ROAD resurfacing works, which are part of the City Centre Streetscape Project, will begin on Monday and last for 5-10 days. Union Street and mid Church Street will be closed to all traffic.

Smoked salmon producer Strathaird Salmon is set to close its operation in Inverness with the loss of 354 city jobs.

STORE wars came to Inverness today as Aldi opened its new Friars Bridge supermarket.

STAGEOCACH has released this Friday’s replacement bus timetable as the one day strike by its drivers looks set go ahead.

EXTREME Scottish nationalism is being suggested as a possible reason for a 72.9 per cent rise in racist incidents in Inverness this year.

English people are bearing the brunt of racially aggravated crimes, including serious and minor assaults, with Polish migrants also being targeted, according to new figures released by Northern Constabulary.

CHIEF constable Ian Latimer will lead an internal investigation into Northern Constabulary's response times to emergency calls after complaints made by Inverness councillors.

MEASURES to improve flood-prone stretches of the A82 between Inverness and Drumnadrochit are being investigated after community leaders raised serious concerns.

THE union behind last week's one-day strike by Stagecoach drivers intends to take further industrial action on Friday — despite the latest move by the company to impose a 4.5 per cent pay rise on employees.

THE husband of an Inverness woman killed in the United Arab Emirates after being hit by a 4x4 in the street has described how the driver reversed over his wife.

BANS on the public consumption of alcohol have been approved for Avoch, Charleston, North Kessock and Munlochy. The bans will come into force on 28th November.

TWO fire crews from Inverness attended a fire at Wester Cairnglass Farm near Croy this afternoon.

THE owner of The Spice Malabar, 32A Church Street, Inverness has been fined £695 at the city’s Sheriff Court for failing to comply with food hygiene requirements.

A FIVE-star tourist attraction in Drumnadrochit predicts it could double its annual 250,000 plus visitors — if Loch Ness and the Great Glen were granted World Heritage status.

STAGECOACH is to implement an immediate 4.5 per cent pay rise for Inverness bus drivers from Monday.

INVERNESS'S area police commander is concerned about the number of crimes committed against children after newly-published figures reveal a worrying rise in cases.

CAMPAIGNERS fighting to save the Janny's Hoose healthy living centre in Merkinch yesterday won a temporary reprieve as Highland councillors gave them more time to find alternative funding.

TENANTS of council-owned flats in Merkinch are celebrating news of a £3 million modernisation programme.

AN Inverness mother is charging the council for the cost of a limousine to take youngsters from the city's Gaelic primary to their home in a battle over school transport.

CATRIONA Macdonald and her band will NOT be performing songs from her new album "Over the Moon" at Bogbain Farm tomorrow night, Saturday November 15th, or at Glenurquhart Hall on Sunday afternoon, November 16th.

FIRST it was a spat between Santa and Guy Fawkes on Bonfire Night — when Christmas lights flashed over Inverness in a test run for the real switch-on next week.

A MULTI-AGENCY group today launched a new initiative, which aims to enhance the cleanliness and safety of Inverness City Centre during the forthcoming Winter Festival, which runs from 20th November until 3rd January.

ALDI’S new store in Telford Street, Inverness, will be opened by Provost Jimmy Gray at 9am on Thursday next week, accompanied by pupils from St Joseph’s Primary School who will sing carols.

POLICE are clamping down on drivers who speed past Charleston Academy. Nine have been charged since the get tough policy began.

This follows concerns raised by Kinmylies Council that motorists were not sticking to the speed limit in the General Booth Road area that has a restriction of 20mph during school hours.

SIX new safety jobs have been created at Inverness Airport to deal with the increasing number of flights landing there.

A MEETING will be held next week to update the public on proposals for routing the Eastern/Inshes Section of the proposed Inverness Trunk Link Road, which will link the A96 at Smithton to General Booth Road, Torvean.

POLICE have been working with Culloden Academy today following intelligence that there may be people within the school grounds in possession of illegal substances.  

STAGECOACH has claimed that half of its bus drivers are working normally today despite strike action which has hit services in Inverness, Nairn and the Black Isle.

MORE than 1000 children were left without a bus to school this morning, after Stagecoach bus drivers walked out in a strike over pay and conditions.

FIVE people accused of assaulting the captain of Elgin City Football Club and his teammate in Inverness city centre have appeared in court.

EMERGENCY talks are expected to be held today after it emerged that the Janny's Hoose healthy living centre in Merkinch will be forced to close next March due to a lack of funds.

A RESPECTED Inverness businessman yesterday put up a riverside banner urging the public to think about the consequences of Inverness's proposed £11 million flood defence scheme — only to be ordered to remove it within three hours.

THE Earl of Cawdor wants the village of Cawdor to expand in line with Highland Council's A96 corridor development plan which identifies the community as suitable for long-term growth.

