news in brief

ROADSHOW. Residents in Perth are being encouraged to attend a two-day roadshow this week which could help resolve outstanding disputes consumers have with companies.

Advisers from the Ombudsman Services will be on hand to give advice in the St John’s Shopping Centre tomorrow and Friday from 9am to 5pm. They will be able to discuss complaints about a product or service that customers feel has not been adequately handled by a company.

Ombudsman Services is one of the UK’s largest providers of dispute resolution services and acts as a mediator between consumers and companies. TALK William Souter will be the subject of a free talk by Glasgow-based poet and critic Stewart Sanderson, to mark the 118th anniversary of the writer’s birth.

Dubbed “the Perth poet”, his intensely-local poems immortalise the Buckie Braes and Ropemakers’ Close, among other places in Perth.

The talk, titled William Soutar, Translation and the Modern Scottish Renaissance, will take place in the Soutar lounge of the AK Bell Library on April 28 at 7.30pm. MUSIC Perth Youth Orchestra is to host a free concert to raise funds for a summer tour of Prague.

The event will be held at 3pm on Sunday in St John’s Kirk.

Entry is by donation at the door. ARTS The Black Watch Castle and Museum is getting ready to take part in Scotland’s annual Festival of Museums, which runs from May 13 to 15.

On Saturday May 14 children will have the chance to ‘sign up’ as a First World War soldier or military nurse.

The event takes place each day from 11am, finishing at 3pm. POLITICS Perth Action of Churches Together is hosting a hustings meeting in Letham St Mark’s Church, Rannoch Road, at 7.30pm on Monday.

Covering both Perthshire South and Kinross-shire and Perthshire North, the hustings will feature one representative from each of the political parties standing in the constituencies’ election.

The evening will be chaired by the Rev Jim Stewart.

All are welcome to question the candidates.