Reporting from the villages of East Iceland and on everything that concerns the region. Updated daily.
A brand-new, state-of-the-art Komatsu excavator has recently drawn considerable attention in Seyðisfjörður. Not so much the excavator itself, perhaps, as its highly unusual colours. It is no coincidence that the machine was delivered on Pink Day itself, 21 October, on which day, and indeed throughout the month, everyone in the country is especially encouraged to wear pink in order to…
Read the story →Up to sixty percent of the herring arriving at Loðnuvinnslan in Fáskrúðsfjörður is now Icelandic summer-spawning herring. Plant manager Magnús Ásgrímsson says processing is going well in the new building.
Síldarvinnslan’s fish processing plant in Neskaupstaður has received 23,000 tonnes of herring so far this season. Síldarvinnslan’s website states that five thousand tonnes remain to be caught.
The Days of Darkness festival began in Fjarðabyggð over the weekend and runs until Halloween next Saturday. During this time the dark season is met with lights, art and live stories, with fifteen events on the programme in all.
Four boys and all the girls attended a cooking course at Eskifjarðarskóli in the autumn of 1953. Þorsteinn Skúlason won a prize for his recipe book, and the trophy still adorns his dining table.
Guðröður Hákonarson, often known as Gurri, of Hildibrand in Neskaupstaður, received the East Iceland tourism encouragement award, Klettur, at the association’s autumn meeting last week. It is a recognition for having been a powerful driving force in the development of tourism in Neskaupstaður.
Blængur NK came in with 620 tonnes after a 26-day fishing trip. The catch was worth ISK 507 million, even though autumn storms disrupted the fishing.
The board of the Association of Municipalities in East Iceland (SSA) demands that the government drop the planned changes to the discount terms of Loftbrú and instead ensure sufficient funding to strengthen support for the scheme.
Loftbrúin (the Air Bridge) was established in 2020 to improve access for rural residents to centralised services and to strengthen rural communities.
The first exploratory drilling for hot water in Borgarfjörður eystri in about 50 years was carried out by HEF-veitur a short while ago, but, as had been expected beforehand, the preliminary results give little cause for optimism.
The Icelandic Meteorological Office has issued a yellow warning for increased risk of landslides and rockfall in Austfirðir, East Iceland as far as Glettingur, and on Tröllaskagi. The warning is in effect until noon tomorrow.
The Association of Municipalities in East Iceland objects to the planned change to the Loftbrú scheme. The cut is an attack on living conditions in rural areas, it says.
The Association of Municipalities in East Iceland (SSA) strongly objects to the planned changes to Loftbrú and demands that the government drop its plans to replace the current percentage-based subsidy of airfares with a fixed amount in krónur.
The freezer trawler Blængur NK arrived in Neskaupstaður yesterday after a 26-day fishing trip. The vessel’s catch was 620 tonnes gutted. On the company’s website, the value of the catch is stated as ISK 507 million.
The freezer trawler Blængur NK arrived in Neskaupstaður yesterday after a 26-day fishing trip, most of it in rough weather. The vessel nevertheless landed 620 tonnes, with a catch value estimated at about ISK 507 million.
The risk of landslides and rockfalls has increased because of heavy rainfall in the Eastfjords, and the Icelandic Road Administration has reported a landslide that fell onto the road at Njarðvíkurskriður.
The fishing trip took 26 days and the catch was mostly cod and haddock, but also golden redfish, saithe and other species
It was announced on the Government Offices website on 23 October that from 1 January 2027 the Loftbrú discount will be a fixed amount, ISK 7,000 per flight leg, instead of 40% of the fare. As a result, the average subsidy per flight leg falls by just under a quarter, and the state’s total subsidies for the scheme fall from about ISK 740 million to about ISK 560 million.
The Fjarðabyggð municipal council strongly protests the planned changes to Loftbrú (the Air Bridge) and calls on the government to drop the plans. The council says cutting airfare subsidies is an unacceptable attack on living conditions in rural areas.
