TWO men featured in this week's Banffshire Journal have a sense of deep gratitude for quite different reasons.

FOR THREE years nearby residents have lost the use of a right of way through the grounds of the former Ladysbridge Hospital.

BRYN Evans of Banff now has a conviction for dealing heroin, and it is a crime which often results in a custodial sentence - especially when carried out over a period of time.

THE Hill of Doune creates a wonderful backdrop to Banff Bay, especially when the broom is in full bloom.

THESE might still be difficult times economically, but it is good to see there are a number of Banff and Macduff firms who are thriving and making their mark in a wider market.

LICENSING and planning applications probably present the biggest challenges for councillors.

IT is all too easy to stand on the sidelines and criticise something for what it lacks rather than accentuate the positives.

THE back green area of Portsoy has become the latest victim of landslides.

THE statistics revealed at the social evening to mark the retirement of Rev David Randall were nothing short of incredible.

IT is always sad to see a long-established trading name leave a town.

MANY parents will be shocked to discover how many Banffshire teenagers are trying to gain access to licensed premises using fake ID.

IT is a feature of motoring that most of us who get behind the wheel of a car think we are competent.

CLEARLY, it was not time for drowning angler Bill Cameron to depart this life.

IT is wonderful to see Banffshire enjoy a real industrial success story in ACE Winches.

AS the saying goes "there is no fool like an old fool".

IT was so hard for Lynn Bellingham to attend Banff Academy's annual prize-giving last week.

IT will be the end of a dramatic era for Banff and Buchan when Alex Salmond stands down as the area's MP after 23 years.

DUFF House in Banff has a lot going for it, but as Councillor John Cox points out this week those attributes are not being maximised.

THE importance of a sexual health clinic being established in Banff for young people in the area cannot be underestimated.

MANY people who have holidayed on the Moray coast over the years will have great memories of Macduff's outdoor swimming pool at Tarlair.

SUFFERING the loss of a loved one is hard, but it can be even more difficult when that person is taken at a young age.

IT must be difficult for the residents of Gardenstown who have witnessed the dangers of landslides in recent years.

HOW proud our readers should be that they have played a part in some of the first lifesaving aid to reach the earthquake disaster zone of Haiti.

OUR local area is rich in history, and the new move to form a partnership between Aberdeenshire Council and heritage groups for a refurbishment of Banff Museum is to be applauded.

THEY were meant to be a fitting tribute to the men of Boyndie who gave their lives for their country.

AMIDST the economic gloom springs some light of hope for Banff and Macduff this week.

JUST as the snow has fallen across Banffshire in huge volumes, so too has the generosity and community spirit shown in the towns and villages affected by it.

BY giving blood we are all capable of saving a life.

DRINKING and driving wrecks lives. The message is clear, yet many people are prepared to take the risk and get behind the wheel after consuming alcohol.

AFTER eleven months of national celebrations, the curtain has fallen on the Year of Homecoming. But how was it for you?

TOWNS across Banffshire are basking in a festive glow - and it's all thanks to the hard work of volunteers.

THE drama and excitement of the Active Nation Scottish Cup rolls into town this weekend.

IN the age of the 21st century, many things are possible in terms of travel. We can fly across the world in a matter of hours, and even space tourism has become a reality.

IT was heartening to see the huge public support for our Armed Forces at Remembrance Sunday services all over Banffshire.

WE'VE all been there. The lights in the house have fused, the heating has packed up or the kitchen sink has flooded - and every time it happens, getting a tradesman at such short notice can be a nightmare.

NOTHING quite beats a fish supper straight from the fryer at the local chippy. It's one of our most popular national dishes – but for how much longer?

BREAST cancer is a topic which is never far from the headlines, or from the thoughts of the many thousands of people diagnosed with the disease and their loved ones.

TIME is precious – but how far would you go to save a few seconds?

FINANCIAL experts predict that the recession is over, but the reality is that many thousands of families are still struggling to make ends meet in these tough economic times.

IT is one of the first things that hits you when driving through Banff and Macduff.

BULLYING can have a devastating impact on people's lives, not just those being targeted, but their friends and family.

IT'S something we look at on an almost daily basis, yet it's something we are perhaps guilty of taking for granted.

A COMMUNITY group hopes it will be feeling a little flushed with success if it impresses Aberdeenshire Council with a management plan to take over the running of Banff's public toilets.

