Extra strain will be put on Selkirk’s sheriff court if plans to close the court in Peebles are approved by the Scottish Government, a local MSP has said.

John Lamont said the Scottish Court Service’s final proposal to close Peebles and Duns courts, and move their cases to Selkirk and Jedburgh respectively, was a ‘hugely disappointing decision’.

He added: “It means that a huge amount of pressure will be heaped upon Jedburgh and Selkirk sheriff courts as they have to take on the extra workload created by these closures.

“This will severely hamper our ability to process criminal and civil cases and will inevitably lead to more delays in the system.”

Local solicitor Iain Burke has criticised the planned closures and the consultation on the cost-cutting scheme, claiming the final proposals had remained the same as those put out for consultation last year.

Mr Burke said he was not surprised the ‘pretend’ public consultation had not changed anything, adding: “I think the proposal is very short-sighted and unfair for the local area.”

The increased travel time and costs are also of a concern to Mr Burke, who said these, along with lost court days due to non-appearances, meant the suggested savings behind the closures would not be made.

“The costs are being shuffled around, they are not being saved,” he said.

MSP Jim Hume said reform was needed to “increase efficiency”, but added: “I share the worries of residents and legal professionals that closing Duns and Peebles Sheriff Courts could have a damaging effect on the length of time cases take to be heard.”

Community councillors are unhappy with the Flodden 500 committee’s plans for a memorial garden in the grounds of the Victoria Hall.

The proposals are with Scottish Borders Council for a decision.

But anxious Flodden 500 fundraisers are desperate to have it in place for an official opening on September 7 – two days ahead of the battle’s anniversary.

The community council has agreed not to object to the garden proposals.

But they are telling planners they are unhappy with the design and the proposed materials.

Flodden 500 wants to use around 120 square yards of the hall gardens.

Some community councillors, however, believe an opportunity is being missed in not using more or all of the grounds.

Meanwhile, more events to commemorate the anniversary were confirmed this week.

They include a tartan featuring white, Tudor green, golden yellow and red, representing the main colours of both the Scottish and English armies.

Others include five books, two beers, a Rose & Thistle ice cream, a marmalade, oatcakes, an opera, and a historian-led guided walk, timed to the battle’s day and hour.

Project co-ordinator Alistair Bowden explained: “This is about commemoration and we take our cue from the plaque on the cross which stands guard over the battlefield today, placed there in 1910 – ‘To the Brave of Both Nations’. It was an event which shaped our country, and is as much about where we are today as remembering the past.”

On the night of the planned garden opening there will also be a concert.

A £37,500 forklift which was stolen from a yard at Houndridge near Ednam early last week has been found across the border.

The JCB Agri Super 536-60 machine was discovered in Spittal. Police Scotland say their enquiries into the theft are ongoing.

Border politicians reacted with mixed emotions to the death of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

John Lamont, Conservative MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, paid a personal tribute: “Margaret Thatcher taught me that it didn’t matter where you came from, how much money your family had or what school you went to – if you worked hard there was nothing you couldn’t accomplish.

“She was a conviction politician, and while some of her decisions divided opinion, there can be no doubt that her policies helped to revitalise the British economy at a difficult time, and spur industrial growth.”

Visiting the Borders in 1986 to bolster the Tories’ rock-bottom popularity and morale in Scotland at the time, Mrs Thatcher gave a pep-talk to 240 local Conservatives in Hawick Town Hall under tight security. She told them: “People talk about consensus politics. I’ve always felt the way to conduct politics is to state your beliefs and lead from the front.”

As Mrs Thatcher and her husband, Denis, left the building, both were splattered with yolk when an egg was thrown from the crowd.

Tweeddale’s SNP MSP Christine Grahame added: “While she was undoubtedly a formidable politician, not least succeeding in a man’s world, she should be measured by her legacy in Scotland.

“Overall, her ethos was one of self, not society. Her success in being re-elected (though not through Scottish votes) led the way to the creation of New Labour, and to the rise of Tony Blair, and to the collapse of the Conservative vote in Scotland.

“Ironically, her opposition to devolution failed and the Scottish Parliament has delivered 15 Conservative MSPs through a proportional electoral system.”

Newtongrange will become the base for 130 members of the team working on the Borders Railway project until 2015.

The new office will act as a base for employees of Network Rail and BAM, the main contractor.

Construction teams will also be based in site offices at Fountainhall and Galashiels.

The owners of Thornfield House care home in Selkirk have applied for full and listed building consent to extend the Grade B property.

The work would create additional bedrooms, a new kitchen, and provide the space to enable every room to be en-suite. Five new jobs would also be created if the plan gets the go-ahead.

