Grampian TV on digital

Viewers in Orkney will now have access to Grampian TV via a satellite signal, according to the broadcasters.

ITV say they have concluded an access agreement with Sky Digital which will allow people with Sky Digital Smartcards to see Grampian and Scottish TV on channel 103 on Sky EPG.

Viewers will still be able to tune into the analogue signal as before.

Strong interest in container port plans

Four organisations, including leading players in the ports and related industries, have expressed strong interest in the plans to establish a container port in Orkney's Scapa Flow.

This follows a request from the project steering group, including Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Orkney Islands Council and Orkney Enterprise that statements of interest be submitted by the end of October. Detailed discussions will now be held with each of the interested parties, which include Forth Ports plc, who have made their interest public.

The steering group will also continue to liaise with a range of other companies in the container shipping industry, from North America, Europe and the Far East, with whom discussions have been held over the last year.

A report will be prepared for the next full council meeting about the need for a new marshalling area for ferry traffic in Stromness and how it could be funded.

Members of the finance and general purposes committee have considered the advantages of the scheme because it tied in with the new marina project for the town.

OIC vice-convener, Councillor Jim Sinclair, said he had tentatively put forward the idea of delaying the marina project for a year to let the whole package, including the extended marshalling area go ahead together.

Herring firm create right VIBES with waste cuts

Orkney Herring managing director Mr Ken Sutherland is pictured with Galina Livingstone, Orkney Herring’s environmental consultant and the barrels of brine which are recycled. (Picture: Orkney Photographic)

Stromness based Orkney Herring have won through to the finals of an environmental competition which is being run by 13 partner organisations including The North of Scotland Water Authority.

The company have reduced wastage by receiving herring with the skins removed. Herring barrels and the brine inside are returned to the supplier for re-use, achieving savings on both sides.

Orkney Herring have won the regional northern heat of the medium-sized company category. The Vision in Business for the Environment of Scotland (VIBES) awards will be made at a ceremony in Edinburgh on Tuesday, December 4.

Concern as Hoy ‘loner’ vanishes

Orkney police are concerned over the disappearance of an eccentric loner living rough on the island of Hoy.

The man, who is described as being in his 50s, 5ft 6in with grey, shoulder-length hair, had been living on the island throughout the summer months, sleeping on the hills in a tent.

However, police are becoming increasingly concerned for his welfare after a tent and a few possessions were discovered on a hill.

Kirkwall Police Inspector Paul Eddington said: “He has not been seen for 33 days. He was a fairly regular visitor to the Post Office for provisions every fortnight but he has not been there for 33 days.”

MP attacks ‘draconian’ anti-terrorist legislation

Northern Isles MP Alistair Carmichael joined human rights groups this week in condemning legislation being rushed through by the Government following the September 11 terrorist attacks on America.

The Government’s Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Bill is aimed at tightening up national security, but it is also being seen as a violation of fundamental human rights.

The Bill had its second reading in the House of Commons on Monday and speaking beforehand, Mr Carmichael said he and many of his Liberal Democrat colleagues would not be supporting it.

Extra week to consider redundancy deal

Orkney Cheese Ltd are continuing to look for voluntary redundancies this week, with an enhanced package and an extra week for workers to consider the deal.

Employees have been given to the end of the week to look at the redundancy package after the money on offer was increased. Several employees came forward before last week’s deadline, and it is understood that more are considering their position.

Meanwhile, Orkney Cheese have moved to defend the company’s decision to shed jobs.

Call for £50 Christmas bonus is knocked back

A Kirkwall councillor has had his call for an increase to Orkney’s annual Christmas bonus paid to pensioners, widows and the disabled knocked back.

Councillor Jack Moodie wrote to his fellow members to support a £20 rise in the figure recommended for this year’s Christmas bonus – from £30 to £50.

Councillor Moodie’s proposal was considered at yesterday’s meeting of the OIC’s finance and general purposes committee, against a recommendation from finance department staff that it should be £30. The committee agreed by six votes to two to keep the bonus at £30.

Delay in bid for Citizens Advice Bureau funding

An immediate request for funding from Orkney Citizens Advice Bureau has been withdrawn but a detailed report on the organisation’s finances will be considered early next year.

