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There’s been a new “pupil” at Papa Westray Community School for some time now – and Max the autonomous – or self-driving – vehicle has proven to be a star student!

While Max has been trained to carry out different tasks – pupils and staff have also been on an exciting new journey thanks to being part of the international pilot research project exploring the use of autonomous vehicles (AVs).

Head Teacher Tim Ross said: “We were fortunate to receive one of the three robots that came to Orkney as part of the trial. The main targets were to demonstrate the principle and viability of the technology. The children spent the year progressively learning how he worked, training him to do simple 'routes' and eventually trained him to drive to and from the local shop without assistance, resulting in the delivery of school lunch ingredients one day! It has been a great achievement.”

Local residents are being urged to check their electoral registration details or risk losing their chance to vote on decisions that affect them.

The Electoral Registration Officer will be getting in touch with every household to check that the electoral register is up to date, and to identify any residents who should be registered but are currently missing.

Darryl Rae, Electoral Registration Officer for Orkney & Shetland, said: “Keep an eye out for our letter. The annual canvass is our way of making sure that the information on the electoral register for every address is accurate. To make sure you don’t lose your say at the next election, look out for instructions from us.

Orkney Islands Council has welcomed an announcement that additional funding will be made available for the roll out of broadband to properties in Orkney - but warned that some households will still miss out and more needs to be done.

The Scottish Government has announced today (19 August) that an additional £36m is to be invested in the R100 programme, which will see another 2,637 rural properties across Scotland able to access gigabit-capable connections - faster speeds than were initially proposed when the programme was launched.

It is understood that around 1000 of those properties will be in Orkney.

The Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) has issued a safety warning relating to the use of gas grills on certain Belling, Stoves and New World gas range cookers manufactured by Glen Dimplex Home Appliances (GDHA).

Delays and disruptions are expected on parts of the Council website on Thursday evening (18 August) as essential maintenance and testing works are carried out on the Council network.

The NSPCC’s Pantosaurus would like to say a roarsome “thank you” to everyone who stopped by the stall on County Show Day.

The friendly dinosaur says all the new pants designs created by children, who entered the competition to win Grooves vouchers and copies of The Power of Pants books, were simply “T-rexiffic”!

There were almost 200 entries and eventually the “dino-mite” colourful artwork by seven-year-old Dorrie Fry was chosen as overall winner of the £50 Grooves voucher and a copy of the book.

Staff at the Council are delighted that their Cancer Challenge has raised over £16,000 for Cancer Research UK.

Thanks to the generosity of people in Orkney and away, the total is £16,206.25 - more than three times the original target of £5,000.

Orkney Islands Council is looking for three new members from the business, community and third sectors to act as representatives on its sub-committee known as the Orkney College Management Council.

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