INVERNESS Castle and St Andrew's Cathedral are set to be the only buildings in Scotland — joining hundreds of famous monuments worldwide — to turn a shade of blue to mark World Diabetes Day on Friday.

A BUS strike by Stagecoach drivers, planned to go ahead today will hit school children across the area.

INVERNESS police are using tough new laws to crack down on city shops selling realistic-looking toy guns.

One Merkinch shopkeeper has already been charged and reported to the procurator fiscal for allegedly committing an offence contrary to the Violent Crime Reduction Act 2006 by selling a plastic BB gun which police say was a realistic imitation firearm.

AN Inverness head teacher has called for improved security after suffering vandalism costing up to £20,000.

IT would appear the last person to leave B&Q's old empty building in Inverness forgot to switch off the lights.

UP to 1000 crosses will be laid on war graves in Inverness ahead of Sunday's parade to remember the city's fallen servicemen and women.

A MAN has died in hospital following a three-vehicle accident on the A9 one mile south of Cromarty Bridge near the Culbokie turn-off at 7am this morning.

A SHORT story by a 10-year-old Crown Primary School pupil about the hatching of a baby sea monster saw him win a writing competition entered by 250 Inverness children.

FATHER Christmas gave his sleigh a test run over Inverness this week — totally stealing Guy Fawkes' thunder.

A MULTI-STOREY car park near Inverness Cathedral would be an ‘eyesore’, MP Danny Alexander said today.

FIFTY-THREE applicants have received a share of £388,649 from the first phase of the Highland 2007 Legacy programme.

PUPILS at Balloch Primary School are now able to show off their Eco School Green Flag which they were awarded in June. Left to right are pupils Rueben Green, Aiden MacDonald, Rebecca Bryden, Craig Robertson, James Macleod, Ainsley Macdonald and students from the Scottish School of Forestry.

RAIGMORE Primary School reopened this morning after a break in forced it to close on Tuesday.

RONNIE Watson of Nairn is to be presented with the freedom of the town by Highland Council in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the community.

THE UK's largest hotel and restaurant company — Whitbread — is planning a £9 million development at Loch Ness House Hotel.

PARENTS of children at primary schools throughout the Inverness area have been sent "urgent" letters after a stranger apparently tried to lure a young girl into his car.

AN Inverness flying school — which also operates pleasure and trial flights across the Highlands — is at the centre of an investigation by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).

WAYS of tackling the economic downturn in the region, including reviving the property market, will be the subject of further discussions involving Highland councillors and officials.

CREATING an exclusive Gaelic community on the outskirts of Inverness would not amount to language apartheid, an activist has insisted, before a meeting to discuss the proposal is held next month.

RESIDENTS in the Inverness Ness-side ward have the opportunity to question officials from Stagecoach about the area’s bus services on Thursday night.

COUNCILLORS today gave the go ahead for the development of more than 100 houses on farmland to the south of Ardersier.

A PUBLIC meeting will be held next week at which more details of the new care home in Inverness will be revealed.

A NEW purpose-built Millburn Academy - costing £26 million - opened its doors to staff and pupils today.

A LEADING trade union representative in Inverness, who has been fiercely critical of Highland Council during strike action, has been suspended from his job with the local authority.

HEALTH officials in the Highlands need to slash their spending by £36 million over next four years, with Raigmore Hospital likely to face the brunt of cuts.

MUSIC legend Van Morrison is to make a comeback in Inverness. The rock, soul and jazz veteran so enjoyed his sell-out shows at The Ironworks last year that he is making his only UK appearances of the year at the Inverness venue.

CRACKS were starting to show yesterday in Highland Council's plan to promote Gaelic across the region after calls to scrap bilingual signs were made for the second time.

HOUSING developers and Highland Council officials staged further discussions yesterday on potential affordable housing projects in Inverness in a bid to kick-start the property market.

A COUPLE accused of illegally downloading a computer game and then sharing it with others have won their David and Goliath fight against a London law firm.

POLICE are today trying to trace a missing 13-year-old boy. George Stewart (known as Geo) was last seen in the Anderson Street area of Inverness around tea time on Wednesday.

FORMER Inverness provost Bob Wynd has called for the new £40m planned Inverness prison to be built on the former Highland regional dump at the Longman industrial estate.

WITNESSES are still being sought following last night’s fatal crash on the A862 at Bunchrew, by Inverness.

BRITISH Telecom has agreed to retain 151 payphones proposed for removal in the Highlands. The reprieve was revealed by Highland Council Convener Sandy Park at today’s council meeting at Inverness.

HIGHLAND and Island Enterprise is being forced to make massive cuts in the number of community projects it supports following the SNP government's attack on its budget, Labour MSP Peter Peacock claimed today.

IT’S “business as usual” in Market Lane, Inverness, despite the collapse of a sewer there at the weekend.

RESIDENTS of the Telford Centre in Fort Augustus will be moved to Invernevis House in Fort William during £1.1m refurbishment, which begins next week.

