Berwickshire News August 31st

This week's top story is the inequitable treatment by SBC of the children of Hutton & Paxton since their school was closed by SBC - SBC decided that Chirnside was to be the default school after Hutton school closed, but some parents chose to send their children to Swinton. Bizarrely Swinton is closer than Chirnside and there's already a bus through Hutton & Paxton to Swinton - but the children are not allowed on unless they pay.

All designated bathing beaches in Scotland apart from Carnoustie passed every water quality test in the mid-season assessement. This good news is attributed to the good weather and low rainfall in June and July.

Almost six months on from the smoking ban (actually it's just over five) - the ban is being blamed for a drop in takings in pubs in Scotland in general. Several licensees are interviewed none of whom seem to have been affected too adversely so far - although they all add the caveat that it's been nice weather and the smokers have been outside, but this will change in the winter.

Eastern european migrant are boosting the economy - conservatively there are estimated to be 600 of them in the Borders - by providing skilled workers where previously they were in short supply. SBC are in the interview stage of appointing the migrant worker outreach worker previously mentioned in this column.

The digital television switchover is cause for yet more concern - a presentation by DigitalUK to the Berwickshire Area Committee of SBC tried to address such potent questions as "what is digital TV?" "Why are we doing it?" "What will it all cost?" "What will happen at the time of switchover?" - all of which has already been covered in the leaflets posted through every letterbox in the Border TV area. A more pressing concern is that people will be ripped off by cowboy aerial installers during the switchover and carpet-baggers selling set top boxes door-to-door. DigitalUK will monitor the situation. For the record there is no such thing as a digital aerial and after analogue switch-off it's highly likely that any existing aerial that is delivering a decent picture will suffice.

Over at Duns Sheriff Court, Sheriff Drummond dishing out porridge to a Grantshouse man for a lewd behaviour charge against a 15-year-old girl. Although he was originally given a community service order, he didn't show up to complete it and didn't assist social workers compiling his social report - so community service turned into five months inside. A Birgham woman in front of Sheriff K on a drunk driving charge - a large amount of attempted cover up was dismissed by St. Kev and she was found guilty anyway, sentence at a later date. A Motherwell man turned Christmas Day into Arrestmas Day when he refused to go home after a family & friends drink and brandished a screwdriver (not the cocktail kind) and threatened to stab people. He's presently on remand for other matters so sentence was deferred. A Hawick man on a charge of breach of the peace appeared from custody. He was released on bail pending reports. Sheriff K told him "You are beginning to push your luck and may have pushed too far". To appear at Jedburgh Sheriff Court on September 21st.

On the letters page, 1100 have signed the petition in Eyemouth to get rid of "the Smell", and a Reston resident, chair of the community council as it happens, is outraged that his objection against the local plan was ignored by SBC. His objection is fundamentally one of geography - the SBC documentation puts Reston somewhere in the Foulden area, a very pleasant area indeed some six miles to the southwest of Eyemouth whereas Reston is in fact about six miles northwest of Eyemouth. He's looking forward to the new railway station in Foulden, something by which the residents of Foulden will no doubt be overwhelmed with excitement - especially as they have no railway now, nor have they ever had one.

Also a report of Greenlaw Town Hall missing out in the BBC Restoration programme, although the locals involved are by no means despondent about it - they make the point that they already had a big win in getting to the heats - thousands of others entered and didn't make it that far, and also of the non-winning entrants in 2003 over half are currently being restored thanks to private and public grants.


Picture of Duns Sheriff Court courtesy of the Scottish Courts website

Greenlaw Town Hall misses out on Restoration Final

BBC News reports that the winner of the Scottish heat of BBC2's Restoration Village is the oldest lighthouse in Scotland rather than Greenlaw Town Hall. I'm sure this isn't the end of the road for Greenlaw though - many of the other Restoration contenders overlooked by the voters in past series have gone on to progress through their transformations without the baggage of being a regional or overall winner.

If you wish to find out more about Greenlaw Town Hall and proposals for it's restoration, please visit the Greenlaw Town Hall website http://www.greenlawtownhall.bordernet.co.uk/ and optionally register your support there.

