BBC Scotland today, has: Water bills in Scotland will rise by 8.7% in April – an average of £42 a year. The increase will take the average bill in Scotland to £532, which remains among the lowest of any water company in the UK. The rise – which works out at an average of about £3.50 extra a month – is in line with limits set by the independent economic regulator, the Water Industry Commission for Scotland (WICS). Average water bills in England and Wales rose by 26%, or £123 a year last April. The average last year in Scotland was £4901 … Continue reading Current water bills in Scotland not ‘AMONG the lowest’, BBC Scotland, but ‘THE lowest’ of any water company in the UK

The Herald yesterday had: Hospital visit fears as CalMac cut Cumbrae ferry sailings The Largs & Millport Weekly News had Ferry timetable changes will see regular maintenance times at intervals throughout the day – but fears have been expressed that the service interruptions will harm the fragile economy of the island. The ferry operator has cited safety as the reason for the proposed reduction in timetabled service from four per hour to three per hour. Three ferry crossings every hour for a population of 1 293? There are bus services to mainland villages far less frequent than that. How well … Continue reading Largs to Millport ferry, four times every hour, with capacity for 6 million passengers and three quarters of a million cars only used one eighth and one third of that capacity in 2024 – who pays for such generosity?

In the Guardian today: You get up and go to the loo, only to find the flush doesn’t work. You try the shower, except nothing comes out. You want a glass of water, but on turning the tap there is not a drop. Your day stumbles on, stripped of its essentials: no washing hands, no cleaning up the baby, neither tea nor coffee, no easy way to do the dishes or the laundry. Dirt accumulates; tempers fray. The water company texts: we are so sorry; colleagues are working to restore connection; everything should soon be normal. You want to believe … Continue reading As Tunbridge Wells runs dry, Motherwell looks well-watered for years to come in a country with 5.5 million litres of drinkable water per person, 40 times that in England

From the Shetland Times today: A second one-off payment of £30,000 has been made to vital charity Dogs Against Drugs by the Scottish government. This will help the cash-strapped charity to detect illegal substances which are brought to the isles as well as continue its important educational classes to Shetland schools. Who is bringing these illegal substances to the Shetlands? From the same source: “I think that if we didn’t have Dogs Against Drugs, then we could be really vulnerable to exploitation from our county lines gangs,” Mr Sewell told this newspaper recently. If you look at Inverness, anyone who’s … Continue reading English County Lines drug gangs make it to Shetland but Scottish Government pays for detection dogs