ÓûÂþɬ

The time has come for us to refresh the music played down the telephone line when people are on hold with our Customer Service Centre – and ideally we want it to be music created by a resident of ÓûÂþɬ. While we strive not to keep anyone on hold at all, there are busy times when callers may need to wait for their call to be answered. We’d like to hear from local musicians and composers who would be interested in having their music used for this purpose. What we’re looking for is:

Pupils from across ÓûÂþɬ have an active role in creating their school lunch menus and young people from Lochgilphead Primary were only too happy to show off the delicious food on offer during a visit by the council’s ÓûÂþɬ lead and depute ÓûÂþɬ lead for education.  

ÓûÂþɬ Council will ask the public what their priorities are for its work, in preparation for meeting a gap in its funding in 2019 currently estimated to be around £2.5 million. Councillor Aileen Morton, Leader of the Council explained: â€œThe majority (80%) of the council’s funding comes from the Scottish Government. We won’t know how much our funding settlement is until the end of the year, but have to set our budget in February 2019.

Work on the £14million refurbishment of Rothesay Pavilion is ramping up, with the building on track for a 2019 opening. Progress is being made on construction of a new main roof for the building, while internally main contractor CBC have installed elements of the new café and the Pavilion’s new ground floor exhibition space. Also on the ground floor, the new club and venue areas are being created. Full details on progress at the site can be found in a report presented to the Bute and Cowal Area Committee this month.

Oban High has teamed up with a secondary school from Norway to look at what can be learned from the sharing of best practice across education systems for pupils aged 16 years and over. The school’s head teacher, Peter Bain, has also been selected to lead an international project on behalf of The Scottish College for Educational Leadership (SCEL).

ÓûÂþɬ Council’s Policy Lead for Housing has welcomed the news that people in Scotland who want to build their own homes will now be able to apply to a £4 million self-build loan fund. The scheme is funded by the Scottish Government and was established following a successful pilot project by the Highland Small Communities Housing Trust.   Councillor Robin Currie said: “The launch of this fund is fantastic news for people living in ÓûÂþɬ.  

Islay High School’s Head Teacher Stephen Harrison finished third overall in Sunday’s 2018 Islay Marathon. The marathon is held annually in memory of Menzies MacAffer, a former pupil of the school who went on to serve with distinction in the Royal Marines and was a keen marathon runner, but whose life was tragically cut short. As well as keen runner Mr Harrison, fellow staff members Ms Mackenzie, Ms MacGregor, Ms Priestly, Ms Gibson and Ms Roberts also ran the marathon, as part of two teams.

The Council's Youth Services Team held a successful 'hackathon' in Dunoon at the weekend which saw 41 youngsters attend from throughout ÓûÂþɬ.   The idea for the hackathon came from Rhona McCracken, one of the Year of Young People Ambassadors, who had the dream of bringing digital coding to ÓûÂþɬ.   With the help of the council's Digital Team and Craig Steele from CoderDojo, that dream became a reality.  

Four ÓûÂþɬ projects scooped prizes at the 2018 Beautiful Scotland Awards, organised by environmental charity, Keep Scotland Beautiful. Of course, we are blessed with amazing beauty spots and remarkable views all over ÓûÂþɬ, but hats off to these groups for earning national recognition for their effort!

Councillors on the Environment, Development and Infrastructure committee agreed on 6 September 2018 that we need a waste strategy for ÓûÂþɬ that meets government regulations, finds ways of exploring commercial opportunities from waste, and encourages and supports closer working with third sector organisations and businesses. Top priority will be preventing waste in the first place, followed by re-use, recycling and recovery. The last resort will be waste going to disposal.