Westray’s Healthy Living and Learning Centre will open its doors on Saturday, December 9.

The new project combines a healthy living centre, learning centre, videoconference and consultation room, group changing rooms and a refurbished and enhanced swimming pool.

The public can visit the Centre at the Westray Community School between 12 noon – 3pm to enjoy a range of activities and take advantage of a number of special offers.

A former Kirkwall Grammar School pupil is one of eight in Northern Scotland to have received a bursary from the Highlands and Islands Educational Trust.

The contract to supply a Coastguard tug to patrol the waters around the Northern Isles has been renewed until 2011.

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) has renewed the contract with Klyne Tugs Ltd of Lowestoft, to supply four emergency towing vessels (ETVs) for the UK.

The ships are on stand-by 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to respond to shipping incidents in their area. They were introduced following a report on the ground on the Braer oil tanker in Shetland in 1993.

All eyes were looking ‘East’ at The Orkney Museum on Saturday.

The new exhibition by local artist, Laura Drever, features around 30 original paintings.

Laura’s work is built around memory of place rather than depiction or illustration and focus on Orkney’s changing light, its unique landscapes, its elemental changes together with the representation of grassy banks, of water, of reflective skies and outlines of solid ground.

The exhibition runs until December 22.  More of Laura’s work can be viewed on her website at www.lauradrever.com

Orkney MSP, Jim Wallace, has written the Health Minister highlighting a “dramatic” reduction in air ambulance flights undertaken by the new helicopter service in Orkney.

In his letter, he suggests it could be due to island GPs using scheduled flights because they are “frustrated by their experience of long waits for ‘planned’ flights” or concerned that weather conditions could delay a flight by the “weather-prone EC 135 helicopter”.

Mr Wallace said the statistics show that the isles are now getting a second-class air ambulance service.

A biography of Orcadian poet and writer, George Mackay Brown, has won the Scottish First Book of the Year award at the 2006 Saltire Literary Awards.

Maggie Fergusson's George Mackay Brown: The Life, was hailed by the judges as "simply superb".

The book is also nominated in the biography section of the Costa Book Awards, formerly the Whitbread Prize, the winners of which will be announced in January.

The politics of small-scale food production were discussed at the Scottish Crofting Foundation’s first public meeting in Kirkwall on Thursday night.

The meeting was held with the aim of setting up a branch in Orkney.

Tommy Leslie, of Quoymorhouse, Shapinsay, took four cups home from Orkney Meat's annual Christmas Carcass competition on Wednesday night.

As well as producing the champion lamb, which won the heavy lamb class, Mr Leslie won two other classes - for best pair of lambs and heavy steer. He added to that with two second places and one third.

The winners of the cattle championship were the Cursiters, of Laga Farms, Evie, with the carcass which took the light heifer class. They also collected top prize in the live/dead class and third place for another light heifer.

Orkney is seventh in the UK for producing good local food, according to new statistics, but tops the table for the county with the greatest area farmed.

Devon, North Yorkshire and the Highlands have the most individual farms, but Orkney has 93 per cent of its total area farmed.

The lists were produced to mark the screening of Local Food Heroes 2006, a series which sets out to find the UK’s ultimate food champion.

Figures released on Thursday show that just over 86 per cent of first class post from Orkney is being delivered the next day.

In the first six months of the current financial year, 86.3 per cent of first class mail posted in Orkney reached its destination the following day. This compares to 84.8 per cent in the Hebrides and 39.1 per cent in Shetland.

The doors of Orkney's biggest care home reopened this week, but it is unlikely that the people currently in facilities in Caithness will return to the county straight away.

Despite an additional nine beds becoming available at the 44-bed St Rognvald House in Kirkwall, there are others on the social work department's waiting list deemed in more urgent need of a residential place.

A 23-year-old man made his second appearance at Peterhead Sheriff Court, charged with the attempted murder of Orkney rapist Robbie Stanger.

Robert Hurst, a prisoner at Peterhead jail, where Stanger is serving an eight-year sentence, appeared in private at court on Tuesday.

He made no plea or declaration, was fully committed and remanded in custody.