Berwickshire News August 24th

ANTHRAX is the word on many peoples' lips across the Borders this week after the revelation that a man from Stobs, near Hawick was the first person to die from anthrax exposure in the UK in 30 years - he worked with raw animal skins in making drums which is viewed as the most likely cause. 74 people are being offered precautionary antibiotics although the incubation time for anthrax is about a week and it took NHS Borders 6 weeks to confirm that he was suffering from anthrax. Local MP Michael Moore and MSP Euan Robson are of course up in arms about it. SBC are under fire once more, this time for their spending on hospitality - over £6500 over a four year period on sandwiches, wines and beer, including £402 on 12 bottles of wine at the Peeble Silver Arrow competition and only £15 for 3 bottles at a press reception. SNP MSP not happy about the disparity between the price of the wine either or the profligacy of SBC at a time when services and jobs are being cut. Drink driving offences in Scotland as a whole are increasing much to the sadness of ACPOS who have noted a 100% increase in speeding motorists and 22% rise in drink/drug drivers - including a Dunbar man who was banned at Haddington Sheriff Court and was then caught the same day behind the wheel and unfit through drink once more.

A pedigree cat has gone missing in Coldstream - the owner is distraught, but wasn't actually bothered enough about the cat to keep it under watch so it could have been stolen, flattened on the main road or shot by the phantom airgunner of Duke Street mentioned previously in this column. The large rodent seen on the A1 near Eyemouth last week is most likely a coypu according to experts although those that saw it insist it looks more like the photo of the capybara they were shown rather than the coypu - so that's that sorted.

A young lady who formerly attended Berwickshire High in Duns is off to Cambodia as a volunteer - she's pictured pointing at a map of the world, to a point off the Indian coast where normally one expects to find Sri Lanka so hopefully she's not navigating on the trip to Cambodia - whilst there she will be working with orphans. It turns out that she was supposed to be going to Sri Lanka but the organisation for whom she is working has changed plans and is now sending her to Cambodia. Harbour Notes informs us that it wasn't a very good month for the harbour as only 3633 tonnes of cargo were handled against 4708 in June. August doesn't look promising but apparently summer never is in the port business. Then there is a bit about actual movements although at no time is the name of the mystery port mentioned. One can only assume it's Berwick though.

Only a single story from DSC this week - a Coldstream man who's long term girlfriend "transferred her affections to another" fined £100 and ordered to pay £500 compensation for damaging her car.

On the letters page,no mention of dog do for a change, but a reprint of a letter recently sent to Andy Kerr MSP, Scottish Health Minister by the Coldstream Parish Minister (a minister of religion rather than an executive minister) where the minister (of religion) outlines what most people already thought - the deal to shut Coldstream Cottage Hospital was a done deal before the consultation was carried out. Amongst many other things he points out that Coldstream Cottage Hospital no longer appears in the phone book - a phone book compiled before the decision was actually formally taken. Make of that what you will.

The gull problem in Berwick is visited in the "Birds on your doorstep" column that I've not previously spotted - doing nothing is not an option - shooting the birds is not an option either with safety concerns about marksmen wandering the streets and taking potshots - nor is poisoning because the dead birds might fall in the road and cause a health hazard (or put someone off their pastie that they were about to throw down for the gulls of course) - a cull was useless in South Shields anyway as the culled gulls were simply replaced by other gulls in the area. The cited compromise would involve two approaches - to disturb the birds constantly in the hope that they clear off elsewhere, this is time consuming and costly - and to make sure littering, especially of food waste is eradicated by fining those that do it. The Paper Boy sees great merit in this approach, even using the revenue from the food-droppers' fines to pay for the gull-disturbers - it might even be revenue neutral at the end of the day.

