News round-up / Viking Energy funeral procession, booze extension rejected, SIC investments grow, longest drone flight, charities benefit
A “FUNERAL procession for all that will be lost if Viking Energy goes ahead as planned” is being held later this month at the Lang Kames.
The procession will take place on 28 September from midday in a protest against the proposed 103-turbine wind farm.
The ‘Lament for the Lang Kames’ walk is being organised by local environmental group Extinction Rebellion Shetland, which says “our home will be transformed into a massive wind farm thanks to decisions made by a small group of people”.
THE SCALLOWAY Hotel has failed in a bid to extend its licensed hours for six weeks during the upcoming Rugby World Cup.
The hotel had applied to sell alcohol from 8am to 11am between 20 September and 2 November, in addition to its current hours of 11am to 1am.
The Rugby World Cup is taking place in Japan and some matches are being shown at 8.15am UK time.
The Shetland area licensing board, however, refused the application at a meeting on Wednesday, with Lerwick councillor Cecil Smith casting the deciding vote.
THE VALUE of Shetland Islands Council’s investments rose by £21 million to around £362 million in the first four months of the financial year.
A warning, however, has been made that the political situation at Westminster could affect the market in the coming weeks and months.
Finance manager Jamie Manson told members of the policy and resources committee on Monday that fund manager Baillie Gifford outperformed its benchmark, with BlackRock close to its benchmark and Insight underperforming.
He said the value of investments rose initially by £17 million to £358 million from April to the end of June, but the indicative figure for the end of July was £362 million.
Manson, however, warned that Boris Johnson becoming prime minister in Westminster has impacted the financial markets, with Brexit also liable to affect matters too.
“Brace yourselves for a bit of volatility in the investments,” he said.
PAPA Stour has played a part in Britain’s longest commercial drone flight.
BP recently flow a drone from the island to the Clair platform west of Shetland in a 115-mile round trip to measure methane levels.
The oil giant said the gas has historically been hard to detect and measure.
A TOTAL of £15,000 was given to charities last year thanks to Shetland round of the Wood Foundation’s Youth and Philanthropy Initiative (YPI).
The YPI programme sees schoolchildren pick a charity and deliver a presentation about why it should receive £3,000.
Funding was given out locally last year to the Samaritans, Fishermen’s Mission, RVS, Shetland Rape Crisis and Whalsay Heritage Centre.
The schools which took part in 2018 were the Baltasound and Mid Yell junior high schools, Aith Junior High, Sandwick Junior High, Anderson High School, and Whalsay School.
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