JustMe

Well of course Fair Isle and Foula survive without secondary schools as did Papa Stour and as does Fetlar. And I am sure perceived wisdom among education experts is that bigger is better (up to a point). But if the plan for 2 year secondary schools goes ahead that could leave Skerries with 1 pupil or even none. Meanwhile being quoted on the BBC really does not guarantee free speech from the Skerries kids. If I had to decide tomorrow my heart would say "keep Skerries open" and my mind might well decide I needed to be anywhere other than the council chamber tomorrow. Might vote for the 2 year option. Sorry I do not think the petition will do much good. What are needed are new facts such as the perceived saving being wrong and someone of at least as great a standing as the last "expert" to say that the last report was rubbish when comparing the education offered in their own local school to that offered when having to stay at the AHS Hall of Residence........yes it is no more a hostel.

Well they say closing Skerries Secondary will save £73,000 which I presume is meant to be the savings per year. They also say that the Skerries kids will get a better education in Lerwick. If they are telling lies then maybe we could see even greater savings by sacking them without compensation. But this is not yet a decision. Full council tomorrow will make that subject of course to anything the Scottish Government might do. For myself if I was faced with making this decision as well as looking closely at the figures and alternatives such as remote learning I would really like to hear what the three kids plus perhaps the older ones in Skerries primary had to say when out of earshot of their parents and both teachers and council officials.

Well you could stop shouting for a start. Bad manners that is. Then maybe you could consider that Sullom Voe is not really suitable for accommodation barges. Big tankers moving around and the chance of an explosion however slight must rule that out. LPA stands for Lerwick Port Authority and basically they are developing the port to meet whatever needs develop. In the summer that is yachts and cruise ships, year round that is oil related traffic and of course fishing vessels. Seem to remember there were a lot of fishing vessels out by the LHD wire store last week. Bit of a brand new quay being used for a traditional use. Boats laying two and three deep from the jetty?. Nothing new there and certainly not limited to Lerwick. And the two Scottish boats that broke their ropes?. Now I cannot pre judge this but there are various reasons for a rope to break. Obviously old or damaged ropes or just ropes badly tied. Not saying they were but to blame the LPA and the accommodation barges really is pushing it until any enquiry has taken place. Morrison dock?. Is that only suitable for small fishing boats and how many of them were left before the accommodation barges first arrived. Not that many!.

Actually I think the barges are there for the gas plant rather than for black gold but they bring money to the port authority at a quiet time of year and I am sure the residents spend something in the local shops. And extra income for the bus companies. And people who do not like the look of them can turn the other way.........unlike the proposed wind farm that will kind of be visible from the Kames no matter which way people look.

But do you have a way to split out "sold" from advertised again every couple of weeks?.

Nope!.........slight matter of thousands of workers at the gas plant renting everything in sight. Very hard to rent anywhere cheap in or around Lerwick. Slightly better if you wanted to try somewhere a long way outside the town but at the moment there are even gas plant people staying in a hotel on Unst. Other possibilities are the Youth Hostels in Lerwick or possibly the Camping Bods although it is a bit early in the season for them. But always worth asking on forums like this. Maybe someone with a geography student in the family might have a spare room. And my friends do say I am a bit of a pessimist.

I would like to remind any council officials reading this that it is all well and good placing "crossing closed--do not cross" signs on failed pelican crossings but those crossings are normally the place designed for wheelchair users and people pushing prams, buggies and so on to cross the road as the pavement is lowered at that point.

Crossing the foot of Church Road is potentially dangerous. I use my ears and the mirror by the small boat harbour or, if my journey is better planned, I use the crossing by Leasks Travel Agent (as was). But surely if spare parts for pelican crossings are not available the council should should replace them with the puffin ones. If needed find ways to make savings somewhere else or, in the case of the Church Road crossing just go over budget. After all there is a potential danger to life.

Plusnet.....supposed to be better than some others like TT. But I am still paying through the nose for a poor service and am basically only keeping paying to maintain contact with friends.

OK can anyone explain this is simple terms. I have constant little drop outs which are making me think of going to Tooway or whatever. Got a decent router and new microfilters. Main socket is less than a metre from the router and is connected via a surge protector. Newish BT cordless phone also connected to the surge protector and I have another phone connected to the surge protector via a 5m cable. Need this as the fancy BT cordless will not work when the power is off. Whatever could also mean Shetland Library for internet access since I am totally pissed off with drop outs. BTW line "speed" around 2.8mbs and fairly stable when i have a connection.

