Island Buy-Out

The 93,000 acre South Uist Estate has been purchased by the local community for GBP4.5M ($9.0M). The transaction incorporates virtually all of South Uist, Eriskay and Benbecula. The new owners intend to focus on various initiatives including affordable housing, renewable energy, drainage and coastal management. It is hoped that the buy-out will stabilise the population (currently 3000) which has dropped by 18pct over the past 20 years.


Scotland Subsidises American Bank's Glasgow Expansion

JP Morgan Chase has been awarded GBP3.0M ($6.0M) as an incentive to generate 200 new software development posts in Glasgow. Funding was provided under the Regional Selective Assistance Scheme through which similar grants have recently been paid to other major financial institutions such as Barclays Bank, HSBC and Morgan Stanley. These grants to very wealthy institutions have attracted criticism in some Scottish political circles.

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Labels: Scotland news

posted by Nigel Cole @ 8:38 AM  0 comments

• Latest statistics show that Scotland is becoming a safer place-as reflected in a 2005-6 murder rate at a 15 year low of 93 compared with 137 in 2004-5. The number of firearms related offences also fell.
• Two men from Aberdeen University died after being caught in exposed conditions in the Cairngorms. Temperatures had dropped to minus 20C (minus 4F).
• Big upsurge of immigration from Eastern Europe: Figures indicate that possibly 60,000 migrants from the new EU states have arrived in Scotland since their countries joined Europe two years ago.
• The Crook Inn, a 400 year old hostelry where Robert Burns wrote the Willie Wastle poem in 1792, has been acquired by a developer who is seeking permission to convert the inn into four separate properties. The development is being opposed by the local community. The Inn is used as a base by the Porteous Clan and receives many visitors from America.
  

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Labels: Scotland news

posted by Nigel Cole @ 5:32 AM  0 comments