Windwalker

Absolutely first class Hamron, always seem to miss them, so great to see such beautiful colours.

And your point is ?..... Bigger issues seem to get little discussion on here now, smaller issues more.You are right Carlos, but it's maybe because the smaller issues effect us directly at the time.

I think it is because there is no longer any local input in the banks,it is all centralised and the concept of self-build is not well understood at head office? There has been a tendency, at my bank anyhow, to get rid of experienced (older?) staff and control things from the Central Belt where self-build is seen as a luxury and not a staple as it is here.Thanks for that Rasmie. Centralisation is ok if you live in the centre

This is worrying due to the high numbers of self builds which can happen here, sometimes that's the only way folk can afford to build a new house. I wonder what reason the banks have for not lending to self builds?

You don't know what I'm doing about it laddie, so please get your facts correct before having a go.

It's nothing other than a bloomin disgrace. Cut gritting, cut schools, close old folks lunch centres, stop bin bags etc, but hey ho money can be found to pay tripple time. It's a bit of "I'm all right jack, f**k you" I worked for the council for many years, but never got tripple time, when did this start? I doubt it's time for an outside body to look into how this council can rob services from us, whilst continue to pay these extortionate level of wages and employ numbers way above those of similar sized authorities.

I find it strange that the council can suddenly find plenty of money to pay school staff tripple time, ( if the above comment is correct), yet they remove the free black bags, now I wonder what one cost the most? This is another case of the council spending vast amounts on staffing and poor management, whilst constantly removing services from the general public. Does anyone actually manage these managers, where is the illusive chief executive, does he actually exist, and if he does could he please start rattling some heads together, because, whilst I fully agree that cuts need to be made, I am sick to the back teeth of getting less and less services provided by a bloated council who seem more interested in keeping their over staffed empires then serving the public. Sorry for the rant, but I am getting fed up with the arrogance and stupidity that seems to have taken over our local authority.

And your point is ?.....

They state that they intend to sell them for £3.50 from sic premises and rural shops! That suggests they have been ordered or going to be ordered. What riles me is that a decision not to distribute was taken before the council moved to stop supplying, I wonder how they pre-empted the outcome? I don't object to having to pay £3.50, but I would think that will likely only happen this year if they have them in stock. Next year, well I'll not hold my breath. I had to buy my wheely bin and if I now have to buy the bags, the essy men will not be able to lean in the bin and pick up the bags, they will have to attach it to the truck to empty it as I will just be dumping everything in it as it goes without bags. When this council stops cutting services and starts looking at the over paid and over staffed departments, I'll maybe start taking them seriously.

He does have some good points. The issue for me is I believe we are being sold down the river and with asking for crumbs we will be lucky to see much difference. Our starting point should have been " the oil is ours and we want it, then we could negotiate to a more sensible agreement. Once the Scottish independence referendum is out of the way, we will be of no interest whatsoever. Whoever is left in charge will walk all over us yet again

Not sure if anyone locally sells flagpoles, but if you get one remember it needs to be tough enough for Shetland weather. You may also require planning permission ! A freind of mine was told to take her flag pole down as she didn't have planning permission for a pole out in the sticks. Burocrats with little else to do.

The problem we have had in Shetland is a council who did not keep control over its spending. It kept spending like there is no tomorrow and then the markets crashed and suddenly they realised that they are spending more than they can afford. Your criticism of "a lot of Shetlanders" though is a bit unfair. When people become accustomed to a good level of service over a lot of years then it is difficult to accept the sudden cut to services. But like most Shetlanders I know, they will a adjust as they are introduced. I don't think there are many " Shetlander's" who do not accept that cuts are necessary, but like "a lot" they are questioning where the cuts are being targeted. Essential services like road gritting and public toilets are bound to raise hackles and I for one would far rather see some sensible cuts in the over staffing in the council then closing cludgies. For instance, have a vote on whether to spend 150k on introducing a 20mph in the centre of town, or keep public toilets open for a while longer until finances improve, and I think I can guess what the answer would be.

Would it be possible for folk to keep responses to a reasonable size as I for one have now lost complete interest in this tread due to having to wade through such lengthy posts, containing a lot of which is totally irrelevant.

Personally, I enjoyed it, it was better than a lot of the bruk on telly just now. But it is fiction and shouldn't be taken too seriously. Can't wait for the next lot.

The main road in Aberdeen is a poor example. Cars stop at lights then set the foot down to try and get through the next set before they turn red. This results in fast acceleration, heavy breaking and less attention to what's going in around them as they are looking at the lights in the distance.

Oh mercy me, by the time I've read all this, I've forgotten what the subject was. I'm not expecting 24 hour policing, but the occasional presence may deter the few idiots.

Now I wonder how many council officials it took to design and come up with that idea. Plus how much has it cost.? Chocolate fire guard comes to mind.

I don't think bland statements like these add anything to the debate, my experience being a pedestrian in the town is that the majority of drivers are quite courteous and will stop where there is no need, just to let me cross. The biggest risk is getting hit with cars, vans etc backing out of parking spaces. The odd driver, who is driving too fast for the road conditions, already breaks the law. Having a 20 mph limit will make little difference to that. I think the whole thing is a waste of public money. More police presence on occasions would be far more effective.

Your more than entitled to your opinion, but let's try and have a discussion like adults

The poll clearly has the options, guilty or not guilty in it and if you want to publicly state on forums that you believe someone is guilty of something and they are later proven innocent, I think you could be opening yourself up for redress. The fact it's all over social media any way doesn't make it right. Was there not a case last year where a MP sought compensation from known people who claimed on social sites that he was guilty and hundreds of others who made similar comments were requested to make a donation to charity.? Basically what your saying is that if your mother, father, brother, sister or what ever was charged with a horrendous crime, it would be ok for us all to be saying on various social media that he or she was guilty, and we could get away with that even if he or she was later proven innocent !

I agree with Colin on this one. I don't think any of us should be sitting in judgement regardless of whether or not it's on TV. In my opinion this or any other court case should not become prime time or car crash tv. We are all entitled to form our own opinion or thoughts on the case, but to let's leave the decision making to the professionals who have all the facts at their disposal.

Did anyone suggest you were?

Brochbuilder, I can understand your concern regarding lambing times etc, but I just can't agree that Shetland isn't a great place for dog walkers. I have had dogs all my life and love walking them all over the isles. There are places I can have them off the lead and places I would keep them under tight control it's all about managing them according to your surroundings. Someone once told me that there are roughly one dog to every five houses, if this is correct I would imagine there has to be thousands of dogs in Shetland. I wonder how they all manage if Shetland is such a poor place for dog walkers.

Might be worth having a quiet word with the manager and give him/her a chance to see if he/she can improve the customers experience. Nothing worse for business than grumpy shop staff.

Never a truer word said Seaflech. I'm all of everyone being free to express thier opinions, but it seems it's mainly those of the negative persuasion who do so. It's very rare that any thread remains positive for long. This does not show, what I believe to be, a true representation of Shetland and it's residents. Shetlink is a fantastic facility and it needs more people with positive helpful attitudes to outweigh the negativity which often takes over threads.