An Comunn Gàidhealach Publications > Sruth > Volume 1 > No. 33, 27 June 1968

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truth
SCOTLAND’S BI-LINGUAL NEWSPAPE
Newspaper of current Events in the Highlands,
the Islands and in Scotland
DI-ARDAOIN, 27 LATHA DE N OG-MHIOS 1968
THURSDAY, 27th JUNE 1968
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Highland Development Prospects
HIDB’s SECOND REPORT REVIVES RELIEFS IN FETERE
A new spirit and revived be¬
lief in prospeas for develop¬
ment is evident throughout the
Highlands according to the
Board’s second report for 1967.
Grants totalling more than
£400,000—a three-fold increase
over the 1966 figure of
£130,000 — were approved,
while loan approvals were over
£1,000,000, a 25 per cent in¬
crease over the total for 1966.
In 1967 the total amount
invested by developers in ap¬
proved projects amounted to
£1330,000. Since November
1965 the total investment from
public and private sectors
amounts to almost £5,000,000.
New ventures included an
optical frames factory, a pre¬
cision engineering unit and an
industrial joinery project. Ex¬
isting business helped included
tweed manufacture, boat-build¬
ing, heavy contracting, frozen
food processing, bacon curing,
mink farming, pig fattening,
fishing and fish processing, and
silica sand mining. Help was
provided for extensions and
improvements to hotels and
guest houses: new restaurants,
tearooms and snack-bars:
camping and caravan sites:
sailing and sea angling enter¬
prises and winter sports de¬
velopment.
The 311 projects which were
approved for financial help in
1967 are expected to provide
1,115 pobs. It is not possible
to estimate accurately how
many additional jobs will result
from the construction and ser¬
vicing of these enterprises
Industrial Promotion
The Board see it as their
clear and primary duty to in¬
duce more industrial enterprises
to establish themselves and to
expand in the region, states the
report. In all, 23 new manufac¬
turing enterprises have been
helped to set up in the region,
some of which were anraaed
from outside. Assistance had
also been approved for the ex¬
pansion of 28 existing manu¬
facturing firms. Of all the jobs
created as a result of Board
assistance one in four is :n
manufacturing.
Area Development Planning
The Board’s efforts to pro¬
mote large scale industrial de¬
velopment in the Moray Firth
Area continued in 1967, and it
is hoped that 1968 will mark
the beginning of a development
that will benefit the whole
region. In his foreword to the
report, the Chairman, Professor
Robert Grieve, states that, “Our
Moray Firth Development Pro¬
motion has brougnt national
consciousness to the point
where, as would have been
highly improbable two years
ago, Invergordon is regarded as
an inevitable site for major
industrial growth in Britain.”
A working party has been set
up to report on the develop¬
ment potential of Caitnness,
particularly the area within
daily travelling distance of Wick
"nd Thurso. A wider spread Cf
4 3 nverness
WOOLLEN MANUFACTURERS
DESIGNERS AND PRODUCERS OF EXCLUSIVE SPORTING AND
COUNTRY TWEEDS, HOSIERY AND HAND KNITTING YARNS,
TRAVEL RUGS AND TARTANS
FULL RANGE OF HIGH - CLASS KNITWEAR IN STOCK
CALL AND SEE THE COMPLETE PROCESS AT OUR FACTORIES.
WAREHOUSES OPEN TO THE PUBLIC MONDAY TO FRIDAY
8 a.m. to 12.30. 1.30 to 5 p.m. Saturday 8 a.m. to 12 Noon
JAMES PRINGLE LIMITED
HOLM WOOLLEN MILLS, INVERNESS
SKYE WOOLLEN MILLS, PORTREE, SKYE
Inverness 31042/3
Telephone Portree 89
industry is needed in Fort
Wilham and the Lochaber area
to provide jobs for women and
the growing number of school-
leavers, many of whom come
fiom families who have moved
into the area.
T ourism
After consultation with inter¬
ested organisations the Board
prepared their tourism develop¬
ment plan. Extensive research
has been carried out and a
strategy devised for each market
which it is aimed to develop.
Studies have also been made of
tourism promotion, accommo¬
dation requirements, informa¬
tion services and other facilities
for visitors. Based on this re¬
search the plan has four main
objectives—first, a lengthening
of the season; second, an in¬
creased amount of accommoda¬
tion and tourist knowledge of
where it can be obtained; third,
an improvement in hotel and
catering standards; and fourth,
an extension of tourist facilities
and better means of publicising
them. The Board have pro¬
ceeded . with their plans to
build five hotels in the High¬
lands and Islands and the West
Mainland. It is probable that
the first will be built at Craig-
nure in Mull.
Fishing and Agriculture
The Board have continued o
take steps to expand the fishing
industry in certain coastal
areas of the region. Since the
Board was set up a total of
£420,000 has been approved
for the purchase of 46 new and
second-hand boats. The fisher¬
ies development scheme which
provides for the building of 25
new boats by 1971 has proved
a great success. “We are very
pleasantly surprised by the suc¬
cess of this scheme,” Professor
Grieve said.
The importance of fish pro¬
cessing plants is not being over¬
looked and in addition to the
units at Westray, Stornoway
and Grimsay, Campbeltown is
also being investigated as a
possible site.
Financial assistance of
£117,452 by way of grant and
loan for 16 selected agricultural
and horticultural projects in¬
cluding a calf marketing scheme
for the Uists, intensive pig pro¬
duction units and marketing of
store lambs, was approved dur¬
ing the year. The Board feel
the wider availability of capital
would be the most effective
(Continued on Page Twelve)
The radio and TV services provided by the B.B.C. in the Highlands
and Islands may be the subject for complaint some of the time.
But by and large, without the B.B.C. Highland communities would
be socially worse off than they are. For the B.B.C. provides that
essential link with events outside. But not only outside, with its
local VHF programmes, the B.B.C. offers the chance for communities
to create their own common platform on the air. In our picture
is a typical B.B.C. correspondent, K. D. Smith of Lewis, in an equally
typical sctii .g: fishing craft at Stornoway.
See our feature in this issue.
ALEX. CAMERON & CO.
12-22 HIGH STREET
INVERNESS
Telephone 30081/82
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