WE all love going on holiday. Happy memories exploring another country – or just another part of this one – last a lifetime.

IT seems that hardly a week goes by without a tragedy on the roads. A young life lost, a family grieving for a loved one, a community mourning one of its own.

BANFFSHIRE, it seems, is becoming one of Scotland's most popular events-led destinations.

A FINE weekend in Banff was made all the finer by the spectacles of Banff Flower Show and the Banff Bay Swim.

HEY look at me! Becoming the centre of attention can be a very powerful motivating factor for behaviour, especially for the young.

BOY racers, cruisers, or feel loons; young men – and young women too – who spend their evenings zooming around the streets of our towns, or from town to town in high-speed convoy, are not at the top of many folk's popularity charts.

TECHNOLOGY may finally be catching up with our speeding problems – and it could happen here first.

THERE seems to be something in human nature which finds cruelty and neglect to children and animals worse than other forms – presumably on the (sometimes) arguable theory that children and animals are always innocent and require adults to protect them from harm.

NOTHING succeeds like success.

IT may be slipping down the news agenda, but the bow wave of the economic recession is really now beginning to wash over businesses in our area.

TALL things in Banff are much in the news this week.

WE all know that our weather cannot be relied on, even – or possibly especially – in the summer.

KING Canute once tried to be astute and demonstrate how man cannot defy nature, by sitting at the sea's edge and commanding the waves to go back.

PLENTY wind equals much heat, but not much light as a sudden gust of fury blows against the Princess Royal plans for a very large wind turbine at the ground.

THE festival season has started with a bang in Banffshire.

THE devil they always say, is in the detail.

A LARGE crowd were at Macduff harbour at the weekend to see the launch of the specially designed river hospital boat for Lake Malawi.

SEEING part of your history disappear before your eyes is always a sombre matter. And so it is this week, with the demolition of the old maternity building at Chalmers Hospital.

HERITAGE is what springs from your past, but in the North-east, much of our future may depend on it too.

A 74 year old drug dealer in Aberchirder?

PORTSOY's recent record of shops and businesses has, like many of our communities recently, been very mixed indeed.

SINGER Sandi Thom has found herself onto the news pages again, swept up in yet another expenses row – the politicians' favourite game just now for attacking one another.

HOSPITALS must be the common theme this week.

LOCAL knowledge is a wonderful thing, but our story this week about Coldhome Street and its new tongue-in-frozen-cheek title as Britain's coldest road, shows how local knowledge can sometimes become local myth.

THERE are surely not that many air rifles out in the community that somebody going out shooting cats is not likely to be known.

WE may have houses full of labour-saving devices, and working weeks much shorter (at least nominally) than our parents, but what do we do with this spare time?

ARE community improvements always to be measured in bricks and mortar, or computers?

SO it's finally settled?

SOMETIMES change comes suddenly, and everyone notices it, whether they like it, or not.

BANFF looks as if it could be awash in public toilets soon, if you forgive the pun.

A WEEK of contrasts in the Journal.

PERSEVERANCE pays, they say, and the longest walk still starts with a single step.

THE state of our sea defences should give all of us cause for concern.

NEW Year resolutions have become a bit of a joke in recent years, but there is one which most of us could adopt, and it could save many, many lives in the North-east every year.

IT is only a brief snap-shot of shopping trends in the area, but this week's front page story is heartening in revealing the busy build-up to Christmas enjoyed by our shops.

THE current world economic crisis was started by the banks, so it is perhaps fitting that when the crisis comes here in tangible form, it is brought by a bank.

PLANS dominate the local news this week: new plans for old buildings, old plans for new buildings, and buildings being restored according to plan.

THE Beaty family in Gardenstown had their world torn apart when little Erin, then only eight, stepped off the bus and was hit by a car as she crossed the road to go home.

CHOOSING a career in banking used to be considered a wise choice: safe (in every way), well paid, secure and, well, predictable.

ONE very traditional industry – distilling – re-opens this week; one very new one – wind farms – may by-pass the area entirely.

THERE'S certainly no lack of news in the area these days to fill the Banffshire Journal.

THERE are two different sides to all British Legion clubs, and both were important in Macduff last week.

IT has been coming, perhaps, but it is still a bitter blow to learn that the Banff to Stavanger yacht race will not happen next summer.