The looming demise of the Scottish Borders Wardens Service is suspected as the reason for no sign of a decline in dog fouling in the Cheviot area.

That was the view of warden Mike Marsh, speaking at this week’s April meeting of Kelso Community Council on Tuesday night.

Mr Marsh was giving his own final briefing to the town’s elected representatives since the decision earlier this year by the local authority to scrap the eight-strong warden force as part of savings measures.

It was back in February that the ruling administration at SBC managed to push through its proposal to scrap the community wardens scheme from 2014/15 – saving £264,000 per year – as part of its approved budget of £250million for each of the next five years.

Covering topics such as anti-social behaviour, littering and fly-tipping, it was the perennial problem subject of dog fouling that Mr Marsh focussed on this week.

He said in the Cheviot area, which covers Kelso and Jedburgh, the problem was not going away.

“Dog fouling is not going down and I think it’s because people know that the Wardens Service will shortly no longer be in existence,” he added.

“In some areas it seems to be increasing, but we’ve not gone away just yet,” he said, pledging that the issue would continue to be tackled.

Some of the warden’s role, such as dealing with dog fouling, will be picked up by a new Neighbourhood Service section – set up as part of restructuring in SBC’s Environment and Infrastructure Department – albeit delivered in a different way from the Wardens Service.

Community councillors at Kelso heard wardens issued 10 fixed penalty notices across the Borders to dog owners during March.

That brought the total for the year so far to 33, with wardens also witnessing 323 dog walkers picking up dog dirt, bringing that particular total to 993.

Members of the public had reported nine areas of concern relating to dog fouling, which were Kelso (pathway by Border Precision/Maxwell Motors; Spylaw Farm Road; Riverside Walk and Ferniehill Cemetery), Jedburgh (Beech Walk), Newtown St Boswells (Whitefield Crescent; path between Davidson Place and Roxburgh Place) and St Boswells (Thoartergate).

Mr Marsh thanked the community council for its support. Provost Fiona Scott reciprocated, thanking Mr Marsh, and adding: “I will be sorry to see you go.”

A ‘Windows To The Future’ project is showing Galashiels’ history and fate this weekend in three of the town’s high street shop 
windows.

Since January, pupils from five of the town’s primary schools have been poring over old photographs, donated by townsfolk, to create four ‘pop-up puppet theatres’ in empty shop windows on April 13 and 14, showing Galashiels’ past, present and future.

Each school (St Peter’s, Burgh, Balmoral, Glendinning and Langlee) investigated different eras: the former Bookplus shop shows 1900-1945, the old Hendersons Travel agents 1945-1980, and the ex-electrical shop will be 1980s, the present and the future.

Project leader Kerry Jones said: “All the shops will have animations and films of shadow puppets the schools have made, with audio recordings and archive films from the 1900s, Braw lad footage from the 70s and some Borderlife newsreels.”

Visitors to Jedburgh Abbey will be able to hear from the artists behind an exhibition of glass work on 
Saturday.

Inge Paneels, Rachel O’Dell and Amy Neville will talk about their experiences as artists-in-residence between 2-3pm. The exhibition will end on May 27.

A limited number of places for the free talk are available and can be booked on the Historic Scotland website.

Police are investigating the theft of a beehive from a garden in Innerleithen.

The theft took place between 2.30pm on Thursday, April 4 and 12pm the next day at an address in Horsburgh Street.

The hive and bee colony are valued at around £375. Police have appealed to the public for information.

Not a penny. Not a single penny. A fellow Galalean pulls off nothing short a miracle and rides home the winner of the Grand National at the first asking at 66-1. Last year’s Braw Lad Ryan Mania astride Auroras Encore wowed Aintree and the racing world, coasting home 11 lengths clear.

And I didn’t win a penny. Not a single penny. Because my humble £5 Grand National gamble was spread on £1 winning hopes on horses I’d drawn in sweeps – Imperial Commander, Tatenen and Swing Bill – rounded off with an extravagant £2 on Rare Bob because somehow I could associate with the name. If only I had stuck with £1 on Rare Bob and put the other 100p on Ryan’s mount I’d have been £66 better off and would not have subjected to the ridicule I received at the hands of my friends in Selkirk.

I suppose it was deserved because two days earlier after Selkirk trainer Stuart Coltherd had watched his Tartan Snow romp home in the Fox Hunters Chase at Aintree under Hawick jockey Jamie Hamilton, I suggested that Gala would go one better. I reminded them that a Braw Lad was riding in the big one and that on three previous occasions he had safely negotiated the mighty fences of the Liverpool track – although not, of course, in the National.

