Filed under: General — Tags: Caithness, Marine Energy, Pentland Firth — at 2:26 pm
- I took part in a workshop to help develop a bid going in to UK Government for pilot project to roll out superfast broadband. The UK Government is currently seeking pilot proposals from across the UK. This is something we identified early in our Action Plan as a priority, and I’m pleased to say that both HIE and Highland Council are very supportive of the importance of better and faster IT Connectivity, both for existing local businesses with increasing data transfer requirements, and for any new businesses we will wish to attract to the area.
- I discussed with Highland Council colleagues the plans to take forward lessons from recent events at the Castle of Mey (marine energy) and from last week’s trip to Cumbria. Developing our onshore plan for marine energy is of particular relevance, and we will be pursuing this with colleagues from the Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment, who led the event at the Castle of Mey. The aim would be to develop a plan which helped to “de-risk” investment into this area. Tourism Resources Company is conducting a study on behalf of HIE into how future visitor accommodation needs might change based on the Dounreay decommissioning programme and the emerging opportunities in marine energy. A business survey is currently underway.
- I met with a local consultant gaining work contracts from marine energy developers. It was good to hear that contracts are now being let, and I am aware of several local companies securing contracts in the initial stages of Pentland Firth Round 1 consenting, stakeholder engagement etc. Last week saw both Pelamis Wave Power and Scottish Power Renewables commencing their respective community engagement work in the area, and I expect this to continue over the coming months.
- Further news was issued today from Dounreay Site Restoration Ltd regarding the timetable for the 182 job losses announced back in March. 102 posts are due to be lost this year, with a further 30 and 50 in the following two years. Also announced was a change to the date by which the decommissioning process will be completed. Reflecting the capped site budget the new date may be in the period 2032-2039 (as opposed to the current 2025), although it may contract again over the next 12 months as the site PBO competition progresses. The CNSRP focus will not change as a result of the changed date: the partners know that our key challenge is to seek diversified employment opportunities in the short and medium term. The partners’ joint commitment to focusing in particular on energy and business services remains.
Finally, Scottish Government is consulting on a paper produced by its Rural Development Council, on which Pat Buchanan from Dunbeath sits. Entitled Speak Up for Rural Scotland, it is the result of a request from Scottish Government Ministers to the RDC to help find out how best rural Scotland could contribute to sustainable economic growth. David Whiteford (Chairman of the North Highland Initiative) and I were lucky enough to be able to make presentations to the RDC last October as they were beginning to develop their thinking. This is an important piece of work, and the Scottish Government has said it will consider very seriously both the document and any comments they receive on it. You can access the document and comment at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2010/07/22091602/1
Filed under: General — Tags: Caithness — at 9:10 am
- Separate meetings last week with representatives of Caithness Solutions and the Babcock Dounreay Partnership as we continue to discuss opportunities to deliver socio-economic benefit through the PBO competition process at Dounreay.
- I also participated in a two-day visit to Cumbria along with representatives from NDA, HIE, Highland Council, DSRL, Chamber of Commerce, Dounreay Stakeholders’ Group and North Highland Initiative. We met with representatives from the Sellafield PBO (Nuclear Management Partners), Sellafield Site License Company (Sellafield Ltd) and area NDA staff and heard some very useful views on how socio-economics in the Sellafield Competition had been approached. We also met with representatives from Copeland Borough Council, Cumbria County Council and Britain’s Energy Coast, to hear about how the partnership approach was working in Cumbria. The impending removal of Regional development Agencies in England is currently causing great concern in Cumbria, particularly to the Energy Coast initiative, but we brought back a number of potentially useful action points.
Filed under: General — Tags: Caithness — at 9:23 am
- I discussed updated figures for the number of jobs being created in the area with colleagues at HIE – I am also discussing this with colleagues at the Highland Council and North Highland Regeneration Fund. The purpose of this is to identify as accurate a picture as possible for job creation over the past three years of pursuing the Caithness & North Sutherland Action Plan. It will also allow us to show which sectors and industries the jobs are being created in.
