UNTIL a couple of years ago, Glenurquhart Road in Inverness was one of the last council headquarters in Britain run by Independent politicians.

WITH the subject of the Inverness by-pass well and truly back on the agenda, not surprisingly the options for completing the western end are once again up for debate.

SLIPPED out without any great fanfare, the latest crime figures for Northern Constabulary's Inverness Area Command in fact tell a good news story.

IT is difficult to imagine any other part of Britain where, if one of the main public accesses to an internationally renowned tourist attraction was blocked off, something would not be done.

IT is difficult to think of another case in Scottish public life where the place a person lives has cost them their job.

ON Monday efforts to secure completion of the Inverness by-pass will take another step forward with the staging of a public forum.

NEWS today that Highlands and Islands Enterprise is seeking up to 40 voluntary redundancies is likely to mark the start of a much wider reduction in the region's public sector payroll.

PLANS to consult a Citizens Panel on what threatens to be one of the most savage round of cuts ever considered by Highland Council can either be seen as a bold experiment in democracy or an abrogation of responsibility by elected members.

NINE years ago a report by Audit Scotland for the Accounts Commission showed that closed-circuit television cameras had helped cut the cost of vandalism in Scotland.

YESTERDAY at Holyrood MSPs debated proposals which would allow councils to move statutory notices, such as road closures and applications for planning permission, from newspapers to the Internet.

THE nomination of Inverness for Scotland's Carbuncle Awards smacks of a publicity stunt.

LAST week our Build the By-Pass campaign revealed that a steering group set up by transport minister Stewart Stevenson to look at ways of completing the Inverness by-pass had met only once in nine months.

THE church is at the centre of many people's lives, acting as an anchor in the turmoil of the day-to-day and providing a supportive network of friends.

IN December 2008, the Scottish government made the misguided, and never satisfactorily explained decision to reject overwhelming calls to complete the Inverness by-pass.

IT is difficult not to feel sympathy for organisers of this year's Highland Housing Fair, or Scottish Housing Expo as it has been rebranded.

IT was no surprise when the Beauly Denny power line upgrade received the go ahead from ministers this week.

BALANCING the books at Highland Council was always going to be a difficult task this year. Over the past fortnight, it has become even harder.

SO that is it for 2009. Many will not be sorry to see the end of a year which has brought pay freezes, the loss of Strathaird Salmon, relegation for Caley Thistle and a decision by the Scottish Government not to build the Inverness by-pass.

THE country's tourist body is not backward at coming forward when it comes to announcing when visitor figures have increased, as well as telling us just how important tourists are to the economy of Inverness and the Highlands.

CROWN Primary was one of only a handful of schools open in Inverness yesterday, but on reflection staff may wish they had called a snow day as they found themselves at the centre of a row involving the local education authority, the city's MP and the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

ONE thing is certain. Yesterday's decision to allow Sainsbury's to build an out of town supermarket on the outskirts of Nairn will have a profound affect on the town. Whether it will be positive or negative is open to debate and may not become clear for several years.

THE laws of cause and effect are plain to see today as two of Inverness's leading drug dealers begin 12-year jail sentences while arrangements are made for the funerals of two more city addicts.

AS it stands, the proposal to postpone the tendering process for the first of the Highlands' five new care homes for the elderly simple calls for a three month delay to the £30 million project.

YOU have to wonder whether our councillors get it. In October we revealed that £90,000 of public money a year, or £350 every working day, is being spent supplying food and drink to Highland Council meetings. A substantial chunk of this goes on lunchtime buffets for committees and a free cooked meal for all 80 members attending the monthly full council meetings.

HAND hygiene - the new name for washing your hands - is currently to the fore at Raigmore Hospital as it attempts to reduce the spread of infections such as Clostridium difficile.

IT is a welcome change to be reporting on a proposed development for Inverness's eastern fringes which does not centre on yet more housing.

THE law places great emphasis on upholding the dignity of courts, their officials and processes.

TO lose a daughter to an accidental drug overdose is a hammer blow for any parent. To then agree to describe your loss in front of the media in the hope it will assist the police and other families must take a huge emotional effort.

HEALTH minister Nicola Sturgeon is expected to announce any day that the Scottish Government will attempt to set a minimum price for alcohol of about 45p per unit.

AT a stroke yesterday, an official achieved what his bosses and politicians had conspicuously failed to do and defused the public storm gathering around Highland Council's social work department.

SHOULD old buildings be preserved in aspic, maintained as close to their original condition as possible, or ought they be allowed to evolve?