Picture of Duns Sheriff Court courtesy of the Scottish Courts website

Berwickshire News August 17th

Front page of the Berwickshire is dominated by the story that a large rodent was spotted on the A1 near Eyemouth - far more of this story over at Huttonian's blog. Ludovic (or Ludicrous) Kennedy is also supporting the cause of Greenlaw Town Hall on the BBC Restoration Village. His late wife, ballerina Moira Shearer (the Berwickshire says "Moria") was the patron of the campaign to restore it up until her death in January. Councillor Jock Law of Coldstream is fuming at the position of NHS Borders who are apparently trying to block the building of a care home in Coldstream on the basis that it will put pressure on local NHS services - this is the same NHS Borders that recently shut Coldstream Hospital - and that 'care tourists' will flock from England to take advantage of the difference between Scotland and England.

Re-opening Reston Station is common sense according to campaigners - the Paper Boy agrees that a station within the Borders would be good, but perhaps a new station at Grantshouse might be better given that there already multiple tracks there so express trains could pass anything stopping at the new intermediate station and there's a large area that could be used for parking.

By all accounts East Lothian home owners should be happy because many of the populace are piling out of Edinburgh and buying up East Lothian. The Paper Boy will not stoop to the depths plumbed by the Berwickshire in expanding upon the story of a missing cat returning to it's owners - if they'd kept the damned animal under control in the first place it wouldn't have gone missing.

Tourists are missing out because there are no top-quality attractions. It's a very sparsely populated place so it's no surprise that attractions are few and far between.

Over at Duns Sheriff Court, Sheriff Drummond heard a case of aggressive phone calls made to the Emergency Operator and threats made against Ambulance and Police personnel. On a single evening he called 999 and said he'd taken an overdose, this was referred to NHS24 and he declined an ambulance. He later called 999 once more and an ambulance was dispatched. He refused to let the ambulance personnel in and police were summoned. He then threatened them with a baseball bat. He was formally cautioned and told the cautioning officer "prove it". Not the brightest bulb in the box. Sentence deferred to allow for social enquiry reports. Back again on September 6th.

Breach of the peace proceedings against an Eyemouth man dischuffed at the way his ill wife was spoken to after a car was parked blocking her egress from a parking space. Sheriff K deferred sentence until February 2nd after a guilty plea, telling the guilty party "you'll have to behave yourself, this isn't the way to act in front of your wife, children and neighbours."

A Hawick man appeared from the cells and pleaded guilty to breach of the peace (is it Breach of the Peace week at Duns SC ??) and obstructing a police officer. During the morning of the offence, the accused consumed a bottle of Martini, asked a friend to babysit whilst he and his girlfriend attended at medical appointment. They returned at tea time and began to argue and get aggressive. She tried to call the police, he stopped her so she called from her mobile. Police arrived, he became aggressive once more and was subdued and arrested. Sheriff Drummond told the man "This is a poor example to set to your daughter. You're going to have to grow up, misbehave again and you can bring your toothbrush with you". Sentence deferred for 12 months to allow good behaviour.

A break from BoP - a drunk driver from Reston, spotted at 1.30am driving erratically on the Burnmouth to Coldingham road (the moors road, not the A1) by police, they activated the blue lights to no effect, added the sirens and the defendant stopped. He was unable to provide a breath sample citing a chest complaint, but a blood test 2½ hours later showed him at 188mg alcohol per 100ml (legal limit is 80mg). Fined £300 and given an 18 month ban. Deemed suitable for Driver Rehab to shorten the ban though.

On the letters page - a revisitation of the Postcode situation in Hutton & district - 3 letters one from the prospective SNP parliamentary candidate for Roxburgh & Berwickshire mentioning the targeting of Northumberland-related material to the TD15 postcode at someones expense. Another alternative to giving the Scottish part of TD15 it's own postcode is offered - bring Berwick back to Scotland! Another correspondent complains that a "prominent" estate agent persists in marketing houses in Foulden (Scotland) as being in Berwick (not in Scotland - yet) and yet another in Coldingham who has a TD14 postcode fuming at his postal address being given as "Coldingham, Berwickshire, England" - which it has never been - when the area now known as Berwickshire was part of the ancient kingdom of Northumbria, there was no England to be part of.

Over in Eyemouth, not content with the smell of pea effluent, a moan is made about the smell of seaweed on the beach and the flies it attracts - Paper Boy's advice: If you don't like the smell of seaweed, it's probably best not to live near the seaside.

