THE May bank holiday weekend at the beginning of the month heralded an unusually dramatic week in Merkinch. First there was the siege incident in Kessock Avenue on the Sunday which required over 30 police officers to sort out. The whole area was deprived of their gas supply for hours - some as long as 36 hours - and people from 32 adjacent houses were evacuated. The community centre was opened and hot soup and sandwiches were served up by the WRVS to those who needed them. Later in court Kevin Baker, said to be from Dunabban Road, pleaded not guilty to a charge of assault on a woman, and a further charge of causing a breach of the peace by threatening to blow himself up with the domestic gas supply on May 4th. His trial takes place in September.

The following day a woman was knocked down by a hit-and-run driver near the Telford Street Co-op, and live bullets were found lying around in the streets of South Kessock.

Then a couple of days after that there were two instances of bag-snatching in broad daylight, one of them outside the Clach Club in Wyvis Crescent.