AS we predicted, the disciplining of Independent councillor Bill Clark for rebelling in a Highland Council vote has taken the lid off simmering discontent amongst some of his colleagues.

WHEN the Scottish Government was pushing its plans for Business Improvement Districts a couple of years ago, New York's Times Square was held up as the shining example of what could be achieved.

NEWS that Scottish and Southern Energy is planning a third hydro electric plant on the shores of Loch Ness means that the area is turning into one of Scotland's major powerhouses.

SINCE the collapse of Highland Council's SNP/Independent administration in the summer of 2008 after months of bickering and indiscipline, voting in the Glenurquhart Road chambers has become, well, predictable.

A HARMLESS way of drawing attention to the pirate themed Hallowe'en festivities on the Ness Islands, or an insensitive stunt which glamorises criminals in the Indian Ocean who this week kidnapped a British couple?

IT is difficult to understand why the Scottish Government thought it would be a good idea to allow its decision on the Beauly-Denny power line upgrade to leak out ahead of the formal announcement, which had been expected to be made in Inverness in a couple of weeks time.

THERE is no such thing as a free lunch, or so the saying goes. Well, apparently there is if you are a Highland councillor.

SO Viewhill House is to go, another of Inverness's already small stock of important old buildings to fall under the wrecker's ball.

AS priorities go, paying the council tax is never going to be top of the list, but it is essential income for front line services.

IT is a fascinating thought that, in 1988, Inverness airport was linked to Heathrow with an average of more than three daily flights.
More than 20 years later, there are no direct links with Heathrow, which, as a major international hub is the UK’s arrival point for many passengers from overseas and also provides connections to onward international destinations.

A GREATER proportion of people in the Highlands buy goods on the internet, we are told, than anywhere else in Britain. That will be particularly true over the coming weeks as Christmas approaches.

BUILDING a replacement for the overcrowded Porterfield Prison in Inverness is becoming ever more urgent.

IT may never be known why three elderly people drove onto a level crossing in Halkirk in front of the 10.38am train from Inverness to Wick.

THERE is no doubt that Inverness children are being poorly served by the health board in the field of eye screening.

THERE is a direct correlation between the shedding of senior staff by local authorities and government agencies and the increased use of consultants.

IT may be serious crime that most often hits the headlines, but for most people the drip-drip affect of low level anti-social behaviour is what really hits their quality of life.

APART from still not being able to reach Glasgow Airport by train, we still wait to see how yesterday's Scottish Government budget statement will be felt in Inverness.

IT is one of those subjects on which it is difficult not to have an opinion.

INVERNESS has a rich and varied history, some of it well known and celebrated, other chapters remaining in the shadows.

JUST when Asda thought it had cleared all the obstacles in the way of establishing its first store in Inverness, another brick wall appears to have been placed in its path.

THE agreement struck this week with Asda would seem to vindicate Highland Council's decision to play hard ball over road improvements around the retailer's planned new store at Slackbuie.

THE saga of where Inverness's much-needed university campus should be built is set to take another twist this week.

BLACK smoke hung over Inverness on Tuesday when fire broke out in a store at M & H Carriers on Carsegate Road.

EVERYONE agrees that the place of safety unit at Beechwood House in Inverness fulfils a valuable, even life-saving role.

INCREASING pressure is being heaped on Highland Council to cave in and abandon attempts to squeeze money out of Asda for road improvements around its planned new store at Slackbuie.

COUNCIL officials have made no secret of the fact that the next few years will be amongst the toughest they have ever faced, with a widening gap appearing between shrinking budgets and a growing demand for services.

WE have commented before that Loch Ness remains an under utilised asset.

EVERY community has its unsung heroes who contribute their time and talents to making life better without any desire for recognition or reward.

THERE is no doubt that incidents falling under the heading of Hate Crime can be nasty, pernicious, small-minded and distressing to the victim.

SCHEDULED air services to a European hub airport have long been seen as something of a holy grail for Inverness.

DRUG addiction is a growing problem in Inverness, snuffing out an increasing number of young lives and having a knock-on effect on crime as users seek ways to feed their habit.

MIXED signals continue to emerge about the state of the Highland economy.

THERE is no doubt that the approval by ministers of plans for an Asda supermarket at Slackbuie will be met with broad approval in Inverness.

THE saga of Viewhill House brings no credit on anyone involved. One of Inverness's finest private homes, given added importance by its links to the engineer Joseph Mitchell, it has been lying empty for the best part of a decade.

