A look back at events of 2003

October

• Kirkwall’s Pickaquoy Centre announced it was going to re-open the doors on Saturday evenings this month.
  
  The service had come under-fire, after they decided to cut their opening hours in a bid to save cash. The complex had shut its doors at 4pm on Saturdays – instead of the original time of 8pm – since mid-July.
  Later the same week, the facility attracted four star status
  and a glowing report from VisitScotland, achieving an overall mark of 81 per cent on all criteria on which they were judged.
• A Western Isles woman became the first ever firefighter to be stationed at Kirkwall Airport this month. Margaret McRae, 22, who hails from Benbecula, moved to the county after completing an intensive six-week training course at Teesside International Fire Training Centre.
• Ambitious plans to refurbish and extend the Pier Arts Centre in Stromness received a major boost this month, when the project received a Heritage Lottery Fund grant of £1.6 million.
• Disabled Stromness archer Steve Hogsden was in New Zealand this month, competing in the prestigious 2003 World Wheelchair Games.
  Although not scooping any silverware at the event, Steve hit the headlines both in Orkney and New Zealand, as he proved to be the competitor who travelled furthest to take part in the tournament.
• An investigation by the Marine Accident Investigation Branch into a ferry that ran into trouble off St Margaret’s Hope earlier in 2003 revealed a lack of safety management and an inexperienced crew were to blame. The Pentland Ferries ship Claymore tried to berth at the pier at St Margaret’s Hope in gales, but got caught up in moorings after the bow thruster failed.
  
  The report by the MAIB made recommendations about the accident on March 11, stating how a similar incident could be avoided in the future.
• One of Orkney’s most popular musical acts, the Wrigley Sisters, announced ambitious plans in October to set up their own music school. Twins Jennifer and Hazel said they hoped to launch the school at the beginning of 2004, if they could find suitable enough premises. The pair said they hoped eventually to see the venture run as a full-time service, offering standard grades and highers in music.
• Fast food burger vans were given the green light to carry on trading into the early hours at weekends – despite objections from nearby residents.
  Councillors agreed that burger vans could keep serving food at Great Western Road in Kirkwall until 2.45am on Friday and Saturday – even though OIC officials and the police recommended they denied the proposals. Tenants at the nearby Kiln Corner housing development were furious about the decision, claiming they were alarmed by the noise and litter caused by the vans.
• A reconstruction of the almost ten-year-old murder that shattered Orkney’s peaceful image was filmed this month.
  
  A Grampian film crew shot the footage for a television documentary focusing on the unsolved shooting of Indian waiter Shamsudden Mahmood at Kirkwall’s Mumutaz Restaurant in June, 1994. The Orkney tragedy was one of six murder cases that was featured on the series, Unsolved – Getting Away with Murder, due to be broadcast early this year.
• Work began on building the new marina at Stromness. The marinas here and in Kirkwall were being built by Orkney Islands Council to be handed over to Orkney Marinas to run. Orkney Marinas is a consortium of small boat owners’ clubs.
• Burray parents celebrated moving one step closer to getting a new primary school this month. About 50 parents and grand-parents of Burray school pupils had surrounded the OIC building on the day the full council decided to leave the 140-year-old school where it is, rather than amalgamate it with St Margaret’s Hope School – based four miles away.
• The body of a young Kirkwall man was removed from the sea, off the beach at Warebeth in Stromness in mid-October. Police had been anxious to trace 19-year-old Jethro Russell, of Kirkwall, after the young Orcadian had disappeared after a night out in the town. They explored a number of possibilities, including that Jethro’s maroon Vauxhall Astra Belmont car may have left the cliffs at Yesnaby.
  Kirkwall police Inspector David Miller said it was “a very tragic incident, with a young life lost”.
• A counterfeiter was sentenced to two months in prison towards the end of October. Appearing at Kirkwall Sheriff Court, Keith Francis Flett Dennison pleaded guilty to making counterfeit notes at his home address.
• Interim chief executive of NHS Orkney, Mr Paul Martin, announced in October that the organisation had brought their budget under control – without cutting services. He said the board had cut a confirmed funding gap of £2.25 million pounds to £1.1 million.
• The NorthLink ferry company warned rowdy passengers that they faced being banned from their vessels if they misbehaved. The stark warning from the company’s customer services manager, Mr Mike Sage, came after a group of drunken football fans caused a ruckus on their way to a Scotland game earlier in October.
• Two members of Orkney’s Territorial Army detachment were called out to Iraq this month. Platoon commander Lieutenant Roy Keldie and Highlander Christopher Muir are currently training in Chiswell and are due to head off early this year. And while they were just heading off to the war-torn country, three of their fellow soldiers returned home. TA privates Colin Budge and Alex Findlater set foot on Orkney soil for the first time in six months at the end of October, following a stint in the southern town of AI Alamara near the Iran/Iraq border.
• Orkney’s MP Alistair Carmichael was forced to step in to ensure the body of a missing diver in Scapa Flow was brought back to the surface sooner rather than later.
  
  The body of David Hickson from Bolton was only recovered from the World War One wreck Brummer after a series of delays that attracted criticism from his diving colleague who reported him missing.
  
  The group claimed they could have recovered his body in 30 minutes, but were refused permission by the police to attempt to bring Mr Hickson’s body to the surface because they were sport divers and could not operate on a police zone. A Royal Navy Diving Group eventually recovered the body six days after Mr Hickson was reported missing, after Mr Carmichael intervened.
  
  The widow of the father-of-two diver later hit out at the operation.
  A solitary community councillor was the only member of the public who turned up at a special meeting held at the end of October. The meeting had been called by the council to gauge public opinion on several OIC housing issues.