There were 42 children at St Andrews School today.

Class teachers continue to provide work online using the Seesaw tool and, in addition, pupils from the closed P4 class have been sent a pack of activities. It is still planned for a reopening of the school in full on Monday 20 December, unless circumstances change.

The byelaws referred to above have received confirmation from the Scottish Ministers, and will come into operation on 10 January 2022.

A copy of the byelaws and the relative map may be examined at Customer Services, Council Offices, Kirkwall, Orkney, during opening hours.

Following an obligatory 10-year review, Kirkwall's byelaws for the consumption of alcohol in public places have been updated to reflect the spread of the town in recent years. 

Orkney Islands Council has today (Wednesday 15 December) announced the first phase of a refresh of its corporate management structure.

Orkney Islands Council is advising that the current phase of flagstone repair works on Alfred Street in Stromness have been completed, with Alfred street now reopened to vehicular traffic. There will be no further closures in Stromness this year for flagstone repairs, with works not restarting until 10 January 2022.

The Orkney Local Emergency Co-ordination Group (OLECG) has thanked people across the county for their response to the pandemic and urged that measures to slow the spread of infection continue to be followed.

The group involves representatives from a broad range of organisations, including the emergency and public services, transport providers, the utilities and voluntary sector, and met this week to consider latest developments in the pandemic

There were 45 children at St Andrews School today out of a school roll of 209.

At an incident meeting this afternoon with representatives from Public Health, the Council’s Education Directorate, Schools, Environmental Health, Safety and Resilience, Sport and Leisure and Community Learning and Development, the decision was made to maintain closure of the P4 class in the meantime.

For the second year running, Christmas will come early for many of Orkney’s most vulnerable families with a cash direct payment totalling £260 for every child entitled to free school meals.

A wealth of housing related information has been published in the Council’s Housing Services latest newsletter “Housing News”.

Some of the topics include the new development at Carness, the Housing Services Annual Report, the reintroduction of sheltered housing coffee mornings, rent arrears and what to do, tips around damp and condensation and a host of others.

Classes affected include P2, P4, P5, P6 and P7. A further 11 pupils are awaiting PCR test results.

There has also been a small rise in the number of positive Lateral Flow Test results, and we would stress the importance of everyone logging their lateral flow test results online whether negative or positive. This will allow Public Health to begin contact tracing straight away.