|
HARRIS
WEST NEWS
Last week was quite interesting at the Council meetings. Lingerbay came up, but the awaited letter from the Scottish Executive had not arrived so it will be discussed again when the letter arrives. At Transportation Committee the areas due for tarring and surface dressing were discussed. In Harris, West Loch Tarbert to Kyles Junction and Scarista Bheag to Northton are to be surface dressed. Tarring will be done at Leverburgh Grid to Rodel Grid, Northton Village, patching in Bays, patching on Finsbay Peat Road, parts of the Bunavoneadar to Hushinish road and Bowglas/Scaladale road. The engineers had identified £4m worth of tarring needing to be done in Lewis and Harris, but the budget was only for £576,530 - £153,100 of it comes to Harris. Private slaughter of Livestock was discussed as well. Consultation is taking place on draft Transmissable Spongiform Encephalopathy (TSE) (Scotland) Regulations. These Regulations will become law as soon as Enforcement Legislation is passed—expected to be in April. This will mean that all home killing of animals, including by a crofter for his own consumption, will be illegal. Killing of animals for human consumption will be restricted to licensed slaughterhouses. Enforcement of this will create major problems in the Western Isles where the only area which has easy access to a licensed slaughterhouse at the moment is Barra. The Council’s Member/Officer Group on Slaughterhouses are still meeting and are looking for solutions to the problem. A recommendation before the Sustainable Development Committee for the reclassification of Leverburgh Pier from a Class A to a Class B facility as from 1 April until such time as the Pier is upgraded to allow vessels to berth in all but the severest weather conditions was approved. This had been requested by the Fishermen. A report before Social Work on Delayed Discharge (from Hospitals) in Scotland showed that, although there was a reduction of people whose discharge from Hospital was delayed from the previous year from 38 to 26, the Western Isles was third highest at 12.4% of beds being occupied by people who were ready for discharge. The Report from the Scottish Executive was accompanied by the distribution of £20m. It is not yet known how much of this will come to the Western Isles. Leverburgh Village Hall opened on 30 March and is indeed a first class community facility. However, it did not happen without a great deal of effort, thought, planning, frustration and disappointment along the way. Our grateful thanks are due to the dedicated committee and particularly the office-bearers who shouldered the responsibility over the past few years. They had to sort out land ownership, draw up plans, feasibility studies, Business Plan, Planning Permission, Building Warrants, Cash Flows and numerous applications for funding, only to suffer disappointment from 21st Century Halls and the Scottish Executive. However they picked themselves up and re-applied to other funders and eventually realised their goal. That was not the end of it though. Then came the actual construction and complicated claims to funders for money to keep the cash flow situation running. The members of the Committee to whom I would like to pay tribute are— Isabel
Campbell, Chairman Morag Munro |