Orkney Islands Council say they are still keen to build an integrated emergency services station in Kirkwall.

The council recently suggested building a centre which which would bring the police, fire brigade, ambulance and coastguards, as well as OIC’s emergency planning unit together under one roof.

However, finance director David Robertson says that funding has to be sourced before the project can go ahead as a bid for Scottish Executive Modernising Government funds has failed.

They are now in discussions with the Northern Joint Police Board to see what options are now open to them.

The contract for the first phase of work on Orkney's new £5.25 million creamery (above) at Hatston in Kirkwall has been awarded to local firm, Casey Construction.

Work on the project is due to start next week, with completion expected around September next year. The new creamery is being built for Orkney Islands Council who will then lease the building to Orkney Cheese Ltd when complete.

The £2.75 million first phase of work will involve construction of the new factory, with subsequent phases covering the installation of the creamery's outfall and equipment.

The Flotta oil terminal was shut down on Saturday with all production grinding to a halt after a glitch in a back-up power supply.

The terminal was out of action for several hours until the entire system was rebooted.But terminal manager Mr Trevor Newton stressed this week that the incident had not been an emergency situation.

He said a faulty switch in a key safety system caused a temporary loss of back-up power. This triggered a complete shutdown just before 10am on Saturday.

More details.

Plans to site a salmon farm at Mallow Bank within the Bay of Ireland which led to more than 100 objections in the county, have been rejected by the Scottish Executive.

The decision ends a long-running process which began nearly three years ago when the proposals first came into the public domain. The application for the salmon farm, which was to have a total site area of 40,000 square metres, was lodged by Orkney Seafarms in December 1997.

Orkney Islands Council subsequently turned the application down, but an appeal was lodged with the Department of Environment.

More details.

Longhope lifeboat and an Orkney Harbours tug were called to assist a large cement vessel drifting out of control north of Stroma on Wednesday morning.

The Danish-registered Portland, with 12 crew on board, reported engine failure to Pentland Coastguard at around 8am.

The 98-metre vessel, with no cargo on board, managed to repair the engine later in the morning but the lifeboat and tug Harald stood by until the vessel left the Pentland Firth in the afternoon.

The captain of the ship, which was heading to Aalborg in Denmark from Belfast, became concerned with a running five-knot tide as they were drifting quite rapidly towards the Pentland Skerries, a coastguard spokesman said.

“The captain contacted Pentland Coastguard and requested assistance,” the spokesman added.

A quantity of suspected counterfeit goods were seized from a sale in Kirkwall this week.

Police say that trading standards officers from the council recovered what is believed to be counterfeit clothing from the sale.

A Trading Standards spokesman said they could give no more details at this time.

Orkney’s main passenger ferry, the St Ola, was hit with engine troubles on Monday delaying crossings between Stromness and Scrabster.

Operators P&O Scottish Ferries say that the problem came to light in the morning and sailings ran over half an hour behind schedule.

This year, for the fourth year running, web surfers across the planet will be able to view the winter solstice sunset from Maeshowe.

As the light from the last dying rays of the setting sun strikes the back wall of the 5,000-year-old tomb’s main chamber, three cameras will be capturing the images and broadcasting them live over the World Wide Web.

At the helm again are local man Dr Charles Tait and Dutch archaeoastronomer Victor Reijs who, with the co-operation of Historic Scotland, have arranged the 2000 webcam.

The broadcasts are scheduled to begin on December 1, continuing until early February, and viewers will be able to access constantly updated images via visitorkney.com.

Finnish Member of the European Parliament, Pia Noora Kauppi is due to visit Orkney next week to address a local conference for schoolchildren.

The MEP will be speaking at The Challenge of Europe Conference as well as visiting some local industries according to local Education Business Partnership line manager, Mr Alastair MacLeod of the Orkney Opportunities Centre.

An Orkney woman has been named as a lifelong learning champion by the Scottish University for Industry.

Lizza Bain, who along with her sister Jenna Hume set up their company Hume Sweet Hume on Westray, has gone from collecting pebbles on a beach to attending trade fairs in Florence and learning how to e-mail via computers in her learning journey.

The sisters design and produce high quality soft furnishings such as cushions and throws and incorporate stones from local beaches in some of their sought after designs.

Mobile phone network One 2 One are to develop five sites in Orkney in the next 12 months.

The first of those at Wideford Hill, outside Kirkwall, will make use of an existing communications mast. The equipment has already been installed and will be operational within the next two to three months.

The work in Orkney is part of a £5 million plan to expand the One 2 One network in the Highlands and Islands.

An audience of over 200 gathered in the Arena at Kirkwall’s Pickaquoy Centre last Friday night for Orkney’s first ever Sporting Awards.

After a fine spread of Orkney fare, the awards were presented.

The Sportsman of the Year award went to long distance runner William Sichel, while the Sportswoman of the Year went to Moira Nicolson, who has represented Orkney in netball, hockey and badminton.

There were three girls forward for Junior Sportsperson of the Year and the eventual winner was Ingrid Norquoy for her performances in hockey and netball.

Orkney Rugby Club made it a double celebration when First XV coach Brian Diack was named as Coach of the Year and then the First XV themselves, the only Orkney team currently playing at a national league level, were named Team of the Year.

There was recognition too of Orkney’s progress in the horse-riding arena when Katie Coward of Orkney Branch of the Pony Club picked up the Service to Sport award.

While a judging panel had selected the winner of six of the awards just hours before the ceremony, the audience voted on the night for the Sports Photograph of the Year. This went to Michael Moar of Orkney Camera Club who had captured the competitive spirit of bikers racing from the start at an Orkney Motocross Club event.

Around 100 spectators witnessed the toppling of the 45 metre concrete tower of the three megawatt Burgar Hill wind generator last Friday.

Cars parked along the Evie road and part way up the Burgar Hill road to view the event, which took place at exactly 12 noon, when a controlled explosion brought the massive structure crashing to the ground. The mass of concrete will be broken up over the next week and the rubble put into two disused underground tanks at Kirkwall Power Station.

The three megawatt turbine was the largest of its kind anywhere in the world when it was inaugurated by the then Energy Minister, Mr Cecil Parkinson, now Lord Parkinson, in November 1987.