TODAY we reveal the true cost — so far, that is — of the controversial Streetscape project.

TODAY we report on the challenges facing Inverness Business Improvement District (BID) as it tries to go about its job of creating a clear vision of how to make the city centre more vibrant for both locals and visitors and highlight and resolve issues for businesses that trade here.

WE welcome news that Inverness's most prominent and beautiful feature — the River Ness — is to get a deep clean for the first time in three years or so.

TODAY we reveal the grim news from Inverness businesses that trading conditions are tougher now than six months ago.

THERE is no doubt that the creation of a University of the Highlands and Islands with a central campus in Inverness will be one of the most significant developments the city has seen for at least half a century.

FIFTY years after the first hydro electric boom in the Highlands, it seems we could be in for another spate of dam building.

TODAY we report on the threat which is facing Cameron House — a vital service in Inverness for people with dementia.

THE Treasury's decision not to recompense charities for losses incurred in the collapse of Icelandic bank Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander has shocked officials at Highland Hospice.

ONE error of judgement concerning a major planning application is unfortunate, but there are now three incidents which call into question the quality of decision making within Highland Council's planning department.

MUCH is made of the need to improve Inverness's transport connections, and there is no doubt that the A9, A96 and the main rail line south all require upgrading.

READING the findings of the internal inquiry into Highlands and Islands Enterprise's contracts affair, it is difficult to know what to make of them.

GATHER 35,000 people together in one place for a weekend of music and it is inevitable that drugs will also be present.

WHEN does a laudable healthy eating initiative overstep the mark and become a heavy handed attempt to dictate how we live our lives?

IN these days of financial constraint it is important that public bodies such as local authorities and health boards obtain best value from their property holdings.

INVERNESS has relatively few famous sons and daughters. Macbeth perhaps, although history is a little hazy on him, and writers Josephine Tey, Alistair MacLean and Ali Smith are amongst the handful of nationally-known names that spring to mind.

HUGELY disappointing but not a disaster must be the verdict on Caley Thistle's final day relegation from the Scottish Premier League.

CROMARTY represented by the MSP for Fort William, Badenoch and Strathspey split arbitrarily down the middle. These are the two most glaring anomalies in the Boundary Commission's latest proposals for the area's new Holyrood constituencies.

IT is sad but not surprising that our admittedly unscientific straw poll on the streets of Inverness found no-one able to name a single Scottish Member of the European Parliament.

IT is difficult not to feel some sympathy for Deveron Homes.

IT undoubtedly has a ring to it. "Hate Free Highland" (or "Hate-Free Highland" if the organisers had been grammatically correct) is one of those rallying calls that no-one can fail to disagree with.

OUR religious leaders have been in the news this week, grabbing front page headlines in a way that is rare in our increasingly secular society.

DEMOCRACY can at times be difficult, expensive and inconvenient. But it is always worth the effort, because without scrutiny and accountability those who shape our lives and spend our money would be free to operate pretty much as they please.

THIS time last week few of us had heard of swine flu, or novel flu virus as the European Commission would have us call it, or indeed H1N1, the term used by the World Health Organisation which at least adds a dash of scientific gloss to the condition.

IT is not often that votes in local authority ward elections send a message to national government, but this is what happened in Inverness west last week.

DESPITE talk of rising crime rates in the Inverness area — an unwelcome but inevitable consequence of the city's rapid growth — Northern Constabulary still boasts a detection rate that is the envy of most British police forces.

THE traditional Highland sport of shinty is surviving, and in some areas thriving, against all the odds.

IT is disappointing today to have to report the demise of an established Inverness company, Ewen Gillies builders, which becomes the city's highest profile casualty so far of the economic downturn.

ALCOHOLISM and homelessness often go together and cross social and economic boundaries.

IT is worrying to learn that the Highland Hospice lost more than £600,000 — almost a quarter of its total cash reserves — in the Icelandic banking collapse towards the end of last year.

IT does indeed seem perverse, as Highland councillor John Finnie remarks today, that our legal system can impose curfews on adults but not on young vandals who might benefit most from such a brake on their behaviour.

WHAT are we to make of the survey findings, unveiled this week by SNP MSP Dave Thompson, of people's views on the stalled Inverness bypass?

DRUGS are most often perceived to be the scourge of the young, — experimented with and then discarded by many but used as a crutch by the vulnerable few.

THERE are a couple of reasons for hard-pressed traders in Inverness's Old Town to feel a little more optimistic this morning.

