Infiltrator

Should've been started about 5 years ago.

Yes it's an ageing population, but it's also a population that generally has significantly more savings than the previous generations. It's about time folk started to plan about how to fund their own care to take some pressure off the rapidly increasing burden of the islands social care.

Para Handy was involved in the bombing of Hiroshima

I'd guess it's something to do with this bunch http://news.morayfirthlive.com/2010/07/08/giant-air-exercise-at-raf-kinloss-involves-85-planes/

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&q=lerwick&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Lerwick,+Shetland,+Shetland+Islands,+United+Kingdom&ll=60.156116,-1.146827&spn=0.008906,0.045447&z=15&layer=c&cbll=60.157481,-1.14758&panoid=LEvyyFTlZRV-qnzpMif3pQ&cbp=12,161.8,,0,5 Up there on the right, where the grey railings are. If I remember correctly, it was last used for storing carpets when the Home Furnishing used the Red Dragon building as their carpet shop.

Charlie's ? After I posted I thought it might have been Charlie's.

Just read through this thread, brought back lots of memories. Here's a few from my past. Lerwick gasworks - great place to play, did stink a bit though. Greenhead army huts - before they flattened the place for the oilbase. Sumburgh golf course - the one across the airstrip, and the later one on the hill just before Sumburgh. Brenda Bressay ferry. The cafe on Market Street just up from the Red Dragon - can't remember the name but do remember the huge freshly made pancakes. And on the subject of trucks, I remember Geordie Mundies truck fleet at Grantfield and Bowie's huge new fleet of tippers/cement mixers - were they all Volvo's? I think I remember something like 26 of each.

Well if they were negotiating, there was always going to be a large payoff. The only way to remove him with a minimal cost would be through a disciplinary process. £230k as a negotiated settlement, given his salary and the fact that he hadn't been proven to be at fault for his dismissal, sounds about right.

You can look at this another way, had the details not been leaked, the council may have found it very difficult, if not impossible, to remove him from the post - I haven't seen any evidence emerge that suggests disciplinary proceedings were underway to have him removed from post. On the basis that he could have claimed £2 million, surely the £230 k package is in line with the councils 'best value' policy?

It's Groundhog day, the locked DC thread doesn't exist yet.

Am I missing something here - the Bibby Bergen was moored in Lerwick in 2001 for the gas plant shutdown over the summer. http://www.originart.eu/features/gallery01_1/08.html As far as I remember, there was no major crime wave, dramatic increase in single mothers or general breakdown of the local society

le Trouble happens everywhere - how about the German U Boat crew members that were beat up so badly in Lerwick that one of them had to be flown home due to serious head injuries. And yes it was Shetlanders that were involved but they weren't from Lerwick. This happened late 80's if I remember - made me feel ashamed to be a Shetlander.

Some people just don't know when to keep their head down Has all this detail been made public before?, I haven't read the full report yet.

Is this not the second time that a Whalsay fish factory has been bailed out by the SIC before shutting down a year or so later? There's something niggling in the back of my mind that very same situation happened a few years ago. Or I am going mad

I think some folks need to see it printed and published before they'll finally accept how bad things are.

If there's any truth in the story leaked by the BBC, then Conochies will be doing a roaring trade in 'Sorry you're leaving' cards over the next couple of weeks. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/north_east/8651074.stm

It's somewhat ironic that hundreds of years after the vikings existed, famed for their violent raids, raping, pillaging and general lawlessness, in a modern day celebration of their existence, the most rebellious act we can manage is to 'apparently' leave some litter on the beach. And in doing so, upsetting a few anonymous tree huggers, who are clearly already somewhat on edge given the lack of trees to hug in Shetland

How can the figures between Shetland and Orkney be so different, are the public services that different? Orkney is 18% council employment, Shetland is 28% (before the 440 new jobs) if Shetland had the same level of council employment as Orkney there would be 1400 fewer council posts - or £38 million a year less wages using the figures from the news story. What do the Shetland council do that Orkney doesn't that requires 1400+ council posts?

Assuming none of the 440 posts were included in the attached numbers, and the working population has stayed the same, this now means that almost 1 in 3 people eligible for employment and living in Shetland are now employed by the local council http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/default.aspx?pq=S3W-20360 http://www.shetlink.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7525&highlight=employed They'll need a damn site more than 150 windmills to keep up these levels of public service. Or maybe they'll just continue to bury their heads in the sand and hope it goes away. Would it not be simpler just to turn Shetland into a Communist state given how much public money is being fed into the local economy?

Shift ops and maintenance largely - high skilled and well paid.

How many tourism brochures feature pictures of Sullom Voe? Would all the photos in the tourist brochures just 'avoid' the windfarms? Simon King didn't hark on about Sullom Voe being a blot on the landscape - he did however talk on many occasions of Shetlands unspoilt beauty, cover the islands in windmills and it will impact the tourism industry. The gas plant is a national issue, the plant and related infrastructure is critical for the UK to maintain and grow it's energy supply security. On a global scale, all the major producing nations are tightening their grip on their indigenous energy resources. The windfarm is a local issue - and is all about revenue for the isles to maintain it's largely council funded economy. And not entirely on topic but interesting all the same - you'd need a huge pump up Hydro scheme to compensate for the recent lack of wind across Scotland. http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/Article.aspx/1634185

If they're going to evaluate both options over a 120 year period they should also consider.. http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/T/transporter.html £80 million - why not offer every resident £80k to leave and then cover Whalsay in windmills

Herein lies Shetlands dilema, with 25% of the employed population being funded directly by the council, combined with forecast reduced income from Sullom Voe, and population also forecast to reduce, it doesn't take a genius to realise that reduction in services and staff numbers will be required in line with a shrinking economy. Here's the stats again http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/default.aspx?pq=S3W-20360 Printer toner doesn't require a pension, sick pay, island allowance or any of the other benefits that council employment offers (doesn't take a van home either) I'm not saying the cuts mentioned aren't worthwhile, but they're very much a short term gain in comparison to staff reductions. The council have been hiding their collective heads in the sand for a good number of years now. They're now gambling on the hope that the wind farm will now help subsidise the local economy. Look at the stats again, once the council waste away the reserve fund, how long do you think the government will continue to subsidise a public service so dramatically out of line with other local councils? Even to come into line with Orkney would require a reduction in council posts of something around 1,000+ people which is a cut of 25+% of the current workforce.

LOL @ Ghostrider, was reading the letters earlier and it made me chuckle. This latest letter from JW is ridiculous - if indeed he did send it? Said before I'm not a JW fan, I also said I didn't believe that he was the type of person to bluntly lie about the alleged threatening phone call. Ultimately this comes down to integrity, JW vs DC, and who was telling the truth. Ignoring all this mud slinging, lets see how the fiscal views things.