Three units from the Kirkwall and Stromness Fire Brigades attended a fire at the Hatston Industrial Estate in Kirkwall on Thursday night.

Police on patrol alerted the fire service after noticing excess smoke coming from the premises of William Jolly on Scott's Road.

The fire, which started in the fish-smoking kiln, was extinguished by 11.30pm. A fire brigade spokesman said there was "moderate" fire and smoke damage.

The business was open as usual on Friday.

Mr Daniel Connor

The Sanday Community School's new head teacher is due to take up the post on April 1, 2005.

Daniel Connor is moving from Denbigh High School in Luton where he has been Depute Head Teacher for 12 years.

He said: "It's long been an ambition to live and work and Orkney, and I'm looking forward to working with the community in Sanday to carry on the already excellent provision there is for their young people."

Daniel will take over from current Head Teacher, Jackie Sinclair, who is leaving the post to become a Schools Inspector based in Inverness.

Delivery company Parcelforce Worldwide says it is battling hard to save the early morning Pentland Firth sailings, due to be scrapped by NorthLink.

Stating that they do not believe the NorthLink consultation was "effective and wide reaching", a spokesman said: "If the decision to scrap the early morning sailing is upheld, this will devastate our efforts (to improve service), not only from a business perspective, but also in our duty to serve the people of Orkney."

The new centre is an important part of the redevelopment of the Shapinsay Community School site by Orkney Islands Council, which will include a Health Centre with doctor's surgery and nursing consulting room.

The OIC hopes that islanders of all ages will make the most of the new centre, which is equipped with the latest fitness equipment, funded by the Scottish Executive Rural Challenge Fund.

Healthy Living Centres are also planned over the next 18 months for St Margaret's Hope, Westray, Sanday, Stronsay, North Walls and Rousay.

Sanday-based composer Sir Peter Maxwell Davies has joined some of the biggest names in the music business by making his work available for download from his internet site.

Some 54 pieces of Max's work are available via music.maxopus.com, and his manager, Judy Arnold, says more will be available in the New Year.

The site went live about three months ago, and Judy said it had been inundated with orders from around the world. Seventeen of the pieces available have specific Orkney content, including Lullaby for Lucy, An Orkney Wedding, with Sunrise and A Hoy Calendar.

PC David Dawson (left) and PC Jim Mollison with the haul of illicit booze taken from underage drinkers

The "socially acceptable" drinking culture among youngsters in Orkney may well claim a life this Christmas. That was the stark warning from Orkney GP, Dr Paul Kettle this week.

He was speaking after police in the county unveiled a huge haul of illicit alcohol taken from underage children on their way to a dance.

The drink, confiscated from a dozen youngsters as young as 14, included a variety of alcopops, lager as well as a home-made concoction and was taken from youngsters hiding up lanes in Kirkwall's Albert Street on a recent Saturday night.

A Kirkwall man has been placed under curfew and banned from going out at weekends after admitting assaulting a police officer.

Barry Rendall, 22, of Islands View Road, Kirkwall, appeared in Kirkwall Sheriff Court on Wednesday and admitted causing a breach of the peace by fighting, struggling with police officers, and assaulting a police constable on November 30.

Sheriff Graeme Napier ordered Rendall to remain indoors between 6pm and 6am every night for the next three months, then for the following nine months from 6pm on Friday to 6am on Monday. He was also placed on 18 months probation.

A Kirkwall man who breached his probation was sentenced to six months in prison, at Kirkwall Sheriff Court on Wednesday.

James Stewart Dunnett, 42, of Holm Branch Road, Kirkwall, admitted phoning his wife and placing her in a state of fear in November 2003.

Dunnett had previously been placed on probation for wilfully starting a fire in his house in September 2003.

Cheaper air fares could still be on the cards for Orkney following a meeting of key transport officials last week.

The Highlands and Islands Strategic Transport Authority (HITRANS) has agreed to place Orkney and Shetland together with the Western Isles in a "bundle" to receive funding under a public service obligation (PSO) to subsidise air fares.

The original proposal to pair Shetland and the Western Isles meant Orkney looked set to lose out. The final decision will be made by the Nicol Stephen, transport minister, after Christmas.

Orkney is home to some of the highest achieving secondary school pupils in Scotland.

New figures released this week show that schools in the county are still producing higher and standard grades well above the national average.

A spokesman from Orkney Islands Council said: “We have noted the results achieved which are due to the hard work of pupils and our staff.

“We monitor the results each year and identify which areas we can improve upon because we understand the importance of highers as the gateway to further education.”

The two rangers will develop programmes to safeguard and promote the World Heritage Site - which includes Maeshowe, the Stones of Stenness, the Ring of Brodgar and Skara Brae.

One full-time ranger will be employed to provide a seven-day-a-week service, with an additional seasonal ranger used during the summer months. It is hoped the rangers will be in post by April 2005.

A report is to be submitted to the procurator fiscal following a two-vehicle road accident in Kirkwall on Tuesday.

A Ford Transit van and Daewoo Matiz were involved in a collision at 1.30pm at the Wellington Street and Junction Road junction.

Although no-one was injured several occupants were taken to Balfour Hospital as a precaution.

The two-day Scottish Executive inquiry was into the plans to build turbines on moorland protected by European legislation because of its importance as a habitat for hen harriers and short-eared owls and concluded in Kirkwall on Tuesday.

The OIC was warned it could now face a bill for costs following the inquiry.

The inquiry reporter - the Scottish Executive official who heard the evidence - will now make recommendations to ministers.

Orkney¹s primary school attendance record is the best in Scotland and for secondary attendance it is second from the top.