THE flow of depressing news appears unremitting, with every day bringing warnings of more job losses and store closures.

FROM the outset we warned that the Scottish Government's reform of Highlands and Islands Enterprise was a misguided attempt to impose a Central Belt solution on the agency.

STREET lighting is an unexpectedly hot topic at the moment. South of the border, the Highways Agency is considering switching off some motorway and trunk road lighting from midnight to 5am to save money and cut carbon emissions.

SO it is back to square one with the Inverness bypass. After almost a decade spent deciding how to cross the River Ness and Caledonian Canal, during which time a campaign was fought successfully to avoid the creation of a third swing bridge, it has emerged that the whole process is about to begin again.

AS we celebrate the anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth and the publication of his theories in The Origin of Species, it is ironic that the main memorial to the Scotsman who also advanced our knowledge of pre-history is coming under threat.

COMPLEMENTARY therapies are becoming an increasingly popular alternative to orthodox medicine. They offer remedies which are largely free from side effects and, in the case of specialisms such as acupuncture and osteopathy, are beginning to be embraced by the NHS.

MANY Highland schools contain asbestos. Indeed, school buildings of a certain age throughout the country included the substance as an insulating material and in every case it is perfectly safe so long as it remains undisturbed.

STEPPING out of Inverness railway station visitors are confronted by a main thoroughfare festooned with To Let signs, hardly an indicator of a vibrant city centre.

ON the face of it, yesterday's announcement by public health minister Shona Robison of more money to help Scotland's network of healthy living centres is good news for the Janny's Hoose in Merkinch.

EXPERTS agree that a child's early years are key to its development.

ONE of the highest rates of fuel tax in the EU, increased excise duty for larger vehicles, road tolls and congestion charges are all promoted by politicians as a means of persuading us out of our cars. Such financial disincentives are required, they insist, if targets for reducing carbon emissions and tackling climate change are to be met.

TODAY the apparent duplicity of the Scottish Government over its failure to support construction of the Inverness bypass is revealed.

ANYONE reading the news coming out of Inverness over the past few weeks could be forgiven for thinking the city was enjoying an economic boom, not coping with the onset of a worldwide recession.

UNDER cuts revealed in detail today, it appears that Highland Council is poised to force through its first compulsory redundancies for many years.

IN the coming days businesses in Inverness city centre will be receiving reminders to pay their annual fee to the new Business Improvement District, or BID.

BY ending its free collection of bulky household waste from 1st April, Highland Council is withdrawing a much valued service.

ONCE again, the Highland Housing Fair is sadly in the headlines for all the wrong reasons.

FURTHER proof yesterday that whatever the level, money talks in football.

WHEN is a national flag political? Even more controversially, what is the point at which a national flag becomes offensive?

THE state of NHS dentistry has been a embarrassment to governments on both sides of the border for years.

WHAT do the following have in common? The Baxters' Loch Ness Marathon, Blas Festival, Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival, The Outsider, Inverness Highland Games, the Drambuie Pursuit, Nairn Book and Arts Festival, the World Porridge Making Championship and the Scotland v Ireland shinty/hurling international.

WOOLWORTHS means something to almost everyone, whether it is a memory of buying sweets and toys there as a youngster, calling in for children's clothes, knowing it as the only place in the city centre to find a pair of gardening gloves or simply as a familiar red logo on the High Street.

THE Scottish government's wrong-headed decision not to fund the completion of the Inverness by-pass has far reaching effects beyond the obvious one of worsening congestion in the city centre.

AS a year draws to its close, there is traditionally a sense of optimism that the problems of the past 12 months can be left behind on a tide of renewed energy and hopeful resolutions.

LAST weekend an amazing 10,000 people made their way to Inverness's Ness Islands to see the beauty spot transformed into an illuminated wonderland.

IT is a problem not of its making, but Raigmore Hospital nevetheless has to find a way of managing car parking following the removal of parking charges next week.

TODAY we spell out the human and economic cost of the Scottish Government's decision not to complete the Inverness by-pass.

THE Christmas party season is a time of enjoyment for most. But for staff at Raigmore Hospital's accident and emergency department, it is one of the busiest times of the year as they deal with the consequences of over indulgence.

ON the face of it, the Highlands should be reasonably satisfied with the Scottish Government's plans for transport investment over the next 20 years.

IN these financially straitened times, consultants need work like everyone else and we should not begrudge them well thought out, publicly funded commissions. Indeed, as public bodies cut staff, outside expertise for one-off projects is likely to be required more often.

