Colin

I think the idea was to show them from a particular perspective.

Not FACT, just an opinion. Bottom line is that, in common with the majority of other people I have spoken to, a majority of the councillors just didn't believe the figures being bandied about and are, no doubt, unwilling to underwrite any development that is going to require subsidy for years to come. Lets not forget that part of the business plan predicted income from sources that directly compete with established local businesses. I don't care if it's a bar or a sweetie shop that's affected. IMHO that is just WRONG. How about a little challenge? If the pro-cmv lobby are that convinced of it's guaranteed financial viability, why don't they form themselves into an organisation to build and run it? That would qualify them for Lottery funding etc. Then they could take their (well researched and accurate) business plan to the Banks for the rest? After all, if it's such a sure fire winner, the Banks will be falling over each other in the rush to finance it. Do it WITH YOUR OWN money and I'll support it. In fact I'll volunteer £5 to get you started. That should buy a brick or two.

Not wanting to sound ungrateful but, you are 'teaching your granny to suck eggs' on this one. I am aware of all the things that can cause problems and those I can control have been eliminated. I have had a new length of line installed (to the pole at the foot of my garden) and, when testing, use the master socket with everything else disconnected. (BT's own line test suggested a mighty 7.8Mb was possible. As I mentioned earlier, I am only about 100M from the local exchange so, most problems are probably occuring from there out. IMHO, the most likely cause of the problem is the microwave bottleneck between here and the mainland. I have been running speed tests every couple of hours to try and find a pattern and, for what it's worth, at 3am this morning it was clocking at 9.3Mb. By 7am (when I got up) it was down to 4.3Mb, Just before I started writing this it was clocking at an average of 3.5Mb (which I consider acceptable for this time of day). I wonder if broadband performance is inversely proprtional to the number of kids on 'The Street'

Consumers do have a certain amount of protection although I'm not really sure what applies. Clearly, if your ISP fails to deliver anything approximating the service you are paying for then, it is THEY who are in breach of any contract. The 'up to' clause is all well and good if they can reach something approaching the maximum for a reasonable percentage of the time but if the best they can provide is only half of what was promised with an average that is even lower it seems that they don't have a leg to stand on should you wish to cancel. HEADS UP TIME. Ran some speed checks through a link on the Tiscali web site which seemed to suggest I was getting much better results than those shown on independant test sites. Could Tiscali be 'cooking the books' a bit?

Scalloway. Thing is that before I upgraded to 8Mb I was getting an average of about 1.8Mb on a 2Mb connection. Just checked again and it's now up to just over 3Mb. I'm paying for 'up to' 8Mb and, if the best they can offer is 3Mb then, they can stuff it. Probably got a bit to do with contention (no of users etc.) but, as I'm only about 100 yards from the exchange, I expect better. Most likely need to get the gain on my line turned up a bit. Looks like Tiscali are going to get a phone call shortly..

Anyone else struggling at the moment? I'm with Tiscali and my 8Mb connection is only delivering 500k. Swapped my Netgear router for a spare DLink, no difference.. (***Mod Edit - Topic merged with existing one***)

My Brother (shameless plug) has some decent ones on his web site at http://www.shetlandscenes.co.uk/

Not so.... Are you suggesting that the police work 12 hour shifts, 7 days per week, have no holidays and never go sick? I think that a truer figure for those on duty at any one time might be between 1/4 & 1/3. It has been mentioned before but, could this number be increased by spending the money on policemen rather than cameras?

Maybe he's just being realistic. After all, 'experienced professionals' scrutinised the business plans of several local enterprises that, subsequently, went to the wall.

Oh dear.... http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7391056.stm

Having been involved with the Fraser Park in the past, I have to agree with everything Glenn says. If council run parks hit a problem, they have access to a lot of resources (including funding) that can help resolve them whereas independents, such as the Fraser Park and some others, have to make do the best they can. It is also worth noting that independent parks qualify for a maintenance grant amounting to 75% of their total annual expenditure capped at a maximum of £6000. At the risk of labouring this point; To qualify for the maximum you have to spend at least £8000 and, when you have no money to start with, this is an almost impossible level to to achieve. The Fraser Park IMHO would need around £10k pa for at least the next 5 years to bring it up to a reasonable standard and that's just for the playing surface. Compare this with SIC/SRT run venues who are faced with no such restrictions. It always used to irritate me that Clickimin etc. were receiving nearly £2m per year running costs (not just for football) whilst the rest of us got peanuts. It's not easy trying to balance the needs of the whole community against the needs of Scalloway FC and, during my time as a Trustee, the decisions on whether or not the playing surface was useable were left entirely to the park keeper who, as he knew the park well, would make them on a match by match basis. The Fraser Park, from memory, does not officially open to the community until 1st May each year. I don't know the historical reason for this but I suspect that it might have something to do with being very 'wet' with terrible drainage. Playing on it to early in the year would damage the playing surface quite a bit and make it bad for everyone.