Members of the OIC’s finance and general purposes committee were told yesterday that an item on their agenda which looked at continued support of the local CAB service had been withdrawn but that a further report would come before the council in February, 2002.

Councillor Jack Moodie wanted an assurance that the council were willing to give the CAB the level of support they needed to continue.

Volunteer pair in running for £1,000 award

An Orkney couple have been shortlisted for a £1,000 prize for their voluntary work with youngsters in the county.

David and Margo MacPherson of Albert Street in Kirkwall have opened their home up to youngsters, aged between 10-16, after becoming concerned that there was not enough for them to do in the town.

The couple will be flown down to London for a champagne and cocktail reception on Wednesday next week to find out whether they have won the prize.

Maurice Thomson (centre) is presented with his award by Ivan Lewis, MP (left) and Whitworth Society president Matthew Black.

An Orcadian engineering student has won a scholarship for his success at university.

Maurice Thomson (24) Peckhole, North Ronaldsay, was presented with the Whitworth Award from the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) at a ceremony in London on Monday night, after he gained top marks in the second year of his course in mechanical engineering at Robert Gordon University (RGU) in Aberdeen.

Maurice only took up further education relatively recently. He left school at 16 and joined Craigie Engineering in Kirkwall, where worked for five years.

Tourism structure on the agenda

The chairman of the Orkney Tourist Board, Captain Bob Sclater, has reiterated his call to the chairman of VisitScotland, Mr Peter Lederer, to have the fullest possible consultation within the industry before cutting the number of area tourist boards from fourteen to five or six.

Captain Sclater put Mr Lederer's suggestions for the integrated support structure for Scottish tourism onto the agenda of this week's meeting of the OIC's finance and general purposes committee.

He hopes that no change to the status quo will be made until full consultation has taken place, and only then, if it benefits tourism in Orkney.

Work starts on new Kirkwall nightclub

Work has started on the conversion of the former Orkney Seafoods premises on Ayre Road into a nightclub.

The developer, Neil Stevenson, has confirmed that Heddle Construction Ltd have taken over from Messrs Andrew Tait and Son who went into liquidation a fortnight ago, as the main contractor on the Ayre Road conversion project.

Mr Stevenson said that the new contractors had made “good progress” in the first week of working on the scheme and that the first phase of the Ayre Road conversion, to turn the ground floor into a music venue and nightclub, is still due for completion by the original finishing date at the end of January 2002.

A 20-year-old man has denied bursting into a Kirkwall pub, armed with a broken pool cue and assaulting a man.

Tony Steeple, St Margaret’s Hope, denied, while acting along with Colin Low, invading the Torvhaug Inn while armed with a broken pool cue and assaulting Allan Besant, fighting, overturning furniture, breaking glasses and committing a breach of the peace on November 26, 2000.

Low was jailed for nine months at Kirkwall Sheriff Court in June this year for invading the pub with a broken pool cue and assaulting two people.

Co-accused David Sutherland (22), Jonathan Iain Gatt (21) and Ian Spence (37) also denied the charge and a trial date was set for December 4 for all four.

A Norwegian man appeared from custody at Kirkwall Sheriff Court on Tuesday and admitted failing to pay for board and lodgings while staying in Stronsay.

Bo Lennart Johansson Boren (51), of no fixed address, admitted between November 5 and 19 failing to pay the Stronsay Fish Mart £140 worth of board and lodgings.

Sheriff Colin Scott Mackenzie deferred sentence on Boren until Thursday to allow him to contact the Norwegian Consul for help in possibly returning to Norway. He was released on bail on condition that he does not leave Orkney.

An overwhelming majority of the 60 people attending a public meeting at Evie School to hear plans to site four fish farm cages in Woodwick Bay, Evie, voted against the proposal.

Bruce Mainland, representing Aquascot, who have applied to develop the site, told the meeting of the plans to put four cages in the bay for ongrowing from smolts to breeding stock, which is part of the process in producing organic salmon.

But locals voiced concerns about the impact on tourism and the environment, and despite Mr Mainland’s attempt to allay these, there were only five votes in favour of the proposal at the end of the meeting.

Scottish Natural Heritage have come up with a scheme to try and halt the decline of hen harrier numbers in Orkney.

Representatives addressed the Orkney branch of NFU Scotland on Monday night to outline the plan through which farmers will be paid to create more rough grassland, which encourages Orkney voles and other small birds, which in turn act as the staple diet for birds of prey such as hen harriers.

