News.Scotland.Org

Parking fines are said to be dearer from now on to keep a check to the offenders and boost the revenue for the government. This rise is slated in order to reduce the illegal parking of vehicles and to meet the cost of staffs. This move might have come as a positive move to keep a check on the illegal parking incidents, but has sparked a fury among the motoring groups.

Opposition even came from the Edinburgh transport leaders and Association of British drivers who termed this rise as outrageous. Reports also suggest that this revised fine on illegal parking would apply across six local authority areas, Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Pert & Kinross and South Lanarkshire.  It is told that Parking fine revenue in Glasgow has increased one fifth to £5.5 mn which is substantially higher than last year. Edinburgh too showed a rise in the increase in parking fine revenues.

With the hike in the parking fines to £100, it seems the parking system will be the cash cow for the council with better salaries and perks for the staffs. On the contrary the outrageous transport leaders and car owners are left to bear this extra burden of such soaring fines. Now it has to be seen will this increase in parking fines comes  up as a smart move by the council or triggers more protest.

News Source : Scotsman

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Scotland is about to get a new walking route called as North highland way. This 114 mile walk way between John o’Groats in the east to Cape Wrath in the west will be one of the best hill walking route with tons of scenic views. It is expected that this new route will be one of the most beautiful walking routes in Scotland starting right at the tourism mecca of John o’ Groats.

The coastal landscape remains the splendid attraction of Caithness adding more charm to the walking trails. Well, it is learnt that walking has been an all time favourite event in Scotland which is enjoyed by both locals and tourists. Looking at figures we can see, these walking tours do contribute a lot to Scotland’s economy with £244 million contributed in the year 2007.

The interest for these walking tours has shown an increase in recent years with around 86 per cent of visitors taking walk trails as part of their holidays which show how people are liking this. Scotland being blessed with many picturesque and scenic outdoors do holds a variety of such areas which are perfect for walking tours any day.

And with the proposal of this new North highland way it seems tourists will surely love to explore this all new route,dotted with plenty of scenic sights.

New Source : Scotsman

Be free to talk more about this news in our Scotland news group section.

The wildlife and nature-based tourism has resulted to be one of the key revenue gainer for Scotland contributing over £400 million every year to Scotland’s economy. All credit goes to the picturesque outdoors and scenic landscape which attracts many nature lovers and activity enthusiasts to Scotland. The newly collected figures do shows an increase in the number of people turning out here for whale watching, angling, shooting and other outdoor sports.

The rivers, mountains, woods, plains, hill-sides all adds to the scenic charm of the country. Scotland’s natural bounty offers the best outdoors for a mix of sporting events. Every year loads of tourists do visit Scotland for enjoying its outdoors and natural charms. Figures suggests that over £200m is generated by activities like whale watching, wild-life tours and bird watching. Meanwhile country sports too contributes to the revenue by £130m a year. But hill-walking remained the top favourite outdoor activity among tourists, with one in every four visitor going for hill walks.

Meanwhile the claims from SNH reveals that, the natural environment sector plays a vital role in providing employment opportunities to over two lakh people and remains a key sector for the growth of Scotland. The government is also initiating more ideas to enhance the natural wealth of Scotland and attract more visitors.

News Source – Scotsman

Be free to talk more about this news in our Scotland news group section.

Lothian Buses has launched a new fleet of Airlink buses at the Edinburgh Airport and is said to be the highest-spec buses in the country. Passengers who are flying from the Edinburgh Airport can have a luxurious short trip before reaching the terminal. This £3 million fleet for the Airlink services is more than the standard fleet of vehicles and is priced at £200,000 each – £30,000.

Among the 75 new buses ordered in 2008 by Airlink, The 14 new fleet of buses are the best ever to be made. Although the expensive new buses are clean and emitting fewer particulates and less nitrous oxide, the managing director of Lothian Buses, Ian Craig say that they emit higher levels of carbon. He also added that the firm would be in a ‘good position’, if they invested in Hybrid and biofuel vehicles when it bought the new buses.

The main reason for the luxury buses to come into light is that due to the 28.7 percent of the passengers taking public transport thereby beating the target to 26 percent.

The new buses offer various luxurious exposures like:

• The “E-leather” upholstery- A recycled and environmentally friendly real-leather product with its claret and cream material has the perfect look and feel of pure leather.
• Provides electric sockets for charging laptops and phones
• To keep an eye on the luggage downstairs, CCTV is provided
• For a calming and mood enhancing effect, LED lights are put up that changes colour according to the time of the day and mood.
• To check emails on the 30-minute journey, free wi-fi is provided

Many fixtures and added provisions are still to come like screens that display information on stops and distance to arrival and important informations on the various hotels and tourist attractions that will add another £20,000 to the cost.

