News.Scotland.Org

Sea fareres can adventure on Oban waters by taking a boat trip. Oban a town in Scotland, has beautiful scenery that can be enjoyed on a trip in boat. You can spot all sorts of birds, sea mammals and wildlife which is otherwise not possible from the land.  

If you take the boat tour in any particular season, you will come across rare species of birds and mammals. There are various tours from Oban, taking visitors on a journey round the Argyll waters, where they have the chance to spot all sorts of wildlife. If you are happen to be around in a place called Easdale, a point 13 miles south of Oban, here the main thrust of the business is to take wildlife tours down to the gulf of Corry reckan, which is home to the world’s third largest whirlpool.

And as most tours are taken place from spring to early winter, visitors get the chance to spot all sorts of different animals through the seasons – as well as the spectacular whirlpools which are created by the tides in the early part of the year.

The whole area of Argyll waters comes under European special area of conservation and this is one of the main reason that the visitors enjoy fresh and good seafood.

This is called complete democracy. The government is asking the opinion of people before building a bridge in the city. It is something new and haven’t heard before.

The people in Perth are being asked to vote for their favourite design of a new bridge to be built across the River Tay. So, the public will have a three weeks time from Friday to comment and vote on the plans. This bridge, which will span the river from the North Inch to Isla Road at Upper Springlands,is for pedestrians and cycle riders.

The bridge project which will cost about a multi-million pound was announced in December 2007. The project is expected complete by 2011. The bridge have received £1.25m from the Big Lottery Fund. This money also will be used to make improvements to local walking and cycling routes in Perth.

Once the public opinions are drawn, the next stage in the process will involve more detailed plans being drawn up and an investigation of the proposed site will take place. It is expected that the building work will take about six and eight months to complete.

Council leader Ian Miller said that it was important for the people of Perth to get involved in the decision making process of the bridge design.

People can vote for their favourite plans on the Perth and Kinross website, or request paper copies from the council. The consultation is open until midnight on 3 September.

The Connect2 project is a partnership between the transport partnership Tactran and the transport charity Sustrans.

News Courtesy: BBC

This year(2010) Cairngorms Farmers Market is set to conduct events every month at different locations, mostly at the Square. It is a full day event featuring all the local farm produces and crafts.

In 2010, the Cairngorms Farmers Market will be held on 12 & 28 August,3 October, 13 November and 4 December at the Square. The Cairngorms Farmers Market will feature a group of quality local food and craft producers from within the Cairngorms National Park and its environs. In addition to the beef and lamb there are also a range of other fresh farm products available including, smoked brown trout, vegetables, home-baking, ice cream, preserves and eggs.

The variety of quality crafts made by craftspeople who offer their own unique products are exhibited at the event. A wealth of pottery, candles, soaps, hand crafted cards, home decorations, jewellery, furniture and decorative items made from wood are also displayed and for sale. You can shop and get some holiday presents as well from here.

From the locals you can get methods or techniques of production, optimum cooking times and recipes, animal husbandry and vegetable production, maintaining the beauty of the landscape and a host of other topics. There is no question they won’t or can’t answer!

The Cairngorms Farmers Market in 2010 will be holding regular markets in Aviemore and Grantown on Spey as well as attending events across the Cairngorms National Park. Try to be a part of the event!

As part of the local authority’s plans to raise the profile of events, Edinburgh Festival-goers may be asked to pay a bed tax for every night spent in the capital’s hotels.

With this Edinburgh City will become the first in the UK to charge the levy that could potentially earn it £3.2 million for advertising, branding and marketing the city. Some of the funds raised would be spent on the maintenance of its World Heritage Site status. Guests staying in larger hotels are expected to pay the 2% fee, also known as a transient guest tax, on top of their room and VAT charges in Edinburgh City Council’s proposal to the Scottish Government’s Independent Budget Review. Last year there about 1.8 million people visited the festival.

The idea was first mooted in 2006, in the Scottish Arts Council’s Thundering Hooves report as a means of funding the capital’s festivals. The idea was given another boost by Edinburgh City Council leader Jenny Dawe in 2008, and MSP Margo MacDonald supports the idea. A 2% levy is in place in Vancouver and Montreal, while some American cities charge people as much as 9%.

However, there are rising fears also in place that it might hurt Edinburgh’s ability to compete with the likes of Dublin and Paris as a leading European destination. The future of the festivals depend on Edinburgh remaining as an attractive destination for visitors from home and abroad.

The proposal comes at a time when hotel room rates in most UK cities are falling. Latest figures from travel service show a 4% reduction in the cost of hotel rooms in both Edinburgh and Glasgow for the first half of the year. The average room rate in Edinburgh in 2009, was £91.87, making it cheaper than London, Manchester, Newcastle and Aberdeen. Meanwhile, Edinburgh streets were filled with more than 100,000 people to see the annual Edinburgh Festivals’ Cavalcade yesterday.

News Source: BBC

The Glenuig Inn in Scotland developed on the ruins left by another building that has some historical importance, is now drawing attention of many visitors. The inn was constructed on a building burned down by government soldiers hunting Bonnie Prince Charlie.

The Glenuig Inn in Lochaber’s has been fitted with solar panels to heat water and makes greater use of daylight to illuminate rooms. Heat generated from cooling equipment is also recycled. The inn has built up around the shell of the original building which was burned down in 1746. Highlands and Island Enterprise (HIE) awarded £180,000 towards the refurbishment.

Inn boss Steve Macfarlane is excited and says that the revamp was ambitious. The story behind the old building is narrated as:” When the English soldiers chased Bonnie Prince Charlie, who escaped their pursuit from nearby Loch Nan Uamh, the soldiers burned the building, destroying its thatched roof and leaving only its outer shell which has been used through the generations since.”

