A LIFEBOAT crew have been told they won't have to pay #3000 for access to their new crew room in Kirkcudbright. RNLI secretary Rab Thomson said it was a victory for common sense after Dumfries and Galloway Council decided to waive the #3000 demand to use a private road.

Dentist elected

Dr Jim McDonald, 50, a consultant orthodontist at Kirkcaldy's Victoria Hospital, has been elected Vice-Dean of the Dental Faculty of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. He will take up his new role in September.

Bogus gas man

A WOMAN aged 85 was locked in her lavatory for five hours while a man posing as a gas inspector ransacked her flat in Ayr, police said yesterday. Cash and jewellery was stolen. The raider is described as late twenties, about 5ft 8ins with a long sharp-featured face.

President's visit

Republic of Ireland president Mrs Mary Robinson is to deliver the Sabhal Mor Lecture on June 9 at the Gaelic college near Sleat on Skye.

Fastest milkmen

Reebok has enlisted milkmen to test its new trainers. The Hertfordshire staff of Express Dairies, who cover 50 miles a week on foot, will wear the new #50 Roadwalker DMX shoe in a month-long trial.

Drug dealer jailed

Harold Foster, 51, of Kerr Street, Bridgeton, Glasgow, was jailed for six years at the High Court in Glasgow yesterday for being concerned in the supply of #8500 worth of ecstasy tablets.

Stowaway cat

A CAT with a liking for vehicles has turned up in Stirling after being missing for a week from its owner's house in Tong, Lewis. It had stowed away on a removal van.

Football buses

Perth's Park & Ride scheme is to be expanded from Monday, with the introduction of a 10-minute bus service running to the city centre from McDiarmid Park, the home of St Johnstone FC.

Pricey golf ball

An old golf ball which sat in a display cabinet in a museum at Little Bungay, Suffolk for decades has sold for #5000. The J Gourlay feather ball, in near mint condition, was made of compressed goose feathers and bull's hide.