So the despondence and ridicule I endured when Ryan crossed the winning line and almost to a man they cheered and jumped in the air and headed off to collect their winnings and I stood silently gazing at the scenes of jubilation on the telly, was probably well deserved.

I held on to my betting slip hoping for a few pennies as Rare Bob had finished fifth at 16-1. The bookie only paid out on four places. Not a penny.

And none of my horses brought me anything in the various sweeps.

Oh, and I never had a bet on Stuart’s Coltherd’s Tartan Snow either.

I gain solace from the fact the Grand National meeting this year was a great day for the Borders. The names of Selkirk, Galashiels, Clovenfords, Hawick, the Scottish Borders were broadcast to a world-wide audience.

But will we capitalise on it? Have we heard tourist chiefs or our local authority announcing they are even considering plans to keep the area in the spotlight. Not a thing.

Sadly we were back in the news the next day when Ryan took a horrendous fall and a kick while riding at Hexham. He was airlifted to hospital with what appeared to be serious injuries. Thankfully this proved not to be the case and the jovial, unassuming, 23-year-old was the focus of a victory parade through the centre of Galashiels.

I never thought I’d sit in the same photo line-up as a winning Grand National jockey.

But when, as a guest speaker, at last year’s Spurs Night dinner of the Gala Souters Association we shared a top table, I doubt if he thought that less than a year later, he’d be a winning Grand National Jockey. Well done, Ryan, and well done Stuart. That’s an Aintree you’ll never forget.

Margaret Thatcher died this week. She left a few communities with hardly a penny. She won’t be forgotten either.

Threats of war on the

Korean peninsula are not troubling those in the south, says a Borders teacher familiar with life there.

Former Kelso High School pupil, JD Stewart, 25, jetted out to South Korea on Monday after a seven-week break back home in Yetholm.

He was returning to the city of Daegu for his second year-long stint teaching English to local students.

And he says the current sabre-rattling emanating from the north’s capital, Pyongyang, is nothing new for those living in the democratic south.

“I was in contact with a friend in South Korea recently and everyone there is just going about life as normal.

“Everything is very placid and the situation is not regarded as being as serious as it is made out to be in the UK,” Mr Stewart, the son of Susan and Mike Stewart, told us.

“Something might blow up one day, but there’s always something happening of this nature and people are used to it.

“That being said, I always monitor what the British Embassy and the Foreign Office are saying and there have been no warnings not to travel to South Korea.”

Mr Stewart opted for the temporary life of an English language teacher in what is one of Asia’s most technologically-advanced nations after friend and former schoolmate, Marnie Ker, who was already in the country working as a teacher, recommended it.

And he has loved his time in South Korea so much he says he may opt for a third year in Daegu, the country’s fourth largest city with 2.5million residents.

“I don’t know yet. But living and working in Daegu has been fantastic. The people are very friendly and the students are desperate to learn English, and the pay is good,” he explained.

But it was a trip last autumn to the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone), separating the communist north from its southern pro-west neighbour and organised by the US military, that proved a real eye-opener.

“The drive took about 40 minutes and as we moved north, the roads became quiet and incredibly eerie.”

Mr Stewart said the saddest part was visiting Dorasan Station, once intended to be the final link in the Trans-Siberian Express.

“We posed for photos on a railway line that literally went nowhere.

“It is sad to think unification is not possible. They talk about invading the south, but they’re starving – all they’d probably want to do is eat.”

Dog owners in the Borders are being offered free expert pet health advice by vet charity PDSA.

A ‘pet wellbeing nurse’ will be at Pets at Home, Galashiels, tomorrow (Friday) from 10am to 5pm, to offer tips and guidance on how to keep pets happy and healthy.

The nurse will weigh the dog, check their body shape, teeth, eyes, coat and fitness.

Selkirk-based Riddell Fiddles are heading to Cape Breton in Canada where the group, including many youngsters, will receive tuition at a music college.

On Saturday, they are making use of a Selkirk pop-up shop in Tower Street to raise funds. Cards designed by Ian Oliver will be on sale, along with homebaking and musical entertainment.

NEWCASTLETON is the first place in Scotland to trial a community-led network which has brought 3G mobile phone coverage to the village.

Locals joined with Borders MP Michael Moore on Friday to launch the pilot scheme, which has the backing of the area’s businesses.

Barbara Elborn, a partner in NSC, a local business operating self-catering properties, said: “Newcastleton is a beautiful, yet remote, idyll which increasingly relies on visitors to help sustain our local economy.

“Visitors love coming, but in the past our connectivity has let us down. Everyone expects to be in touch 24/7, and this is particularly true of our visitors.

“Today is huge for our community, for our businesses and for our visitors. We can now compete with other destinations on a more level playing field.”

