One of Orkney’s longest serving nurses has retired after working for 33 years Kirkwall’s Balfour Hospital and the former Eastbank Hospital.

A presentation was held for Sister Mary Wylie, of Deerness, at the hospital on Friday.

No joy for Orkney teams in Drama Festival

Carnoustie Theatre Club's Burn Up by Derek Bowskill won the Scottish Community Drama Association's northern divisional finals, held in the Orkney Arts Theatre, Kirkwall, last week.

Joining them at the Scottish finals in Pitlochry will be second placed Aberfeldy Drama Club with Chekov's The Bear.

The three Orkney entries, Birsay, Stromness and Kirkwall, were unplaced, although Birsay Drama Group were presented with the Bon Accord Cup for the most successful team from a small community in the preliminary festivals.

NHS Orkney received three complaints between October and December, 2001 - but nearly 98 reported expressions of gratitude, cards, letters, gifts and donations.

According to reports to the NHS Orkney board on Thursday, two complaints were upheld - one prompting a full apology - while the third related to the time taken to return results was discovered to have been the fault of Royal Mail.

Three verbal complaints were also "satisfactorily resolved".

Council should send hub taskforce to Strasbourg – MEP

Orkney Islands Council have been urged to send a taskforce to Strasbourg to brief a European transport committee on plans to establish a container trans-shipment hub in Scapa Flow.

The call came from Scottish MEP, Struan Stevenson, at the end of a two-day visit to Orkney.

Mr Stevenson said he felt it important to speak directly to decision makers within the European Parliament to emphasise the advantages of their plan.

A campaign is under way to stop the deportation of a Peruvian man whose nine-year-old child lives in Orkney.

Scottish Socialist Party leader Tommy Sheridan has been asked to take up the case of Julio Sanchez-Hoyo, who lost an appeal at the Court of Session in Edinburgh to let him stay in the UK.

The mother of Mr Sanchez-Hoyo’s child, Carol Shearer, who lives in Hoy, is understood to have contacted Mr Sheridan's office last week in connection with the case. However parliamentary rules prevent him from taking up the case ahead of local politicians.

A massive world record breaking attempt in New York to form the largest pipe band in the world – and a celebration of the close links between Scotland and America – will be under the control of an Orkney man.

Stromness man James G. Brown, who now lives in Whitekirk, near Dunbar, will be in charge of marshalling the entire parade – which will have at least 9,300 pipers and drummers taking part – on what is also national Tartan Day.

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Ten people, including a couple from Orkney appeared at Liverpool Crown Court on Wednesday, where they denied being involved in an alleged £3.6 million debt recovery fraud.

David McHugh (41), of South Park, Eday, and Maureen Hennessey (53), whom he has recently married and is now known as Maureen McHugh, also of South Park, have been described by the prosecution as being “at the top of the tree” of the alleged fraud in England between 1997 and 2000.

All were further remanded on bail until their trial, estimated to last up to six months, beginning in the week of October 7.

Extra harbour dues for NorthLink

NorthLink will have to pay almost half a million pounds a year in harbour charges for docking their ferries at the new terminal at Hatston and the upgraded Stromness terminal.

Members of Orkney Islands Council’s transportation committee agreed that the new ferry operator should pay the same as the existing company, P&O Scottish Ferries, with an additional charge for the increased number of sailings and the staff costs involved in handling early morning and late night stopovers.

Countdown to NorthLink

St Sunniva switch to Kirkwall agreed

The P&O ferry St Sunniva will operate to and from Kirkwall Pier from next month because of safety fears over berthing in Stromness while construction work is going on at the new terminal.

The change was agreed at a meeting which was held in Stromness involving Stromness Community Council, representatives from P&O, the harbours authority and Orkney Islands Council’s technical services department and the contractor on the Stromness Pier, Currie Brothers.

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Firemen in attendance in the badly damaged kitchen

The kitchen at the Lynnfield Hotel in St Ola was gutted and parts of the building damaged, when a deep fat fryer caught fire at lunchtime on Wednesday.

Three fire engines attended the blaze, described by firemen as “very serious”, just before midday. The large team of firemen quickly brought the fire under control.

No-one was seriously hurt, although two staff members were taken to the Balfour Hospital suffering from the effects of smoke inhalation.

The Orkney Islands Council member for Rousay, Egilsay and Wyre, Councillor Robert Cormack, is to be consulted on the specification for a replacement ferry to serve the islands.

The council’s transportation committee this week agreed to a request from Councillor Cormack, who also represents Evie and Rendall, to be involved in the process of considering the size of replacement vessel, along with the crew of the current Orkney Ferries vessel Eynhallow.

Talks were held in Edinburgh on Wednesday afternoon to try to secure the future of Orkney’s inter-island air service.

