Berwickshire News July 13th

Front page news this week is the fact that the Scottish Borders is likely to be ineligible for future Regional Selective Assistance grants. All local elected officials are animated about it although apparently not animated enough to come back from their holidays to protest about the impending decision. As mentioned in the Paper Shop, Greenlaw Town Hall is to be featured in the BBC's Restoration Village programme, and a Coldstream Postwoman has been killed in an accident between her motorcycle and truck just days after celebrating her wedding anniversary - sadly this is the second fatal motorcycle/truck collision the Paper Boy has learned of in 2 weeks - one either side of the Border.

Inside, SBC are seeking views on their small schools policy - whereby every school with a pupil roll of less than 75 is subjected to a review into it's continued existence every 3 years - SBC wish to make that every two years instead. Copies of the consultation can be obtained from the SBC website - responses from interested parties by October 9th. A retired Reverend from Eyemouth has restored some 16mm film shot by his late father and another gentleman picturing Eyemouth between 1939 and 1965 - anyone wishing to see it should nip along to Eyemouth Parish Church Hall on July 20th at 7.30pm.

Over at Sir Kevin's court two alcohol-fuelled drivers felt the rough side of his tongue. One Coldstream builder who pleaded guilty last month facing a stretch inside after being convicted on a charge of drink-driving. Sir Kevin remarking "this is your fourth conviction for drink-driving and I'd be going against my responsibility to the public if I didn't deal with this by means of a custodial sentence." Sent down for two months and banned from driving for five years. A Chirnside man convicted of drink-driving after being stopped on another matter and being found to be over twice the legal limit. Banned from driving for 18 months, relieved of £300 - although he is deemed suitable for a Drivers' Rehabilitation Cource which would shorten his ban if he were to attend.

Sir Kevin's roadshow is reported on from Jedburgh Sheriff Court (actually Sir Kevin is officially based in Jedburgh - in Roxburghshire - so really Duns is the roadshow) where a 58 year-old Kelso man was up on a charge of attempted murder of a police officer and some firearms offences - these things don't happen too often in the Borders - not even in the lawless sprawling metropolises of Hawick (pop 14800) & Galashiels (pop 12300) - so it's big news. The case was continued but Sir Kev released the new wannabe Ned Kelly on bail. (Hawick and Galashiels are the largest towns in the Scottish Borders).

Greenlaw Community Council reports that there is an increase in dog fouling, despite the publicity the matter has already attracted, and they've decided to send a letter to the Berwickshire News to try and get the message across to the urban terrorists plaguing Greenlaw and district. Actually the problem is not limited to Greenlaw, but they do seem to have a bee in their community bonnet about it. The Paper Boy advocates calling the SEPA hotline for all instances of environmental pollution (in Scotland at least) - it's open 24 hours a day and is free to call (number is above right). You may make the call anonymously if you wish.

Members of the SBC Berwickshire Area Committee were given a report on recycling at their June meeting - although the target for 2006/7 is mentioned as 25%, and the January-March figure was 20.82% (an improvement over the 2005/6 figure of 15.9%) it doesn't include the full effect of the introduction of kerbside recycling in Berwickshire that only took place in late March - as previously mentioned by the PaperBoy, SBC is lagging significantly behind other authorities in it's implementation of kerbside recycling hopefully this will be addressed sooner rather than later!

Picture of Duns and Jedburgh Sheriff Courts courtesy of the Scottish Courts website