THE Stagecoach Bluebird strike scheduled to take place tomorrow (Thursday) has been cancelled.

KEY players from all sectors with an interest in Highland housing issues emerged optimistic from the seminar held in Inverness today on the Highland housing crisis during the credit crunch.

THE heartbroken family of a 24-year-old Inverness woman who lost a brave life-long battle to cystic fibrosis have spoken of how they lived in hope of doctors finding a cure.

CAMPAIGNERS who fought to save a historic building in Inverness from demolition seven years ago have reformed in a fresh bid to save the threatened property once again.

A SCHEME to safeguard more than 1000 properties in Inverness from the threat of flooding is being estimated to cost in the region of £11 million, new plans reveal.

LUFTHANSA airlines will be running a Saturday only service from Inverness Airport to Dusseldorf in Germany from 20th June to 12th September, for a trial period.

A PLANNING application is expected to be submitted soon to expand a camping and caravan site outside Beauly which is at the centre of a wrangle between the new owner and Highland Council.

THE controversial practice of parking lorry trailers on Longman Drive has resumed, only a week after a man was killed in a road accident.

AN 18-year-old of south-east Asian origin appeared in Inverness Sheriff Court yesterday charged in connection with the discovery of a cannabis "factory" in Drumnadrochit.

CALLS have been made for a multi-storey car park to be built on the western side of the River Ness to deal with the high demand for parking in the area.

TWENTY-FOUR charities operating in the Inverness area are each to receive £100 from the first Winter Festival to be held in Inverness, through the introduction of a giant advent calendar, which will be projected on to the walls of the Inverness Museum and Art Gallery.

COUNCILLORS have agreed to spend £120,000 to update the play equipment at Bellfield Park, Inverness. Work will begin immediately.

COUNCILLORS are to consider spending £20,000 on equipment which will enable Highland Council meetings to be broadcast live on the internet.

POLICE are seeking witnesses after a woman who left her house to speak with a group of people who had gathered around her car was attacked.

PLANS to turn the car park at the side of St Andrew's Cathedral into a coach-only area have angered the church's provost.

The Very Reverend Alexander Gordon claims the proposals will directly impact on the congregation and members of the public attending the cathedral, who will have to park in the already congested Ardross Street.

SNP councillors are being criticised this week for bringing in an "unsavoury side" to politics in targeting the seats of two Inverness councillors — one seriously ill, the other under investigation — without their positions being vacant.

PRESSURE is growing for a new "justice campus" for Inverness following the announcement that the city's ageing and overcrowded prison is to be replaced.

AN evil killer who knifed his girlfriend and then tried to cover his tracks with the help of his mistress has been sentenced to 11 years in prison.

A CONTROVERSIAL new Scottish Gas policy asking customers, including the vulnerable and elderly, to delay heating boiler maintenance until after the winter is potentially dangerous, according to an Inverness MP.

A CASE will be made at a public inquiry next month for Inverness to have its own Holyrood constituency.

NORTHERN Constabulary and ACPOS (Association of Chief Police Officers Scotland) are highlighting the importance of road safety as the winter season approaches.

AWARD-WINNING public toilets in the city have been praised for their high-quality by the Loo of the Year awarding body.

THE Scottish Prison Service (SPS) has announced plans to replace Inverness prison with a new facility. Efforts have now begun to identify and acquire a site.

"The characteristics of the existing prison sites do not support redevelopment alongside normal prison operations therefore new sites are required for the planned developments," a spokesman for the SPS said.

A KILLER was told to "rot in hell" by members of his victim’s family when he was jailed today for stabbing his girlfriend to death.

TWO vehicles were involved in a collision at the traffic lights between Tomnahurich Street and Kenneth Street in Inverness this morning.

PART of the Great Glen Way is to be closed from November until March 2009 for tree-felling to take place.

THE public is being asked to help Highland Council improve its library service by completing an audience development survey.

A LOCAL inquiry will be held in Inverness next month to examine proposed new boundaries for Scottish Parliament constituencies.

THE widow of Kevin Mykoliw who died in a tragic coach accident in Longman Drive has paid tribute to a "wonderful" husband and brilliant father.

Speaking yesterday at the family home in Neil Gunn Crescent, Inshes, Roslyn Mykoliw said she could not imagine life without her husband who leaves three children — Shannia (10), Kian (3) and seven-months-old Catlin.

HIGHLAND businesses have been warned after several companies received high-pressure sales calls requesting them to sponsor leaflets, booklets and other materials for their local schools.

HIGHLAND Council is to hold a credit crunch seminar next week to see what can be done to stimulate the housing market locally and ensure that the council meets targets for the provision of new private and affordable housing.

THE death of Kevin Mykoliw has prompted calls for a new, bigger lorry park to be urgently created in the Longman in a bid to improve road safety on the industrial estate.