Orkney Islands Council had called for a face-to-face meeting with the Deputy Minister for Finance and Local Government, Mr Peter Peacock, to discuss additional funding to pay an increased subsidy to Loganair who operate Orkney's internal air service.

The council was represented at the meeting by the chairman of their transportation committee, Councillor Stephen Hagan, director of development and protective services, Mr Jeremy Baster and director of finance and housing, Mr David Robertson.

Members of the Orkney Islands Council’s transportation committee have granted a works licence for a 12-cage salmon farm in Berstane Bay, St Ola.

The committee gave the go ahead for the development despite concerns about its proximity to the mouth of a spawning burn for sea trout. Three objections and one letter of representation had been received by the council.

OIC officials recommended refusing the application because of a lack of information on certain environmental details.

Orkney Quality Food and Drink have appointed a new co-ordinator for the group.

Mrs Elma Cullen, who is originally from Stenness, replaces Maureen Spence who joined Orkney Islands Council in a full-time capacity towards the end of last year.

Her husband Gavin is a former branch manager with the Bank of Scotland in Stromness.

Shetland Coastguard responded to a distress signal from the Peterhead-registered fishing vessel Amity, which was originally believed to be just east of Kirkwall on Monday night – but was later located off Peterhead.

The signal was received at around 11.10pm, when the Kirkwall lifeboat and the MCA emergency tug the Anglian Monarch were called to search for the vessel, along with the Sumburgh Coastguard helicopter. A number of nearby fishing vessels were also informed of the vessel's position.

The vessel was later discovered to be just off Peterhead, with an accidental triggering of its emergency beacon blamed for the false alarm.

Orkney Islands Council are to write to the Ministry of Defence (MOD) expressing concern about the apparent lack of urgency in stemming the oil leak from HMS Royal Oak.

The OIC’s transportation committee were told on Monday that the temporary boom above the wreck site had failed on February 5 and although the MOD had tried to contact the original contractors who installed it, Briggs Marine, nothing had happened to replace it.

Harbour operations manager, Captain Jim Purves, said that the MOD were due to return to Scapa Flow in late May or early June to hot-tap the remaining oil from the Royal Oak. But the committee instructed the director of harbours to write to the MOD complaining at the recent inaction over the failure of the oil boom.

The three-man crew of a South Ronaldsay creel fishing boat were rescued by another local boat midway between Pentland Skerries lighthouse and Old Head, South Ronaldsay on Monday afternoon.

According to Shetland Coastguard the three crew of the Incentive, which is owned by Cliff Norquoy, St Margaret’s Hope, were picked up by the Kirkwall-registered vessel, Mainstay, and taken to Burwick.

A spokesman from Shetland Coastguard said that it is not known as yet what caused the 45-feet vessel to start taking in water.

Hatston terminal work five weeks behind

Construction of the new ferry terminal at Hatston is five weeks behind schedule, councillors heard on Monday – but it is hoped that speeding up some of the remaining work could put the project back on target.

Consultant engineer for the Hatston and Stromness terminal projects, James Simpson of Arch Henderson, told Orkney Islands Council transportation committee members that delays had been caused by heavy rain stopping welding work, and plant breakdowns. The contractor had been given a new timetable to get work back on target, he said, including working double shifts and working over the Easter break.

OIC director of technical services Brian Thomson commented: “It’s a case of us telling them to ‘get the finger out’ and they are responding well to that.”

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The new head teacher for Kirkwall’s Papdale Primary School was announced on Monday as Lynn Whitelaw, who is currently head teacher at South Parks Primary School in Fife.

Mrs Whitelaw gained a wide range of experience as a class teacher, going on to become an assistant head and deputy head, before moving to South Parks five-and-a-half years ago.

A spokesman for the Orkney Islands Council education department commented that at a time when recruitment for promoted posts was seen to be difficult, the Papdale vacancy had attracted a number of first class candidates.

Burial of Harray baby remains takes place

The infant remains found under a floor in a house in Harray were buried on Monday at a private ceremony organised by Orkney Islands Council.

The service to rebury the bones was conducted by police chaplain Rev Dr Mike Ward.

The family of Tomima Gray, who was thought to have been involved in their earlier burial, attended the service, although forensic evidence failed to show a conclusive link to the family.

Concert win for East Mainland Young Farmers

East Mainland Young Farmers’ Club have won the concert competition, held in the Orkney Arts Theatre on Saturday night.

The performance by the club was the unanimous choice of the judges, ahead of the Harray and Sandwick Young Farmers’ productions.

Pentland Ferries service resumes

Pentland Ferries are due to resume their pasenger and vehicle service between South Ronaldsay and Caithness on Friday.

From March 29, the former Caledonian Macbrayne vessel Pentalina B will operate a thrice daily service between St Margaret's Hope and Gill's Bay.