IT only takes a second to break a window, but as graphically explained by a council official, it takes an army of other people to clean up the mess – literally and figuratively – and a lot of money to pay for it, let alone the distress to some of the most vulnerable folk in our communities; young children, and the disabled.

THE local church group in Banff and Macduff are upset about two Hallowe'en shop displays. Banff Churches Together believe the displays are encouraging children to be interested in the Occult, are morbid, and distasteful to Christians.

CAN you work out the connection between all these stories in this week's Banffie?

ONLY those who have been involved in the long saga to upgrade Chalmers Hospital, or who have followed the story's infinite twists and turns, will realise what a big deal it is to see the diggers rumbling onto the site.

UNSUPERVISED teens walking the streets, extra childcare costs, longer school days for young pupils – it really is little wonder that parents are up in arms about the council's proposed new 'curriculum architecture'.

THE "temporary" closure of Portsoy Post Office next month will come as a blow for residents of the town, but many must already be wondering if they will ever have their own office again.

WHAT is it about Banff Bridge that road planners do not understand?

OF all places in the area, Gardenstown has seen more than enough tragedy on the roads, both in the village itself, and nearby.

CAN you ever have too much democracy? This week a determined Portsoy mum refused to be deflected by the massive Stagecoach bus company. When they seemed unsympathetic to her complaints she spoke separately to two Aberdeenshire councillors in her home town.

A MAJOR sporting event coming here is cause for celebration indeed.

AN 'ACT of God' is a phrase little heard nowadays. Whether that is as a result of our secular society, or just a society where everything has to be somebody's fault, is another question.

OF all the changes in the area in the past decade and more: re-opening Duff House, the marina, the re-built primary school, Fife Street College, the Canal Park/Duff House/Tesco triangle, nothing has attracted so much attention as the plan to upgrade Chalmers Hospital.

LAST week's tragic fire in a fishing boat which claimed three men's lives brought out one of the unheralded changes in the fishing industry in the North-east.

ANOTHER blow for Macduff with the news that the British Legion is struggling to stay open in its big Mill Street building.

IN the few days since last Monday's dreadful triple fatal crash outside Portsoy, the Banffshire Journal office has heard several 'authoritative' versions of who was to blame.

IT'S hats off this week to the little heroes of Macduff.

WE all know about 'the drugs problem' but the horrifying story of illegal dog fighting with links to Macduff, highlighted in the Banffie this week, is a new factor.

FOLLOWING the success of the Scottish Traditional Boat Festival in Portsoy last weekend, attention shifted to Macduff and the silver-anniversary running of the North Sea Yacht Race.

THE heavy rain that hit the final day of the Scottish Traditional Boat Festival in Portsoy shows that it will take more than a ban on whistling to control the notoriously unpredictable Scottish weather.

THE weekend's oil spill at Banff Beach reminds us just how close a major oilfield is to our precious shores. Beatrice, the lady who is almost certainly the culprit, is only 30km north, just a light north wind and a few tides away.

IN a week which began with the burning and re-birth of a Phoenix at the close of the Coast festival, 'Out with the auld, in wi' the new', seems to be an apt theme for the news this week.

THERE must have been some well-chewed fingernails among the organisers and supporters of Banff and Macduff's first ever arts festival, prior to the weekend.

BANFFSHIRE'S back! For some of us of course, it never went away; but how long would the notion of the county survive with a younger generation whose schools, scaffie carts, and council letters have always had 'Aberdeenshire' emblazoned on them?

A SUMMER night on the beach, tents, plenty of the opposite sex, alcohol, and most important of all, no adults to say STOP.

THERE may have been some sighs of relief down Gamrie way last week, after the second episode of The Baron reality TV show.

ASDA'S bid to open a supermarket in Banff has ended, more with a whimper than a bang, as they eventually waved the white flag last week.

THE news that the new Banff marina is filling up with silt after just a year of operation comes as no surprise.

THIS week we note the plans to renovate two old buildings, not in Banff this time, but in Portsoy and Aberchirder.

WHAT is your reaction to the news that Banff's only night club re-opens this weekend?

THE law has a long arm, it is said, and in Banff Sheriff Court last week, it was long enough to reach over a few necks to collar Aberdeenshire Council.

SO, it's Tesco 1 - Asda 0. That's what the council rules say. Tesco ticks all the yes boxes, Asda ticks the no ones. But out in the real world, who ticks the boxes?

