Minister praises council planning policy proposals

Deputy Minister for Transport and Planning, Lewis Macdonald, has praised Orkney Islands Council for putting sustainable development at the heart of their future planning policies.

Commenting on the council's Structure Plan, which has been sent to the Scottish Executive for approval, Mr Macdonald said: “The plan makes it clear that sustainable development is the way forward to ensure Orkney can look to the future with confidence and I am heartened that the local authority is so positive in its support of this.”

One of the five changes suggested by the Executive relates to OIC’s policy towards housing in the countryside. The Executive only want new houses allowed in rural areas already associated with existing building groups.

The Orkney Licensed Trade Association have met for the first time in seven years, forming a new committee to represent the county’s licensed establishments.

New president, James Currie of Kirkwall's West End Hotel, explained that one of the main reasons for resurrecting the Association was the Orkney Islands Area Licensing Board’s concern that they were making decisions without feedback from a body representing the licensed trade.

There are approximately 117 licensed establishments, including public houses, hotels, restaurants, off-sales in Orkney, all of whom will now be invited to become members of the Association.

Councillors go against advice and approve Kirkhope salmon farm

Against the advice of officials, councillors have approved the granting of a works licence for a new Aquascot salmon farm at Kirkhope in South Walls.

Officials had recommended refusing the application because the OIC harbours department were concerned that a fish farm would limit access to the bay as a safe emergency anchorage.

But members of the transportation committee on Thursday felt the number of occasions that Kirkhope would be required as an emergency anchorage would be so few that the fish farm would not present an undue hazard.

Head of Work sewage outfall granted retrospective licence

The council have granted a retrospective works licence for the North of Scotland Water Authority's (NoSWA) sewage outfall pipe at the Head of Work, St Ola.

NoSWA submitted a fresh application because the current site is around 100 metres from the area originally agreed with the council and approved by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA).

The OIC’s transportation committee heard on Thursday that NoSWA had provided no formal explanation as to why they had installed the pipe in a different location, but members felt that it should be up to SEPA to assess the location of the new outfall.

The owner of the Orkney Seal Rescue Centre in South Ronaldsay has welcomed moves by the OIC to prevent fish farmers from shooting seals except as a last resort.

Speaking on Thursday, Ross Flett said he did not like to see seals being shot at all, adding that it is up to every fish farmer to prove they have tried every other method of anti-predator measure, before resorting to shooting.

His comments were in response to a decision by the council's transportation committee to include a condition in future works licences that fish farmers can only shoot seals as a last resort, when all other anti-predator measures have failed to prevent attack.

Computer users in Orkney are being warned to be on the lookout for the latest computer worm spreading across the Internet. Attacking both personal computers and network servers, the Nimda worm has already seriously affected one local business.

Jeff Barrett, of R. M. Computing (Orkney) Ltd, first encountered the worm on Tuesday afternoon - some time before any of the major anti-virus software companies had become aware of it.

“The biggest problem is that it spreads very easily. Simply visiting an infected website is enough,” he explained, adding that it can also be passed on by e-mail.

"This one is world-wide and it's the worst I have ever seen,” he said.

Full details at the Symantec Website.

Eday Primary School has been commended in a national awards scheme for the quality of its website - www.eday.org.uk.

Representatives from the school were in Glasgow to receive their certificate of commendation in this year’s UK School and College Website Awards sponsored by BECTa - the British Educational Communications and Technology agency and The Guardian newspaper.

Eday head teacher, Carmel McElroy, said: “Everyone at the school is delighted to win this award for our website, which has proved to be very popular. We are amazed how many e-mail's we have received from friends, family and Eday descendants from all over the world.”

Former Orkney resident Duncan Edwards was jailed for life this week for the second time for the brutal murder of a mother-of-two during Hogmanay celebrations.

In May, 1999 Edwards (32) – formerly of Whitehouse, South Ronaldsay – was found guilty of murdering Linda Anderson but earlier this year his conviction was quashed by the appeal court because of a misdirection to the jury by the trial judge. The Court of Criminal Appeal gave authority for the Crown to bring a re-trial in the case.

