A NEW pro-active policing unit to help target serious and repeat offending in the strath is to be based at Grantown Police Station, which was reopened last week following refurbishment.

AN anonymous benefactor has stepped in to help an Aviemore schoolgirl who has been forced to use all the wages from her weekend job to pay bus fares to the school where she is sitting her Highers.

A HIGHLANDS and Islands MSP has been holding talks with Tesco over calls to take lorries off the A9.

FISHERMEN on the River Spey are being warned to stay away from a landslide on one of its banks which threatens to create a huge tidal wave or tsunami.

AN organisation which plans to open a Gaelic-language playgroup in Aviemore has appealed for parents interested in enrolling their children to get in contact.

TIME is running out to save four public telephone boxes in the Strath which could be hung up for good if BT has its way next month, politicians have warned.

THERE was consternation at the Macdonald Aviemore Mountain Resort at the weekend when around 40 travellers set up camp within the prestigious centre's borders.

TOURISM businesses around the strath have poured scorn on claims that the industry's new national website is capable of matching those of other countries and have instead launched a campaign to have changes made before business is lost.

HEALTH chiefs are working on firm plans to return an NHS dental service to Grantown this autumn after a gap of several years, it was confirmed this week.

RELIEF filled the Strath yesterday (Tuesday) as filling stations in Aviemore, Grantown and Newtonmore received a fuel delivery, allowing all three garages to opened for business as usual.

KINGUSSIE'S ambulance is back where the community demanded following an early end to a trial to offer emergency cover for the area from a central base in Aviemore.

FOR nearly 28 years the same lollipop lady has been helping youngsters in Grantown to cross the road safely to and from school every day.

FEARS that more of the area's red squirrels could be killed as they attempt to cross roads in search of a mate or food have prompted calls for rope bridges to be erected across roads through wooded areas to give the creatures a safer means of crossing.

HUNDREDS of locals and visitors visited the largest farmers' market to be held in the centre of Aviemore on Sunday.

A BRAND new hospital is being lined up in Grantown as part of big money plans to bring health care provision under one roof in the town.

AROUND 250 people attended Macdonald Aviemore Highland Resort's public consultation on their second phase £80 million plans for the development.

FUEL fears have brought chaotic scenes to the filling station in Grantown, where panic buying has taken hold, and long queues have been building up as motorists clamour to get to the pumps.

AN early morning rail commuter service to the Highland capital is set to be axed from Kingussie later this year because of poor passenger numbers.

A MUCH larger store is to be opened in Aviemore by Tesco, Britain's leading supermarket operator.

THE boss of the John Muir Trust is calling for the final pieces of the Cairngorms National Park jigsaw to be put in place with the inclusion of the entire catchment area of the River Spey and Dava Moor.

PLANS for an ambitious £3.2 million ice complex in Strathspey with the potential to turn the area into one of Europe's leading adventure sports destinations has moved a step near, it has emerged.

NEW Government figures have shown that more people lost their lives on the A9 than on any other road in the country.

MEMBERS of Grantown Playgroup had two reasons to cheer this week after trustees finally signed a long-awaited new lease for their premises and a good enrollment for the new academic year was confirmed.

UP to 1,000 volunteers will help do battle with the millions of midges that notoriously blight Scotland in the summer.

THE tallest building to be constructed in the Highlands could form the centrepiece of the £80 million second-phase of the Macdonald Aviemore Highland Resort.

A HEROIN addict responsible for a one-man crime wave in Grantown was sentenced to more than a year behind bars yesterday (Tuesday).

SOARING fuel prices are driving away volunteers involved with a lifeline transport service for the elderly, disabled and vulnerable in Badenoch and Strathspey, it has been claimed.

THE Lecht Ski Company have applied for planning permission to install two mountain bike trails and a skills area within the existing ski area.

IT has emerged that the cost to the taxpayer for a new Aviemore primary school has risen in the region of £2 million because of the continuing delays to the project.

THOUSANDS were killed when a car left the road near Aviemore and ploughed into the nest of one of Britain's most endangered ant species.

A BOTTLE-marking scheme is just one of the weapons that police are using to combat under-age drinking and youth disorder in Badenoch and Strathspey, it has emerged.

EXPERTS gathered in Aviemore yesterday (Tuesday) as the first step in a bid towards trying to save the Scottish wildcat from becoming extinct.

SKIERS and boarders could be enjoying fun on the slopes of Cairngorms well into May, according to bosses at the ski centre.

A PLANE which crashed near the summit of Cairn Gorm at the weekend narrowly missed the bustling Ptarmigan restaurant at the top of the mountain's funicular railway.

THERE has been strong opposition to plans for one of the biggest housing estates for decades in Grantown, with objectors accusing the developers of profiteering.

THE owner of the most famous reindeer herd in Britain has said that she is sickened after one of her animals was butchered for meat by a poacher.

LEADING figures in the UK-wide Heritage Railway Association paid a visit to two contrasting railways when they held their Scottish forum in Grantown at the weekend.

A NEW website has been launched showcasing the 19 independent hostels that provide accommodation in the Cairngorms National Park.

AN AVIEMORE shopping centre is to get a new lease of life after being bought by a prominent property developer based next door.