- I met with Rob McKinnon, the new General Manager at North Highland Products/ Mey Selections. Rob joins the company after a challenging couple of years for the Mey Selections brand, but under Danny Miller’s chairmanship they have survived the economic downturn and are looking to the future with some confidence. We discussed future plans for the brand itself, and agreed on the potential for shared brand values between Mey Selections and North Highland Tourism. There are a growing number of food and drink businesses in Caithness & North Sutherland, and we discussed how Mey Selections interacted with these companies both now and in the future.
Filed under: General — Tags: Caithness — at 3:59 pm
- I participated in a workshop at the Castle of Mey this week. Co-sponsored by the Scottish Government, Highland Council and HIE and led by The Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment, it focussed on an “onshore vision” for a marine energy industry in Caithness. In other words, to look at the infrastructure, resources and skills we will need to attract and support a new industry of this sort. Attendees included senior Scottish Government officials, Highland Council representatives, local organisations drawn from the CNSRP Advisory Board and representatives from marine energy companies. HRH The Duke of Rothesay joined the workshop for over an hour, discussing detailed issues with each of the small workshop groups formed on the day. I was part of the organising group for this event, and now look forward to helping gather our discussions into a format that can form the basis of concrete actions to increase our competitiveness in the marine energy sector.
- I continue to work with colleagues as Stage 2 of a workforce transition programme application goes forward next week to the European Programme Partnership in Inverness. This week I had a productive discussion with collegues from the NDA and DSRL on how the proposed programme can add value to the Dounreay site license company’s existing plans, and how DSRL can in turn add value to the proposal. Also some fairly detailed discussions on the most appropriate body to lead the application process from this point forward. We will agree this aspect early next week.
- I met CNSRP Chairman Sir Anthony Cleaver to discuss current work on our programme, and to review the agreed actions from our partners’ meeting in early July. We also met with colleagues from the Highland Council.
- Finally, as partners continue to develop Caithness/ north Sutherland propositions for potential inward investors I have had an initial discussion with a Caithness-born senior Lecturer at the University of Edinburgh who is working on an academic study of local identity in Caithness. In Caithness we often look admiringly across the water at Orkney and its very clear sense of identity – but do we have a local sense of identity in this area? We spoke in some detail of the links between times of economic transition and area identity, and agreed that his work might prove useful to us as we further refine what we can communicate of the distinctiveness of both Caithness and north Sutherland.
Filed under: General — Tags: Caithness — at 9:08 am
- I issued a summary of programme delivery priorities to partners today, and hope to agree this next week so that it can be communicated widely in the coming weeks as we set out our plans to deliver jobs over the coming months and years.
- I chaired a meeting of the Partnership’s IT connectivity group this week, at which we focused on the potential to deliver superfast broadband to this area. Both HIE and the Highland Council are closely involved in this, and Caithness Chamber of Commerce have agreed to lead a survey of businesses to demonstrate levels of demand for better digital connectivity.
- I attended a meeting with representatives from O’ Neill Europe. O’Neill operate the Coldwater Classic professional surfing event that generates so much good international publicity for Caithness each year. We discussed O’Neill’s forward strategy for the event, and ways in which Caithness could be made more attractive to event organisers. Events-based tourism is generally-agreed to be one of the best ways of deriving additional income in our area.
- I chaired a video-conferenced meeting with a representative of the major workforce transition programme just established in north Wales around the Wylfa and Trawsfynydd nuclear sites. The meeting included members of the workforce transition group brought together under the partnership’s umbrella. The issues faced there are very similar to our own, so it was very useful to hear about lessons being learned as we develop our own programme, which will be submitted for Stage 2 of its European funding process in mid August.
- I met with former HIE Chief Executive Sandy Cumming in his new role as Partnership Director for Offshore Energy at The Scottish Government. Duncan Mackay of The Crown Estate joined us to discuss the Pentland Firth project, and likely developments now that the second stage of the Scottish Government’s National Renewables Infrastructure Plan has been published (read it at http://www.scottish-enterprise.com/your-sector/energy/energy-background/energy-reports/~/media/publications/Energy%20Sector/National%20Renewables%20Infrastructure%20Plan%20Stage%202.ashx). The report gives little detail on potential developments for wave and tidal, but does give some useful pointers to help us develop our local plans for Scrabster harbour and other onshore infrastructure.