A look back at events of 2003

September

• Prince Edward relived his younger days at the start of September, when he officially opened a new section of Orkney College on a visit to the county.
  
  The Earl of Wessex – visiting Orkney for the first time in nearly 25 years – also opened the new £3.5 million Archive and Library at Junction Road in Kirkwall, and also gave the royal seal of approval to the new £19 million Hatston pier.
• Revolutionary ideas from the company proposing that a container transhipment hub be created in Orkney were announced this month.
  
  If the plans were fully developed the Calf of Flotta could disappear from sight completely, according to officials from International Container Hubs Ltd. The company also announced that an estimated 2,000 jobs could be created on site, and studies also indicated that off-site between 750 and 3,000 jobs would emerge.
• Plans to introduce closed circuit television cameras on the streets of Kirkwall were unanimously backed by members of Kirkwall Community Council. Local businesses also pledged their support to the idea, when a petition set out in various town shops gathered thousands of signatures.
• Proposals to curb Orkney’s escalating drinking culture were mentioned, with the announcement that a handful of the county’s pubs and clubs were considering running dry nights.
• A groundbreaking decision by councillors allowed Orkney’s order of monks living on the tiny island of Papa Stronsay to move one step closer to setting up their own cheese-making operation. The decision taken by members of the OIC development committee saw Stronsay removed from the Orkney Milk Quota Ring Fence altogether.
• A Kirkwall youngster was involved in a mad hospital dash this month, after she accidentally swallowed a 50p coin. Young Nikki Kelday was taken to Aberdeen Hospital, after it was discovered the operation to remove the coin – which she swallowed at the Kirkwall fairground – could not be performed in Orkney.
• Orkney Islands Council and Orkney Enterprise this month backed proposals to install a wireless internet broadband service across all rural areas in Orkney by 2005. Both organisations said the introduction of broadband would significantly improve the county’s communication service.
• A new study revealed a fact that the county’s male population have been claiming for years – that Orkney men work too hard. Results from the 2001 population census there were 1,609 men in Orkney who worked over 49 hours a week.
• Kirkwall businessman Colin Paterson discovered that he faced paying a £6,000 phone bill, after his mobile phone was stolen while he was holidaying in the Canary Islands.
• Orkney was voted the best place to live in in Scotland in a table compiled by consumer information company, Experien. The county finished ahead of 407 other local authority areas.
• Local sprinter Katie Foulis completed the world-famous Great North Run in Newcastle in under two hours this month. The St Ola resident was believed to be the only Orcadian among the 47,000 runners who competed in the annual event.
• A surgeon who launched a bitter attack upon the management at NHS Orkney had since been off work for six months, it was revealed in September.
  
  Dr Helen Martini had not done a day’s work since April, although she was still receiving full pay at her home in South Ronaldsay.
• Plans were unveiled this month for a new state-of-the-art health centre to house Kirkwall’s two GP practices. The planning application for the 2,600 square metre centre is still to be approved by Orkney Islands Council.
  
  If it is given the go ahead, the facility would replace the health centre at the Balfour Hospital site in Kirkwall – home to the Skerryvore Practice and Scapa Medical Group.
• Kirkwall nightclub Fusion won a prestigious awards for its sound and lighting at the Bar Entertainment and Dance Association awards in September.