SBC in School Safety Shocker

It seems Health & Safety rules have passed at least some SBC-run schools - for about 25 years! - when the Paper Boy was at school in "that England" in the 1980s you weren't allowed in the wood- or metalwork workshops if you had long hair, a tie on or anything that projected from your body by more than half-an-inch.

The final arbiter of this was "Stan" who apparently lived in the workshop since nobody ever saw him arrive or leave - and every workshop the Paper Boy has been in since has had a "Stan" - and his sole raison d'etre and entertainment was scaring the life out of the unversed users of the workshop with stories of fingers drilled off and eyeballs pulled out by spinning lathes, and the like. He was also the one that sent you to the stores for a long stand (or for variety - a long weight), left-handed screwdrivers, tartan paint and the like.

Obviously a life in the Borders is less valuable now than one in England was 25 years ago.

Funny how some things just pop up from nowhere

The Southern Reporter (a sister publication of the Berwickshire News concentrating in the 'bricht lichts' of Roxburghshire & beyond) apparently carried the story last week that the new supermarket in Kelso is to get the go ahead. For those that care it's not option "T" but option "S" that's going to get the formal nod on October 25th by the planning committee.

Out of the blue....

The Paper Boy's interest was piqued recently by a story of Sainsbury's coming to Kelso. Apparently they've tried before (lodging a planning application in 1998), and have a new application in lodged in July 2006.

It falls outwith the local plan as drawn up by SBC as it is not in the cobbled town centre, but seems to have the support of virtually everyone since it involves the tidying up of two prominent units on Kelso's Pinnaclehill industrial estate and will bring one of the top 4 supermarkets to town. It's annoyed Tesco since they had plans for a store elsewhere in Kelso and they were rejected - although they've taken it upon themselves to object to the Sainsbury's application anyway.

If you're terminally bored follow the link to the SBC planning portal (forget it if you're not a user of Internet Explorer).

And apropos of nothing, il me semble que mon accompte "Blogger" est en francais!! No idea what's happening there.... Les boffins de Google please fix it :)

Hawick becomes news story centre of the Borders

Apparently Hawick High Street is to become a one way street. Quite how this is worthy of publication on the BBC News Website above the Berwick UFO is beyond me.....

Of note, however, is that it's said to be cheaper to implement a ban on HGVs than installing a one-way system, according to SBC roads people at least.

Berwickshire News March 15th

The Paper Boy, filing from Frankfurt, Germany:

Possible UFO over Berwickshire - The Berwickshire News Online carries the story that a local man believes he saw a UFO over Berwick from his car as he drove through Paxton. No doubt Huttonian will be on the case already.... especially given I'm a week late with this post

Hawick is the new Munich - or Pamplona

The BBC News Website reports that the new Rough Guide to Britain and Ireland has declared the Hawick Common Riding "combines the thrills of Pamplona's Fiesta de San Fermin with the concentrated drinking of Munich's Oktoberfest".

Look out Dublin, apparently it rivals St. Paddy's Day celebrations there too.

Duns councillor welcomes new houses - 50 objections

The BBC News website reports that the SBC Councillor for Duns (previously mentioned here for bizarre letters to the Berwickshire News) has welcomed the plans for 62 additional houses in the town despite 50 objections received by the planners at SBC. Is this a wise move less than 6 months from election day?

Berwickshire News November 30th

Clearly it's a slow week for news in Berwickshire this week - even slower than normal that is - English MP wants border road toll screams the 100 point type headline on the leading article. It seems that some MP from Essex is tabling a private members bill in reprisal for a trial of road tolling in his constituency that includes provision for a toll to be levied on the A1 southbound over the Border. All the local politicians seem to have jumped on the bandwagon of declaring it a silly idea. Local MP Michael Moore (Lib Dem Crew) astutely surmises that it has no chance of beciming law anyway.

A Duns man who holds that the Act of Union (1707) is an unlawful act, and has been to the Court of Session to fight the case and subsequently unilaterally declared himself Regent and Chancellor of the Kingdom of Scotland has declared St. Andrew's Day a public holiday. He refers to the Holyrood Parliament as "Vichy Scotland" and he must be short of things to do to be doing such things.

Euan Robson MSP (Lib Dem Crew) welcomed the allocation of £1.3m in funds for education-related matters by Holyrood - why his welcoming of this is worthy of reporting isn't clear.

Not much more to report from this week's News - Sheriff Kevin's court continues to process the drunks, disqualfied drivers and other petty wrongdoers dishing out low grade punishments to all and sundry.

London, Paris, Milan, New York, Galashiels???!!

The erstwhile leader of SBC has welcomed the opening of Asda in Galashiels and the impending opening of the new improved Tesco, claiming it confirms that Gala is the retail capital of the Borders.

It doesn't mean it's any easier to get to from the eastern Borders and it certainly doesn't compare with other comparable towns for choice. The highlight in Gala for the Paper Boy is the independent baker that's not Greggs on Channel Street.

Recycling - Pay per bag if you're a school

Seemingly hell bent on being the most laughable local authority in the country, SBC are levying a charge of 60p per bag of recycling collected from it's own schools. You couldn't make this stuff up.

Apologies for absence

The PaperBoy apologises for his absence, due to various things - not least trips across Europe for meetings totally unrelated to the Berwickshire News. Can you imagine that it's not possible to obtain a copy of the BN in Frankfurt, Neuss or Brussels?

