STAKEHOLDERS, partnership working, interfacing with customers.

IN the last couple of years there has been growing realisation that a generation of chief constables and politicians may, after all, have been wrong to dismiss the effectiveness of the bobby on the beat.

OVER the past 48 hours one of Inverness' most prized assets – its SPL football club – has become embroiled in an essentially private squabble between two of the city's richest and most successful businessmen.

AT some point over the past decade dropping litter has ceased to be seen by many as an anti-social activity.

NEWS that a high quality development is being planned for the waterfront at South Kessock — including an impressively branded but as yet unspecified "iconic landmark building" — is welcome on two fronts.

INVERNESS Chamber of Commerce is facing the future with its first all-woman management team following the election of Jean Ramsay Smith to join chief executive Casia Zajac.

WHO says civil servants are underpaid? There are certainly a few former Highlands and Islands Enterprise staff sitting pretty after taking voluntary redundancy or early retirement packages as part of the organisation's enforced restructuring.

OVER the past couple of years the focus of Britain's fire brigades has switched from being a largely reactive service responding to emergency calls to also preventing incidents occurring.

IT is impossible to read the interview with Alisdair and Rhona Stewart about the death of their 16-year-old son Roddy and not be moved by their honesty and determination that some good should come of his tragic and wasteful death.

DRIVING in and out of Inverness is seemingly becoming more difficult by the day. All the main arteries are clogged at morning and evening rush hours and an incident anywhere in the city centre can bring the rest of the road network to a standstill.

LAST year The Inverness Courier questioned why Inverness Caley Thistle player Richie Hart was allowed to plead guilty by letter instead of appearing before the sheriff after admitting possession of cocaine at RockNess.

TODAY we highlight the sad death of a 17-year-old on the streets of Inverness.

THERE is broad agreement that the planning system in Scotland is in need of an overhaul. Just this week six organisations representing a wide cross section of business interests called for planning authorities to give more weight to the economic impact of proposed schemes.

THE best part of £6 million is currently being spent making the Inverness's Old Town more attractive to pedestrians.

IT would appear that councillors are about to let their hearts rule their heads and allow Highland League club Clachnacuddin more time to achieve financial stability.

IT is a story from which no-one emerges with any credit. Viewhill House in Inverness should be one of the architectural jewels of a city with few enough notable buildings, its position high above the River Ness ideal for a variety of uses.

THE idea of volunteers from Inverness churches patrolling the city's streets on Friday and Saturday nights to help clubgoers and defuse potentially violent situations was greeted with some scepticism.

AT the time opponents claimed it was a case of selling off the family silver, while those in favour insisted it enabled Raigmore Hospital to access the most up-to-date equipment. The truth, it would now appear, was somewhere in between.

HOSPITAL accident and emergency departments are increasingly violent places. Late at night staff and patients run the risk of verbal and sometimes physical abuse as drink-fuelled revellers arrive to be stitched up and put back together.

AN oft quoted statistic of the past few years has been that Inverness is Europe's fastest growing city. Quite how this conclusion is arrived at is unclear but, true or not, the fact remains that the Highland Capital has expanded rapidly over the past decade.

IT is hard to see how the timing could have been worse. Just days after announcing a series of highly controversial budget cuts affecting schools, charities and voluntary groups, Highland Council issued a press release announcing the start of work on a £167,000 project to illuminate the Ness Bridge in Inverness.

STAFF and users at the Janny's Hoose in Merkinch can breath more easily this morning with the news that the facility may not have to shut at the end of next month after all.

INVERNESS has already disappeared from the Scotland's local government map, subsumed to its detriment within Highland Council. Now it seems the Boundary Commission for Scotland wants to remove it from the national political landscape as well.

NO-ONE could accuse Highland Council's ruling Independent/SNP administration of taking the soft option when it came to drawing up its first budget.

NOW we have begun to get to grips with stopping the nation smoking and turning our attention to obesity, alcohol abuse must be the next big issue to have health chiefs scratching their heads for a solution.

