Berwickshire News, March 30th

Front page news is the plight of Coldstream & Jedurgh cottage hospitals - both communities are strongly against the proposed closures and are convinced that NHS Borders has already made up its mind to proceed with the closures and is going through with a sham consultation process.

Also apparently the recycling service got off to a bad start when the powers that be in St. Boswells failed to send out the "all systems go" postcards in time. Apparently a "contigency plan" was put in place to "minimise the impact" - it must have had minimal impact indeed because none was noticed here.

The King's Own Scottish Borderers has been absorbed into the 1st Batallion Royal Regiment of Scotland. All happened without much ceremony on a barrack square in Northern Ireland.

Apparently underage drinking is a problem across Lothian & Borders - so no different to anywhere else really.

Record levels of Salmon catches in the River Tweed are hailed as a success of water quality improvement.

There's a reported mixed reaction to the ban on smoking in enclosed public places in Scotland that came into effect on March 26th. As usual some being deeply for, some deeply against and a lot of people in the middle not really bothered either way, but accepting it probably is a good thing really.

Over to Sheriff Kevin's court - A Berwick bus driver was found guilty of dangerous driving in his school bus carrying pupils from Berwickshire High to Coldstream. According to the trial account there was excessive speed and at least one grounding of the bus due to "nose diving" into the road surface. The guilty party was relieved of £300, the ability to drive for 12 months and required to sit an extended driving test subsequently. A Berwickshire High pupil stole from classmates in revenge after being told she'd have to sit an exam (tsk! don't schools have better things to do than educate youngsters?). Sentencing adjourned for 6 months for subsequent remorse and good behaviour. An Edinburgh man relieved of £200 for carrying a knife with no good purpose in the Eyemouth area. A Hawick man charged with carrying a knife pleaded guilty and was required to appear at Jedburgh Sheriff Court (Sheriff Kevin's other hangout) later in April.

Torness power station exported 704,000,000kWh of electricity to the grid in February - just in case anyone wanted to know.....

A lawnmower was stolen from a garage in Coldingham between March 25th & 27th - obviously a crime hotspot this!

It seems that the ballot papers for the Scottish General Election and Local Council Elections next year will be counted automatically in Edinburgh rather than locally in Galashiels. It follows the "fiasco" of the 2003 count when it took over 20 hours from polls closing to declare the count for the two list MSPs for the Borders.

There's a fear of noise from a marquee used at the Lodge Hotel in Carfraemill - the marquee is 100ft long and apparently music from within can be heard as far away as Oxton (a mile away). Readers of a historical disposition might remember that the owner of the Lodge was prosecuted and acquitted for serving Beef on the Bone during the hysteria of the BSE crisis.

Picture of Duns Sheriff Court courtesy of the Scottish Courts website