NorthLink refute job-cutting allegations

Responding to concerns in the Northern Isles, NorthLink have refuted accusations that it is seeking to cut jobs in the islands.

NorthLink commercial director Gareth Crichton said: "We have from the outset stated that we would take on all the existing seafaring employees and in all likelihood would need to recruit additional staff to operate the vessels."

Commenting on local concerns regarding the employment of existing shore-based staff, he said that because NorthLink will be operating larger ships with more frequent sailings, they will require shore facilities to be open longer and in turn generate further work.

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Funding boost for credit union study

Plans to create a credit union in Orkney have been given a major boost with a cash grant going towards a project feasibility study.

Voluntary Action Orkney have secured a grant of £2,953 from Communities Scotland, towards the £8,873 cost of a feasibility study to assess the level of interest in the county for the idea of a credit union - a financial co-operative, owned and controlled by its members, providing accessible savings, low cost loans and other financial services.

Henry McLeish during a visit to Orkney, where he officially opened the new Balfour Hospital operating theatre. (Picture: Orkney Photographic)

Orkney MSP and Deputy First Minister, Jim Wallace, has assumed the role of acting First Minister for a third time, following the resignation of Henry McLeish on Thursday.

Speaking on Thursday, Mr Wallace said: "I -and all members of the Cabinet - are saddened that Henry McLeish has resigned as First Minister in such circumstances. Everyone will appreciate from his statement to Parliament his reasons for doing so. It must have been a very difficult personal decision for him to make, but we all respect that decision."

Mr Wallace, who also took over during the illness of Donald Dewar and following his death last year, will fill the role on a caretaker basis until the Labour Party choose a successor.

Stromness Hotel birthday weekend celebrations

A milestone in the history of Stromness is reached this weekend with the town’s namesake hotel celebrating its 100th birthday.

The centenary is being marked by a weekend of activities and entertainment which started on Friday night.

The weekend continued on Saturday with an exhibition of wedding photos taken in the hotel over the past 100 years and an exhibition of jewellery, followed by a Steak Night and Dance.

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Local dive boats point finger at south operator over Flow theft claims

Orkney’s dive boat operators have spoken out in an attempt to distance themselves from the alleged theft of artefacts from a German wreck in Scapa Flow.

And the eight operators, based locally and all members of the Orkney Dive Boat Operators’ Association, say they know whose boat was involved.

Mr John Thornton, who owns the dive boat Karin, said: “The boat works out of the north-east coast of England but has come up here intermittently, over the last year or two.”

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A man now living in Kirkwall is to stand trial at Alloa Sheriff Court for a catalogue of sexual abuse against two young girls which date back to the 1970s.

Brian Hill (42), whose address was given as a house in Ingale, Papdale East, Kirkwall, denied abusing the two Alloa girls when they were both nine.

One of the girls was alleged to have been abused between January 1978 and December 1980. The abuse of the second girl is alleged to have taken place in Alloa from January 1980 and December 1983.

Hill is to appear at his first diet later this month.

It appears that all 31 employees of the Kirkwall building firm Andrew Tait & Son Ltd face redundancy after the company called in a liquidator.

The firm’s latest building project was locked up on Tuesday afternoon when news of the financial situation was broken by director, Leslie Tait, and senior bank officials, at a meeting of the workforce.

The man charged with sorting out the firm’s debts, Inverness-based accountant, Ian Fraser, said: “It came on them quite quickly. The banks just said ‘No more,’ and that was it. We will now have to have discussions with clients like the Housing Association on the best route open for the employees and the association to finish the projects.

Orkney MSP, Mr Jim Wallace, has again raised the issue of scallop testing with the Food Standards Agency (FSA), and suggesting ways the system could be improved to help fishermen continue working when toxins are found in local shellfish.

Mr Wallace said the FSA had agreed to meet with fishermen and processors in Orkney. He hoped it would be possible for the agency to benefit from local knowledge about sampling and the testing of scallops.

