A look back at events of 2002

December

• Orkney Islands Council were in the firing line from NorthLink, after the Northern Isles ferry operators blamed them for the withdrawal of the company's ferry services from Hatston pier, following fears for staff and passenger safety.
  
  NorthLink¹s operations director, Mr Stuart McCulloch, said that there had been a "housekeeping" problem with the council¹s pier contractors R. J. MacLeod. He said that the pier looked "like a building site", with shore staff having to climb over constructions and barriers dragging ropes to tie up the ships, and passengers "getting lost" on the pier.
• Orkney's ultra distance runner, William Sichel from Sanday, completed a personal milestone when he smashed a world record by running for 24 hours on a treadmill. William, who undertook his record-breaking attempt at the Pickaquoy Centre in Kirkwall, ran 112.46 miles in 24 hours breaking the previous world record of 105.18 miles held by New Zealander Gavin Smith.
• A former Orkney Islands Council planning director claimed that the OIC¹s current method of identifying land for housing was "flawed". Mr Tom Eggeling made the claim during the first day of the Orkney Local Plan Inquiry, representing Berstane Road residents objecting to a proposed housing development in their area.
• The decision Orkney¹s oil industry had been eagerly waiting was announced early on in December the future destination of oil from the Foinaven and Schiehallion fields. The announcement from BP resulted in a bit of an anticlimax, as Orkney's Flotta oil terminal kept the contract for Foinaven oil, with Schiehallion still being channelled through the Sullom Voe terminal in Shetland.
• Undercover police investigating child pornography on the Internet swooped on four properties in Orkney. Kirkwall police refused to confirm or deny the raids, but it was known that police from other areas were drafted in to help the Orkney force.
• NHS Orkney bosses flagged up a cash crisis, with a predicted overspend of £300,000 on the prescribing of drugs alone. Wages and working time directives were among around a dozen other areas that could cripple NHS Orkney's budget, they said.
• At the same time, the OIC said they would be making renewed representations to the Scottish Executive after receiving substantially less funding than Shetland and the Western Isles in the latest government cash settlement. The £49.477 million Orkney will get for 2003-04 compares to Shetland¹s £70.5 million and £86 million for the Western Isles.
• The worst kept secret of recent months was finally revealed as the Northern Lighthouse Board announce plans to close their Stromness depot by the end of March, 2004, ,with the loss of six jobs to Orkney. Following what was regarded by many local leaders as a sham three-month consultation, one Stromness OIC representative, Councillor Fred Groundwater, said: "The whole matter as far as I am concerned is rather disgraceful and reflects badly on what we in Stromness and the West Mainland had once felt was the good name of the lighthouse board."
  
  The NLB said they were delaying the closure by 15 months to allow attempts to find a new tenant for the Stromness site. Some of the staff were to be given the chance to relocate.