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Vital council services in Orkney can only be protected from significant cuts this year by the Council taking more money from its reserves - and by a 10% increase in Council tax.

When we set our budget we look at four key things – how much do we need to spend on services this year, how much are we getting from the Scottish Government and from non-domestic rates to do that, and then how much do we need to take from our reserves and how much do we need to ask local folk to contribute to services through Council Tax in order to make up any shortfall.

The multi-agency Orkney Local Emergency Co-ordinating Group (OLECG) met this morning to discuss the ongoing power outage in Stronsay

Public meetings are due to be held across Orkney in the coming months to fill vacant seats on local community councils.

Social Security Scotland will be hosting information sessions in Stromness and Kirkwall in coming days to raise awareness of their benefits.

Further industrial action by teaching unions is expected to impact Orkney schools next week (Tuesday 28 February and Wednesday 1 March).

Orkney’s Parasport Festival is set to take place again in March after a hugely successful launch last year.

Orkney Islands Council is urging local people to help shape and improve active travel options in their community, by taking part in a new survey launched jointly with Sustrans and being directly delivered to households in coming days.

In the past 18 months, 60 people in Orkney have engaged with the online mental health community, Togetherall.

The vast majority who used the digital platform from the county were students aged between 16-24 and issues most commonly raised included stress, anxiety, depression and loneliness.

Folk in Orkney are well known for their compassion and generosity when it comes to charity at home and away.

You will be aware of the ongoing international Turkey and Syria earthquake appeal by the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) and they have written to the Council Leader, James Stockan, asking if we can support the local effort that is already underway.