North Mainland Notes 14.11.08

Voe Hall meeting

THE VOE Hall is an important part of the community and refurbishments over the years mean that it can cater for events of varying sizes. There is a cosy clubroom, spacious main hall and kitchen facilities and equipment of a high standard. The hall is used by a wide cross-section of the community, including parent and toddler groups, youth clubs and dance groups. Presently a young group of Voe folk are also honing their musical talents by holding their band practices in the hall – much to the delight of their parents and neighbours I’m sure!

Seriously though, hall facilities in Shetland really are second to none and committees have worked hard to ensure that they thrive. Part of what they provide is a social centre and meeting place for the entire community and this is especially important in rural communities. This takes a lot of volunteer effort and the Voe hall is keen to recruit new committee members and helpers to help with the day-to-day running of the hall. The annual general meeting will be held in the hall on Wednesday night at 7.30pm so if you live in the Voe area and feel you have some spare time to commit the hall please go along to the meeting.

Ollaberry supper dance

The Ollaberry dance group is holding a supper dance in the Ollaberry hall tomorrow night. The Cullivoe Dance Band will provide the music and the dance starts at 8pm. All dancing classes will be made especially welcome and folk can pay the £7 admission fee at the door. Bar facilities will be available so a responsible adult must accompany under-18s.

Eshaness quiz

The question master has prepared another selection of challenging questions for the monthly quiz at the Eshaness Community Centre. This will take place on Sunday night at 7.30pm and teams should contain a maximum of four people.

Kirk sale at Vidlin

The Nesting and Lunnasting Kirk sale will be held in the Vidlin Hall tonight at 7.30pm. The hall will be open this afternoon from 2pm to receive donations of goods. While I was writing this, I was remembering the auction sales I attended in Vidlin when I was a peerie lass. They always had the best bran tub and the best toffee!

Snow White almost sold out

Di Newbold has been in touch to say that Splinters’ Snow White pantomime in the Brae Hall next Friday night is now sold out and there is a waiting list for tickets. A few tickets remain for the performance next Saturday afternoon at 2pm, but if you’d like one you’ll need to be quick. Contact Di on (01595) 820283, or go along to the Brae Hall this Sunday between 2pm and 4.30pm.

Pennies for the Guy

On Guy Fawkes Night the Mossbank community gathered at the hall for the annual bonfire and firework display. Once again Mossbank Pyrotechnics pulled out all the stops and built a huge bonfire. They also entertained the large crowd by lighting up the sky with the firework display. The pyrotechnics and helpers raised £1,060 towards the fireworks by collecting door to door within the community. This is a terrific community achievement and a big thank you goes to all who donated. This year’s fireworks were sourced from a different supplier and did not have the wow factor of previous years but the community been assured that the wow would be back next year. Huge thanks to everyone whose help and support made it such an enjoyable evening for the whole community.

Mossbank fair success

The Christmas Fair, Car Boot and Sunday Teas day at Mossbank last Sunday was a big success. The event raised £521 towards the hall funds with a total of 21 tables offering lots of goodies for Christmas and some real bargains too. The Sunday teas were very popular and the general consensus was that the homebakes were superb!

North Mainland recycling

The North Mainland Recycling Centre is gearing up for Christmas with a wide range of Christmas goods including festive baskets. As well as the Christmas range, there is also a large selection of household goods and the lasses always welcome donations of goods. The centre, which occupies the former Nelson Smith print shop in Brae, is open three days per week: Monday nights 6-8pm; Tuesday 10am-12pm and 2pm-4pm; and Saturday 2-4pm. The shop will close for Christmas holidays on Saturday 13th December and will reopen in the New Year on Monday 12th January 2009.

Busy youth centre

The Brae Youth Centre provides a dedicated space for a variety of youth activities including a junior and senior youth club, rainbows and brownies and the parent and toddler group. The centre is run by a small but busy committee which has continual projects of improvement in place to ensure the Youth Centre remains an attractive venue for users. This year the committee plans to re-floor the TV room and form a play/barbeque area near the entrance to the building. Improvements will also be made to the grassed area at the rear car park where the junior youth club members will create a planted area. The committee also hopes to improve the car park, but this may have to wait until the following year.

The annual general meeting of the Brae Youth Centre will be held on Thursday night at 7.30pm in the centre and a general meeting will follow this. A good turnout of present committee members would be appreciated and the committee would also welcome new members.

Buffet supper

There will be a buffet and squad dance in the Sullom Hall tomorrow night. The buffet starts at 7.30pm and this will be followed by music from Country Rok and a raffle in aid of the CLAN 1,2,3 appeal. Tickets are priced at £10 and a few are still available from Addie Doull – phone (01806) 522284. Anyone who is unable to get along to the buffet can pay at the door for the dance.

Olnafirth fund-raising

The bairns of Olnafirth primary school in Voe have raised over £700 for cancer charities by taking part in sponsored events and dress-up days. This is a brilliant achievement and all 33 pupils should be very proud of themselves.

CLIC Sargent is the UK’s leading children’s cancer charity. The charity provides services and care professionals to look after children and young people with cancer as well as their families. Services are very much tailored to family needs. Every day in the UK, 10 families are told the devastating news that their child has cancer and pupils at Voe have been doing their bit to raise funds for CLIC Sargent. Last term the school took part in a sponsored readathon. During term-time pupils wrote an appraisal of every book teachers read to them or of books they had read for themselves. Each appraisal helped form the body of a caterpillar that eventually snaked along the corridor of the school. The sponsor money raised by the pupils formed a large part of the total sum.

At Hallowe’en pupils at Olnafirth usually dress up in spooky fancy dress, but this year they were also aware that 31st October was “Wear it Pink” day. “Wear it Pink” was a campaign by the Breast Cancer Campaign which dared everyone in the UK to make a difference by wearing an item of pink and donating £2 to help the fight against breast cancer. Many pupils took part in the pink challenge and parents donated to the Breast Cancer Campaign. The bairns also took part in the usual Hallowe’en activities including “dookin” for apples. Everyone at the school has really enjoyed the fund raising activities and principal teacher Madge Masterton is rightly proud of her pupils.

SRDP – rural priorities

During the first assessment round for rural priorities in the SRDP scheme, the Regional Proposal Assessment Committee (RPAC) awarded a total of £181,959 to cases from the Northern Isles. Shetland and Orkney are classified together as the Northern Isles, and the funding awarded represents eight cases from the isles. The second assessment round is now underway and the final assessment round will begin in December with RPAC meetings scheduled between 1st and 9th December.

The period of application for land based multi-annual agreements has been extended to maximise the chance for applicants to present proposals with a 1st January 2009 start date. It is proposed to hold the first assessment round for 2009 in late February 2009. This would mean the cut-off date for committed proposals would be 9th February and the cut-off date for scored proposals would be 16th February. Applicants will be able to include proposals with multi-annual agri-environment elements to be awarded and begin work in 2009.

It’s also worth noting that any proposal committed after the cutoff date will not go forward to that RPAC. However, it’s not guaranteed that all proposals committed by the cut-off date will be considered by that RPAC, as the time taken for a case officer to assess and score a proposal will vary, depending on the complexity of each proposal and any advice from other public bodies which may be required. For this reason, people are advised to get proposals in as soon as possible before the cut-off date.

Maree Hay