A PROPOSED ban on drinking alcohol in public places in Newtonmore has been rejected by residents with one member of the village's watchdog describing it as an "affront to civil liberties".

HIGHLANDS and Islands Enterprise (HIE) has been heavily criticised by a Scottish Parliament committee for its financial management of the Cairngorm funicular railway.

A POTENTIALLY deadly hazard at a popular Strathspey beauty spot has now been highlighted thanks to signs put up by landowners Forestry Commission Scotland.

WORK has just started on Scottish Water's controversial £24 million project to create a new drinking water supply on the outskirts of Aviemore for over 10,000 people in the strath.

A CONCERNED tourist has raised the alarm over a dangerous ice diving hole in Loch Morlich - but had to contact the local MSP when police initially refused to act.

Retired Linda Beaton, (64), was visiting Glenmore over the weekend with a friend when she first noticed the hole.

THERE has been a guarded welcome from objectors to planners' recommendation that the largest housing development planned for Grantown in half-a-century should be rejected.

HEALTH campaigners have hit out at the lack of public consultation after nearly half of the beds at Kingussie's community hospital were removed without any warning.

HIGHLANDS and Islands Enterprise is expected to be lambasted for wasting taxpayers' money on the Cairn Gorm mountain railway in a report by the Scottish Parliament's public audit committee due to be published today (Wednesday).

A BIKER is still recovering in hospital after a horror smash at the A9 Granish junction by Aviemore last Tuesday evening.

POLICE have welcomed the sentences of more than three years each handed out to a trio of men caught in a £114,000 drugs bust in Aviemore.

A FIRST move has been made in a bid to abolish the controversial closed system at the top of the £20 million Cairngorm Mountain Railway.

Both Aviemore and Kincraig community councils have made official requests to CairnGorm Mountain Ltd, operators of the funicular, for the restriction to be removed.

TEN care staff face losing their jobs at the end of this week because a well-known Grantown care home has shut its doors for a major refurbishment and proposed expansion.

THE Cairngorm Mountain Rescue Team found themselves at full stretch on Saturday with three separate call-outs occurring in the Badenoch area within five hours.

THE energy giants behind the Beauly-Denny power line have said the impact in Badenoch will be very different in reality to that portrayed by the project's opponents.

A WORLD record attempt is being staged in the Cairngorms next week which should bring tears to the eyes of even the hardiest Hielander.

THE Tartan Army has said that plans are progressing well to make their third gathering in Aviemore this summer bigger and better than before.

SOUNDINGS are being taken on banning wild camping at a Strathspey beauty spot because of fears over the escalation of anti-social behaviour, littering, sanitation and other problems.

CLIMBERS and walkers visiting local peaks are being urged to tread carefully and to be wary of cornices after an 18-year-old Scout leader was killed at Creag Meagaidh.

FUNDING cuts for Grantown's YMCA and Macdonald Aviemore Highland Resort for providing public swimming will form part of Highland Council savings as they struggle to balance their books.

THE locomotive from a freight train which derailed at Carrbridge was finally removed at the weekend, nearly six weeks after the accident, in a major recovery operation.

AN investment of just under £6 million for a package of improvements benefitting A9 motorists from the strath has been announced by Transport Minister Stewart Stevenson.

YURI and Sasha and their three cubs were the stars of the show as the Highland Wildlife Park marked the start of the Chinese Year of the Tiger at the weekend.