50mph everywhere and GALE festive lights switch on

Hello and welcome to this weeks Wester Ross Round-up. This week this newsletter will arrive in 673 different inboxes, and most people will even open it! Welcome if you are new here 🙂 - and if you are reading this because some considerate soul forwarded it to you, you can sign-up to get it direct by clicking the button below.

🚘 This week the Scottish Government announced that it is consulting on plans to cut road accidents by lowering the national speed limit on all single carriageway roads from 60 mph to 50 mph, whilst also increasing speed limits for goods vehicles weighing more than 7.5 tonnes. What do you think of that idea? You can let the Scottish Government know here, and you can let us know in the comments.

👮‍♀️ The North Highland Division of Police Scotland are also urging people to take part in their annual "Your Police" survey, which will help set policing priorities for the area. If you are young enough to have a Young Scot card, then you can get free points for participating.

🦋 Arguably, one way to make our community safer would be for public bodies to stop posting on Elon Musk's X.com, where many long standing users now complain of unacceptable abuse, spam and disinformation. This week the Ross-Shire Journal wrote about how many Highland social media users, including politicians, journalists and activists had made the switch to BlueSky from x.com. You can find the Gairloch and District Times, Radio Wester Ross, The Ross-Shire Journal and Maree Todd MSP among them.

💊 Many locals will have noticed that the Gairloch pharmacy has been struggling with staffing issues lately, with the vital service sometimes unable to dispense medicines. If this affects you the busineess is posting updates on its Facebook page and is urging people to register for an sms alert service.

A representative from the pharmacy will be present at a re-scheduled Gairloch Community Council meeting on December 16, in the Gairloch Community Hall loft room at 7.30pm.

🆘 Entirely coincidentally (one hopes) Gairloch Community Council is also looking to gauge whether there's any local interest in setting up a community first responder scheme. Email the community council if you are interested.

🎄 Turning to more festive news, on November 30, there will be a festive market at Poolewe Village Hall from 11am. On December 2 at 4pm, GALE are turning on the Christmas Trees. There will be nibbles and drinks and possibly a polar bear. And for those of you who fancy singing some carols, Gairloch Museum have you covered on December 18.

🍗 Also, the Myrtle Bank are taking pre-Christmas meal bookings.

🎻 Tickets go on sale for the New Year's Day Hoolie in Poolewe on November 30th from 4pm.

🐟 And lastly, several local organisations including Dundonnell Estate, Ullapool Sea Savers and Dry Island are among a coalition of 54 organisations that have signed an open letter addressed to Mairi Gougeon MSP, the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and Islands, calling for tougher regulation of open-cage salmon farming. You can read the letter here.

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