Overcoming all the odds, young Andrew who lives with a blistering skin condition was in London on Sunday, to pick up the national award for his bravery in coping with the painful condition.

Andrew is among 150 children, out of around 5,000, who will receive an award.

See full feature story: Brave Andrew in line for achievement award

The award of £160,000 over the next three years divided between Orkney Islands Council and Orkney Health Board, is a welcome injection of government cash, he said.

However, Mr Wallace added: "We're lucky to have been spared some of the worst drugs problems experienced by other parts of Scotland. But no area is immune."

"We must remain vigilant and look to the future. The extra funding for Orkney will mean our children learn about healthy drug-free lifestyles and local services can keep on top of any problems that come up."

The money, which is part of a record £100 million package of measures in the fight against drugs, will be split almost equally between the council and the board.

Orkney Islands Council recycled more household waste than any other Scottish council last year according to figures produced by the Accounts Commission this week.

A total of 20.6 per cent of household waste was recycled in 1999/2000 in Orkney. The Government set a target of recycling 25 per cent of household waste by 2000, but all councils have failed to achieve this.

The cost of refuse collection in the county though was almost the highest in the country - £65.13 per premise compared to Scottish average of £46.

Local businesses could see fuel bills rise by 20 per cent unless they take action - due to the climate change levy that comes into effect on April 1.

The levy is a form of tax placed on coal, electricity and gas and it works by placing an extra charge on the amount of fuel a business uses.

It will result in a 0.15 pence per kilowatt hour (kWh) increase on gas and coal, a 0.43p/kWh increase on electricity and a 0.04p/kWh increase on LPG. So the more fuel a business uses, the higher the impact of the levy will be.

"This has been brought in by the Government to reduce wasted fuel and change behaviour concerning fuel management," explained Ken Ross, manager of the Northern and Western Isles Efficiency Advice Centre, who are offering free energy audits and advice to any business that gets in contact.

The construction of expensive causeways between the North Isles to secure their economies may not be the right answer for Orkney.

Instead, fully subsidised and improved inter-island air services could be the way forward - helping to reverse depopulation trends.

The views were expressed this week by director of technical services in the Western Isles Mr Murdo Murray, who has first hand experience of providing causeways - known as fixed links - between islands.

Full story >

The cost of air fares to Orkney could be cut if a challenge to British Airways by Stagecoach boss Brian Souter comes to fruition.

But doubts were expressed this week as to whether another airline could operate Orkney's marginal routes at a lower price than BA. There are also concerns that there is not enough business locally to warrant the competition.

Full story >

A 14.2 per cent pay offer over four years for council workers has been proposed.

COSLA said on Wednesday afternoon that the two year offer, for 2002-3 and 2003-4 builds on the 6.11 per cent increase in years 2000-2002.

Northlink are exploring the possibility of offering guaranteed contract work to P&O Scottish Ferries hauliers when the company take over the Northern Isles ferry routes next year.

Although the road haulage operation run by P&O in the Northern Isles does not form part of Northlink's agreement with the Scottish Executive, the company are aware that some of the haulage employees are interested in management buy-outs for the existing business.

Northlink project director, Mr John Horton, said:

"We support a management buy-out as being in the best interests of customers and staff. While we would not wish to step on P&O's toes, we would be happy to meet with P&O's haulage staff, if they deem this appropriate, to determine what assistance and guidance we can offer which would help them advance their management buy-out plans - if, indeed, that is their preferred option."

"We are mindful that our core business is the operation of ferry services. That is where our expertise lies. We don't want to become a haulage contractor operating in competition with our ferry customers who collect and deliver their own freight."

The long-awaited BT Cellnet and Vodafone mobile phone transmitters on Westray and Sanday should now be switched on by the end of this month, according to BT Cellnet.

In what has become a long-running saga for islanders desperate for better mobile coverage, the transmitters, which were built almost two years ago, were to be switched on in January.

But now BT Cellnet say an important piece of equipment has still to be shipped to the county, moving the transmission date to February instead.

A spokesman from BT Cellnet said this week: "Depending on the weather, this piece of equipment to assist the transmission of the masts should be in Orkney by the end of this week. Therefore, we hope to almost certainly have the masts transmitting by the end of February."

The Orcadian's online discussion forum went back online on Wednesday after being taken out of service during the early hours of Tuesday morning.

The relaunched site, while maintaining the format of its predecessor, restricts posting to registered users - an unfortunate step that was introduced to stem the recent tide of off-topic, nonsense and offensive posts.

One function now added to the board is that registered users can now be notified of new posts automatically by e-mail.

Orkney's oldest resident celebrated her birthday on Wednesday, reaching the grand old age of 103.

Miss Isie Thomison was born on February 7, 1898, and lived with her brother at at Braeside, Orphir. In 1992 she moved to St Rognvald's House in Kirkwall where she is still resident.

Plans to upgrade outdoor facilities in St Andrews took another step forward this week.

Councillors at the Community Development Fund for the New Millennium sub-committee meeting agreed to recommend they provide £7,973 - 95 per cent of the identified shortfall.

The total cost of the St Andrew's Community Association project is £16,956 and partnership funding of £8,563 has been identified through various sources.

Their plans include installing drainage, levelling and reseeding the pitch. They also hope to provide a safer environment by putting in an access track and fencing to keep the traffic and children away from the main road.

Membership of the Church of Scotland in Orkney has fallen again this year.

Orkney Presbytery members heard on Tuesday that the Church of Scotland in Orkney had lost 91 members during 2000 - a decline of two per cent to 3,756.

Presbytery clerk Rev Trevor Hunt said: "Our membership continues to decline by two per cent, as it has done for a number of years."

Member Mrs Pauline Hunt commented that despite the decline, there was still the same number of elders and office bearers.

