THE group trying to persuade residents to vote for a buy-out of the former Glencoe Hospital has accused a community council of interfering with the election process.

MORRISON Construction has been awarded the contract for the latest phase of the redevelopment of Lochaber High School, it was announced this week.

MALLAIG High School's new £4 million "five star" residential hostel welcomed its first residents this week.

TWO climbers who were swept 1,500ft to their deaths by an avalanche in Glencoe last week have been named by police.

TWO climbers were swept to their deaths on Wednesday by an avalanche on Buchaille Etive Mor in Glencoe.

The two men, who have not yet been named, were hit by a wall of snow on an area known as the Curved Ridge, and are understood to have plunged 1,500ft down the mountain.

A CONTROVERSIAL sculpture to mark the new end point of the West Highland Way has been approved with little consultation, critics argued this week.

ARTS collective, Room 13, will lead a community project to produce new artworks for the "ugly" pedestrian underpass linking Fort William High Street to An Aird.

A SOUTH Lochaber community council is urging residents to vote "no" in a ballot on the future of the former Glencoe Hospital.

A LOCHABER businessman is spearheading a new scheme designed to encourage local enterprises to excel.

TRANSPORT bosses have been accused of wasting taxpayers' money and told to "get on their bike" over plans to create a new cycle path at Ballachulish.

TWO woodlands at Corpach are now community-owned following the conclusion of a four-and-a-half-year-long negotiation process.

A LOCAL politician has vowed to put pressure on the Scottish Government to look at the issue of asbestos in schools after a damning report highlighted failings of education chiefs to protect pupils and staff from the deadly substance.

THE quick actions of firefighters helped avert a major disaster at one of Lochaber's biggest companies this week.

A blaze broke out in the BSW Kilmallie Sawmill at Corpach on Tuesday evening after it is understood sparks from a welder's gun ignited sawdust gathered beneath machinery.

FORT William has suffered a new retail blow after a national homeware retailer went into administration.

CLANSMEN and women gathered at Glencoe at the weekend to poignantly commemorate one of the bloodiest events in Scotland's history.

SOUTH Lochaber residents are to be polled on a project to transform the former Glencoe Hospital into a community-owned, multi-purpose centre.

RAIL bosses have been urged to backtrack over plans to demolish an "iconic" signal box at one of the Highlands' best kept stations.

COMMUNITY leaders in Ardnamurchan and Morvern say they remain unconvinced that Highland Council is listening to their concerns over a proposed closure of the lifeline Corran ferry service.

WEST Lochaber residents are joining forces to create a permanent memorial to a toddler who died last year following a horror accident.

A BEHIND-the-scenes bust-up led to proposals for an interim merger from August of Lochaber's two Catholic primary schools being dramatically shelved.

The Lochaber News has been told that council officials had been "given a rollicking" and were "metaphorically pinned to the wall" by some angry local councillors and ordered to withdraw the bombshell interim proposal just before a packed public meeting was due to start.

ANGER has been expressed about a decision to carry out a £100k project to install Gaelic road signs on the A82 in Fort William.

CONTROVERSIAL plans by Highland Council to suspend the lifeline Corran ferry service for four weeks at the start of this year's tourist season, have resurfaced.

LOCHABER'S four independent councillors have quit Highland Council's ruling administration after refusing to sign up to new "gagging orders".

THE manager of a charity shop in Fort William has issued a plea this week in a bid to halt donations of "inappropriate" goods.

THE West Highland Line has steamed to the top of a poll to find the world's greatest rail journey, for the second year in a row.