From Our Files - Argyllshire Advertiser October 25 2024

Janet McAlister, technical services director at Fyne Homes, said: ‘The draft document has been prepared based on the wishes of the LLI working group and we are now asking the whole community if they are happy with it.’ 

 

She added: ‘The developers are due off site at the end of January. The housing team would probably start to pencil in names of tenants in December.’

 

Chris Thornhill, who has been campaigning for social housing in Craignish for years, said: ‘It got to the stage where Argyll and Bute Council were taking enforcement notices against people in sub-standard accommodation. This housing has been designed to alleviate that problem.’ 

TWENTY YEARS AGO

Friday October 29 2004

 

John retires after 30 years of ‘sterling work’

 

The man who kept Lochgilphead police and fire service communications up and running for the past 30 years retired on Friday.

 

John Penman had been Lochgilphead Police Station’s wireless technician since 1974. Colleagues at the police station gathered to say goodbye to the Lochgilphead man who, Inspector David Sutherland said, provided sterling work to the organisation.

 

John has happy memories travelling to the islands of Islay, Mull and Tiree on the job but said most of the better days were before the formation of Strathclyde Police. 

 

He said: ‘The Argyll police used to be a team but once it became Strathclyde, offices did everything on their own.

 

‘In the old Argyll days people could double up with people from another office when someone went away on holiday.’ 

 

As the only wireless technician at the station, John was on call 24-hours-a-day.

 

John started his career as a technician in the Royal Air Force before moving onto ocean-going ships. In 1968 be joined Glasgow City Police and in 1974 joined the Lochgilphead team.

 

John’s job will now be done from Glasgow. He says he will keep himself up to date with the latest technology in his retirement.

FORTY YEARS AGO

Friday October 26 1984

 

Pit strike hit sawmill manager ‘still optimistic’

 

‘In the long run, I’m optimistic - but we have to survive this appalling situation first,’ said Mr Peter Tait, manager of Dunadd sawmill which has just completed its 32nd week of lay-off due to the miners’ strike.

 

The sawmill, owned by Ayr-based company Adam Wilson and Son, supplies pit props and mining timber to the National Coal Board for use in the Scottish coalfield and in Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, North Wales and other mining areas.

 

For the past 32 weeks, however, the sawmill has not been supplying timber and 12 men have been laid off - local casualties of one of the most bitter and protracted national stoppages this century.

 

The reason, however, for Mr Tait’s optimism is that the company in the future intends to base all its mining timber work at Dunadd. 

 

But his optimism is ‘in the long run’ because Dunadd’s promise of more work has to await settlement of the mining dispute and that, at present, seems no nearer than when it started eight months ago.

 

‘After 31 weeks it is hard to see that in the future, when they go back to work, our future could be pretty good,’ said Mr Tait.

 

During the weeks of lay-off Mr Tait has been desperately trying to find alternative markets for the stock of timber accumulated at Dunadd.

 

‘We have looked at export, but the freight charges are prohibitive and with the current state of the pound we are not in a good position,’ he said.

 

Despite the 12 lay-offs the firm has been able to keep its lorry drivers in work, although it has had to cut back on timber supplied by wood-cutting contractors. Mr Tait said that probably meant they had to lay off men too.

 

Mr Tait expressed fears about the survival of pits in the current dispute. If major pits were lost the impact on Dunadd would be severe.

 

‘I feel that the coal-mining industry must continue to be an important part of the economy,’ he said.

 

Mr Tait refused to be drawn on the rights and wrongs of the current dispute. 

 

He commented: ‘My sympathies lie with my own men who are laid off.’ 

 

They had suffered ‘tremendous hardship’ he said.

SIXTY YEARS AGO

Tuesday, October 27, 1964 

 

Jura Airstrip to go ahead as planned

 

Proposals by the Jura Distillery Company to establish a landing strip on the island will go ahead following the Scottish Land Court’s dismissal of objections by six crofters.

 

Two of the crofters, Malcolm McArthur and Antoni Rozga, opposed the scheme because the land-owning company of North Jura Ltd was planning to sell part of their crofts to the distillery firm as a section of the landing strip. 

 

There were also objections by four other crofters against the use of part of their common grazings in the townships of Knockrome and Ardfarnal. 

 

In the decision the court said: ‘We consider that the loss to the crofters on these areas of ground is a very small price to pay for something which may be of such inestimable benefit to the island as a whole.’

 

McArthur and Rozga were entitled to crofters’ rights in the area designated for the landing strip, the court found, but they did not consider there was a case against the landing strip being set up.

 

There was, the court added, a continual demand for air-ambulance facilities in the islands generally.

 

‘As the estate factor pointed out,’ the court judgment went on, ‘other islands such as Mull and Skye are extremely anxious to establish landing facilities, the main difficulty in these cases being that of finance.

 

‘Jura, on the other hand, is in the happy position of having a private organisation willing to pay for the creation of such facilities.’

 

The court fixed compensation to Rozga for one acre of ground which he would lose at £12, and to McArthur, for half an acre, at £6. Compensation for the loss of common grazings was fixed at a total of £42.