Despite Edwards' denial of the horrific murder, a second jury took just over an hour to convict him of the crime by a majority verdict at the High Court in Edinburgh on Monday.

A Caithness man was injured this week after the Pentalina B ferry collided with the pier at Gills Bay while attempting to berth.

The pier worker was said to have suffered a broken leg after being hit by a pipe dislodged during the collision. He was taken to hospital in Wick before being transferred to Inverness.

Investigations into the incident, which occurred at 1pm on Monday, are underway and Mr Banks added that sailings were now operating as normal following repairs to the ship.

The next push to promote the proposed Scapa Flow container hub takes place next month with Councillor Jim Foubister and Councillor Robert Cormack attending ‘Scotland Week’ in Brussels.

According to Councillor Foubister the event will provide an ideal opportunity to keep up the momentum and widen interest in the project - but he does fear that the predicted world-wide recession and last week’s terrorist attacks in the United States could dent the shipping industry’s confidence to build and support the facility being suggested for Scapa Flow.

As part of their ongoing promotion campaign, the council have also commissioned a multimedia CD-ROM, outlining the proposal to interested parties.

Orkney College has announced the appointment of a new principal.

Dr William Ross (41) from Kidderminster, is currently head of the combined studies faculty at Bournville College of Further Education in Birmingham.

Dr Ross will replace retiring Orkney College principal Peter Scott later this year.

Local Red Cross services manager Kenny Thomson has set in motion an appeal for the American Disaster Relief Fund following the recent terrorist strikes on New York and Washington.

Mr Thomson, speaking yesterday said: “Having spent part of Red Cross Week in May in New York and staying in the Marriott Hotel at The World Trade Centre, I felt that I wanted to do something positive locally to try and support my fellow Red Cross colleagues in the USA at this tragic time.”

Donations can be sent to Mr Thomson at Red Cross House, 68 Victoria Street, Kirkwall with cheques payable to “Red Cross”. People can also donate through the collection boxes in the Red Cross shops in Kirkwall and Stromness.

Hydro-Electric have had to postpone the switch on of the new submarine electricity cable to Graemsay until next week.

The link from Orphir was laid last week and the electricity company predicted that it would be activated last Friday. However, jointing of the cable took longer than expected and the cable is not expected to be brought into service until next week.

Scottish Hydro-Electric’s manager for the Graemsay submarine cable project, Mr Ernie Greig, said: “The old cable was showing signs of advanced deterioration because of strong tidal flows on a rocky seabed and needed to be replaced as part of our commitment to upgrade the network to ensure continuity of supply to all our customers regardless of where they live.”

The cost of the cable is £250,000, which works out at £7000 for each of the 36 electricity customers on the island.

One of Orkney's most popular visitor attractions was hit by vandals at the weekend with a 200-year-old window in St Magnus Cathedral broken.

The vestry window, which bore the crest of the Halcro family, was situated towards the rear of the Cathedral and was described as “irreplaceable” by a police spokesman.

It is thought that the panes were smashed sometime on Saturday night or Sunday morning, and police have asked for anyone with information to come forward.

Orkney beat visitors Mackie Academy FPs 52-5 at a rain soaked Kirkwall Grammar School playing fields on Saturday afternoon in their first home National League Division 5 (North) fixture.

Orkney were 14-0 up within 15 minutes and 33-0 ahead at half time. In the second half they went ahead 40-0 before Mackie hemmed them back inside their 22 for a long spell, with a single unconverted try as a reward.

However, two further tries – one of them converted – extended Orkney’s lead to 52-5 before the final whistle.

There was a minute’s silence before the kick-off as a mark of respect to the victims of Tuesday’s terrorist attacks on the United States.

Around 150 tonnes of oil have been removed from the wreck of HMS Royal Oak over the last two months.

The firm contracted by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to survey the World War Two battleship, Briggs and Grolab, completed their work on Friday.

A Royal Navy spokesman said that this summer’s operation had been entirely successful, in that all the key objectives had been achieved.

The MoD intend to return to Scapa Flow next year to continue with the operation to remove the remainder of the oil.