Berwickshire News, March 16th

Generally the news seems a bit thin on the ground this week, or perhaps it's just mundane....

The front page is dominated by the story of the 3HS project - although all the details are not finalised, it's hoped that they're all going to be open by autumn 2008. The sub-headline being that the proposed closure of Coldstream & Jedburgh Cottage Hospitals is to be the subject of a debate in the Scottish Parliament (should they find somewhere to hold the debate while they have their roof put back together) on March 23rd.

More grants are made to village hall projects - including Reston & Hutton (which should please Huttonian)


Apparently a quiet week in Duns Sheriff Court - only 3 appearances before Sheriff Kevin's deputy are reported - One driving without insurance and failing to report an accident (£100 for each count and 6 penalty points). Another miscreant driving whilst disqualified and again without insurance - sentence deferred for social reports. The third is that sentencing is once again deferred on an Eyemouth man already convicted of 4 various offences as he is due back in court to be sentenced for charges of vandalism pending social & community service reports.

Broadband is about to be boosted in the Borders (and everywhere else) - though the News reports that many connections are now "two megabits per second". Some services are even faster" - they are but nowhere in the Borders I suspect as the faster services are either cable or restricted to very few urban areas (London, Birmingham, Manchester type urban - not Berwick). Unless they're talking about satellite broadband - which is ferociously expensive.

There is a mention of high hopes for Onlineborders website becoming a portal for all things Borders - although the URL for it is hidden away in column 2 of the article - www.onlineborders.org.uk is the site in question.

Picture of Duns Sheriff Court courtesy of the Scottish Courts website