Picture of Duns Sheriff Court courtesy of the Scottish Courts website

More on Flodden Day from the BBC

The BBC had this tucked away on their "In Pictures" section. Still 3 days late according to the timestamp on it though.

Border Postcode Battle

There is an item from the BBC's Reporting Scotland on the BBC News website (link may not work outside the UK or on AOL for various technical reasons) highlighting the angst of people in Scotland being subjected to English postcodes - even in some cases having "Berwickshire, Scotland" substituted with "Northumberland" on their post. Residents are concerned by the response from various organs of officialdom - from whence will the fire brigade come when the house is ablaze? what about the ambulance? the police?

Again no mention of the similar but opposite fate of the residents of Cornhill & district being subjected to Scottish postcodes - despite being firmly in England.

The Papershop is firmly within Scotland and in almost all instances Coldstream is placed in Scotland by officialdom - apart from when the PaperBoy checks his ADSL account where Coldstream Telephone exchange is listed as "Coldstream, Northumberland" despite having a BT exchange locator code that places it firmly in Eastern Scotland.

Better late than never ?

BBC News website has finally caught up with Flodden Day in Coldstream and puts a figure of 300 on the equines - entirely possible - but no mention of when Flodden day was nor why it took them over 3 days to get it on to the website - after all my newsgathering operation (1 part-time operative) managed to get it online in 6 hours.

Berwick Gull Cull Petition

BBC Radio Newcastle and BBC News website have been running with the story from the Berwick Advertiser (sister paper of the Berwickshire News) that there is a petition calling for the cull of gulls in Berwick - exactly the same problem as in Eyemouth as reported in last week's News. The petition has reached 1000 signatures apparently.

Of course it could be that the number of gulls is increasing due to the food waste that's left lying around by the populace and that the answer is to reduce littering and to increase the frequency of public refuse bin emptying.

Experimental cookery take 3

Regular readers will know that I'm a nanaholic - doesn't mean I'm addicted to drinking sherry with my grandmother, just overly keen on making and eating naan bread. This weekend I knocked up some dough, but couldn't be bothered to use the Experimental Tandoor Mk II, so I thought I'd try the George Formby grill for the purpose....

Well - the result is that if you like corrugated bhatura naan, it's ok - if you don't, it's a dead loss. I shall reserve the George Formby for Chicken Tikka production (heh, heh mother - turned out nice again).

Next experiment will involve a garlic & coriander naan.

Civic Week Caption Competition

The guy on the right is Euan Robson, the local MSP. The guy on the left clearly has something to do with the Civic Week celebrations given his garb - but who is he and what is being said. There is a prize of absolutely nothing for the best caption.

Berwickshire News August 10th

Front page of this week's News leads with the furore in the tiny fishing village of Cove, on the Berwickshire Coast, population about 13½ about the planning application for some 16 new houses to be built on greenfield sites around the village - viewed by the villagers as the thin end of the wedge in respect of development. A 227 signature petition has been raised and presented to SBC. The photo on the front page is of the Coldstreamer leading the first ride out of the Coldstream Civic Week to Norham. 9 Villages on the Scottish side of the Border but with TD15 (Berwick) postcodes are appealing to Royal Mail to give them a postcode all of their own (suggestion is TD16) because having an 'English' postcode causes them problems including being in the Berwick phone book - not the Borders one, being told by NHS24 (the Scottish equivalent of NHS Direct) that they're in England, and of course that it might be affecting their insurance premiums too. Royal Mail have said it's for delivering post and no other purpose - so they won't change it. The fight goes on. The cost of a gull cull in Eyemouth has ruled it out as a potential resolution to the problem of marauding gulls stealing tourists' chips and then plopping on them (the tourists) - it's been a problem in the past and a cull was arranged, but now the cost is too high.

