Fionnuala Ellwood had decided to leave the programme to pursue other projects and writers were forced to come up with a way to write Lynn Whiteley out of the village. Deciding the most realistic option would be to have Lynn leave with Pete, Jim Millea was informed that he too would be written out of the programme. Both left in January, following the reveal of Pete's affair with Rachel Hughes, but would pop up again separately before the year was out in the dramatic hit and run storyline which killed off Pete.