Sir Walter Scott’s home to be transformed into a tourist attraction
Scotland is about to get a major tourist attraction soon with the transformation of the home of ‘Sir Walter Scott‘, in the Borders. The ‘Abbotsford House’ will get a makeover with the grant of £4.8m by the Heritage lottery fund. This project has seen lot of support and appreciation from all corners, Lord Sanderson, chairman of Abbotsford Trust said that, this project will create a legacy for one of the Scotland’s important son.
Sir Walter Scott was a Scottish historical novelist and poet, he was also the first English language author to get an international career in his life.
It was learnt that a new visitor centre, learning suite and exhibition area will also be constructed along with other repair works. This project will be one of the major tourist attractions with Sir Walter Scott being the person who lifted the Scottish identity at the global platform with his literary works.
This project will also draw lot of revenue for the Scotland tourism board being a world class tourist attraction.
Source : BBC News
Crime rate drops significantly in Tayside
Tayside is once again in the news, this time it’s for a good reason, the annual report of the force has shown that the crime rate in Tayside has dropped significantly. The drop is expected to be 12.5 per cent, which is the lowest level in a decade. This plunge in crime rate has come as a good sign for Tayside followed with a drop in the violence and robbery cases.
This was possible only because of the efforts put on by the dedicated and hardworking police force, who all were working really hard to achieve this goal. Along with local policing the police officials continued monitoring the cross-border drug enforcement, murder enquiries, missing person enquiries and many other cases. Keen study was conducted in each and every aspect, to curb the rise in crime rates.
It was noticed that, an overall decrease of 12.5 per cent crimes were reported, along with a drop of over 2000 victims of such crimes in Tayside. Other than that, violent crimes like, robbery and racist crimes also showed a substantial drop in this period. Vehicle crimes too showed a fall, which in all means came as a great achievement by the police.
Justine Curran, the force’s Chief Constable, expressed his happiness with this feat by his team and felt really pleased by the way things have turned around for Tayside. The fewer crimes and violence with high quality of local policing has made the place safe to live in.
Scots living an unhealthy life
A recent study has revealed that unhealthy living is almost universal in Scotland with more and more health hazards reported. This shocking report came after a Scottish health survey conducted by the University of Glasgow, which suggested that, health of everyone in Scotland seems to be at risk. Above all, the most common disease which was found in most of the people of richer community was smoking, drinking, poor diet, physical inactivity and obesity.
This eye opener results shows that about 97 per cent of Scottish people are having one or the other risk factors (smoking, drinking, poor diet, obesity amd physical inactivity), meanwhile 55 per cent have three or more such and 20 per cent with four or more risk factors. Many doctors and health experts and researchers expressed that heavy alcohol consumption, smoking and poor diet is making life of Scots unhealthy with vulnerability to many health hazards . The health woes doesn’t ends here, further reports by analyst shows that obesity is also another health issue which Scots are facing with two-third of the Scottish people affected with it.
With the health standards dropping among Scots, its the need of the hour to bring in some concrete plan to keep a check on the prevailing health issues among people along with a need to change the living style, and adapting a healthy life. It is evident that Scotland has got a top rate for deaths caused due to heart ailments and alcohol, and if the prevailing lifestyle among Scots remains the same, then the health issue will get more worse.
Online image archives on Glasgow life launched
In order to preserve the rich heritage and flavour of Glasgow an online archive has been launched which showcases the pictures of Glasgow from the past to the present day. This picture archives is a lottery funded project to capture and treasure the moods and life’s of the Glasgow city.
With people contributing pictures of the city and life, there is a wide choice of pictures in this online archives, from the family photos to the historic city. These images dates back to the by gone era when photography was taken seriously rather than for fun. With the launch exhibition currently showing at the Bridge arts centre in Easterhouse, volunteers have begun staging “scanning days”, to record selected vintage snaps for a growing website collection.
The pictures of the Glasgow family album features a variety of images dating back more than a century. From the pictures of a sepia-tinted world, grocery shops to women under antique hair driers. You can find pictures from every mood and shade, its the gallery which offers you pictures of all kind related to Glasgow.
This Glasgow family album was launched on a budget of £50,000, with a heritage lottery fund grant of £41,300 and from the Glasgow community planning partnership. The project has even asked for contribution from people via e-mail, so this archive is for people, of people and by people. Its a initiative to keep the historic glory of Glasgow alive in the form of the pictures which narrates the different tinge of this city from its past to the present day city. There is also option for people to put in their views and comments about the picture. Also each photo is registered and includes a caption for that particular snap.
You can find pictures dating two to three generation back in this archives which helps people to have a peek to the past of the city. Being online this archives remains safe and easy for people to easily go and check those images, also they can contribute by sending in their family pictures or other snaps.
News Source – Scotsman
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Glasgow Common Wealth Game 2014 logo triggers row
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