Bit of a yes but. We have such a place not all that far from where I live but too far for me to carry anything to so the £30/£10 option is actually far more use to me. But of course a regular doorstep collection of bulk refuse would be even better. Maybe something the council could consider once it has got its finances in order.

Unlinkedstudent wrote You are joking, aren't you? "a very reasonable cost"? From memory and from a couple of chats with old mates, they are more expensive than at least one London borough! I am talking about what the council charges individuals to collect bulky items and £30 for up to 6 items (£10 for people on benefits) seems reasonable to me. And you can get together with neighbours to make up the 6 items to cut costs.

Do not watch TV and mainly watched the BBC when I did so no adverts. Cannot get SIBC so no radio adverts, do not get magazines so no adverts, have an ad blocker to deal with the computer, I have a convenient bin between the front door and the living room for junk mail but I do get one paper containing adverts...........Shetland Times so I do look at them. Mainly ad free as well.

FOI, while potentially good in theory means in practice that a council or other body has to spend money to accurately calculate the costs or alternatively just to make a guess, Anyway the bulk uplift scheme replaces skips at a very reasonable cost so no real excuse to fly tip. Still wonder if this is a bonfire for some time in the future. Always possible.

Well yes maybe the Saxa Vord dumpers could drive somewhere else.......or maybe they couldn't drive anywhere else to dump rubbish. Well nowhere legal for them to go if they only have an isles car since rubbish now has to be taken to Lerwick. But since the council will collect bulky waste for a fee that still does not excuse dumping. But sadly the council still has some sort of responsibility to clear up after fly tippers so best just report anything dumped.

Report it to the council with description and exact location. Reckon they are responsible for removing fly tipped rubbish even though they can charge and prosecute the person who put it there if they can find them. Just a thought.......this is not the start of a New Year bonfire is it?.

Not exactly. There were issues with people putting dangerous things in the skips. Meanwhile getting rid of high paid council officials is a bit like getting turkeys to vote for Christmas. Is never going to happen as long as those officials can prevent it.

I am happy to say that the area around where my local skip was sited is clear of rubbish. Maybe people are leaving things elsewhere but so far I have seen no sign of it. Possibly people are just keeping things until they have enough to justify paying the council to pick it up.

So anyone out there willing to talk about old but good music?. Like in the past hour I have listened to Waterloo Sunset, There's a guy works down the chipshop swears he's Elvis, 2468 Motorway, Teenage Kicks, Fairytale of New York, I don't like Mondays and am currently listening to Telegraph Road. If any of you need to ask "by who?" you maybe live in a different era. That said I also had a listen to Dylan's I Shall be Released and Black Fly.........the first one by TRB and Black Fly by Mad Dog Macrae. Am I mad?..........perhaps but I like it.

Top man indeed but I thought he had stopped (been stopped?) doing repairs for the public.

THTC differs from most of the "cheap heating" tariffs in that at least some of your heaters can be turned on by you as convector heaters whenever you want and the Hydro controls the times the storage heaters are switched on. Meant to be variable times according to the weather.

Here http://www.heraldscotland.com/comment/letters/i-fear-high-energy-prices-could-see-depopulation-of-the-north.22645633 is something worth reading on the topic of the Hydro and THTC.

Nope!........THTC is a complete tariff which covers both heating/hot water on the low rate and everything else on the higher rate. Cost for the rest could well be different if you were on some other tariff. 19.4% sounds high and I would get it checked. Only thing I can think of is that you were on a 1 or 2 year fixed price deal and now have to pay the current price. Maybe you could follow the government persons idea and wear an extra sweater. Maybe forget hot water and have cold showers as well. Seriously if you are worried contact the Hydro and as for an explanation........they could have done something wrong.

Exactly the same. Not all the time. Can go for days without a problem but equally can have days when I have half a dozen (or more) drop outs in a hour. Fairly confident that the problem is with BT rather than Plusnet even though I pay Plusnet for my internet. One day I will get irritated enough not to try calling support (been hard to get through lately) but to call sales demanding a mac code. At least BT would give me 6 months free internet.

My main gripe about THTC other than being stuck with the Hydro as supplier is that it is hard if not impossible to find the current rates on their website. Do not understand daveh's about being partly on THTC. As I understand it you are either on the tariff with different prices for heating and general electricity usage or you are not. Perhaps that is what he means. I still say that the standing charge is effectively a charge for providing the service and it should be waived for every day that a power cut occurs.........and I had at least 4 last week.