He has also asked if it would be possible to subdivide the fishery area north of Kirkwall known as Box 011, as had been done in the past, rather than having a blanket ban over such a large area.

Factory workforce to be cut by 31 per cent

The scale of staff cutbacks at Orkney Cheese Ltd has now been confirmed, with the company looking to shed eight workers- seven full-time and one part-time.

With a total 26 people employed by the company, the redundancies will see the workforce reduced by 31 per cent.

Staff were first made aware of the planned redundancies last Friday, as the business prepared to move to new premises in Hatston and workers received letters looking for voluntary redundancies.

Wallace urges Health Minister to consider solutions to Orkney dentist shortage

Orkney MSP, Jim Wallace has written to Health Minister Susan Deacon, drawing her attention to the difficulties experienced recruiting dentists for Orkney.

NHS Orkney's chief administrative dental officer, Mrs Moya Nelson, has put the problem down to a national shortage of qualified dentists and to Orkney being at the end of the chain.

In his letter to Ms Deacon, Mr Wallace has asked her to consider a number of possible solutions to the problem put to him by Mrs Nelson, including improving the incentives to dentists to come to Orkney.

The Kirkwall building firm of Andrew Tait & Son Ltd called in the liquidators on Tuesday.

Workers on the company’s latest building project, Phase Two of Kirkwall's Kiln Corner development, walked off site on Tuesday afternoon when news of the financial situation was broken.

The first phase of the Kiln Corner contract was awarded to the firm in January 2000.

No one from Tait’s was available for comment, with calls being referred to Inverness based accountants, Tenon Scotland.

Trial date set for Torvhaug case

Three men appeared at Kirkwall Sheriff Court on Tuesday in connection with an incident in Kirkwall's Torvhaug Inn in November last year.

David Sutherland (22), Jonathan Iain Gatt (21) and Tony Steeple (20), all of St Margaret’s Hope, appeared before Sheriff Colin Scott Mackenzie today, charged with bursting into the bar armed with broken pool cues and assaulting a man.

Sutherland and Gatt denied the alleged offence. Another co-accused Ian Spence (37) of Birsay denied the charge at an earlier hearing. A trial date has been fixed for December 4. The case against Steeple was continued without plea until November 20.

Kirkwall Hotel owner, Colin Low, was sentenced to nine months in prison in June for bursting into the Torvhaug Inn with a broken pool cue and assaulting two people.

Wave measurement study under way

The next stage in the development of the proposed Marine Energy Test Centre in Stromness began this week with a wave measurement study off the West Mainland's Black Craig.

A one-metre diameter spherical buoy measures wave heights, directions and duration, transmitting data back to Heriot-Watt University’s Orkney campus in Stromness. There, the information is analysed by postgraduate student Mr Barry Johnston.

During the last week, the largest wave recorded by the equipment was just over eight metres high, although researchers expect to see waves of up to 15 metres high over the winter months.

Councillors have granted a works licence for a new fish farm at Myre Bay in South Walls, although an appeal against the application by Aquascot is still being considered by the Scottish Executive.

Members of the OIC’s transportation committee agreed that having earlier approved such a licence, that it should now be issued to the developer.

Members feared that objectors would use the statutory 28-day period for appeals to deliberately hold up work commencing on any proposed site.

The decision to issue the works licence went directly against the advice of council legal officials who suggested withholding the issue of the licence until the appeals process had been exhausted.

Management and workers at Orkney Cheese Ltd are in discussion following news that the cheese factory is set to shed jobs.

On Friday, as the business prepared to move to new premises in Hatston, workers received letters looking for voluntary redundancies.

Tim Deakin, manager of Orkney Cheese Ltd said on Monday that he could not confirm how many jobs had to go. A meeting between management and the union to discuss proposed redundancies was to be held yesterday.

