Scotland: National Rural Network
The 7th annual Scottish Tourism Week returns this year between the 6th and 13th March in locations across Scotland.
Uniting the private, public and elected sector, it's aims are to promote and increase tourism across Scotland by devloping a positive and unified agenda.
This years theme is 'Competing for Growth' and aims to raise awareness of Scotland's most sustainable industry, which despite the economic downturn and consumer caution, has shown relative resilience.
The week long events include:
The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) is calling on the public in remote communities across the UK to help them with a fact-finding review to find out more about the challenges facing consumers and businesses in these areas.
The OFT will be seeking to explore issues such as higher prices of goods and services in remote areas, access to key services such as shops, dentists and public transport, higher fuel prices and costly delivery charges when buying online.
An exciting series of Roadshows aimed at landowners is taking to the road this March. LandAlive!, run by Scottish Land & Estates, aims to engage landowners and members into taking positive action into the future, working together to have a better chance of achieving common goals.
The announcement by the Scottish Government of a new £6 million Scottish Land Fund, intended to help more rural communities buy their land, has been warmly welcomed by Scotland's community land owners.
Environment Minister Stewart Stevenson launched the fund – which will be delivered by Big Lottery Scotland and Highlands and Islands Enterprise - during a visit to Galson Estate which was today celebrating the fifth anniversary of its successful land buyout.
The range and diversity of rural networks in the UK and Ireland is explored in a report published today by the Carnegie UK Trust. The report entitled Rural Development Networks: a Mapping Exercise aims to understand the benefits of belonging to these networks and also the key challenges facing them in the current economic and political climate.
The future of rural development in Scotland will be the topic for discussion at a seminar at The Gathering on Thursday 1 March at 2.30pm in the SECC in Glasgow. The event is organised by SCVO's Rural Team and is intended to encourage third sector and community groups to get more involved in the debate about the design of the new Scotland Rural Development Programme (SRDP) for 2012 to 2020.
Walking has been described as a 'near perfect form of exercise’ and over 50 percent of Scottish households agree. It’s free, accessible from your doorstep, easy to start and can be fitted into your daily routine. Paths for All supports a wide range of community health walk groups and workplaces across Scotland to make walking a daily and enjoyable activity suitable for everyone.
A LEADER Local Action Group in Portugal is currently seeking partners for a project on nature tourism. The project, coordinated by the ADERE LAG, already has three partners LAGs from Portugal and one from Spain.
The project description recognises that tourism can constitute a significant source of income for many farms to support their viability.
Main objectives of the project:
Two Shetland filling stations are offering cheaper fuel to their customers by cutting fuel duty early. The shops at Ollaberry and Hillswick in Northmavine have already introduced the government's fuel rebate, ahead of the 1st March deadline.
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