The scheme, using “open femto” technology, came about after Mr Moore recommended the village for the pilot programme.

Vodafone, working with the local community, has now installed small units on properties around the village which use existing broadband services to deliver a 3G signal.

Mr Moore said: “Here in the Borders, poor mobile phone signal is a huge issue for individuals and businesses so projects like these are a step towards improving the service local people receive.

“I was extremely pleased when Newcastleton was selected for the trial.”

He added: “As a result of the femto technology, I am glad that local Vodafone customers in Newcastleton will receive better mobile phone signals and I will continue to campaign for similar such investments across the Borders to deliver a better service for everyone.”

Christian Cull of Vodafone UK said: “Newcastleton has shown how partnership is the answer to not-spot problems.”

He added: “Where Newcastleton leads, others can follow – across Scotland and beyond.”

More events commemorating the 500th anniversary of the Battle of Flodden in September have been announced this week.

The Flodden 1513 Ecomuseum’s plans include five books, two beers, a Rose & Thistle ice cream, a marmalade, oatcakes, an opera, a tartan and a historian-led guided walk, timed to the battle’s day and hour 500 years ago.

Project co-ordinator Alistair Bowden explained: “This is about commemoration and we take our cue from the plaque on the cross which stands guard over the battlefield today, placed there in 1910 – ‘To the Brave of Both Nations’. It was an event which shaped our country, and is as much about where we are today as remembering the past.”

Other listed events include the Borderers’ Re turn from Flodden Ride – a horseback ride from September 5 to 8 around the whole of the area covered by the Scottish Army – organised by the Flodden 1513 Club in Coldstream, who are also holding the annual commemoration at Flodden Monument on September 9. A service of solemn commemoration also takes place on September 9 at St Giles’ Cathedral, Edinburgh, arranged by the Standing Council of Scottish Chiefs.

In Selkirk, there will be a concert and 
the official opening of the 
town’s Peace Garden on September 7, while on the same day Norham is putting on a Scottish rock and English folk music concert.

Drama follows with a costumed actor at Etal Castle and a tug-of-war at the Berwick Food Festival from September 7 to 8, and Flyting, a new opera by ­Matthew Rooke at the Maltings theatre in Berwick-upon-Tweed on September 9.

Among the products revealed are Flodden marmalade using blood oranges and research into Tudor recipes, and Edinburgh’s Nicolson Kiltmakers is creating a Flodden tartan in the four colours (white, Tudor green, golden yellow and red) worn by the English and Scottish troops. More details at www.flodden1513.com

Police have found the body of a 39-year-old man who was reported missing from his home in Duns on Wednesday.

Richard Easton’s body was found in a lay-by at a picnic area in Teviothead, Hawick on Friday.

There are no suspicious circumstances surrounding his death, and a report will be sent to the Procurator Fiscal, according to a Police Scotland spokesman.

Drivers are facing a lengthy diversion following the closure of the A708 between Selkirk and Moffat near the Grey Mare’s Tail.

A section of the road was washed away following heavy rain over the weekend.

Dumfries and Galloway Council said: “Engineers are assessing the damage, but early signs are that the road could be closed for some time.”

An alternative route has been signposted: A708 to Selkirk, A72 Innerleithen/Peebles/Blythe Bridge, A701 Moffat and reverse direction.

See this week’s paper for more.

Police have issued a danger warning after prescription medicine was stolen from a house in Kelso.

A police spokesman warned: “ Consuming these tablets if you are not the prescribed user could have serious impluications for yoputh health..

“We urge anyone who comes into possession of this medication to hand it in to their local police station.”

The drugs were taken sometime between 1.30pm and 8pm on Sunday and police have asked for anyone with information to come forward.

The spokesman said: “Anyone who remembers seeing or hearing anything suspicious in Orchard Park on Sunday afternoon or evening is asked to contact the police.”

Vale of Leithen’s hopes of Premier Division survival suffered a blow as they went down 3-1 at basement side Tynecastle last night.

The defeat leaves Vale five points above the bottom two sides - Edinburgh University occupy the other relegation spot - but Fraser Ogilivie’s men do have games in hand on both.

In the First Division, former Raith Rovers midfielder Jason Darling grabbed a double on his debut for Gala Fairydean in their 2-1 win over Burntisland Shipyard.

Both teams converted penalties before Darling headed in a corner with 20 minutes remaining.

Selkirk’s winless run extended to seven games with a 1-1 draw at home to Peebles Rovers. Euan Pritchard was on the scoresheet for the Souters.

And in very windy conditions, Eyemouth United kept alive their promotion hopes with a 1-0 win over Berwickshire rivals Duns.