SUCCESS stories like the major contract for Sangs, and the completion of a new fishing boat by Macduff Shipyards are positive – if all too rare – indicators of economic progress and stability.

DO you want Banffshire to survive? Then you can and should do something about it. The Boundary Commission for Scotland are re-drawing the MPs map of Scotland to reflect changes in population.

THE sea will seek out any weakness in our defence of harbour or shorefront, and wreak havoc within the shortest time.

ONE thing everyone is used to living with in the past half century is centralisation.

A CHURCH crumbles, a hospital lies closed and vandalised as the builders wait to move in, and two mega-corporations fight over the rights to dominate a town's future.

THERE used to be a time when quotes from Tesco about their store plans for Banff were even rarer than hen's teeth.

BANFF'S Chalmers Hospital saga has seemed to move at snail's pace. It seems ages since the battle began to save it from closure, and the fight has been long and hard.

THEY say we are a nation of animal lovers.Anyone talking to the two local folk devastated by what happened to animals in their care, would certainly recognise the truth of that.

FIRE and flood are the biggest nightmares for those who are at sea.

THE world is shrinking all the time. In this week's paper, a dangerously ill baby is transported to hospital in Edinburgh by plane in an emergency; the Portsoy boat festival plans to bring boat experts from all over the world to the town.

IT IS strange how something which could be solution to a long-standing problem can be right under your nose for years, and nobody notices.

THE POLITICS of fishing came full circle last week. The North-east of Scotland has been the heartland of the SNP since the late 1960s, providing a platform for the careers of leader Alex Salmond and the Ewing dynasty.

PLANNING is always a contentious area for councillors; it is always black and white – white if you are applying and black if you are opposing it.

THE new 'no cold call' zone being piloted in Banff is a sensible and reassuring idea for folk who may intimidated by unexpected callers at their door.

TO THE gentleman who 'liberated' the Christmas lights from the new road on Saturday:

PERHAPS quite a lot of us would be happy if we could get rid of our clothes without having to reveal that we were still wearing that threadbare shirt or had preserved our crushed green velvet flares for an unlikely return to trendiness.

BANFF is in the middle of a massive clean-up.

THERE are two stories in the paper this week, which, on the surface, have little in common.

POLICE in Grampian say that they treat vandalism as a priority crime.

ONE of the biggest blows to the area in years, quietly sneaks up on us at the end of this week.

THE devil, they say, is always in the detail.

ONCE again fire dominates the headlines of the 'Banffshire Journal'.

THE FIRE at the Seafield nightclub may not mean much of a loss to many folk in Banff, but it will be a huge blow to a large section of the population – particularly the younger ones, and presumably the single ones at that.

IT COULD almost be from 'Doctor Who': the mind-controlling ray is switched on, and the evil Cybermen turn with one mind and stomp off.

TESCO'S latest planning application for their new store includes some very 'interesting' statistics.

ONE door shuts, but another door opens. Sad to see the Co-op in Macduff go, and with it, 10 jobs. But on the bright side, only a few yards away, a hotel re-opens soon as an Indian restaurant – Macduff's first.

CREDIT to NHS Grampian, who have fulfilled their promise to restore 24/7 maternity services to Banff.

ANYONE with experience of very young children will be sympathetic about the two three-year-old Macduff pals who tried to run away rather than be split up.

THERE is one mood-altering substance above all others which surely does more damage to our young people than all the others.

WHO owns the sky? Not the government; not the EU, or even God apparently, and sadly not Aberdeenshire Council, in the case of one particular piece of thin air.

YOUNG people in a remote coastal village like Gardenstown are, through no fault of their own, stuck in an unusual predicament.

WELL, it's been a long time coming, but as predicted the closure of the Grampian Country Chicken Factory in Banff is upon us.

A HOTEL in Macduff had its image plastered all over the front page of a North-east daily newspaper at the start of the week.

HAVING to move bus stops in an effort to stop youth disturbance – and racist abuse; a couple attacked in the street, convictions for racist abuse in the court. Not Birmingham, not Barrhead, but Banff, and all last week.

IT LOOKS like another blow to Macduff – just weeks after the bingo hall closed, the Legion is 'downsizing’ as they say nowadays.

SO far, our MP Alex Salmond has swept all before him in his new role as First Minister of Scotland. He has undoubtedly caught political opponents off guard.

