Dark Skies Festival coming soon

Welcome to the first edition of the Wester Ross round-up 😄 This is a free email newsletter from the Gairloch Times that we aim to send out roughly weekly. It summarises all the news you need to know in a quick format with lots of links, so if you want to find out more about anything you can. Here's what we found this week:

⭐ The Wester Ross Dark Skies Festival is coming soon. The organisers have confirmed the planetarium will be back and visiting Lochcarron, Shieldaig, Ullapool and Poolewe as part of the event. They've put a final shout out for local businesses and communities to organise events as part of the festival. More on the Wester Ross Biosphere website.

🚽 Public toilets are closing everywhere. The toilets at Achnasheen recently closed for good. Further east still, another public toilet at Silverbridge has been closed for maintenance. Now, it looks as though the public toilets at Poolewe will also close on November 11, as Highland Council won't spend the pennies required. More on the Poolewe closure.

📍There are lots of consultations on local plans for the area. This could get confusing... In theory, once completed all these plans will help officials and councillors to decide on future planning applications. There is a first consultation open for the whole Wester Ross, Strathpeffer and Lochalsh ward "Area plan" - you can find out more it and submit views on the Engage Highland website.

Meanwhile the Wester Loch Ewe Trust are also consulting on the first draft of a Local Plan for their patch. Events are planned for people to have their say on October 23. More on their website.

And Gairloch Community Council are close to finalising the local plan for their area. You can find the latest draft of that plan here.

🥶 If you are worried about staying warm this winter, Warm Mondays at the Gairloch Community Hall are also starting up again from November 4. Organisers promise: "Soup, baking, chat and games." If winter utility bills are unmanagable, local MSP Maree Todd is hosting a fuel poverty advice surgery at Gairloch Museum on Tuesday 22nd October, 1-3pm.

🐑 Help for crofters - If you have animals the Farm Advisory Service are running a series of events to help crofters understand what they need to be able to access new government support payments from 2025. The nearest event is in the Dornie Community Hall on November 5.

Do you know of something that should be in our next round-up. Contact us to let us know.

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