Residents of a farm near Abbey St. Bathans are up in arms that it took BT too long to fix their phone lines after major lightning strikes cut them off, or rather it cut lots of people off in the area and their phone went off at the same general time - the subscriber was without their line for over 4 weeks whilst BT fobbed them off that they were replacing lines and telegraph poles to the east of Abbey St. Bathans when the farm in question was to the northwest of the village - after 30 days of complaining and involving local MSP BT sent out a repairman to find that they were in fact cut off due to a blown fuse and not the line down, within 2 minutes of his arriving on scene after the 4 week wait. Those on the other line from Abbey St. B are still awaiting reconnection after a temporary repair also failed within a few days of being effected. Compensation offered by BT - £15.33.

TV Screens may go blank when the digital switchover happens - those living on the fringe of coverage from any given transmitter may find themselves sans pictures when the TV signal is switched from analogue to digital - reason being that the signals are at a much lower level and whilst a low level analogue signal produces a fuzzy picture, with digital it's there or it's not. The commitment from the transmitter operators is to have the same percentage population coverage but the 98.5% that get it today might not be the same 98.5% that get it post switchover leaving the remainder the option of blank screens or satellite TV (which can be subscription-free of course).

Over 200 vehicles have been seized by LBP exercising their new found powers. These provide for the police to be able to seize any vehicle that is being driven without valid insurance or driving licence. Anyone caught driving one faces hefty fines to recover the vehicle and if they don't come up with the cash and the insurance documentation then the car is crushed or otherwise disposed of. So far 219 seized and 72 "disposed" of.

At Sir Kevin's court this week an eclectic mix - A Chirnside pub landlady appeared for being drunk in charge of a pub - apparently she'd been having a "lock in" for friends but omitted to lock the door. LBP officers arrived and she was still serving drinks, although looking disshevelled and had her specs on at a jaunty angle. The officers put her to bed and locked the pub. Sheriff K slapped her with £550 in fines and told her "your job carries public responsibilities and it doesn't hold well when the licensee gets themselves in to this position".

A Duns man had a disagreement with his girlfriend after a drinking session which culminated in him "going berserk" and trashing the TV set, causing alarm to his girlfriend and her two daughters and her sister. The happy couple are apparently still an item, but K noted that the accused had been before him before on similar charges and told him "This has got to change. There are clearly concerns about your behaviour". Sentence deferred to August 30th pending social enquiry reports.

A Berwick man appeared on a charge of driving on the A1 at Lamberton at 1.20am with excess alcohol, without a full licence and without insurance. He was relieved of £425 and banned for 18 months, although deemed suitable for attending the Drivers' Rehabilitation Course should he wish to reduce his disqualification period.

A Chirnside man up for smashing a window - his second appearance before Sheriff K on similar charges - upon interview by the police he apparently apologised and offered to pay for the damage, but Sheriff K applied a £100 compensation order and a £250 fine before warning him "If you're back in court for this type of behaviour again, we'll have to look at something different".

Sentence deferred on a Kelso man for driving with excess alcohol, no licence and no insurance. His breath test weighed in at 153μg (Ed: the Berwickshire reports it as 153mg - or 153000μg if you prefer, which would imply that he was breathing almost pure alcohol) per 100ml breath, the legal limit is 35μg. Sheriff K called for restriction of liberty reports and will revisit on August 30th.

Greenlaw Town Hall's appearance on BBC2's Restoration Village programme receives some coverage too - Tilda Swinton, the famous actress (who she is I have no clue) who was raised in Berwickshire, is rallying behind the campaign. The article helpfully continues on to say for what Tilda is famous (apart from rice) - she's been in "the Beach" with Leonardo di Caprio, "Vanilla Sky" with Tom Cruise, "Constantine" with Keanu Reeves and she was also in "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe". More on Tilda can be found at IMDB.

Picture of Duns Sheriff Court courtesy of the Scottish Courts website

Coldstream Civic Week - Flodden Day

A sunny Coldstream today played host to a calvalcade of some 200 equines on their way to pinch another bit of England in the "biggie" of Civic Week - Flodden Day.

What passes for a heavy police presence hereabouts (I counted 7 Police Officers at one point) was on hand to halt the traffic for the ceremonial ride out of the Coldstreamer and his company of 250+ horse to Flodden Field, which is actually at Branxton, rather than Flodden, in Northumberland - where he half-inches a bit of turf to bring back to Coldstream this evening for an almighty piss up in a tent erected on the Home Park ground of Coldstream Town FC.

