these rugged vehicles with everything a car could have by way of comfort and strength in an off road vehicle.  There are many of them in the county at the moment in case you think a lot of folk have been incredibly lucky on the lottery.

LEAVING CAITHNESS FOR THE JUNGLE!
Mandy Purves and Ann Sutherland To Trek Costa Rica For SSPCA
The pair are planning to take part in a 10 day Jungle Trek in Costa Rica, to raise money for the SSPCA. The trek will take place from 26th November to 6th December 2005, and is quite a challenging trek, covering some rough terrain.  Costa Rica has a huge variety of landscapes, climates and environments. It is home to five per cent of the planet’s biodiversity. Everything from palm tree-lined tropical beaches to smoking volcanoes, cloud forest, rainforest and mangrove swamps awaits us in Costa Rica!  The pair intend to raise funds for the trip by holding a range of events up to the time they leave.

Well Known Dounreay Scientist Dr Eric Voice Has Died
Nuclear scientist Dr Eric Voice who worked at Dounreay for many years, has died at 80 following an illness.  Dr Voice who wrote often to the newspapers was extremely confident in his views of the safety of using plutonium in a safe environment and even had injections of it given to himself as part of an experiment with others in 1997.  Dr Voice thought much of what was written in the media about plutonium was hype not based on the facts.  He apparently suffered no ill effects from his testing the material on himself

CAITHNESS PEOPLE RALLY TO NATIONAL WILDLIFE EVENTS
The two Caithness wildlife workshops held recently by Ranger in The Highland Councils' Planning and Development Service proved to be a great success. The 'Batty about Bats' workshop at Dunbeath attracted more than a dozen people and the 'Caithness Cetaceans' workshop at Lybster saw more than thirty people over the course of the day.

13 September 04
Accelerated Decommissioning
Keeps The Contracts Flowing
The formal signing of the contract to build a waste-handling facility for storing solid intermediate-level radioactive waste (ILW) at Dounreay recently awarded to Balfour Beatty Civil Engineering Ltd by UKAEA, took place in the board-room of Forss Business Park.  The contract, valued in excess of £10 million will increase the site's capacity for storing ILW arising from the site's accelerated decommissioning programme.

Guide Dogs For The Blind - Caithness Group Fund Raising Walk
The local branch of Guide Dogs For The Blind held a fund raising walk from Wick High School to Milton and back via Newton Hill.  Guide Dogs is the national UK charity that supplies dogs and full training for blind people in the UK.  The Caithness branch often has stalls at local events.

Any Emails Sent in the Past Few Weeks Unanswered?
Apologies to anyone who has not had a reply to emails sent in recent weeks but all of them have been lost as Bill's hard drive burnt out.  Also any pictures or items sent for the web site are also lost.  If you sent anything in recent weeks and it has not appeared on the site please feel free to send it again.  All email addresses have been lost on Bill's hard drive.  The Newsletter emails are OK and it will be out soon

'Scapegoat' claim by sacked Polish doctor The Scotsman
A letter from Dr Samberger one of the Polish consultants dismissed from Caithness General was printed in the John O'Groat Journal on Friday.  Both Polish doctors are thought to be considering legal action against NHS Highland.   Polish Speakers Go Here

Wick A Light In The North
A community event organised by Wick Youth Club saw a procession with may children and folk from the town carrying lanterns made by young people in the Wick Youth Club Summer Workshops.  the procession went from Miller Street celebrating the switch on of the New Media Works to the South Head Quarry for a low level fire display and fireworks

TALKS ON OUT OF HOURS PROGRESSING
NHS Highland has announced details of progress on its discussions with local communities and GPs about plans to provide an alternative service when GPs take up their option of opting out of providing services outside surgery opening hours.

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