Kaldvík’s lenders have extended the waiver of loan covenants until 3 pm on Wednesday, 28 October. Talks on the company’s financing continue.
On 6 February 2024 a storm swept across the Eastfjords, and the farmers at Vattarnes were hit especially hard. In one small spot the wind intensified and caused major damage to a residential house and sheep sheds. The roof of the outbuildings was blown off in one piece and then shattered in another …
Winds will pick up around 7 pm this evening from the northwest in the Eastfjords, and gusts could reach up to 35 m/s in wind streams near mountains, for example in Hamarfjörður.
Stefán Skafti Steinólfsson. Dear readers. The assault on Hamarsdalur in the old Djúpavogshreppur, now Múlaþing, continues. The decision by the minister of energy and the environment and the Althing to move the proposed power plant plans in Hamarsdalur from the protection category into …
Staff at the Housing and Construction Authority (HMS) have for some time been working to estimate the property boundaries of farms across the country where no surveyed delineation exists. The authority has now published draft boundaries for a total of 1,160 farms in Northeast and East Iceland.
The electric vehicle charging stations that the municipality of Fjarðabyggð installed some time ago and has operated since will be decommissioned, following a decision by the planning and construction committee. The stations’ equipment has become obsolete and they have mostly stopped working and generating revenue.
Lenders of the fish farming company Kaldvík have further extended the company’s temporary waiver from certain loan terms, although the deadline was due to expire today.
Lenders of sea-cage fish farming company Kaldvík have extended further the deadline of the company’s temporary waiver from its loan terms. The deadline was due to expire today but has been extended until Wednesday.
KFA (Knattspyrnufélag Austfjarða) has issued a statement after Höttur withdrew from the cooperation under the FHL banner in women’s football.
Over a million salmon died in sea pens in Iceland in September. A department head says the vast majority died in Reyðarfjörður, because of jellyfish plaguing them.
Ingibjörg Isaksen, Progressive Party MP for the Northeast constituency, says Loftbrú is about evening out the situation between the capital area and the countryside. She is concerned that decisions are being thrown out without involving the municipalities and rural areas. She wants to see the Minister of Infrastructure “back down from this decision” to use a fixed krónur amount instead of a percentage.
The board and managing director of Knattspyrnufélag Austfjarða in Fjarðabyggð have issued a statement expressing regret over the decision by Höttur in Egilsstaðir to end the cooperation on the FHL women’s team.
The planned cuts to Loftbrú are an unacceptable attack on living conditions in rural areas, according to the Fjarðabyggð town council. It calls on the government to drop the plans immediately and instead to strengthen support for air passengers who are forced to travel to the capital area for essential services.
Menningarstofa Fjarðabyggðar (the Fjarðabyggð Cultural Centre) and the newly founded National Opera have signed a three-year declaration of intent on continued cooperation on opera performances, education and the development of musical activity in East Iceland. This, they say, would increase residents’ access to opera and create more opportunities for musicians in the region.
Lenders to the aquaculture company Kaldvík have extended the company’s temporary waiver from certain loan terms until the end of today.
Eyjólfur Ármannsson, Minister of Infrastructure, has indicated that the planned cut in the airfare subsidy for rural residents to ISK 7,000 per flight leg will be reconsidered and may be raised to ISK 9,000. The minister’s ideas have drawn heavy criticism from many quarters, but an increase of ISK 2,000 on the earlier proposal is seen by many as no great concession.
Jónína Brynjólfsdóttir, president of the Múlaþing municipal council, welcomes plans to increase funding for Loftbrú but says she does not like the planned changes to the subsidy system. She believes the current arrangement, in which the state subsidises 40% of airfares, is far more sensible than a fixed amount in krónur.
Two new staff members have been hired at the Tjarnarskógur preschool in Egilsstaðir, where a severe staff shortage at the start of the school year greatly limited how many children could be admitted. Everything now looks to be improving, although the preschool still needs to advertise for staff.
The valuation of the fish farming company Kaldvík has been cut by almost a third following operating difficulties, a weakening cash position and rising financing costs. Analysts consider the company’s financial position heavy after major setbacks in recent months, but expect operations to begin recovering next year.
