The managing director of shipping company, Streamline, has suggested that the Contender could provide a solution to the problem of lack of capacity to ship livestock out of Orkney.

Stuart Roberts was responding to news that the specialist livestock carrier Angus Express which has been chartered by P&O Scottish Ferries for several years has now been scrapped.

Farmers in Orkney have expressed concerns that the proposed livestock carrying system of new ferry operators NorthLink might not be ready in time for the October 1 handover. However Mr Roberts feels that if a grant was made within the next month before the Contender is due to go through a major seaworthiness survey, she could be available right away.

Orkney Rugby Club’s double fixture against Aberdeen Wanderers on Saturday was called off because of the weather.

Orkney’s first team were due to play the Aberdeen team in a BT National League Division Five (North) match and the Orkney second team were due to play the Aberdeen seconds.

Chairman of the club, Mr Dave Fairnie, said: “There was a couple of inches of snow on the pitch on Thursday night. The organisers in Aberdeen said that there was due to be a thaw overnight, but as they could not guarantee the pitch would be clear, it was decided to call it off.”

The final piece of funding needed to build a slipway in Deerness was announced yesterday.

The £29,750 National Lottery grant will enable Deerness Small Boat Owners Association to progress plans for a £155,000 facility at Newark on the east coast of Orkney. Other funders include Orkney Islands Council and the local community council.

Association chairman, Mr Stuart Wylie, said he was ecstatic after hearing the news.

“There’s currently nowhere between Kirkwall and Herston where you can launch a boat using a public facility – that’s 90 miles of coastline,” he said.

The old Phoenix Cinema in Kirkwall – the preferred site for a women’s refuge in Orkney – has several other interested buyers, Orkney Islands Council social work committee members heard on Thursday.

Chairman, Councillor Keith Johnson and Councillor Jack Moodie told members that there were several private buyers interested in purchasing the site and the refuge working group are being advised to look at other sites for possible premises.

Councillors agreed to recommend that the finance and general purposes committee look at the most appropriate use of the old Phoenix Cinema site, while the working group investigate other possible sites.

Representatives from the Crofters Commission held a meeting in Eday on Wednesday evening to discuss plans for developing community initiatives on the island.

The invitation came from the local community council who felt that a number of people who had bought crofts on Eday were not aware of the Commission’s role in management of the land involved or the system of grants available to them.

It was agreed that a community development officer from the Inverness headquarters of the Commission should work with islanders, Orkney Islands Council and Orkney Enterprise, to look at methods of maintaining population numbers and the crofting way of life.

Two farmers from Orkney have been chosen to judge at this year’s Perth Bull Sales which are due to be held next month.

Colin Davidson, Skaill Farm, Sandwick, will be judging 132 Aberdeen Angus bulls, while Terry Coghill, Muce, Birsay, will judge the entire Simmental section of 159 bulls and 55 females.

For the first time ever, and because of biosecurity precautions, the sale of some of the livestock will be held a fortnight after the show and judging takes place.

Orkney Islands Council have again topped the Scottish league table for the highest collection of council tax in the past year.

This is the fifth year in succession that Orkney has had the best record in the country for collecting council tax.

Figures released by the Accounts Commission for Scotland show that the OIC collected 96.4 per cent of the total amount of council tax due in the financial year 2000/01. This was 0.01 per cent higher than in the previous year.

The Orkney Cheese Company - who laid off seven workers just before Christmas last year - have taken on a relief worker to cover during holiday periods.

The new worker is being employed through the Orkney Business Ring, which provides relief staff, for three-week stints, packing cheese into cardboard boxes.

Seven workers accepted voluntary redundancy from the award-winning cheese factory, leaving 26 employees.

Management criticised - click here for full story>

Nationally, newspapers have branded the woman involved in the tragic tale following the discovery of the bones of three newborn babies under a house in Harray as “Scotland’s worst female serial killer” and the small cottage in Harray the “house of horrors”.

However, the immediate family of the woman, Tomima Gray – who is said to have drowned her grandchildren immediately after birth in the early 1900s – tell a different story.

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Bad management has been blamed for financial losses incurred by the multi-million pound Pickaquoy Centre last year.

The £37,349 losses, during 2000/2001, were due almost entirely to the poor performance of the centre’s catering section which suffered losses of £32,176 during the year..

The Kirkwall centre is not expected to make a profit and is therefore subsidised each year by Orkney Islands Council, but councillors at Monday’s recreation and cultural services were told that at the end of the 2001 financial year, the centre was £289,349 in the red against an agreed deficit of £252,000.

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OIC and MoD still talking about Ness Battery purchase

Orkney Islands Council are still in negotiation with the Ministry of Defence over the possible purchase of the Ness Battery near Stromness.

The council want to buy the World War Two site and turn it into an interpretation centre for the public.

A progress report was considered by councillors at this week’s recreation and cultural services committee. Speaking afterwards, committee chairman Councillor John Brown said negotiations were still taking place over the purchase.

Plans to freeze OIC cash grants to local inshore fishermen have been put on hold to allow more talks to take place.

The decision to stop the grants was taken by councillors in reaction to the lack of support by fishermen for a Regulating Order in Orkney, but the proposal was referred back by the full council to yesterday's economic development committee.

Official recommendations before the meeting, again proposed to put a stop to the grants, but it was eventually agreed to defer the matter to allow a public meeting of fishermen to take place.