To an Englishman like me, this seems most odd to be celebrating probably the heaviest defeat of a Scottish Army by an English one in 500 years of cross-Border fighting - in the battle itself a great swathe of the Scottish Nobility was wiped out and even King James IV of Scotland was killed leading to great political instability in Scotland as his heir, James V - future father of Mary Queen of Scots, was under a year old when he inherited the crown.

The song "Flowers of the Forest" was written as a lament for the defeated of Flodden, although it wasn't written until almost 250 years after the event - most usually heard now as a pipe tune.

Some pictures below of the action and aftermath - all will open a larger version when clicked.

Waiting for the horses

He's cheating - that's not a horse

The Coldstream Pipe Band leading the calvalcade


Real Coldstream Guards - in Coldstream

Here come the horses! The gent in the sash is the Coldstreamer

More horses

The last few horses

The 101st SBC cleansing squad - dealing with the output from the cavalcade before someone writes a letter to the Berwickshire News complaining about the horse dung left behind

Lots of horses, (relatively) lots of police, lots of people and above all lots of horse mess. I wonder if anyone has considered writing to the Berwickshire News about the theft of turf from a field near Branxton......

The terminally interested in the activities on the actual day in September 1513 may read more here, here or here.

Search terms that have brought people here - July

These are the most common - added my comments in brackets to some of them

a1 at penmanshiel
association of salmon fishery boards eggs import
ayton to galashiels bus routes (I'd be surprised if there was one)
belford station (it's been gone 40 years)
berwick police station phone number
berwickire news (repeating the typo from the Berwickshire News)
berwickshire blog time sbc council
berwickshire road closures
bloody henry
breach peace sentences scotland (one of many crime/court-related searches)
buses from edinburgh to eyemouth
checked wall paper borders
court charge 72mph in 40 scotland (another crime/court one there)
current email addresses of men seeking woman in scotland
disqualification by totting up news (another crime/court one there)
driving hardship plea letter (another crime/court one there)
driving off after hitting a parked car (another crime/court one there)
driving whilst banned without insurance (another crime/court one there)
driving without insurance and wasting police time (another crime/court one there)
dumfries paper and stones
duns civic week
earlston civic week 2006
flooding in kelso
greenlaw town hall
greenlaw town hall appeal
greenlaw town hall last used
home
hose pipe bans in berwickshire
how to write a letter pleading guilty by letter criminal damage (another crime/court one there)
huttonian blog
i got 6 penalty point on my provisional license (another crime/court one there)
incorrect address on driving licence what is the fine (another crime/court one there)
ireland leaving the scene of an accident (another crime/court one there)
klm check-in edinburgh (be prepared for a 2 day wait)
ladykirk house tweed damage
likely sentence for assault in a scottish court (another crime/court one there)
longhoughton village shop
man dem crew home (who the hell is/are "man dem crew" ??)
man dem crew homepage
man dem crew website
map of edinburgh wool shop jedburgh scotland
marilyn munroe edinburgh
merse singers
motorcyclist killed galashiels
msp oxford address (I'm sure Oxford doesn't have an MSP)
noise in marquee six mile bottom
oxenrig coldstream
oxenrig coldstream flies
photograph contraband ok cover
pilot cource in uk (you might like to learn to spell before learning to fly)
prentice butchers duns
prentice family butcher duns
property planning permission residential leamington spa
punishment for attempted extortion scotland (another crime/court one there)
quick naan
quickest route from kelso to eyemouth (A698 to Berwick, up the A1 to Burnmouth and then A1107 to Eyemouth)
retirement homes in east lothian
robbie the pict speeding (another crime/court one there)
roll up display china
sainsburys kelso (there isn't one)
scottish car rally dunbar 9th july 2006
selkirk sheriff court news (another crime/court one there)
sentence leaving scene of accident (another crime/court one there)
sheriff penalties speeding (another crime/court one there)
shops in reston berwickshire
sojourn luggage newfoundland
south man dem (here are those "man dem" boys again)
south man dem crew
sspca shop
stealing from charity shop bins (another crime/court one there)
tandoor oven flower pot
tesco invalid url or dialed number
the defendant didnt turn up in court (another crime/court one there)
throwing bricks at lorries on the a1 (why not try caravans - more likely to make an impact)