KEVIN Dunion, the Scottish information commissioner, has said how important it will be to review which bodies are covered by freedom of information laws (FOI) and to take steps to ensure information rights follow where large sums of public spending are concerned.

OVER the past week Clachnacuddin Football Club's descent into debt has been revealed as a story of omission, incompetence and lack of leadership.

WHEN is a city not a city? According to the Lord Lyon, when it is subsumed within a larger local authority and has no direct say over its own affairs.

ANOTHER week and it looks like another big decision is looming for trustees of the Inverness Common Good Fund.

TODAY'S news that taxpayers, through the Highland Housing Alliance (HHA), helped housebuilder Tulloch to a quick profit on a parcel of land at Balvonie Braes is another example of a praiseworthy initiative being undermined by poor management and decision-making.

UNDOUBTEDLY the decision by councillors to approve Asda's plans for a 70,000 square feet superstore at Slackbuie is a popular one.

ON Saturday night almost twice as many people walked with blazing torches from Inverness city centre to the Kessock Bridge to watch the spectacular Highland Lights firework display as turned out for Liverpool's Capital of Culture launch event the following evening.

SINCE its contentious formation almost 14 years ago, the story of Inverness Caledonian Thistle has been one of steady progress and success.

IN principle the business improvement district (BID) being proposed for Inverness city centre, on which businesses will vote in March, has the potential to be a positive influence.

TWELVE years have passed and Labour has replaced the Conservatives in power, but there is still no appetite at Westminster for intervening to safeguard the Highlands' transport needs.

IT must be unique when former Inverness provosts join ranks to question just how the Inverness Common Good Fund is being spent.

SO now it is our fault. According to both Inverness Provost Bob Wynd and Highland 2007 director Fiona Hampton, one of the reasons why the city's Common Good Fund has had to find £250,000 to finance the Highland Lights spectacular on 12th January is that potential sponsors have been frightened off by negative media coverage of the Highland Year of Culture.

A DECISION was taken behind closed doors yesterday which raises a number of serious concerns about the use by councillors of Inverness's Common Good Fund.

TWENTY years ago the idea that a law abiding citizen would not be able to walk around Inverness without being captured on film and monitored by the authorities would have been considered ridiculous.

MAYOR Jack Tatooles comes across as the kind of guy who gets things done. The first citizen of Inverness, Illinois, is a Vietnam veteran and a successful attorney who has been re-elected to his almost too-perfect suburb of Chicago at every election since 1996.

THE scale of mismanagement in the commissioning of a new school at Inshes is slowly beginning to emerge.

THE saga of cut-price supermarket Aldi's attempts to build its first store in Inverness can, depending on your point of view, be seen either as validating the strength of local democracy or questioning the current decision-making process.

THE behaviour of teenagers is an issue frequently discussed by local councillors across Inverness and, no doubt, throughout the UK. And it was ever thus, with every generation bemoaning the drop in standards since their younger days.

TRAVEL to and from Inverness has been transformed over the past decade by the arrival of budget airlines at Dalcross.

THE SNP came to power in May with a promise to listen to the Scottish people and be responsive to their concerns. Indeed, its first few months in power were promising and the administration in Holyrood showed signs of following a distinctive political agenda.

ON the face of it the provisional agreement thrashed out nationally last week to freeze Council Tax is good news. It would provide some relief to hard pressed taxpayers, allow local authorities more flexibility in how they spend the money they receive from Holyrood and enable the SNP to fulfil an election pledge.

WE have often complained that Inverness does not show enough ambition, be it in seeking government support for transport improvements, putting together a strategy for developing its waterfront or in demanding quality from housebuilders.

OFFICIAL statistics may continue to label Merkinch as one of the most deprived areas of Scotland but the reality on the ground tells a different story.

THERE is an old joke in which a country yokel, when asked by a lost motorist how to get to a certain destination, replies: "Well, I wouldn't start from here."

BULLYING and harassment can be difficult issues to define, with perceptions varying from person to person.