If you are a Glaswegian then this might be something really shocking for you, a recent survey has revealed that Glasgow is the second most unwelcoming city in the UK. Well, this news came at a time when Glasgow is gearing up for the Commonwealth Games. What all the reason might be, but its quite evident that the people of Glasgow are clueless and shocked as to how their city was described as unfriendly.

Meanwhile London leads the chart at first place with Aberdeen at seventh position along many other cities in the list. The survey was conducted on the basis of a poll which included 4000 adults across 30 cities, the result of the survey  were released to mark the start of the British Tourism Week. The reports also revealed that about 55% people thought that the British politeness was worse and about one in ten even came across a rude person.

Glaswegians though have denied the results which this survey showed and don’t agree to the fact that Glasgow is the second most unwelcoming city in the UK. But this survey has somehow proved to be a hit on the reputation of Glasgow, that too at a time when the city least expected anything like this to happen. Being the host of the Commonwealth games, Glasgow needs to be really watchful, and make sure the city is not tagged as an unwelcoming city in the UK.

News Source : Scotsman

Finally the new logo for the 2014 commonwealth games was launched amidst some chaos and fanfare.  It all started when the logo was found to be almost identical to the design created for the Common Guild 2007. Both the designs do had similarities which triggered a hullabaloo, with the game organisers claiming that the logo was an original piece of artwork.

Meanwhile Glasgow Tory MSP Bill Aitken said that he will be raising the issue with Games organisers due to the similarities among the two logos. The new logo has similarity with the old logo which raises a question on the originality of this new design. On other hand the game organisers strongly felt nothing to suspect regarding the logo, and it is well matched for the money paid for it.

Now it has to be seen that, what will be the fate of this new logo which has triggered a debate over its originality. Whatever the results might come, but all sport enthusiasts do hope this confusion won’t effect the preparations of the Glasgow 2014 games.

News Source :  Scotsman

For any lover of golf, here’s great news – the 2010 Open Championship at St.Andrews, the most storied and challenging course in Scotland- Golfing is just a few months away. One of golf’s four “Majors”, the Open Championship is the only one hosted outside of the United States. The Open is not tied to one course unlike the Masters and is conducted each year with a different classic course in England or Scotland.

Since 1990, the tournament has been here once in five years with Tiger Woods earning the winning trophy in 2000 and 2009. To be held on 15 to 18th of July, 2010, it is not alone the biggest golf event of the year in Scotland but also the biggest every five years with the most prestigious tournament coming to the most famous course in golf.

No destination quite like Scotland, for golfers and fans of the game to enjoy a great golfing holiday near the Old Course at St. Andrews in Fife, about a 30-mile drive north of Edinburgh. With hundreds of courses across the country, including some of the most famous in the world, there is no other more complete a golf destination than Scotland. With high roughs, unpredictable weather and world class competition, it will be very busy for all golf enthusiasts with loads of time to plan a fabulous Scotland tour.

The family of Sir Harry Lauder, one of the greatest entertainers and ambassador of Scotland is selling the memorabilia of the former. This rare collection of personal artefacts includes costumes and signed photograps, and cabin trunk.

Being an entertainer Sir Harry has travelled the world as a top entertainer and even became the first British performer to ever sell a million records. Expert in his art he not only was a entertainer but also wrote Roamin’ in the Gloamin’ and I Love a Lassie.

Reports have suggested that the sale will be held in Edinburgh today at the Shapes Auctioneers.

Scotrail has assured for regular operation of the trains amidst the 24-hour strike called by its workers here on Monday. Nine out of ten trains will run, making sure the commuters don’t face any problems to travel, says officials at Scotrails. Meanwhile the strike has been called over the issue of safety, even last month around 550 rail workers staged a 24-hour walkout and with today’s strike its second strike in a row in the past one month.

Reports have even suggested for another walk on March 13, whilst the core issue for all these strikes remains the passenger-staff safety and the ripping up of agreements dating back to 2001 that protect the safety-critical role of the guard on Scotrail trains. Anger can also be seen on the government agency transport Scotland which had backed the first Scotrail’s plan to run the service with drivers and ticket examiners, but without any conductors.

This anger between the workers and the management seems to continue with innocent passengers left to face the brunt of these regular rail strikes. Hope the unrest gets over soon and Scotts don’t have to face any further rail strikes in future.

News Source – BBC News