The annual Internet broadcasts from Maeshowe have resumed, allowing web surfers across the planet to view the winter solstice sunset from inside the cairn.

As the light from the setting sun strikes the back wall of the 5,000-year-old tomb’s main chamber, three cameras will be capturing the images and broadcasting them live over the World Wide Web.

The broadcasts at www.maeshowe.co.uk are scheduled to run until February 5, 2007.

A West Mainland farmer was one of a delegation who have been promoting Aberdeen-Angus cattle at three major European shows recently.

Colin Davidson, from Skaill in Sandwick, was among those manning promotional stands at shows in Germany, Poland and Romania. Mr Davidson is the senior vice president of the UK Aberdeen-Angus Society.

Highlands and Islands MSP Eleanor Scott has expressed concern over the Scottish Executives announcement regarding investment in Orkney schools – in particular the PPP for a replacement Kirkwall Grammar School.

She said: “School buildings on Orkney certainly need investment, but I'm very concerned about the long-term cost of PPP to the public purse.

"It's clear is that it will lead to major financial difficulties in years to come with the taxpayer paying dearly and only private companies really benefiting.”

The OIC could establish a wind energy project with potential benefits for communities across Orkney.

The scheme would see spare grid capacity on Flotta used for renewable energy.

Orkney is already established as a centre of excellence in marine renewable energy and this project would release grid capacity to permit small scale wind renewable energy developments.

Orkney Islands Council has been given Scottish Executive support for a £50 million building project which could see the development of a new Kirkwall Grammar School.

Education minister Hugh Henry announced that the OIC was joining the public private partnership (PPP) building programme.

Under PPP, contractors pay for construction and maintenance costs and rent the completed building back to the public sector.

Mr Henry said the Executive's decision meant the council could now "consider its options more closely".

Schools throughout the county are to benefit from more than £300,000 from the Scottish Executive as part of the Executive's ongoing school improvement programme.

Orkney schools will share £124,000 for building projects and a further £188,000 for education resources, everything from books and musical instruments to CD roms and computers.

A spokesman for OIC said: "The funding will be principally used for new equipment and materials but the decision on what to put it towards will be up to individual schools."

North Ronaldsay won’t receive an extra sailing in their summer, 2007, timetable.

Orkney Islands Councillors at Monday’s inter-isles transport sub-committee meeting have decided to leave timetables as 2006, with a view to discussing the issue further in the future.

Officials had recommended that the members of the sub-committee allow an extra sailing to the island - a decision which Orkney Ferries, along with residents on neighbouring islands Sanday, Eday and Stronsay opposed.

Three Orkney schools are leading the way in caring for the environment.

Evie Primary has joined Glaitness Primary and Shapinsay Community School in achieving silver Eco Schools awards.

The Eco Schools programme is managed by Keep Scotland Beautiful as part of an international scheme designed to encourage schools to take action for the environment.

A fourth Orkney school - Firth Primary - received a bronze award under the scheme in 2002.

Orkney's ultra-endurance athlete William Sichel has won his debut “No Finish Line” six-day road running event in Monaco, with a world’s best performance for 2006 of 478.6 miles – equivalent to over 18 marathons in the six days.

He said: “To cover over 18 marathons, beat last year’s world number two runner, come back from being 50 miles behind the leader, to run further than anyone else this year and to run more miles in the second half of the race than the first - well that is the stuff of dreams.”

William came from behind to beat the race favourite, France’s Claude Hardel, who led by over 46 miles at one point.

Orkney-based Aurora Environmental has won a top award for its commitment to saving energy.

The independently owned consultancy, which provides services to marine, coastal and island industries, was judged the best small company in the Highlands and islands, in the Vision in Business for the Environment of Scotland (VIBES) awards.

The company was one of the first in Scotland to install a renewable energy source to heat its premises, reducing greenhouse emissions.

The company now goes forward to the national final on December 6.

The first of the county’s Christmas tree lighting ceremonies took place in Holm on Saturday evening.

Stromness and Stenness are next on the list, with their lighting-up celebrations taking place on Wednesday evening.

The ‘Norwegian-Swedish Group’ from Hordaland, Norway, are in the county and will attend both ceremonies.

Click here for tree lighting schedule