A SCHOOLKID falls out with her teacher about the clothes she turns up in for school: no real story there, but it becomes a story when she is wearing an anti-abortion T-shirt – and she has just had a baby.

THREE very contrasting tales of local harbours are in the news just now.

IT isn't as if there weren't plenty of prophets of doom about the building of the new marina.

TWO titled citizens occupy our news pages this week: HRH Prince Edward, the Earl of Wessex, and Iam Hazel Virginia, Lady Whitehouse-Grant-Christ.

BOTH the Banffshire Journal and Banff and Buchan MSP Stewart Stevenson have found themselves thrust into the spotlight at Holyrood.

IT'S the end of an era, with the closure of the area's last bingo hall.

AS the new Scottish government takes shape under the Scottish National Party for the first time, the opportunities begin to dawn in the North-east to take advantage of this unique situation.

BANFF and Macduff have two reasons to be cheerful this week with the Chalmers Hospital upgrade possibly taking a step further, and work starting on the industrial estate extension in Macduff.

BANFF and Buchan has once again become an SNP constituency, with Stewart Stevenson’s re-election. Inhabitants of the area will rely on him once again to fight their corner in the Scottish Parliament.

THURSDAY is election day. Again it is all change in the format. Why the election bodies think that they will actually increase participation by continuing to tinker with the system defies understanding.

JUDGING by the crowds at the opening of Banff harbour marina on Saturday, and the healthy number of yachts bobbing around the pontoon berths, the marina is off to the best possible start.

WE live in a world driven by celebrity, especially from TV, movie and music. Thankfully, some celebs are still famous for being more than just famous – and TV naturalist Sir David Attenborough has earned the title 'legendary' in a half century career of making mould-breaking wildlife television which has transformed our understanding and enthusiasm for the natural world – and by 'our' – I mean the whole world.

TOURISM received a huge boost this week with the news that a project to convert the Portsoy salmon house into a tourist and heritage centre, and as a base for the Scottish Traditional Boat Festival, has been awarded £274,000.

A SELL-OUT concert in Banff starring one of the Sixties' seminal bands; a Banff teenager on national TV talking about getting back to normal after a traumatic car crash injury; and the national media coming itself to Pennan to see a successful world record (come on Guinness, loosen up here).

WE PRIDE ourselves in living in one of the most beautiful parts of Britain, and lots of money and effort is being spent in selling our so-called hidden corner as a tourist attraction.

THIS week we tell the story of how Macduff has been unwittingly sharing the shoreline with that most reclusive and most beautiful animal, the otter.

MACDUFF must sometimes feel it's the 'coo's tail' to Banff, which always seems to get more attention, money and publicity.

THE ink is hardly dry on our story that local mums will definitely be able to continue to give birth in Banff, when we find ourselves reporting that mums will NOT be able to have their babies here from next week on. Confused? I should think so.

THE troubles in the world are actually not caused by Muslims v Christians, Communists v Americans, or Rangers and Celtic.

THEY may only be four buildings in Banff, but little can have done more psychological damage to the morale of the community than the disgraceful eyesores in the heart of the old town at Castlegate, Low Street, Deveronside and Bridge Street.

ROAD accidents are never good news, so when a massive artic smashes into a house in the small hours and half-demolishes the frontage, your heart sinks.

KIDS hanging about our streets can bring out strong reactions; in many cases they are doing nothing wrong, and young folk have always hung around, sometimes in preference to "better" options organised by adults. Even the excellent Friday Night Team saw numbers dip in Banff recently.

IT WAS still not official when the Journal went to press, but all connected with the future of maternity services in Banff or – more accurately – birthing services, were positive that NHS Grampian had finally come up with a plan for North-east maternity services which kept them local, and allowed mums with low-risk pregnancies to have their babies in hospitals like Banff, Fraserburgh and Aboyne.

CHRISTINE and Kenneth Foster have welcomed a change in the road safety laws in this country. Hopefully, the spotlight that the tragic loss of their daughter Emma has put on the issue of road safety will penetrate some young skulls.

IF WE are to continue to have full maternity services based in Banff, then be in no doubt, we will have to fight for them.

DEVERONVALE'S astonishing cup run took another twist on Saturday.

CHRISTMAS may come and New Year may go, but for some the big day of the holidays is yet to come.