Orkney Islands Council's decision to increase Council tax in the county by 10% has been ratified at today's meeting of the Full Council - and comes with a vow to push the Scottish Government for a resolution to the long running disparity between the funding received by the Council and other island authorities

Orkney residents will receive funding of  £360 (10.7%) per head of population less than Shetland and £707 (21.1%) less than Western Isles for 2023/24.

“An hour well spent” – the Council’s Customer Service Advisers (CSA) have been adding to their breadth of service knowledge thanks to weekly training sessions.

For the past six months, the CSA’s have been taking part in dedicated training sessions from 9am-10am on Wednesdays.

The gritter teams were out at 6am this morning treating priority one and two routes given the yellow weather warning in place for Orkney and other areas of the north of Scotland.

The team are continuing to monitor the conditions thanks to folk on the ground and keeping a watchful eye on the Met Office detailed forecasts coming across.

The Orkney Youth Conference will take place again in March, bringing almost 100 young people together to explore issues important to them.

An open day is being held at Eday London Airport on Wednesday 8 March for island residents to get a behind-the-scenes insight into the role of an airfield attendant.

People in Orkney are being asked to buy a bag of rice and change a life.

A reminder to help shape active and green travel in the county by taking part in the Orkney Travel Matters survey.

A roundup of works underway or soon to start around Orkney, for the week starting Monday 6 March:

Orkney Islands Council has welcomed the news that Kirkwall businesses have voted in favour of a third, five-year term of the Business Improvement District (BID), Kirkwall BID. 

Plans for a new electricity transmission link for Orkney have taken a huge step forward this week with industry regulator Ofgem publishing the latest of its minded-to consultations on the developments.