Berwickshire News July 20th

Apologies for the late running of this week's precis of the Berwickshire News caused by being in the wrong country at the wrong time. The blog will suffer a similar delay for the same reason for the July 27th edition.

The heatwave has made it to the front page - especially in Coldingham on the Berwickshire coast where "Sunshine, sunseeker and parking tickets" were all in evidence. Local businesses are not happy that LBP closed a local road and consequently affected local businesses. Greenlaw Town Hall will feature in the BBC's Restoration Village programme as mentioned in this blog previously. The purse thefts story as already covered here courtesy of the BBC also gets a mention. A pong in Eyemouth emanating from the sewage works is covered - Scottish Water are trying different things but apparently it's all being blamed on a pea-processing factory - they've got a different type of waste to previously - the mind boggles! So the anti-pong measures previously taken are being twaeked.

Oh and a Fogo Business is trying to convince the wider public that it's possible to run a vehicle on diesel substitute derived from WVO or SVO (it's possible, even the Americans have been doing it for years and in Germany much diesel sold is up to 30% derived from non-fossil sources - Rudolf Diesel himself demonstrated his engine running on peanut oil at the Paris World Expo in 1900 - there is nothing new under the sun - HMRC can regularly be found 'dipping' diesel tanks looking for illicit use of WVO/SVO or 'red' diesel at busy spots like the Tyne Tunnel - so it's reasonable to assume that the public know it can be used). The PaperBoy is following up on this story because reducing reliance on fossil diesel has got to be a good thing and having used a biodiesel blend in the past and experienced apparently smoother running and better fuel economy, does not need to be convinced like the rest of Her Majesty's General Public.

A sandstorm has been unleashed by builders of a new Sue Ryder care complex in Duns - due to the dry conditions and much earthmoving by builders loads of sand and dust has been upsetting some residents. Less than 200 knives were surrendered throughout the Borders during the recent national knife amnesty - no unusual items were presented but LBP admitted that there isn't a big knife culture in their patch anyway unlike Glasgow and the west of Scotland.

Berwickshire is trying to balance the conflicting demands of both the fishing industry and tourists - it's an area famous for it's maritime heritage and Eyemouth is still a working fishing port, albeit a shadow of it's former self. New stamps from Royal Mail feature a bust of Sir Walter Scott - if you don't know who he is, he's the bloke that appears on a Bank of Scotland banknote where the Queen would on a bank of England banknote, and he wrote some stuff and used to live at Abbotsford near Melrose (which I'm sure is not and was never in Berwickshire).

Over at Sir Kevin's court, the guy who stole fuel and drove 50 miles or so down the A1 whilst over the drink-drive limit before being stopped with no tyre on his car, who appeared some time ago in this column was up for sentencing - disqualified from driving for 4 years, given 200 hours community service and £220 worth of fines. A Duns woman who caused an accident on the old Duns road from Coldstream to Swintonmill in which 3 people were injured (she overtook on a section where there are a number of blind summits and hidden dips - hit a car head on). St. Kev told the guilty party that "we don't deal with situations like this by looking at consequences. Sometimes minor misjudgements have severe repercussions whereas people making dangerous errors sometimes get away with it" before slapping her with a £200 fine and 5 penalty points. A Duns man drove his car with children in it whilst 3 times over the legal alcohol limit - during which time he mounted the pavement, drove over a sign, sustained a puncture. (The BN says he had 119ml alcohol per 100ml of breath - which is some going.... I suspect they mean 119μg which is a very different and physically possible quantity). Disqualified from driving for five years, fined £200 and 180 hours community service.

Typo of the week coming up.....

More from Sir Kev's court - a Greenlaw farmer appeared on charges of allowing sheep to suffer, failing to dispose of carcasses and allowing sheep in his care to suffer from Blowfly Myiasis. A Trading Standards report is quoted as saying that the general appearance of the farm did little to inspire confidence of good animal husbandry - "One Yew in particular" being singled out - Yew/Ewe/You - not really that important is it? St. Kevin de Duns opined that a fine was not the right course of action but to have Trading Standards drop in to check standards are being observed on a regular basis and went on to warn the farmer that he could ban him from keeping livestock - sentence deferred until September 13th to allow TS to revisit and report back.

Over 96.7% of 2005/6 Council Tax in the SBC area has been collected - a record for the authority and second best on the Scottish Mainland apparently.

Picture of Duns Sheriff Court courtesy of the Scottish Courts website