Should have mentioned in my previous post; There was a meeting about the bus service (or lack of) held at Scalloway Hall a little while back (pre ZetTrans) and, to the best of my knowledge, not one of the suggestions put forward seems to have been acted on. A GOOD attendance is necessary to make sure that does not happen again. If it helps, I'll open the bar

Best place to advertise it would be on the Westside busses. Wonder if anyone's thought of that?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/business/7351867.stm Is this why the new AHS is costing so much ?

I've got a pack of miniature ones here somewhere. Also got some diodes/resistors etc.

I have it on good authority that community skips must not be used for commercial waste. If a builder is dumping his stuff in one of these skips, he can be fined for it.. All it takes is for someone to report them..

Sad but true. Trouble is that if you run a business of any kind, then there are a lot of people that want a piece of your butt. Unless you're running a multi million pound empire, what's left after HMRC, SIC, Banks and others have finished with you doesn't amount to much and, given that it has to be earned by someone, why should any residue be given away to people who do not appear to be putting in a little effort for themselves? Local businesses DO help where they can but, there's a limit to how much they can offer. I am aware of a few local businesses that, because they appear(?) to be wealthy, receive several requests for help each month. Some they support, some they don't. It doesn't just depend on presentation and whether or not the cause is considered worthy. It's down to (amongst other things) available funds and what's in it for them. Even minor requests as in "something for our raffle" have to be paid for.

Of course I do. That's why I can produce such quality drivel.

They will be clipping sheep soon. They've got curly hair...

Totally disagree. The logistics of getting a squad of players from here to mainland Scotland is the same for all. You can apply the same claims to Rugby, Darts, Pool (a fine example of committed fundraisers if one was needed), Baton Twirling and just about any other organisation that claims to "represent" Shetland. Exactly.. Which is why I suggested that fundraising should involve a little more effort than sitting down writing letters. Nothing wrong with asking for help but, as I suggested in an earlier post, if the SFA had a higher fundraising profile and could offer something in return then, they might get a little more support. You want International status for Shetland?

Not what I meant and you know it. My point was that the players themselves should be supporting the SFA. There's more to fundraising than sitting down to write 'begging letters'. You have to ask; "would local businesses be more willing to help finance an organisation that can be seen to be doing something for itself" As for providing football of a higher standard. It's only a short time ago that Shetland won the Island Games tournament. (Proof, if any were needed, that local football is of a pretty good standard anyway.) Why didn't the SFA grab the nettle then? Why didn't they defend their title at the last games? I might be wrong here but, I can only assume that they could not find enough willing bodies to raise the necessary funds. If this were the case, why should the local business community be asked to stump up? Waiting this long has only undermined their case.

The junction and mini roundabout opposite Scalloway School is a nightmare. I have lost count of the number of times vehicles exiting Castle Street without stopping have almost caused collisions there.

I'm probably going to get some 'flak' for this but, to me, it's just another take on the old "we're representing Shetland" line. Lets face it, football is played by people who, in the main, are in full time employment. Asking someone else to pay for their 'hobby' is just cheek. I saw some wives, girlfriends and kids packing at the Co-op once. No footballers though. As for running dances, that's happened at Scalloway and Whiteness and, most likely, at other places as well. Agreed. They might also want to contact Shetland Rugby Club and find out how they do it instead of standing around looking for handouts. Trying to equate local football with Up Helly AA was a nonsense argument. At least visitors come to Shetland to see Up Helly AA and local businesses get some spin off benefit. I'm not aware of any that come here just to watch a football match.

Thought some of you might want to see this. http://www.glyncorrwgaction.org.uk/index.html Pity about the poor photos though. Much better ones available with a quick Google. ps; I used to live there.

I think this has hit the nail on the head. Seems to me that the board has reacted to so many frivolous applications with a knee jerk that's going to hit everybody. Is it to much trouble for the board to consider applications on an individual basis? eg; If an applicant has no direct connection with an event then they have no reason to apply for an extension and should be refused. As for setting the house on fire. Did that in 1997 (well, the kitchen anyway) but it was 7pm NOT 3am..