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Peter Clifford, once just an ordinary name in Felixstowe, is now making headlines for all the wrong reasons. After failing to appear in court multiple times, Clifford, 62, has finally been arrested in the quiet stretch of Aberdeenshire — ending a near four-year search linked to the tragic death of a young construction worker. A Fatal Day on Haughgate Close Dale Baker never made it home that December day in 2020. He was only 30, a construction worker from Felixstowe, just like Clifford once was. He’d been working on renovations at a house on Haughgate Close in Woodbridge when things…

For three decades, one Scottish company has quietly made life-changing moves feel a little less overwhelming — helping people start over, far from home, with more than just boxes and keys. From Singapore to Scotland: An Idea Takes Root Back in 1995, Mary Smith saw something many didn’t. After three years running relocation support in Singapore, she returned home and realised Scotland needed its own guiding hand for incomers. “It was a natural fit,” she says. “I knew how it felt to pack up your life, land in a new place, and not have a clue where to start.” One…

One of Scotland’s biggest social care charities is stepping up its policy influence — aiming to put the voices of vulnerable people at the centre of future health and care decisions. Quarriers Joins Forces With Voluntary Health Scotland Quarriers, which supports thousands of people across Scotland, has officially joined Voluntary Health Scotland (VHS). The move marks a clear shift in how charities shape national conversations on poverty, disability rights, and health inequalities. One line. With this partnership, Quarriers will now have a bigger seat at the table in policy discussions that touch on everything from funding reforms to frontline care…

Work has officially begun on one of Scotland’s latest battery storage sites — a move that could ease grid pressures and help households save on soaring energy bills. Building Big Batteries in South Ayrshire Field, the energy storage developer, has broken ground on its Holmston site near Keith in South Ayrshire. This is no small project. The Holmston battery site will deliver 50 MW / 100 MWh of capacity — enough to power up to 26,000 homes for two hours when fully charged. One line here. Construction should wrap up in the first half of 2026, with sister site Drum…

Calls are growing for the return of subsidised civic restaurants to tackle food insecurity and give Scots access to a hot meal for just a few pounds — just like their grandparents did. Cheap, Filling Meals That Fed a Nation You’d be forgiven for thinking taxpayer-backed public diners were just wartime nostalgia. But they were once a staple across the UK. Before, during, and after both world wars, around 2,000 civic restaurants operated across Britain, nearly 100 of them in Scotland. Aberdeen’s Castle Restaurant alone served 4,000 customers in its first month back in 1941. People swapped cold sandwiches for…

A discovery beneath a Scottish high school has turned back the clock on Scotland’s ancient past — revealing Neolithic timber halls that predate even the mighty Stonehenge. Carnoustie’s Hidden Past Comes to Light Archaeologists digging under Carnoustie High School in Angus stumbled upon something no one expected. Tucked away beneath school grounds were the remains of what experts now say is the largest early Neolithic timber hall ever found in Scotland. One line. This hall, believed to date back to around 4,000 BC, is older than Stonehenge — pushing back the timeline for Scotland’s first farming communities by centuries. Guard…

A free mobile app is giving ordinary people across Scotland the chance to help save one of the country’s most critically endangered fish — the flapper skate — by turning their photos into vital scientific data. From Photo Albums to a National Effort Back in 2018, a single angling charter skipper, Ronnie Campbell, kickstarted what’s now become a national project. He handed over 400 digital images of flapper skates to the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS). Fast forward seven years and that seed has grown into SkateSpotter, a mobile app curated by NatureScot that now boasts over 4,000 photos…

A shocking twist from the UK Covid Inquiry: Scotland’s main care home watchdog says it was blocked from inspecting a struggling care home at the height of the pandemic — leaving grieving families demanding answers. Safety Watchdog Kept Out as Crisis Unfolded Kevin Mitchell, the Care Inspectorate’s executive director of scrutiny and assurance, told the UK Covid Inquiry he was stopped from visiting a care home in the west of Scotland where several residents died in April 2020. He’d tried to get boots on the ground. But public health officials said no. Mitchell described how he needed permission from local…

A major digital revamp is coming for Scotland’s health and care services, as BJSS lands a multi-million pound contract to deliver the first phase of a new ‘digital front door’ app. The ambitious plan aims to reshape how Scots access health and social care — from GP records to vaccination schedules — all at their fingertips. A Big Step for Digital Health Access Think of it like this: one app, countless connections. NHS Education for Scotland (NES) picked BJSS, now part of CGI, to get the ball rolling with £27.8 million backing the deal. This isn’t just another health portal…

A salmon farming giant is doing what landlords and councils haven’t managed — putting roofs over workers’ heads, right where they work. Bakkafrost Scotland just got the green light to build temporary accommodation units at its Scalpay site, tackling a housing squeeze that’s been choking its operations in the Western Isles. A Solution Born Out Of Necessity Try finding a flat on Harris these days. Good luck. That’s the harsh truth many workers face, and it’s been biting Bakkafrost hard. Recruiting folks is one thing — keeping them is another when there’s nowhere affordable to live. So they pitched a…