2522

Happy Easter to all our Readers

 

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A summary of March’s beach cleaning and litter picking from in and around Ullapool

16 Ullapool community funded beach cleans = 207.23kg
Scrap metal removed from the beaches 206.65kg

Keep Scotland Beautiful Ullapool litter picks 105.55kg

Ardcharnich Beach Clean 23/03/2023 65.25 kg
So the grand total removed this month      584.68 kg

The largest single item found in March was a 12 foot plastic plank on Am Pollan beach which weighed a colossal 123.8kg. Many thanks to Kevin, Stuart and Shaun from the Harbour for organising its quick removal with the Manitou. All of the scrap metal removed from the beaches was donated to the Ullapool Harbour Trust collection for Gino’s Cantina.

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The Highland Council is updating its Local Transport Strategy, which sets out how it will manage and modernise the
transport network across the region.
The Case for Change is the first stage in this process; the Council would like to hear your views and the document is now out for consultation.
Chair of Highland Council’s Economy and Infrastructure Committee, Cllr Ken Gowans said: “Everyone living in and visiting Highland needs fair access to affordable, healthy, and sustainable transport choices.
“Walking, wheeling, cycling and public transport should provide safe, affordable, efficient and reliable choices for moving around wherever possible.”
He added: “The research is clear, for the climate emergency, for people’s health, household budgets, the local environment, and for the vibrancy of our communities and high streets, we need to support people to choose active and sustainable travel modes, while continuing to invest in our existing infrastructure.
“The particular actions to deliver on these national policy aims will vary between places, reflecting the diversity of our Highland communities, but the overarching principles are the same. I encourage everyone to read this report, and share their views, so our new policy framework meets the needs of everyone in Highland.”
The feedback from the Case for Change consultation process will inform a draft Local Transport Strategy, which will go out for further consultation later in 2023.
This consultation covers key findings on the themes of Highland population, current travel patterns, climate change, public health, equalities and all different modes of transport. Respondents are asked if they agree or disagree with these key findings and can give additional information.
Read the full Case for Change Report and take part in the consultation.
To avoid duplication The Highland Council and HITRANS will share feedback from this consultation and from HITRANS’ parallel consultation on its Regional Transport Strategy Case for Change, so you may decide not to respond to both.
The consultation is open for eight weeks, closing on Monday 29 May.

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WE HAVE WON THE LAND
FRIDAY 7 APRIL
THE CEILIDH PLACE VENUE
We Have Won The Land is the new collaborative project between Glasgow based folk musicians Rory Matheson (piano) and Graham Rorie (fiddle and mandolin). This suite of new music has been inspired by Rory’s local area of Assynt and the community buy-out of the North Lochinver Estate by the Assynt Crofter’s Trust in 1993. Rory and Graham are both former finalists in the BBC Radio Scotland Young Musician of The Year. We Have Won The Land celebrates the unprecedented success of the Assynt Crofter’s Trust in buying back the 21,300 acre North Lochinver Estate from a Swedish land speculator. Their efforts went on to inspire many other communities to pursue similar projects and eventually own the land they live and work on. Rory and Graham will be joined by two very special guests in Anna Massie (guitar) and Kristan Harvey (fiddle) to present the music and story of We Have Won The Land as well as a selection of tunes
from Graham’s ‘Orcadians of Hudson Bay’ project.

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