JUST seven days ago we highlighted the renewed threat to flights between Inverness and Heathrow and the need for ministers to act. At that point it appeared the crunch would come early in the New Year when the increase in landing charges at Heathrow is finalised by the Civil Aviation Authority.

TWO small but significant developments this week bode well for the future of the Inverness economy. Both involve the creation of skilled, high value service sector jobs and suggest that the Highland Capital is beginning to develop the spread of industries seen in other, larger cities.

TEN years on and it appears nothing has changed. Inverness's critical air link to Heathrow is again under threat as an airline seeks to maximise the value of its increasingly expensive landing slots at the London hub.

IN its milder forms autism can be difficult to diagnose. It leaves no outward signs, has no immediately recognisable symptoms and sufferers are often unaware that their problems and inability to fit in are down to a specific condition.

SO the search for a location for Inverness's much-needed new museum and art gallery has come down to three sites, one of which is likely to emerge as favourite in the coming weeks.

IN its way, news today that the Scottish Government is being asked to fund an £8 million rail station close to Inverness Airport rather than a cheaper option is just as significant as last month's decision by the council to press for a road tunnel under the Caledonian Canal.

THE Home Office is notoriously tough in sticking to decisions when it comes to visas, illegal immigrants and any misdemeanours involving slightly dubious paperwork and entry into the UK.

AS The Inverness Courier went to press last night, the Communication Workers Union rejected the revised offer on the table from the Royal Mail during the latest 48 hour strike.

IT may have been the work of just one sad individual with a paint pot, but the racist graffiti daubed across the former lock-keeper's cottage in Fort Augustus sends a warning that we must remain vigilant at a time when Inverness's population is becoming increasingly multi-national.

SLOWLY but surely, smoking is being stripped of the glamorous image tobacco companies have spent decades, and tens of millions of pounds, building up.

THE old saying "if it aint broke, don't fix it" comes to mind today when considering the Scottish Government's reorganisation of the local enterprise network.

IN 2009 the Highland diaspora will be encouraged to visit our country under the Homecoming Scotland initiative and no doubt attention will focus on what drove their ancestors abroad in the first place.

SO now we know the consequences of voting the wrong way.

AT first glance, the latest crime statistics from Northern Constabulary make grim reading with assaults up 82.2 per cent, attempted murders up 180 per cent and drugs offences up 90.8 per cent year on year.

IN many ways Inverness is a city in name only. It lacks a host of things that other metropolitan areas take for granted as part of everyday life, not all of them good.

NEWS that a seven year old child has been reported to the Children's Panel for allegedly committing various acts of vandalism in the Hilton area throws an age old problem into fresh relief.

THE debate on the future of Inverness Castle is an ongoing and important one. It is our city's one iconic building yet it is out of bounds to the public unless they commit a misdemeanour, and then they are hardly likely to be marvelling at the view or admiring the architecture.

UNCERTAINTY currently surrounds the future of Highlands and Islands Enterprise as Scottish ministers assess its performance alongside that of its troubled sister organisation Scottish Enterprise.

TRADITION can be a double-edged sword. At best, it defines who we are and provides roots that allow us to grow and prosper. At worst, it can be a sheet anchor on progress, encouraging us to use the past as a reason not to move forward.

IN the current climate any discussion about the use of guns, particularly by young people, is bound to be emotive.

PUBLIC health minister Shona Robison displayed a soothing bedside manner when she visited the ailing patient that is Raigmore Hospital’s cancer unit this week.

FOOTBALL is an unforgiving game with a very fine line between success and failure.

IT is one issue that is guaranteed to generate a strong reaction on The Inverness Courier's letters page. The practice by Tesco of charging significantly less for petrol in Elgin than in Inverness.

DECIDING how to spend money from Inverness's Common Good Fund is always potentially controversial.

TWO news items this week throw into stark relief the lack of any effective, cohesive policy to reduce car use in Inverness.

AS chief executive of Inverness Chamber of Commerce, Simon Cole-Hamilton has never been afraid to speak his mind.

