Shetland Islands Broadcasting Company

The Shetland Times has revealed that, if new owners cannot be found for the family-owned paper there is a risk that Shetland will lose its only weekly newspaper. This should come as no surprise, with online, particularly American owned Facebook, destroying local and regional media around the world. Facebook is particularly popular in Shetland with the age groups that would be natural buyers of the Shetland Times, although Facebook is increasing less popular with younger age groups.

Possible buyers, if interested, include National World which owns the Stornoway Gazette and the Scotsman, Newsquest which owns the Herald and prints the Orcadian, DC Thomson which owns the Press and Journal and the Courier along, with their evening newspapers, and the Sunday Post and magazines, or Reach which owns many local papers along with the Daily Record, other nationals and magazines.

A new gym scheme is being run by MS Society Shetland on a grant from the Shetland Charitable Trust.

Back in Lerwick harbour, at Victoria Pier West, for a third April visit since 2023, is a 48 metre by 16 metre Norwegian Navy Skjold-class corvette arriving from Bekkjarvik on military operations. This April the Skjold-class corvette is the KNM Skjold. Last April and the April before it was the KNM Gnist.

One year on from when Shetland’s first car club scheme got underway, reservations have been expressed by the motoring trade, claiming that the Shetland Car Club is affecting business in taxi hire, vehicle rental and retail. There are also complaints from EV owners of Shetland Car Club vehicles hogging scarce charge-points, sometimes for weeks on end.

Research by the global engineering and sustainable development consultancy Arup shows that, under the right conditions, carbon capture and storage could become a viable international business. In May last year, EnQuest was offered carbon storage licences by the North Sea Transition Authority for the Sullom Voe Terminal .

The same one of the coastguard helicopters based at Sumburgh was tasked twice. The first was to take a platform worker from a platform in the Claymore field, 85 nautical miles south-south-east of Sumburgh to Aberdeen. The second was a helicopter NHS patient transfer from Foula to the emergency landing site in Lerwick, the third such transfer from Foula this year.