WHEN it comes to shaping the future development and appearance of our city, planners are probably the single most important group.

AT last Inverness has received some good news on the jobs front. Less than a fortnight after Strathaird Salmon announced its intention to pull out of the city, IT company Alchemy Plus has unveiled plans to locate a computing centre on reclaimed land close the new marina at Inverness Harbour.

OVER the next three days we are being offered the chance to forget the doom and gloom of the recession and let our hair down for free.

ON Friday night the cream of the Highlands and Islands tourism industry gathered at the Drumossie Hotel to reward its high achievers.

IT was only a matter of time before an Inverness company announced a significant number of job losses. After all, every day seems to bring another round of redundancies somewhere in Britain and the Highland Capital is not immune from the economic slowdown.

ACCORDING to a new survey for Barnardo's, 36 per cent of Scots believe that something has to be done to protect society from children, while 43 per cent think youngsters are beginning to behave like animals.

ONCE again, it seems civil servants in London need to be shaken out of their metropolitan parochialism.

WE have been here before, but this time the prospects for the Janny's Hoose in Merkinch look gloomy indeed.

FLOUTING planning rules may not be a criminal offence, but the effect is often just as serious.

HISTORY has shown that a language can be legislated out of existence — Gaelic very nearly disappeared as a result of being banned from schools and daily life for three centuries — but can similar methods be used to revive a tongue that is spoken by only a minority of the population?

WORDS like 'scary' do not usually appear in health board documents prepared by officials who prefer to hide stark realities behind meaningless phrases such as "collaborative working" within "integrated resource frameworks".

THE expected confirmation this afternoon that a new scheduled air service between Inverness and Dusseldorf will start next summer is a rare piece of good economic news.

THERE is no doubt that Inverness needs more parking for coaches.

BUSINESSES using the Longman Industrial Estate will be aware of the number of trailers and lorries parked on some of the area's wider roads and drivers of how they can hamper their view to exit safely.

IT was supposed to be the weekend when the Polish community thanked Invernessians for their welcome and hospitality.Dancers had flown in from Warsaw with their national costumes and Saturday shoppers were to be given a taste of eastern Europe. Unfortunately, things did not go as planned.

YESTERDAY we awoke to a changed world. We had all suddenly become bankers, with the government using our money to buy a majority stake in the Royal Bank of Scotland and sizeable chunk of what is soon to be the merged Lloyds/HBOS.

PROOF, if any were needed, is emerging that the chill blowing through the financial world is beginning to be felt in Inverness.

FOR 24 hours it appeared to be another Scottish Government policy that would be widely welcomed — like the abolition of prescription charges — and be very difficult for opposition politicians to challenge without appearing out of touch.

JUST when, after years of controversy, wrangling and ultimately postponement, the Highland Housing Fair appeared to be moving forward with renewed optimism, it today finds itself the subject of two investigations and more disquiet.

SOMETIMES what is not included in a document turns out to be more significant than what is. The Scottish Government last week published a report listing 52 schemes that could be granted National Development status, so allowing them to be fast-tracked through the planning process.

WE started the ball rolling last week with an article suggesting that Inverness could learn a lesson from Milan's success in excluding traffic from parts of the city centre to create pedestrian-friendly thoroughfares.

OVER the next few months we will discover the true cost of the freeze in Council Tax agreed earlier this year by the Scottish government and local authorities.

OUR major supermarkets work hard and spend millions of pounds on burnishing their public image, with teams of people dedicated to making us feel good about shopping at Tesco, Morrison, Asda and the rest.

AT £6 million, Inverness's Streetscape works are certainly a major investment in the city's Old Town, even if it does feel as if they have been going on for years with, as yet, little tangible gain.

AT last the decision has been taken to stage a Hogmanay event in Inverness. Not before time.

NEWS that the National Lottery has rejected an application for funding from the Janny's Hoose in Merkinch is both disappointing and puzzling.

TODAY world wide communication is just a mouse click away. A message posted on any one of the innumerable message boards or networking sites by someone sitting at a keyboard in Inverness can be read from anywhere in the world. Yet the writer feels as though they are chatting with friends and often behaves as such.

AS the world's most populous nation and potentially one of its most wealthy, China is an obvious target for western businesses seeking to open up new markets.

AT last more details are emerging from Glenurquhart Road about the mix up which saw 40 ex-councillors retain local authority-funded telephone lines in their homes for varying lengths of time after they retired, resigned or were voted out of office.