£300,000 push on hub plans backed

OIC councillors yesterday backed plans to spend £300,000 over the next two years on promoting Orkney’s case for a container transhipment port in Scapa Flow.

The chance to press the case exists now, according to OIC development director, Mr Jeremy Baster, who told members of the economic development committee this week that the opportunity may only last a year or two.

“There is a current perception that there is a need for a hub port in Northern Europe and there are other areas with aspirations to meet this need, apart from Scapa,” he said.

Councillors have again called for ways to speed up development of private house sites in Stromness.

Meeting on Tuesday, members of the Orkney Islands Council planning committee wanted to see three proposed sites at Garson developed as quickly as possible.

To find money to put in the roads and services needed for the Stromness scheme to go ahead, a report will be prepared for the council’s finance and general purposes committee, asking them to divert unused funds set aside to develop private sites in Kirkwall to the Garson project.

Council to consider wreck line proposal

Orkney Dive Boat Operators Association are hoping to attach permanent shot lines to the remains of the German World War One fleet in Scapa Flow to help sports divers visiting the wrecks.

Orkney Islands Council own four of the wrecks and the association are intending to ask the council’s permission to apply for Scheduled Monument Consent to attach the lines. The wrecks were recently scheduled as ancient monuments.

Councillors at Monday's recreation and cultural services committee were told that temporary lines were currently affixed which were now illegal because of the scheduling, and more likely to cause damage to the wrecks.

Further attempts to plant native trees in Orkney are being supported by Orkney Islands Council, with proposals to spend £9,000 on a project over the next three years.

The continued funding of the Orkney Woodland Development Project was supported at this week's recreation and cultural services committee.

The council's contribution is 21 per cent of the total cost of the project which will cover the employment of a part-time woodland officer for three years.

Chat show appearance for Harray remains man

Orkney man Michael Gray appeared live on the Richard and Judy television show on Tuesday night to talk about his family’s links with the children’s bones discovered underneath a house in Harray.

Mr Gray (25) claims his great-grandmother, Tomima Gray, drowned at least three of her grandchildren - born illegitimate to her unmarried daughter, Violet, between the 1900s and 1920s in Harray.

The old Phoenix Cinema in Kirkwall is the preferred site for a women’s refuge in Orkney.

The OIC social work committee will hear this week that the refuge will likely be a new-build project offering four refuge places to women and their children.

Around £65,000 has been allocated by the council to the capital programme for 2002-2003, with the Scottish Executive likely to provide in the region of £240,000 towards the cost of building the refuge.

The refuge is to be developed by Orkney Housing Association Ltd and run by Women’s Aid Orkney.

NorthLink acquire freight and livestock vessel

The 30-year-old vessel is to be renamed Hascosay, and will join the three ferries currently under construction in Finland as part of the NorthLink fleet.

According to NorthLink, the 118 metres long vessel will be able to carry over 50 trailers or, in cassette livestock mode, accommodate 5,500 lambs or 1,000 cattle on a daily basis as well as about 20 trailers.

Engine problem leaves Orcades Viking stranded in Shetland

Orkney’s largest fishing vessel and one of the biggest in the UK fleet, Orcades Viking III, is still out of commission and could remain so for around three months.

The vessel broke down earlier this month and had to be towed into Lerwick. The trawler has been at the Green Head base at the north end of Lerwick Harbour ever since awaiting repair.

A detailed inspection showed that the crankshaft needed to be replaced, and in order to get at the faulty part, the ship’s engine and gearbox will also have to be removed.

Funding of the Pickaquoy Centre in Kirkwall was discussed behind closed doors this afternoon, however the annual accounts of the centre were eventually taken in public at today's OIC recreation and cultural services committee.

The centre is expected to end the current financial year up to the end of this March with a £292,700 deficit. The amount is due to be paid off by the Orkney Islands Council.

Another win for Orkney rugby squad

Orkney Rugby Club's First XV chalked up another victory on Saturday, beating Moray in their latest BT National Division Five fixture.

The 32-12 away win earns Orkney a bonus point. Two tries came from Al Watson, with Garry Coltherd, Ian Rushbrook and Steven Groat each scoring one.

A defeat for Caithness on Saturday pushes Orkney ten points ahead at the top of the league table.

Government pledge to improve communication links

Following last week's call by Orkney and Shetland MP, Mr Alistair Carmichael, for broadband communications to the Northern Isles, the Government have pledged to improve communic ation links throughout Scotland to make it a leader in the use of new technology and e-commerce.

The Scottish Secretary, Mrs Helen Liddell, has announced that £30 million would be spent over the next three years to enable broadband communications to be extended throughout the country, with £4.4 million being given to the Scottish Executive.

Posthumous award for Longhope lifeboat stalwart

Mr Groat died in a tragic road accident four miles south of Helmsdale on the A9 on July 16 last year. He had been the Honorary Treasurer of the Longhope Lifeboat Institution since 1986, a post he took over on his father’s retirement.

The award will be accepted by his widow, Mrs Moira Groat at the RNLI’s Scottish AGM in Perth on May 21, 2002.

Licensing board agree to transfer of licences

Dawn Flett, who purchased the West End Hotel in October, last year, has been granted a permanent transfer of the hotel licence and Brian Flett, an off-sales licence for Bruce’s Stores, which he bought in November.

Members also agreed to confirm the transfer of the public house licence at Kirkwall Airport to Highlands and Islands Airports Ltd and Sheila Rigby.