Weekly Update, 28th March to 2nd May 2011
09th
May,
2011
Energy: A joint North of Scotland Industries Group/ Caithness Chamber of Commerce event on marine energy was held in North Highland College. The event was attended by businesses from across the Highlands and into Grampian area, including some oil & gas companies with developing interests in renewables. A number of presentations including ones from Crown […]
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Weekly Update, 21st March 2011
23rd
Mar,
2011
Business Services: I will be coordinating a meeting this week with representatives from the Pensions Administration Office to update local stakeholders on plans to move the PAO’s base from Thurso to the Forss Business & Technology Park. The work done by staff at the PAO is a good example of the type of high-quality employment […]
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Weekly Update, 14th March 2011
21st
Mar,
2011
Energy: Following discussions at the CNSRP Executive Board about the value of pursuing additional mechanisms to encourage inward investment into the area, CNSRP Chairman Sir Anthony Cleaver has this week written to Rt Hon George Osborne MP, Chancellor of the Exchequer, to ask for support in making Caithness and North Sutherland one of the 10 […]
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Weekly Update, 7th March 2011
14th
Mar,
2011
Energy: Secretary of State for Scotland Michael Moore MP was asked by John Thurso MP during Scottish Questions at Westminster this week to support his calls for Caithness to become one of the UK’s first Marine Energy Parks. The coalition Government announced this idea recently, and there is a desire in the area to take […]
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Weekly Update, 28th February 2011
07th
Mar,
2011
Programme activities: Energy: I continue to discuss ways in which the area’s assets can be maximised in relation to the marine energy sector. This week discussions have taken place with Highland Council and HIE staff regarding how we might approach Government to make the case for some form of enterprise zone status for the area, […]
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Weekly Update, 21st February 2011
28th
Feb,
2011
I participated in the second round of meetings with the two consortia bidding to become the next PBO at Dounreay. The meeting (facilitated by the NDA) was chaired by John Thurso MP, and allowed members of both bid teams to pass on some thoughts following our first set of meetings back in November, at which […]
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Weekly Update, 14th February 2011
18th
Feb,
2011
Programme activities: Now that we have agreed our priorities for the 2011-2014 period, work continues to implement the programme of delivery activities. This week I chaired the monthly meeting of the Partnership’s Delivery Group, at which colleagues from HIE, Highland Council, DSRL and Caithness Chamber reported on progress with our two priority areas of energy […]
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Weekly Update, 3rd & 10th January 2011
17th
Jan,
2011
In the first week back at work following the Christmas and New Year period there was good news for the area in the form of two approvals to businesses from the European Regional Development Fund. The first was an award of £2.5M to Scrabster Harbour Trust to further support the development of Scrabster Harbour. This […]
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Weekly Update, 13th & 20th December 2010
23rd
Dec,
2010
The Partnership’s Executive Board met last week, and discussed the draft 2011-2014 Caithness & North Sutherland Action Plan. I will be making revisions to the Plan based on our discussions, and circulating a revised version aimed at honing down even further our priority activities. The NDA’s Jon Phillips also updated the Board on the National […]
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Weekly Update, 6th December 2010
13th
Dec,
2010
Working this week with colleagues from DSRL to align the DSRL Socio-Economic Plan for 2011/12 with the wider priorities of the Caithness & North Sutherland Action Plan 2011-2014. The DSRL Plan includes priorities for the Dounreay site’s Socio-economic budget which, although funded through the NDA, is separate from the UK-wide NDA Socio-economic Fund. Alignment of […]
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