Sandwick centenarian passes away

One of the two Orcadian men to celebrate their one hundredth birthday last month has died.

Alfie Merriman, from Newgarth, Sandwick, reached 100 on October 15 and a party at the Merkister was arranged in his honour for that day.

Mr Merriman died on Sunday.

Archive story: Alfie is a good advert for reaching 100

Councillors reject recommendation and go ahead with new Stromness ice plant

Councillors have backed plans to build a new Stromness ice plant, despite a downturn in the fishing industry and rising costs.

The council were intending to spend £200,000 on a new plant and the project had got as far as tenders being submitted. The lowest bid received to build the plant came in at £24,000 overbudget but councillors at Monday's transportation committee went against the official recommendation and backed the construction of a new plant.

They agreed to recommend that the plan should go ahead and that the additional money should be found by the Finance and General Purposes committee.

People in Orkney are being given the chance to have a say on pub opening hours, among other things.

Their views will be taken on board by Sheriff Principal Gordon Nicholson QC, who is visiting Orkney to chair a review of Liquor Licensing Law in Scotland. He is chairman of the independent committee nominated by the Scottish Executive to lead the review.

At a public meeting next Tuesday - November 13 - Sheriff Nicholson will find out what local people think about the current laws and how they should be changed, if at all. This is the first opportunity since the Licensing Scotland Act 1976 for significant changes to be made to licensing legislation.

Orkney's Skara Brae visitor centre has won Historic Scotland’s regional customer care award for 2001.

Historic Scotland hold the performance awards annually to recognise the work of the staff at more than 70 properties throughout Scotland, and to acknowledge their commitment to ensuring visitors to Scotland receive a high quality of welcome.

A £200,000 extension and improvement to the Finstown community hall is due to be submitted to the Scottish Executive as Orkney's number one priority local capital grants scheme project.

The project to upgrade the hall was given priority by councillors at Monday's recreation and cultural services committee and will go forward for grant assistance.

Nearly 100 people presented themselves as homeless in Orkney between April and October this year.

The biggest cause is reported to be relationship breakdown, often involving abuse; being asked to leave by family and friends or action by a landlord or discharge from institutional care.

The council's housing division try to avoid using bed and breakfast accommodation to rehome and currently utilise 48 properties, all fully furnished, in Kirkwall, Stromness, Finstown, St Margaret’s Hope and Burray, members of the social work and housing meeting were told.

Scapa Flow fuelling station plans unveiled

Scapa Flow could become a major bunker fuelling station for ships plying northern waters, if proposals revealed last week come to fruition.

The plans were unveiled by Orkney's harbours director Captain Nigel Mills who said the council had been contacted by a company called Eco Phoenix.

The company want to establish a bunker fuel sales outlet in Scapa Flow and are initially interested in using a barge, followed by a 25,000 tonne bunker tanker anchored in the harbour if the project is successful. A final stage would see a permanent onshore facility constructed holding 30,000 tonnes of bunker fuel.

A report on the matter went before councillors at Monday's transportation committee.

Report says cost of fixed links between isles far outweighs any benefits

The costs of linking some of the North Isles together with causeways outweigh any potential benefits, according to a report before councillors this week.

More than £350 million would have to be spent on building five causeways between the isles, says the report. Proposals include links between Westray and Papa Westray, Westray and Eday, and Rousay to the Mainland. The report concludes that the costs are out of proportion to the likely benefits.

Councillors at Monday's transportation committee noted the report but also asked that it be circulated to community councils for their comment.

New post to tackle drug and alcohol abuse

A new post is being created in Orkney to help tackle the increasing problem of drug and alcohol abuse among young people in the islands.

Orkney Islands Council have been awarded £90,000 over the next three years to create a young people’s advisor post after submitting a successful bid to the Scottish Executive.

Mr Jim Fullarton, service manager New Community Schools in Orkney, said they are in the process of drawing up a job description and are looking to advertise as soon as possible.