AS the dust settles on the Beijing Olympics, thoughts are turning to London 2012 and, closer to home, the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

AN officer's report to yesterday's meeting of Highland Council's audit and scrutiny committee makes extraordinary reading.

TOMORROW a whole range of services that we all take for granted will not be available in Inverness.

FOR the next eight-and-a-half days, an empty upstairs hall in Nairn's High Street will become the venue for a programme of films of which any arts cinema would be proud.

INEVITABLY it will be author Judy Westwater's comparison between youngsters in Inverness and their counterparts in South Africa's townships that attract the headlines.

FIGURES published today revealing the number of Northern Constabulary officers injured while on duty over the past five years contain mixed messages.

MARK Earle and his family can consider themselves lucky not to have awoken to find their house on fire last week. Residents living in Culduthel Road and Aird Avenue in Hilton have been similarly fortunate.

SO the battle has been joined. Independent Roddy Balfour is to stand for the post of Inverness Provost against the ruling administration's favoured candidate Jimmy Gray.

THERE seems no end to the death toll on the A9. A week ago a father and his granddaughter died near Dalwhinnie, then at the weekend two members of a Dutch family died when a pick up ploughed into their car and burst into flames at the Slochd. Two people in the truck were also killed.

IT has weathered a few storms since being conceived in 2005, but the Highland Housing Fair may now be facing its toughest challenge, and for once it is not of its own making.

TESCO'S decision to equalise petrol prices across the Inner Moray Firth has been a long time coming, but is welcome nonetheless.

IF any doubt remained that the chill winds of the worldwide credit crunch would blow through Inverness, it was dispelled yesterday with the announcement of 40 job losses at HBoS's business banking operation at Beechwood.

IT is pleasing and only right that the Inverness area is well represented in the list of grants awarded by organisers of the Homecoming Scotland 2009 initiative.

NEW figures show the number of crimes in the Inverness area have risen by more than eight per cent compared to this time last year.

THE funeral today of Inverness's third alleged murder victim in six months brings into sharp focus the problems facing us as a nation.

AS we are no doubt in the middle of a country-wide credit crunch, MPs did themselves a favour yesterday by voting against an above-inflation pay rise, in line with the prime minister's calls for restraint.

THERE will be many council tax payers who will be celebrating the demise of the SNP this week.

TWO things emerge from the callous murder of Joshua Mitchell, whose last moments were re-lived at the High Court in Glasgow this week.

GOVERNMENT ministers often seek to gain favourable headlines on visits to the provinces by announcing investments which, while they may be small beer on the national stage, make a big splash locally.

THIRTEEN months ago we predicted that the task of persuading Independent members of Highland Council to toe a party line would be like herding cats.

WITH another Inverness family today coming to terms with the loss of a loved one to an alleged murder, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that our city is becoming a more violent place.

CIVIL liberties have been at the top of the news agenda this week, with the government winning the vote on holding terrorist suspects for up to 42 days without charge by the skin of its teeth.

OVER the past few years Inverness has finally woken up to the fact that, in the River Ness, it has a wonderful asset.

DISREPUTE is a strong word and one that should be used sparingly. But after another decision which drives a fleet of supermarket delivery lorries through a local plan, there is a strong case for using it to describe the state of Highland Council's planning policies.

WHEN it was first announced in 2006, the prospect of a rock festival on the shores of Loch Ness at Dores divided the community.

BACK in the late 1990s, Highland councillors came up with a sensible and forward thinking idea. Realising that with the closure of the Glebe Street swimming pool they had a valuable riverside site on their hands, they would make developers dance to their tune.

UNDERAGE drinking has always been with us and no doubt will be for as long as alcohol remains part of everyday life.

IT is a service we may only use once or twice in our lives, but we need to know that if we dial 999 an ambulance will be ready to respond 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

LONG-awaited reforms were unveiled by Scottish ministers last year with the aim of speeding up the planning system and encouraging greater public involvement.

IT seems that council tenants in the Highlands are still being punished for voting the wrong way.

THE latest twists and turns in the Clachnacuddin saga leave us no clearer on whether the Highland League club has a long-term future.

TWO separate events this week reinforce the already overwhelming case for a change in the way the Scottish Government regards the Highlands.

ON Friday 28th October, 2005, The Inverness Courier's editorial, under the apt title of Déja Vu, said Eden Court's theatre director Colin Marr's worst fear was that history would repeat itself.

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.