WITHIN weeks of taking power in Glenurquhart Road, the Independent/SNP administration reversed a decision to privatise several of the council's care homes for the elderly.

FOR the second weekend in succession, thousands of people left Bught Park in Inverness having enjoyed a thoroughly good day out.

THE region's political leaders must be wondering how they find themselves between a rock and a hard place this morning.

ON the face it, establishing a museum in Inverness dedicated to the Highland Clearances is an innovative idea.

THERE is little sign of compromise in the dispute which is threatening to close Inverness Airport.

AS a launch of the inaugural InvernessFest it could hardly have been bettered. The sun shone, the crowd was in party mood and Elton John pulled out all the stops to make the last concert of his British tour a success.

THE provost’s “vision” to move the court from Inverness Castle and change it into council offices and a chamber has received the thumbs down from The Inverness Courier’s website poll.

THE numbers of patients diagnosed with alcoholic liver disease have doubled in the Highlands and binge drinking is a growing problem which puts an extra strain on health services in the area.

THE provost's idea for turning the land currently occupied by Highland Council headquarters into a new cultural quarter, next to the newly revamped Eden Court Theatre, is a good one.

THE move by Highlands and Islands Enterprise to go back on its open doors policy and rely more on its internet reports can only be backward one. The issue about making more of its work public has always bubbled away in the background even in the days of its predecessor, the Highlands and Islands Development Board.

IT is rare indeed for a single company or individual to dominate both the front and back pages of this newspaper. Even more unusual for both stories to be entirely beneficial to our area.

TOMORROW a decision is to be taken which will have a major bearing on Inverness's transport links and on the way Scotland is governed.

COMPLETION of Inverness's southern by-pass within eight years is undoubtedly the outstanding feature, but the fact that Highland Council published a policy programme at all yesterday is equally significant.

ONE more teenager died and three others were seriously injured on our roads over the weekend, victims of a crash in which their car failed to negotiate a corner at Balvonie Braes and hit a tree.

CONFIRMATION that the ambitious scheme to build an environmental and visitor centre on the shore of the Moray Firth at South Kessock has been dropped is a serious blow to the community.

MOST new administrations enjoy a honeymoon period during which ministers can read up on their briefs and get their feet under the table. This is particularly true if they are heading towards a summer recess, as is the case with the Scottish Executive.

TODAY thousands of people will begin arriving in Inverness from across Britain and beyond to attend the RockNess Festival.

EARLIER this year a battle was fought, and seemingly won, to protect Inverness's political voice within Highland Council.

WITHIN the next couple of years the Inverness area could have two attractions ranked in the same league as the Grand Canyon, the Taj Mahal and the Great Wall of China.

MUCH has been made of the fact we stand at the beginning of a new political era in the Highlands with the council divided for the first time along party lines.

AS U-turns go, it was remarkably swift. Four days after introducing a one way traffic system in Ness Walk as a precursor to more dramatic parking restrictions and streetworks next year, Highland Council yesterday announced it was abandoning the idea, at least for the time being.

IT is somewhat ironic that at a time Inverness is expanding and developing as a city, it is having to fight tooth and nail to hang onto its voice within Highland Council.

IT all went to script yesterday as Sandy Park and Jean Urquhart were elected to the top two positions on Highland Council.

WHILE at Holyrood the SNP prepares to govern with a wafer thin majority, notwithstanding support from the Greens, in Inverness the party suddenly appears to be more comfortably placed.

HIGHLAND Council planning official Nicola Drummond did more than show her disdain for a forthcoming public consultation exercise when she sent an e-mail to her colleague Colin MacKenzie on 21st November last year.

FIVE days on from the elections and still it is not clear how we are to be governed, nationally or locally.

TO what extent should businesses be expected to have a social conscience in our era of tightening margins and efficiency savings?

WHATEVER happens at the polling stations, we will awake to an altered political landscape on Friday morning.

AS if Thursday’s elections were not complicated enough, with a combined parliamentary and local authority vote and proportional representation being used f