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@ papsy: Morrison Dock was built for the fishing fleet, and now there's not many more than half a dozen decent sized boats fishing oot o' the toon, thanks to the EU, so if there's still around six gaps there's still room for them. The piers north of Morrison with the exception of the "Marina" were all built for specific commercial purposes or oil, not fishing docks, and those south were built by merchants of yore to further their own "commercial" enterprises, one way, or another.... and later taken over for north boat berths. The Morrison has, by many accounts has never been much of a dock, I've had several of its users tell me over time that with a decent northerly it behaves like someone throwing stones in a paddling pool due to back wash. Perhaps somebody who knew this should have forewarned the Scotties to bend on an extra rope or two, and Serco might not have needed to panic over their pretty paint job. So what if boats are doubled or trebled up? Anybody who marvels at that obviously doesn't remember back before the EU went through the fleet like a dose of the runs, and there were a decent number of fishing boats using the harbour. Every winter gale there were Scotties and locals lying six to eight deep from the steamers pier to the Bressay ramp and Norskies and Danes likewise from the Bressay ramp most of the way to the wire store. Okay, there were times with the worst of weather that a Scandinavian nearer the outer end had to keep steaming to hold the line up, and a rope carrying off did very occasionally happen, but it was rare, and exceptional that anybody broke loose.Seems to me that regardless of who or what is tied up in it, or what space there is, that the Morrison simply isn't the quality of facility it was supposed to be, or a match for what preceded it, and that perhaps maybe some crews just don't pay the same attention or take the level of precautions to ensure the security of their boat in exceptional weather that most of their predecessors did. Yes, I'll agree that everybody, regardless of trade, who pays harbour dues deserves to get the service they pay for. However its also an unalienable fact that the LPA's first priority is their own bottom line, and offshore work is currently the single largest contributor to that bottom line, so will get first dabs. All fishing boats are currently minor earners for the LPA, so like the days before oil when the bigger fishing boats who contributed most to the bottom line more got first dabs at the prime quayside, and the small fry who contributed much less were relegated to inconvenient corners, now they're all relegated to the inconvenient corners as lesser earners, that's how the cookie crumbles with capitalism. Any change in that is only going to have to come through making the LPA a socialist or communist organisation......if anyone dares. Its likely there will still be a few fishermen and fishing boats left when the current crop of floating tin houses and their occupants ship out, but in all probability there will be fewer than when the tin houses arrived, and it'll have a great deal more to do with EU antics than the tin house men, or where they've been parked.

Noo why du's dat no surprise me, dey lik to roughshot though any other interests which dey tink should bow tae der superiority. Glad tae see du's stuck tae de guns. I think its reasonable to make a charge for commercial advertising, but please keep in mind there are many " small " one man/woman businesses, (many who sneak the odd advert on here) who could not afford to pay too much. I have found a few folk I needed to do small jobs on Shetlink and they have all said due to the small size of their business they can't afford the type of charges being made on other sites. As for recruitment ads, these should definitely be charged for. Looking at the growing classified ads placed each day, which I love looking through, I often wonder how many folk give a donation after a successful sale? A 20p charge would be a drop in the ocean to the sellers, but would have generated a reasonable sum for server upgrades

Any charities looking to advertise can certainly contact Shetlink and they would receive a personalised service.

As the owner of a small business I wouldn't object to paying to advertise.

perhaps there are worse eyesores than the barges.....e,g, .TSB, Mareel, Charlotte House, New sic hq at north ness. to each his own opinion

So here's a thought. What's the Shetlink community's impression of having moved towards paid trade/commercial advertising in the classifieds section? Had the most random and discerning PM conversation with someone yesterday who was particularly disgruntled by having to pay for the situations vacant section even though they were advertising a position in one of the UK's largest retail outlets. They accused Shetlink of greed; the irony, before stating they were going to delete their account; good luck trying that without asking for assistance. Shetlink's continued interest and usage by it's community means it 'needs' to be developed further. Whilst the assistance provided by the "donation" button helps keep the show on the road it's a stretch to say that can go far enough to actually assist in upgrading/developing. I'm sure you're aware at how much downtime there is / has been - the week long f*kup at the start of Nov being completely out with our control! Without the new framework the entire system would also, for instance, be a flood of kitchenspam as it was with poor moderators running around aimlessly trying to delete it - no fun for anyone. Anyway, as always, happy to hear everyone's thoughts.

"Lerwick" owes its very existence, and "success"? to "shipping" in any and all of its various forms. The minute "Lerwick" starts to get too fussy about what "shipping" it will handle and where in the Muddy Bay it is "acceptable" for it to be seen, is the day "Lerwick" starts killing off the goose that lays the golden egg.

I'm of the opinion the LPA have a God given right to do what the fuk they want! To hell with anybody or any institution in their path. Let's roll back to 1877 when an Act of UK Parliament was passed to give the "Lerwick Harbour Trust" the ability to 'act' as an independent statutory body and be governed through it's own legislation. [...] deletion of a vast and in-depth rant on SIC, SIC Port and Harbours, Sandy Cluness, various other things to do with utter [...] Let's not forget the barges are there for a reason. They house workers for the furtherance and development of Sullom Voe. Berths and income obtained within LPA's environ enable them to further develop "Lerwick" and all the secondary and tertiary businesses that can flourish because of them. Sitting trüteling about any short term change or even simple aesthetics of what is effectively an industrial site misses the entire point of life on Shetland, no? Let's be honest --- Shetland isn't this dream nonsense Up Helly Aa Viking 'n lovely spring lambs jumping through heather nonsense dreamed up. These things have their place but, seriously [...] further Friday night ranting deleted [...]

Shetlink is introducing paid advertising in the "Situations Vacant" section in line with the "Trade/Commercial" section. £9.99 for 14 days rotation against the above Terms & Conditions. Why? Any revenue accrual against these sections will assist in the continued upgrade and development of Shetlink; a new server perhaps?

Today is the right day for closing schools!!

I work with many of the men staying on these barges and they are lovely. You have no right to make a comment like that. Disgusting.

^ Can we have a floorshow at the local amphitheatre (Mareel) to feed them to the lions if we can find any?