Aberdeenshire and Orkney recorded the best primary figures in the country last year, with 96.7 per cent attendance.

For secondary schools, the Orkney attendance figure was 93.6 per cent, beaten only by East Renfrewshire¹s 93.9 per cent.

The Scottish Executive said the overall rate of attendance was 93.1 per cent across Scotland, with 95.3 per cent at primary schools and 90.2 per cent at secondary.

Education inspectors have highlighted staffing difficulties at Kirkwall's Glaitness Aurrida School as the reason it has failed to make sufficient progress with points raised at a previous inspection.

Originally inspected in March 2003, a team returned in September 2004. But a report published on Tuesday blames staffing shortages for the delay in addressing the issues fully. The inspectors will return to the school in the next 12 months to reassess progress.

Following a third follow-up visit to the North Walls School, the Inspectorate has declared that all the points raised in the 2001 inspection have now been addressed.

The CRF replaces the Social Inclusion Partnership (SIP) fund in Orkney, which saw the OIC receive £40,000 per annum. After lobbying the Scottish Executive, Orkney is now to receive £100,000 per annum for the next three years.

The CRF is aimed at improving the lives of people throughout Scotland by getting them back to work and improving education and training facilities.

SIP funding helped build the Hofn youth centre in Westray and also funded OIC's Islands Youth Development Project, which established three posts in the North Isles.

Highlands and Islands MSP, Rob Gibson, has called for a debate on the proposed changes to the Scottish Air Ambulance Services.

Mr Gibson's motion highlights the opposition voiced to the proposed change, by both the Orkney and Shetland Islands Councils, as well as the potential dangers that such a proposal would have if implemented.

Stressing it was time the issue was debated in Parliament, Mr Gibson added: "For many, the air ambulance has acted as a life line and it worries me greatly that under present plans the preferred bidder would remove the fixed wing aircraft currently based in both Orkney and Shetland and replace them with an fixed wing plane based in Aberdeen."

Highlands & Islands MSP, Dr Eleanor Scott, is warning that proposals being considered by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) could threaten rural shops.

The proposals, to deregulate the current newspaper distribution system that guarantees delivery at a uniform price to retailers across the UK, could see wholesalers deciding that it is not cost effective to distribute in remote areas.

This, she says, would hit the availability of newspapers and other publications in rural shops, putting them at the risk of collapse.

Dr Scott is urging people to write to their MSPs and MPs at Westminster, asking that they petition the OFT to block the proposals.

The owner of a vandalised Jaguar car is offering a reward for information leading to the arrest of the culprits.

Parked at Meadowbank in Kirkwall, the S-type Jaguar's paintwork was damaged between 12.30am and 8am on Sunday. It is understood that the scratch damage could cost the owner thousands of pounds to repair.

Also, between 5.30pm on Saturday and noon on Sunday, a Peugeot car parked at Otterswick, Kirkwall, was damaged.

Anyone with information on either incident is asked to contact Kirkwall police on 872241.

Two people were arrested in separate incidents in Kirkwall at the weekend.

The first was at 2am on Sunday, following a disturbance at Junction Road. One male was arrested for breach of the peace and will be reported to the procurator fiscal.

A short time later a disturbance in the Nurses' Home, Scapa Crescent, Kirkwall, led to a female being arrested for a breach of the peace. She will also be reported to the fiscal.

Police inquiries are ongoing after a car left the road on New Scapa Road, Kirkwall, on Friday night.

The vehicle, with three occupants, left the road and dropped fifteen feet, before hitting a bank, causing the car to roll a number of times.

Police said that while the car was badly damaged, the occupants were saved from serious injury because of their seatbelts.

Kirkwall police have confirmed the seizure of a quantity of suspected drugs following a number of searches throughout the county.

At 9pm on Friday night a number of people were searched in a car in Stromness and a number of suspected Class A Ecstasy tablets were recovered. Police also confirmed that a house in the West Mainland was searched and a quantity of suspected drug recovered.

No charges have been made until the test results on the substances are received.

The police festive drink-driving campaign continues with two drivers charged over the weekend.

In the early hours of Saturday morning a male driver was arrested for drink driving in Kirkwall, while a crashed car in Stromness led to a man being traced at his home address and later charged.

Both men will be reported to the procurator fiscal.

Orkney's first try in their match against Cumnock. (Picture: Bryan Leslie)

The Orkney rugby team came away with the points in their National League Division Four home tie against Cumnock on Saturday afternoon.

In a match which the home side never looked like losing, the final score was 26-11 in Orkney's favour.

Orkney's won the game with a very determined attacking performance in the first half, and an equally determined defensive display, during quite long periods in the second half.

Orkney is set to get another new radio station. Hot on the heels of The Superstation’s three months on air, another station, this one based in Kirkwall, is due to go on air from January 29.

Martin Gilbert, of Dounby, has been allocated the frequency 87.7 MHz to broadcast from the Kirkwall area from January 29 to February 25.

Using a radio restricted service licence, the station will operate as a trial broadcast and be used to train volunteers.

The controversial new NorthLink timetable could be in place by mid-February, once the MV Hamnavoe returns from refit.

Following a special meeting on Friday, called after concerns were raised to the proposed timetable changes, an OIC statement said that although no full agreement was reached by those present, the general consensus was that introducing the new sailing times in mid-February would allow local hauliers to minimise disturbance to their customers, while taking into account bookings already received by NorthLink, based on the 2005 timetable.

The final decision will be made by the Scottish Executive.

Archive story - NorthLink's timetable changes delayed