SNH propose entering into management agreements with landowners who farm within 2 kilometres of the West Mainland Moorlands SSSI, and the Orphir and Stenness Hills.

A Kirkwall councillor has called for the Christmas bonus paid to pensioners, widows and disabled people in Orkney to be increased to £50.

Councillor Jack Moodie has written to his fellow members to support a £20 rise in the figure recommended for this year’s Christmas bonus. He argues that a payment of £50 would allow pensioners and the disabled to share in the benefits from the OIC’s “vast reserves.”

Councillor Moodie’s proposal will be considered at Wednesday’s meeting of the OIC’s finance and general purposes committee. The director of finance and housing, David Robertson, is recommending that the Christmas bonus should be £30.

The late Allie Windwick’s song Lonely Scapa Flow has been included in a collection of tunes recorded by Jim MacLeod MBE.

The CD is the soundtrack from the video, High Days and Holidays, and track number seven, performed by Jim MacLeod, is the haunting sound of Lonely Scapa Flow, written by Allie Windwick, who died in 1999.

The new release offers Mr MacLeod the chance to reflect on happy days gone by when he and his band performed alongside many special guests at locations through Scotland.

Steve Hogsden . (Picture: Orkney Photographic)

Wheelchair-bound archer, Steve Hogsden from Stromness, is looking forward to competing in the Scottish Short Metre Championships next May, and a possible invitation to the UK Championships in Rugby next summer.

This follows his win in the Scottish Indoor Archery Championships for physically disabled people at Lasswade near Edinburgh at the weekend.

After returning home to Orkney last night, Steve said: “It hasn’t quite sunk in yet. But it’s a good feeling.”

Steve Hogsden (49) trains with the Garson Archers in Stromness, but is registered with Disability Sport Fife.

Ghostly recruits sought to help with ‘Historical Haunts’ tours

People who like ghosts and ghouls and things that go bump in the night should join the Orkney Skatepark Group “Historical Haunts” tour around Kirkwall on Friday night.

The group, who are raising funds to create their own skate park, say the historical walk will feature the “darker side of town” and describe the tour as being a “cross between a ghost walk and a scary history lesson around the dark corners of old Kirkwall”.

They are looking volunteers to add realistic special effects to give folk a real fright on the way round. The tour will set off from the Kirkwall Community Centre at 6.30pm and run every 15 minutes until 8.30pm. Each tour will last around half an hour. Tickets are priced £3 and £2 concession.

Anyone interested in helping out should call Bill Petrie on 872744.

Orkney were beaten 36-12 by visiting team Kilmarnock Falcons in Kirkwall on Saturday evening, in what was probably the home side's first flood-lit game.

The BT Cellnet Cup fixture finally kicked off at the Pickaquoy Centre at 4.45pm, after a ferry delay meant the visiting team arrived in the county after dark.

The fixture was always expected to be a tough one for the Orkney squad as Kilmarnock are at present mid league in the BT National League Division 1.

Belgarth beat a thousand drums with launch of new Orkney Wine Company

Eoin Leonard of Belgarth Bodhrans at work on one of his drums.

The West Mainland company of Belgarth Bodhrans have reached a milestone, with their 1,000th drum made and delivered to its new owner.

Operating from Kirbister, in Stromness parish, the landmark bodhran was a customised design for the new Orkney Wine Company.

Run by Mr Emile van Schayk, the new company will be producing wines from his own recipes.

With most of his family already owning and playing a Belgarth Bodhran, Mr Van Schayk thought that his own should commemorate both the 1,000th bodhran and the beginning of his own new business.

Orkney generosity sees over £15,000 raised for Children in Need appeal

At the end of Radio Orkney's annual Children in Need event, the total raised in the county was £15,707.89 - the biggest "on the night" total for many years.

This figure is expected to grow with still more to come in from various other fundraising events still to be held.

The top auction items were a pair of
gold rings from Aurora jewellery at £420, with a wooden bound copy of the Saga of St Magnus made by Sui Generis in Eday going for £420.

Radio Orkney senior producer John Fergusson said: "The way that people in Orkney have supported the appeal this year has been fantastic - we'd like to thank everyone involved with fundraising events all over the county."