St. Kevin @ the BBC

A report citing St Kevin of Duns appears on the BBCNews website airs his complaint at Selkirk Sheriff Court about drunken youths and the amount of court time it takes to deal with them.

Sharp Practice by Internet Provider

The Paper Boy's current ADSL provider, Nildram, was taken over some time ago by Pipex - advertised heavily by David Hasselhoff. All has been as it was at Nildram before - fast network, total reliability.

Pipex management has decided that it needed to sneak in some changes to their network, completely without warning over the last few weeks. The result of these changes is small for the Paper Boy and strictly the changes are allowable within the Terms & Conditions of Nildram, so there is no legal redress available.

The question is raised in many minds - if they make this change and there is no challenge what will they do next? Start restricting people with green eyes? Start restricting people who have a username starting with a 'b'?

The Paper Boy and many others in the same boat feel that morally Nildram should have given notice, which would have been in line with how most people read the relevant clauses in the terms and conditions - certainly it's how the Clapham Omnibus test would see it.

Nildram was previously always rated in the top 3 on DSLZoneUK, but is now languishing somewhere around half-way down the list, going back a year or two Pipex were another always contending in the top 3, but no longer.

This fall from grace has taken no more than 3 days from a confirmation email being sent to a forum member by Nildram's support function - a miracle in itself recently when it's taken over 4 weeks not to get a reply from what used to be a near-instant support email address. Such is the depth of feeling amongst users that in excess of 30 users in that forum are quitting Nildram in protest mainly at the way in which the change was made rather than for the change itself, the Paper Boy amongst them.

Further investigation reveals tha Pipex have done similar things to other ISPs that they have taken over - Freedom2Surf being another - and of course they have made these changes to their own network too. So users of the former Cable & Wireless ADSL ISP Bulldog had better watch out. The Hoff is gonna start strangling your connection.

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Berwickshire News October 5th

EYEMOUTH REVOLTING - harsh words from this week's News - the full headline explains more: Eyemouth is up in arms over the return of the nasty niff that has hung over the town for the last 4 summers. A petition of 1200 names (from a population of less than 3000) has been presented to Scottish Water. Euan Robson MSP (of da Lib Dem Crew) was present of course to lend his weight to the campaign for an upgrade of the sewage works. The root of the issue is the pea freezing factory - when a good harvest is encountered (as in 2003 and 2006) the concentration of the effluent from freezing the peas is stronger than Scottish Water's mitigation allows for and the result is the nasty pong. 3 options are being considered for 2007 - tanker the effluent away, import more sludge to treat the effluent or pump the effluent elsewhere..... none are instant so a combination of all three is likely.

The 2007 JCMR is moving from it's traditional July date to May. It will now be held on the English Bank Holiday weekend of 25-27 May.

Eyemouth residents in Hurkur Crescent are fed up with neighbours from hell - antisocial behaviour including drug dealing, pet-abuse and death threats are amongst the allegations repeated. Euan Robson MSP is of course involved and attempting to get all the sides together. So far an ASBO has been served on one youth and police patrols have been stepped up.

Work is to start on the new Berwickshire and Eyemouth High Schools by the end of the month to avoid possible penalties of up to £16k per week (which fool negotiates these contracts?)

As reported here earlier in the week that the erstwhile ex-SNP-turned-independent leader of SBC is considering standing down at local elections in May 2007. Citing the same reasons as mentioned before and expanding upon them - he is "in no doubt that his powerbase will be dissipated by the boundary changes" and observers are of the opinion that the implementation of a single transferrable vote may lead to the Independent hopefuls being marginalised by established parties.

Speed cameras (they mean "safety cameras") in the Borders have netted £2m in 3 years but motorists are apparently beginning to take notice. The A1 is the most likely road to be caught speeding on bringing in half of the cash.

Hutton's new village hall has been opened (see Musings from the Merse for colour pictures - if you think my scans are bad, it's hard to make good scans from bad originals) after several years of hard work by the community to raise the necessary cash. Since the initial survey it's taken 8 years to come to fruition but finally it is open. Those bloggees living in sprawling metropolises like Duns and Kelso might not think of such a hall as important - in a village like Hutton where the school recently closed, the pub closed some time ago, a bus runs 3 or 4 times a day to Berwick at inconvenient times - this is a real focal point for the community. Well done to the people of Hutton & district for sticking at it. Pictures taken from the Berwickshire News.

At Sheriff K's court a lady sheriff presiding (where on earth is Sir K off to now?) over the usual splurge of criminality: A Newcastle driver banned for 6 months after driving without insurance. Sheriff Fiona Tait applied a £250 fine. An Innerleithen man fined £200 for breaching a curfew order whilst helping look for a friend's son who had gone missing. Police stopped a vehicle he was in on an unrelated matter and he volunteered that he was on curfew and was thus arrested at the scene. Seems a little harsh that he turned himself in and seemingly had reasonable mitigation but the law is the law. A Chirnside youth pleaded guilty by letter to a charge of allowing his 16-year old friend to drive his bike without insurance. Sheriff Tait wielding the iron fist in the velvet glove fined him £125 and gave him six penalty points. A Hawick man appeared from custody and pleaded guilty to a charge of assaulting his seven-month pregnant wife by seizing her by the arm and neck. Sentence was deferred for 6 months pending good behaviour as the man and his wife were both keen to work out their problems.

Picture of Duns Sheriff Court courtesy of the Scottish Courts website even when Sheriff K isn't there.