"Are we getting a case of to many chiefs and not enough Indians?" she asked.

It was also revealed in a report to members that there were 43 baptisms in Orkney during 2000 - only one less than in 1999.

Another spate of late night/early morning inappropriate postings to The Orcadian's online discussion forum has led to the facility being temporarily suspended.

A number of the postings were of an offensive nature, prompting the newspaper to take the unfortunate step of shutting down the forum.

Editor of The Orcadian Mr James Miller said this morning: "The forum will be relaunched within the next 24 hours with a more vigorous user registration system."

"Users of the forum will now have to register, an unfortunate step, but it will cut down the number of nonsense posts being made. All registrations will be treated in the strictest confidence by me and the webmaster."

"It's a pity our genuine users had to suffer and we hope that the forum will return to the serious discussions which arose in the first months of its existence."

A young Finstown boy living with a painful, blistering skin condition has been nominated for a national Child of Achievement award.

Seven-year-old Andrew Clouston was nominated by Firth Primary School head teacher John Moar. The awards are given to children who achieved something against the odds.

The winners will be announced on Friday.

Councillors at the Community Development Fund for the New Millennium sub-committee heard that several projects were no further forward than at a previous meeting in November.

The Orkney Trout Association's planned construction of a permanent pier, at a cost of £12,000, was proposed for deletion from the list because no information had been provided.

The North Ronaldsay Community Association's proposed millennium memorial sculpture, at a cost of £9,000, was unable to secure any partnership funding.

Others projects likely to be deleted from the list include the Rousay Millennium Group's resource centre and fitness suite and the Sanday Development Group's planned interpretation centre.

The Orkney Brewery clocked up yet another award this week taking a bronze medal with their prizewinning ale, Dark Island.

The beer, which is the current Champion Beer of Scotland, was awarded the bronze at the Swindon and North Wilts beer festival.

The brewery recently celebrated the success of their stronger ale Skullsplitter, after it was voted this year's Champion Winter Beer of Britain.

Archive story: Skullsplitter is Champion Winter Beer of Britain

Two people have been reported to the Procurator Fiscal following a series of thefts in Kirkwall over the weekend.

A police spokesman said this week that the thefts took place between Friday and Sunday in the Thoms Street area of the town.

Deputy Minister for Social Justice Margaret Curran's visit to Orkney this week has been postponed due to the weather.

She was due in Orkney on Monday to meet with management at the Orkney Housing Association as well as meeting tenants of the OIC and members of two residents' associations.

Scottish farm incomes have fallen by 13 per cent between 98/99 and 2000/01.

The latest figures from the Scottish Executive, taken from information contained in the Farm Accounts Survey and the Farm Income Forecasts for 2000/01, show little change from the previous year, with cattle prices slightly up but sheep and lambs slightly down on the year.

The report also shows that the average amount of profit that farmers had to live on last year was £3,900, and it is predicted that the profit margin will drop by £100 to £3, 800 during 2001.

Water and sewerage charges in Orkney will soar by 17 per cent from April with annual bills ranging from £233 to £700 depending on the value of your house.

Click here for the table of rates

The increase - more than five times the rate of inflation - follows last year's 40 per cent increase and has been implemented by the North of Scotland Water Authority to pay for a massive investment in the region.

The forecast snow arrived in the county overnight on Friday, with continual showers throughout Saturday making driving on some roads difficult.

A police spokesman said that the worst problems were encountered on the Holm Road, where drifting snow briefly blocked a stretch earlier in the afternoon.

Farmers' markets, which sell fresh meat, dairy products, fresh fruit and vegetables, were only revived in Scotland two years ago, and to date no formal food safety guidance has been issued to farmers or environmental health officers.

But Mr Tom Flett of Appietown, Rendall, who was instrumental in starting Orkney's farmers' market, feels Orkney's traders are doing everything possible to ensure food safety.

He explained: "All our meat, and the Orkney lamb that's on sale at the farmers' market in Kirkwall, is pre-packed, with no on-site preparation or cutting up. It's also kept chilled and temperature controlled. We also consult the trading standards and environmental health departments, so I think we're doing everything we can to ensure food safety."

A former Orkney haulier and his driver have been fined more than £1,000 for animal cruelty and motoring offences in Scotland.

Haulage firm R. & C.J. Drury, formerly of Winksetter Farm, Harray, and driver Ian George Mitchell, 47 Grieveship Brae, Stromness originally faced 19 charges at Lanark Sheriff Court for offences during September, 1999.

At court in Lanark this week, Mitchell was fined a total of £525 for various charges including transporting 371 sheep in a lorry without adequate space. He was also found guilty of driving the lorry for nearly six hours without a suitable break on September 19, 1999 and of keeping false records.

The firm of R. & C.J. Drury was fined a total of £550 for motoring offences in allowing Mitchell to drive their lorry with a bald tyre and a tyre with ply or cord exposed.

British Airways could be in for competition on their franchised routes in the Highlands and Islands following reports that Stagecoach boss Brian Souter has plans to extend his Scotairways service.

A national newspaper said that the multi-millionaire plans to introduce cut-price flights to and from the region, challenging British Airways’ stranglehold and offering discounts on existing BA fares.

Orkney MSP and Deputy First Minister Jim Wallace's intervention in trying to speed up a screening scheme for the the cattle disease BVD was praised at the launch of the Orkney Livestock Association (OLA) on Thursday night.

OLA chairman Alastair Foubister paid tribute to Mr Wallace's efforts on their behalf which had resulted in European State Aid approval for the council's support of the BVD scheme a fortnight ago.

Vice-chairman Mike Cursiter emphasised the need for joining such an eradication scheme. He explained that disease control was one of the things affecting the economics of farming that farmer could do something about.