Today in Norway: A roundup of the latest news on Monday
Trustees concerned about how new hospitals will be financed and Norway facing a vegetable shortage if energy support for farmers isn't increased are among the main headlines from Norway on Monday.
Concerns over funding of new hospitals
The plan for how new hospitals in Oslo will be funded haven't filled trustees with confidence, public broadcaster NRK reports.
Trustees at Oslo University Hospital (OUS) told the broadcaster that the current plan to pay for the demolition of Ullevål hospital and its replacements wasn't realistic.
"We don't think it can be done," Anne Marit Wang Førland, trustee for the Medical Association at OUS, told NRK.
The Medical Association and ten other organisations have spoken out about the "high risk" plans.
Two hospitals have been mooted to replace Ullevål Hospital by 2031. The hope is that the new hospitals will be cheaper to run, saving around 1.3 billion kroner in operating costs annually.
Low energy support cap for farmers could lead to a vegetable shortage
Vegetable producers have said the current cap for energy support in agriculture needs to be raised, otherwise, the country could face a shortage of vegetables towards the end of winter.
Current support for farmers is capped at 20,000 kWh per month. This is too little, farmers have told agriculture newspaper Nationen. The current cap is affecting those who store vegetables to supply the market throughout winter.
"The situation is the same for most people who deal with storage vegetables. We have target prices and cannot take the cost increase out into the market. Without changes to the ceiling on electricity support, I think there will be few storage vegetables to be found in the shops in March and April and beyond," Asbjørn Stokkeland, a vegetable farmer, told the paper.
New bingo law to hit the pockets of voluntary groups
A new gambling law means that voluntary groups could lose out on the revenues generated from bingo.
Norway's government wants to tighten up the regulations with which the bingo industry operates. A cap on losses is among the measures that the government intends to introduce. This could lead to a drop in bingo revenues.
This will have a knock-on effect for local choirs and bands throughout the country as they benefit from some of the profits from bingo games.
"Before the pandemic, voluntary teams and associations in the music industry received 274 million kroner in income from bingo. In 2019, each profit recipient received an average of around NOK 85,000. It may sound like small change, but it is incredibly important to the recipients," Bjarne Dæhli, secretary general of the Norwegian Music Council, told the newspaper Klassekampen.
Drink-driving incidents on e-scooters fall following the introduction of fines
Police in Stavanger believe strict new laws for e-scooters which see users riding them while over the blood alcohol limit lose their licence and fined, are working.
Recently a woman being fined 80,000 kroner and a man being fined 88,000 kroner in Stavanger made headlines, but even then, police say the number of incidents is down.
"Although we still catch people with blood alcohol levels on these scooters, I would probably say that there are noticeably fewer now. The new rules and media coverage have helped," Aleksander Naley, from the traffic section at Stavanger police station, told local publication Stavanger Aftenposten.
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Concerns over funding of new hospitals
The plan for how new hospitals in Oslo will be funded haven't filled trustees with confidence, public broadcaster NRK reports.
Trustees at Oslo University Hospital (OUS) told the broadcaster that the current plan to pay for the demolition of Ullevål hospital and its replacements wasn't realistic.
"We don't think it can be done," Anne Marit Wang Førland, trustee for the Medical Association at OUS, told NRK.
The Medical Association and ten other organisations have spoken out about the "high risk" plans.
Two hospitals have been mooted to replace Ullevål Hospital by 2031. The hope is that the new hospitals will be cheaper to run, saving around 1.3 billion kroner in operating costs annually.
Low energy support cap for farmers could lead to a vegetable shortage
Vegetable producers have said the current cap for energy support in agriculture needs to be raised, otherwise, the country could face a shortage of vegetables towards the end of winter.
Current support for farmers is capped at 20,000 kWh per month. This is too little, farmers have told agriculture newspaper Nationen. The current cap is affecting those who store vegetables to supply the market throughout winter.
"The situation is the same for most people who deal with storage vegetables. We have target prices and cannot take the cost increase out into the market. Without changes to the ceiling on electricity support, I think there will be few storage vegetables to be found in the shops in March and April and beyond," Asbjørn Stokkeland, a vegetable farmer, told the paper.
New bingo law to hit the pockets of voluntary groups
A new gambling law means that voluntary groups could lose out on the revenues generated from bingo.
Norway's government wants to tighten up the regulations with which the bingo industry operates. A cap on losses is among the measures that the government intends to introduce. This could lead to a drop in bingo revenues.
This will have a knock-on effect for local choirs and bands throughout the country as they benefit from some of the profits from bingo games.
"Before the pandemic, voluntary teams and associations in the music industry received 274 million kroner in income from bingo. In 2019, each profit recipient received an average of around NOK 85,000. It may sound like small change, but it is incredibly important to the recipients," Bjarne Dæhli, secretary general of the Norwegian Music Council, told the newspaper Klassekampen.
Drink-driving incidents on e-scooters fall following the introduction of fines
Police in Stavanger believe strict new laws for e-scooters which see users riding them while over the blood alcohol limit lose their licence and fined, are working.
Recently a woman being fined 80,000 kroner and a man being fined 88,000 kroner in Stavanger made headlines, but even then, police say the number of incidents is down.
"Although we still catch people with blood alcohol levels on these scooters, I would probably say that there are noticeably fewer now. The new rules and media coverage have helped," Aleksander Naley, from the traffic section at Stavanger police station, told local publication Stavanger Aftenposten.
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