In the Scottish parliament, during justice and home affairs portfolio questions, Beatrice Wishart, raised the findings of the Shetland Women’s Aid survey called Voices of Women in Shetland.
The full Shetland Islands Council is to discuss the appointment of a new convener as a successor to Councillor Andrea Manson, who resigned her position as convener. Before Andrea Manson resigned, a majority of councillors signed a notice of motion calling on her to consider her position as convener.
Councillor Andrea Manson has resigned her position as convener of the Shetland Islands Council, with immediate effect. The council is to prepare a report on the appointment of her successor. Last month Andrea Manson was banned from company directorship for three and a half years.
Alistair Carmichael has welcomed the UK government’s climbdown on visa access for sheep shearers this year but he has criticised reports that the government will not issue shearer visas next year.
The Shetland Islands Council has introduced a ban on the indoor storage, and the charging, of electrically powered bikes and scooters on its premises.
With German space launch company Rocket Factory Augsburg on site at the SaxaVord Spaceport for an RFA 1 launch this summer, it has been announced that local residents will have first call on viewing spaces for test flights and launches.
German space launch company Rocket Factory Augsburg has confirmed that it has delivered, to the SaxaVord Spaceport, the first and the second stages of an RFA 1 rocket, for assembly on site.
The Air Accidents Investigation Branch report has been published into the, then, 26 year old Loganair ATR 42-500, which experienced a loss of multiple flight deck displays for three seconds, during the climb from Aberdeen Airport, heading for Sumburgh Airport, in August 2022.
The cruise ship industry is reassuring American customers that it safe to come to Europe to join cruise ships. Of the almost 130,000 passengers on the 127 cruise ship visits to Lerwick harbour last year, the most by nationality, at 40% or about 52,000, came from the United States.
After a 62 hour journey, and leaving Lerwick on Wednesday evening, the Yell Sound ferry Daggri berthed in Greenock just after mid-day on Saturday for its annual docking.
Alistair Carmichael has written to the chancellor of the exchequer, the UK government business secretary and the chief executive of the Competition and Markets Authority to demand clarity on government action to tackle the rapidly increasing cost of heating oil and red diesel, due to the Iran war.
In a Scottish parliament debate on ferries, Beatrice Wishart highlighted longstanding issues, during her six and a half years as a member of the Scottish parliament, that both the Scottish government and Transport Scotland had not seriously engaged with.
The Yell Sound ferry Daggri is due at Greenock on Saturday for its annual docking, after leaving Lerwick on Wednesday evening. The Hendra is on the North Ness slip for repairs, including its engine taken out.
The Shetland Fishermen’s Association has published its manifesto for the Scottish parliament election, calling on all local candidates to champion Shetland’s fishing industry and to put the islands at the heart of future fisheries policy.
The Accounts Commission’s best value report on the Shetland Islands Council has been published and Emma Macdonald, the leader of the Shetland Islands Council, has responded.
SNP candidate Hannah Mary Goodlad commented on the call for a halt to Shetland renewable energy projects until real community benefit is achieved, noting that, apart from Neshion, all had planning consent, reserved connection to the grid and the statutory window for judicial review had long closed
During a session of the House of Commons select committee for environment, food and rural affairs, senior civil servants were pressed by Alistair Carmichael on their planning for the “looming animal welfare crisis" around a shortage of sheep shearers in the UK.
Arianne Burgesss has called for urgent action with new data showing that those who hunt illegally with dogs are overwhelmingly likely to have had prior convictions for assault and threatening behaviour.
Brian Nugent, the Alliance to Liberate Scotland candidate for Shetland in the Scottish Parliament elections in May, has said that the closure of Shetland College is a strange decision that should be investigated.
The UHI Shetland board of management has reconfirmed that, in the future, the Scalloway campus will be the single campus of UHI Shetland after the closing of the former Shetland College.
Brian Nugent, the formerly Sovereignty candidate for Shetland in the Scottish parliament election in May, and now the Alliance to Liberate Scotland candidate, has commented on the new guidance from the Electoral Commission.
In the latest Sullom Voe shipping list, there were three visits from crude oil tankers, all taking away Clair crude, the first time in 48 years that there was no export of Brent crude in a monthly report.
The voluntary service members of the local theatre group Open Door Drama have been presented with the King’s Award for Voluntary Service, the first voluntary organisation in Shetland to be recognised with the award.
As the mackerel quota controversy rumbles on, the Scottish rural affairs secretary Mairi Gougeon has written to Waitrose after Waitrose decided to suspend the sourcing of Scottish-caught mackerel.
In debate on a levy on energy developers, UK energy minister Michael Shanks replied that a generation of lobbyists should look at the history of the Shetland Islands Council and an extraordinary story of how the council seized the opportunity over offshore oil and gas, from which it still benefits.
It looks likely that the Scottish government will publish the findings of the cruise ship consultation next week, nearly eight months after the consultation closed.
Ithaca Energy has withdrawn its original application to develop its wholly-owned Cambo field, 85 nautical miles west of Unst, to give time to resubmit a new field development plan.
The meeting of the full Shetland Islands Council accepted the report proposing a rise of 7.3 per cent in council tax in the next financial year, starting in April.
The UK government has confirmed that the Post Office will maintain the Geographical Access Criteria and it will retain the existing minimum requirement of 11,500 branches. This is to ensure that essential services remain accessible to all, including services for rural and island communities.
From 2028 local news on local analogue commercial radio stations must be least hourly 0600-1900 weekdays and three times 0700-1200 weekends and bank holidays. SIBC local news all weekdays is every hour, 24 hours, plus 0730, 0830 and 1730, ie 27 times, and 13 times 0700-1700 on Saturdays and Sundays.