The mayor of Múlaþing says the addition to Loftbrú, announced yesterday by the infrastructure minister, is not what people are calling for. Not everyone can live in Reykjavík, and rural residents’ access to services must be made more equal.
We who live in East Iceland help fund the nation’s shared services just like everyone else. A large share of those services and that activity is in the capital area. Many of the state’s main institutions are there, and that is where we go to get a wide range of services, cultural events and sports activities. Residents of other parts of the country who live far from Reykjavík face a similar situation.
Jóna Árný Þórðardóttir, town and port director of Fjarðabyggð, was elected the new chair of the Icelandic Ports Association on Friday. She takes over from Lúðvík Geirsson and is the very first woman to hold the post.
“I find this a very sad matter and I urge the infrastructure minister to withdraw these ideas,” says Njáll Trausti Friðbertsson, Independence Party MP for the Northeast constituency, about infrastructure minister Eyjólfur Ármannsson’s planned changes to Loftbrú.
Jens Garðar Helgason, vice-chair of the Independence Party and the party’s MP for the Northeast Constituency, says it did not surprise him that the Minister of Infrastructure has already begun considering a review of the changed rules on Loftbrú.
As previously reported, a new SPAR store is due to open in the Kjörbúðin premises in Neskaupstaður in the middle of next month. To make that go as smoothly as possible, the existing stock must be cleared, which is why all the store’s products are now 50% off for the next few days.
It is unbelievable to watch how the government seems to be systematically making it harder and more expensive to live in rural areas. Now Loftbrú is to be cut, leaving rural residents with a fixed discount of ISK 7,000 per flight leg instead of a 40% discount. The government calls this a change of arrangement. The rest of us simply call it what…
“This changes nothing. Of course I welcome that he is reconsidering this decision, but it is still a cut to Loftbrú, and we simply think it is a crazy course for him to take while also raising the kilometre charge. Proportionally, East Icelanders will be hit by far the worst by this, and it is simply a huge step backwards.”
The first haul yielded about 450 tonnes, but less was caught in the following ones. The skipper says the share of Icelandic summer-spawning herring in the catch is growing.
The school complex in Reyðarfjörður, a football hall, a sports hall and school buildings will be heated by burning wood pellets. Construction of Tandraorka’s new heating plant is well advanced.
There is widespread anger in East Iceland over planned changes to Loftbrú, which Infrastructure Minister Eyjólfur Ármannsson presented yesterday.
The Minister of Infrastructure announced yesterday changes to the Loftbrú scheme that take effect from the new year. The chair of the Association of Municipalities in East Iceland says the changes are a slap in the face for residents of rural areas.
The chief executive of Múlaþing says she is disappointed and hurt by the government’s plans to change the discounted air fares for rural residents. She criticises the lack of consultation and says this is yet another blow to the countryside.
The municipal director of Múlaþing says she is disappointed and hurt by the government’s plans to change the discounted air fares for rural residents. She criticises the lack of consultation and says this is yet another blow for rural areas.
Ingvar Þóroddsson, Viðreisn MP for the Northeast constituency, opposes the government’s change to the Loftbrú arrangement as it was presented yesterday. Mbl.is reports.
Ingvar Þóroddsson, a Reform Party (Viðreisn) MP for the Northeast constituency, opposes the government’s change to the Loftbrú arrangement.
“This is yet another blow to rural areas,” says Jónína Brynjólfsdóttir, chair of the Múlaþing council.
The Housing and Construction Authority (HMS) has finished estimating the property boundaries of about 1,150 farms in Northeast Iceland and East Iceland. The farms cover about 20 thousand square kilometres, and with the new data, property boundaries have been estimated in areas equivalent to about 83% of Iceland’s total area.
For those of us who live far from the capital, it matters that we can easily access services there without such trips causing unnecessary financial worries. It is fundamental that where people live does not determine their ability to use the services that have been built up in the capital for all citizens. Domestic flights play a key role in this. The infrastructure minister’s announced changes in connection with…