Berwickshire News September 28th

Coldstream Hospital prepares for closure - the fight fought and lost to retain the cottage hospital in Coldstream. On October 12th after 118 years of providing healthcare in the town, the hospital will close. Staff have all been redeployed or have taken retirement effective October 13th. The function of Coldstream Hospital will now be provided in Kelso Hospital, the Knoll in Duns or in the community. It is hoped, though by no means certain, that the hospital buildings will be converted into a dental facility for Berwickshire to help the 8500 people without dental care. This will take at least a year to happen though. A Reston man who has survived breast cancer (one of 300 men diagnosed each year in the UK) is now working as a volunteer at the Cancer Research UK shop in Berwick. The Dry Dock in Eyemouth is partially closed after funding ran short - the Dry Dock in quiestion is a youth project rather than a boat building facility.

SBC is urging all to fill in their electoral registration forms - especially important this year as we are to have both a Scottish General Election and Local Government elections. SBC is also promoting wokshops aimed at home composters rather than devotees of Ken Hom on October 1st and 8th at Woodside Walled Gardens, Harestanes. Kick off 2pm.

Eyemouth marked the 125th anniversary of the greatest fishing disaster to hit the east coast in general and Eyemouth in particular when the fleet was caught in a hurricane at sea. Over half of the fleet was lost and it took almost a century for Eyemouth to recover in population terms. SBC have backtracked on last week's revelation that they may be fined for missing recycling targets - the director of Technical Services at SBC said the £20k figure is the worst case in his opinion and they may avoid the fine altogether and anyway it's all the fault of the Scottish Executive for not ponying up the cash for the scheme sooner and other authorities will also miss their targets & get fined and anyway they can always appeal to the Environment Minister's discretion to get the fine waived. So that's ok then - they may get fined but they'll try and talk their way out of it.

Three Borders butchers have scooped prizes at this year's Meat to Go awards. Prentice of Duns won a silver for spicy italian meatballs; Halliwells of Selkirk picked up a gold & two silvers for their lasagne, meat loaf and shepherd's pie; Thomas A Shaw of Lauder won two silvers for Carribean pork pockets and smoked pork loin with honey.

The average councillor in Scotland is male and 55 revealed the Minister for Finance and Public Service Reform in launching a bid to attract more younger candidates and candidates from under-represented communities.

At Sheriff Kevin's courthouse in Duns, the man himself is back presumably suntanned and suitably refreshed after a short break. A Wooler man up for breaching bail after turning up at the wrong house in Eyemouth to threaten someone whilst on bail with a condition that he wasn't to enter Eyemouth. Whilst at the wrong door, he scratched "You scottie prick, bring your axe". Ordered to pay £100 compensation for the door, fined £50 for criminal damage and a further £265 for breach of bail. Sheriff K clearly back on form "any further breaches and you'll find yourself in custody". An Oxford man pleaded guilty to assault, committing a breach of the peace and assaulting a police officer after a celebration turned sour in the White Swan Hotel, Duns. Sheriff Kev told him he should be "thoroughly ashamed", admonished him on the assault charge and fined him £400 for the others. An Eyemouth youth "narrowly avoided" custody (how one narrowly avoids it I don't know - either you do or you don't - it's not like he got his leg trapped and managed to hop home without it) after breaching curfew. Actually he was sentenced to 30 days detention which he'd already served on remand..... so he didn't avoid it (narrowly or otherwise). Another Eyemouth man caught in possession of heroin (2 occasions) and cannabis. Already doing porridge on a serious assault rap, Sheriff K slapped another 7 months on so the earliest he can be released is March 2008. A St. Abb's man drove while disqualified to attempt to take his partner's child to school less than a month after the initial disqualification. Sir K not amused and upped his disqualification to two years, fined him £225 for breaking the initial disqualification and a further £100 for driving without insurance.


Picture of Duns Sheriff Court courtesy of the Scottish Courts website