Although the remains of building should be preserved as part of the history, the inn owners have made a feature of the original stonework inside the inn. Now, as the inn takes over the place of the burned down building, the original stonework bears the marks of a remarkable history.

News Source: BBC

A study report by NHS Health Scotland found out that Scottish adults drink 25 per cent per head of population than those in England and Wales. The reason behind this is stated as there was a 70 per cent drop in alcohol’s relative cost.

The research analysis was based on the industry data of sales of pure alcohol per person,which averaged 12.2 litres of pure alcohol per person over the age of 18.

The 50.5 million litres of pure alcohol sold in Scotland last year was enough for every adult drinker to exceed the weekly consumption guidelines for men every week of the year.

The new figures come as the Scottish Government pushes for a minimum price for alcohol to tackle the country’s drink-related problems. The figure remained virtually static since 2005 and is equivalent to more than 537 pints of beer or 130 bottles of wine.

The Scotland Police is spending an amount of £3.56billion a year to solve the problems related to drunkards.  Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said it was now time for critics of the Scottish Government’s minimum pricing plans to “wake up” to the scale of the nation’s drink problem.

It has been learned that more than 20% of Scots who travel to different places or vacation do not buy insurance. A recent study shows that 40% of the Scottish travellers has suffered holiday upset owing to lost of luggage, cancellations of flight or for other reason.

All those who reported their woes had never bothered to shield themselves by getting enough insurance for the traveling venture. Of lately it was also noted that more 30% Scott travelers willing to travel this year again has not taken any insurance for their upcoming vacations.

Even Motorists are seem to be lagging behind in availing insurance cover, and many have suffered for not having control after they were found stranded on highways waiting for assistance.

Same goes with insuring their mobile phones, which is either replaced or broken since it does not covers insurance. The research found that nearly £190 million has been spent for mending or replacing lost mobile phones that does not cover by insurance.

This shows that most of the Scotts do no understand the importance of insurance and the ordeal of getting the lost baggage.

John Shepherd-Barron , the father of the modern automated teller machine, passed away at the age of 84 at a hospital in Inverness, Scotland.

I would always take money out of my bank on a Saturday morning. However, one Saturday I was one minute late and it was closed,” he told the London Guardian in 2007. “That night I started thinking there must be a better way to get cash when I wanted it.

The innovative thought of a workable cash vending machine struck him while taking a bath! He modeled his dream machine on a  chocolate vending machine which dispenses bar chocolates when money is put. After two years his idea took shape when the first ATM devised by him was installed at a branch  of Barclays in a north London suburb on June 27, 1967. As plastic bank cards had not been invented then,  special chemically coded checks were used in this machine. Customers needed to place the checks in a drawer and on  entering a personal identification number, a 10 Pound note would come out of a second drawer.

It is interesting to note that though Mr. Shepherd-Barron had originally planned to have a six digit personal identification number, it was cut short to 4 digit after his wife, Caroline, complained that she was finding it difficult to remember six digits.

According to the London Daily Telegraph, Mr. Shepherd-Barron did not patent his system and did not profited from his path breaking invention. However in the year 2004, he was awarded an Officer of the Order of the British Empire decoration for his services to banking. At present there are over 1.7 million ATMs around the world, which has made banking services a lot more simpler and enjoyable to millions of customers all over the world.

The Main Event 2010, the  only event in Scotland, dedicated to corporate events, hospitality and entertainment, will be bringing together some of the best event suppliers of Scotland at the SECC Glasgow on 11th  March from 9:30am – 5:30pm. Touted as one of the best B2B exhibitions in the whole of UK, this free event will attract not just entrepreneurs and business houses but fun loving families and groups as well who would be drawn by the entertainment options, stage shows and interactive sessions. Over 100 exhibitors are expected to participate in the show this year with many guest speaker sessions and special guests to make the exhibition a diverse experience.

Organized by QD events, SEC showcases the business events programmes and deals with many aspects of corporate team building and  merchandising, which would be tremendous use for the business houses in particular. The basic objective of this event is to unravel the latest trends in business world and to help you build the right connections with the best that Scotland has to offer.

The talk shows of special guests at the  MCL Theatre  will feature many renowned speakers  including Scotland’s own ‘Dragon’ fresh from the Den, Shaf Rasul, and T in the Park founder, Geoff Ellis who would share some of the best kept entrepreneurial secrets and success formulas from these self made luminaries from the business world apart from musical shows as well.

Scotiabank, the third largest bank in Canada in terms of deposits and market capitalization is all set to enter the banking market in Columbia for the first time after it bought the  Royal Bank of Scotland’s wholesale banking operation in Colombia. Royal Bank of Scotland grabbed headlines after having led a consortium that launched the world’s largest banking takeover, that of Dutch-based ABN Amro, before it was hit by the banking crisis, which in turn resulted in the bail out packages  from the British government.

Scotiabank, founded in 1832 in Halifax, Nova Scotia,ranks at number 120 on the Forbes Global 2000 listing. By the acquisition of the Royal Bank of Scotland , which is the largest banking group in Scotland, Scotiabank will ensure an overwhelming presence of Scotiabank in  Central and Latin American countries including  Mexico, Belize, El Salvador, and Panama.

The Colombian wholesale banking division of Scotiabank will be offering many services including deposit, loan and capital markets services to both corporate and commercial customers. In Latin America, it has a staff strength of over  31,870  members spread in 1,411 branches, kiosks and other offices and the operations are expected to contribute about 75$ million to its earnings . The acquisition of the wholesale banking operations in Columbia has had a positive effect on the shares of the Scotiabank, which ended 46 cents higher than its previous closing value.