Berwickshire News August 3rd

This week's News has the story of a teacher winning a sexual discrimination case at Berwickshire High School centring on being passed over for promotion when the ultimately promoted person was male and less qualified. SEPA are looking for witnesses to a tanker dumping sewage sludge in a burn near Soutra Hill on the A68, which lead to the death of a large number of fish. It's a busy road - well what passes for a busy road in the Borders - so there really should be a witness out there somewhere.

More sewage-related news on page 3 where Eyemouth residents are still holding their collective noses about the smell generated by the effluent from the pea factory. The English Border (southbound) layby on the A1 at Lamberton is a disgrace too - the Scottish one (northbound) has recently been tidied up substantially - Berwick Borough Council are leading efforts to get it tidied, but it's not so easy in England as it was in Scotland.... Neither Berwick Borough Council nor Northumberland County Council are responsible - but the Highways Agency is, except that they've contracted it out further. That company aren't sure who is responsible for the wall that's been damaged by a vehicle, the broken information board and flagpole were erected by Northumbria Tourist Board (now disbanded) so Berwick Borough Council are trying to find out who owns them so they can remove/replace them. Motorcyclists are being targetted for road safety messages after yet another fatal incident involving a motorcyclist - this time a single vehicle accident in Gordon. A cider company from Ayton won the top award at the "Flavours of the Borders" event. Peelwall's has only been going since 2004, so this is a big thing for such a new company. The PaperBoy will attempt to obtain some of this cider for research purposes, of course.

The switchover to digital TV in Berwick is now resolved. From an unspecified point in the future the Halidon Hill transmitter which covers most of Berwick town will change from broadcasting ITV1 Border to ITV1 Tyne Tees. A side effect of this is that the switchover will now take place in 2012 rather than 2008, which will now no doubt upset some people in Berwick (and beyond) who have been looking forward to receiving the delights of five, ITV2/3/4, BBC3/4 etc.

Some Polish residents of Longformacus have been granted retrospective listed building consent to allow them to keep a satellite dish to allow them to get TV from Poland. It's been mentioned that they need a larger dish than for regular satellite TV - the PaperBoy has found the opposite for other stations on the same satellite as the Polish programmes, but bigger is better from a technical perspective at least if not aesthetically for holding the signals in wet weather.

The possibility of new butterflies in the Borders is raised - as the climate changes there are species that are making their way north and they'll be in Scotland soon - presuming they take the high road.

A much abbreviated report from Duns Sheriff Court this week - tucked away at the bottom of page 5. Sheriff Drummond found a Peebles man guilty of subjecting his wife to a torrent of domestic abuse. Refused the guilty party bail pending sentencing on the grounds that the only address he could supply for bail was the marital home.

On the letters page, the great stink of Eyemouth is once again centre stage. A correspondent urges all Eyemouth residents to complain to Scottish Water individually to get the point across that the problem is caused by inadequate sewage treatment facilities in Eyemouth. Another correspondent opines that SW should pay all residents of Eyemouth compensation for the stench. Yet another correspondent brings up the name of SEPA who apparently vetoed the original plan to dump the pea sludge (treated) into the sea, bypassing the town's sewage works.

Another correspondent alerts all on the north bank of the Tweed to the planning application for some 110m (350ft) high wind turbines that will obscure the view of the Cheviots (Chee-vee-otts, not Shev-ee-ohs). Frankly they are an eyesore, but considerably less intrusive than a conventional power station - even a hydro, unless it's built into a hill like Cruachan or Dinorwic.

Torness Power Station exported 415,000,000kWh of electricity to the National Grid in June - enough for every single resident of the Borders to have five one-bar electric fires on 24 hours a day for the whole of June. Reactor 1 was on for the whole period, Reactor 2 was returned to service on June 15th after a statutory outage. A fire protection shield was left out of place after maintenance work, but this is now rectified (remember the fire at Windscale 1957 anyone ?)