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.

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.