Orkney Islands Council

Bins, council tax and planning, and what the council covers

Orkney Islands Council is the one council for Orkney Islands: it runs bins, council tax and planning, and schools, roads and social care. ONS places 736 postcodes in use in Orkney Islands, in 3 postcode districts of the KW postcode area.

30% of homes and businesses in Orkney Islands can get gigabit broadband, Ofcom says.

Its own pages listed
10
Postcodes in use
736
Postcode districts
3
Towns and villages
2

Source: Office for National Statistics (ONS) Postcode Directory, August 2026, loaded 20 October 2026. See all our data sources

Its website

Orkney Islands Council

orkney.gov.uk

Name and website as GOV.UK gives them.

Do it on Orkney Islands Council's own website

Each link goes straight to the page on the council's own website for that task. We opened every one on 14 October 2026.

Council tax

Planning and building

Housing

Roads and parking

Care, support and libraries

Councillors, voting and complaints

The pages are the ones GOV.UK lists for Orkney Islands Council. GOV.UK lists 19. When we opened them on 14 October 2026, 9 pages had gone (missing, or moved to a page about something else). We left those out rather than send you to a page we could not see. If one has moved since, tell us.

What broadband can you get in Orkney Islands?

Across Orkney Islands, 30% of homes and businesses can get gigabit broadband and 30% full fibre, Ofcom says.

Full fibre30% can get it
Gigabit (1,000 Mbit/s)30% can get it
Superfast (30 Mbit/s or more)87% can get it
Cannot get decent broadband (10 Mbit/s)2%

For one street, look up its postcode: each postcode page has its own figures. A provider's checker answers for one address.

Source: Ofcom, Connected Nations, Spring 2026, data for January 2026, Open Government Licence v3.0. How we use it

How much is council tax in Orkney Islands?

Band D for 2026‑27: £1,669 a year

Every other band is a fixed share of Band D, set in law. Band A is two thirds of it; band H is nearly two and a half times it.

BandA year
Band A£1,113
Band B£1,298
Band C£1,484
Band D£1,669
Band E£2,193
Band F£2,712
Band G£3,269
Band H£4,089

Band D is the average across the area, so a home's own bill can be a little different. Bands other than D are worked out by us from Band D and rounded to the pound. The figures do not include water and sewerage charges. A home's bill also takes off any discount, such as 25% for one adult living alone.

Check one home's band with the Scottish Assessors

Source: Scottish Government, Council Tax by band 2026-27, published 31 March 2026, Open Government Licence v3.0. How we use it

Postcode districts with postcodes in Orkney Islands

Counted from the ONS Postcode Directory. A postcode district is drawn for sorting post, so many cross a council's edge.

Its postcode area

KW postcode area: Kirkwall, postcodes in use here:736 of 1,853

Beside each area: how many of its postcodes in use are in Orkney Islands.

Towns and villages

KirkwallStromness

Is an address in Orkney Islands?

A council's edge does not follow postcodes exactly. Check the postcode.

All councils, A to Z

What Orkney Islands covers: Office for National Statistics (ONS) Postcode Directory, August 2026, loaded 20 October 2026. Its name, website and own pages: GOV.UK, Local authority services, downloaded 14 October 2026, Open Government Licence v3.0; every link opened on 14 October 2026. See all our data sources

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