Projectto help women
A project is seeking business women to sign up.
The New Cumnock Business Creation Project will provide information on starting up a business. The project, delivered by New Cumnock Development Trust (NCDT) with Women’s Enterprise Scotland (WES) and Development Trusts Association Scotland, began on Monday, February 15 and runs over a 10- week period with weekly Zoom sessions.
Businesswoman Wendy Pring, a NCDT trustee and WES Ambassador, said: “Reserch shows that whilst many women may consider starting their own businesses, this is often ruled out as a career option due to a lack of insight into and awareness of what is involved.”
The North Lanarkshire hamlet of Bellside has first claims on him.
It’s bigger neighbour, Cleland, has a decent case to argue as well.
But Ayr was the town Sydney Devine was proud to call home. And in his sad passing, we should all be proud to remember him as‘one of our own’.
The first time I saw Sydney, he was performing to a packed dinner-dance audience at the old Darlington Hotel.
The last time I saw him, we were sharing a bus to the airport in the Dominican Republic. And in between were chance encounters, a few memorable interviews . . . and a heated debate at Doonfoot Garden Centre over the best variety of greenhouse tomatoes.
Sydney was a joy to interview. Like a good book, your could open his life at any page . . . and a great story would come tumbling out.
Sydney didn’t have Frank Sinatra’s voice or Hank Marvin’s deft with a guitar. And he was never a threat to the pictures of Elvis Presley that adorned the bedroom walls of a million teenage girls. But hey - if Frank, Hank and Elvis had watched Sydney in his pomp at Glasgow’s Pavilion Theatre – they couldn’t have left claiming they weren’t entertained. And one of Sydney’s great qualities was that – in the firmament of showbusiness – he knew exactly what made his star shine. And it was sheer, bloody hard work!
He also knew his qualities and his limitations – and was refreshingly honest about both.
“Ah’m no the best singer, musician or songwriter . . .”he told me.“But ah turn up on time, fill every seat . . . and nobody asks for their money back!”
Ill-health dogged Sydney’s final years – I lost track of which“comeback”he was coming back from!
But when he had to cancel his record run at the Pavilion, I hatched a plot have him appear on my humble stage. It would have been worth is just for the poster alone -“Sydney Devine Live at The Twa Dugs”! The plan was just to chat to him on stage, hear his stories, play some classic footage on the big screen – and if he could manage a song, that would have been a bonus ball. I had even worked out that the audience would be Sydney’s choice. Friends, family and maybe some nurses and doctors who had helped him on the way. All proceeds to a charity of Sydney’s choice.“I’ll need to work on Shirley – but I think Sydney would like that,”I said to myself.“The moment this Covid is sorted out . . . I’m going to ask him”.Now, sadly . . . I’ll never know the answer. But I’m happy to have known Sydney Devine.
Police have issued another warning to dog owners to keep their pets under control in the countryside.
It follows a second attack in Ayrshire which saw a lamb killed and others injured during a sheep worrying incident.
We told last month how police had received reports of an attack at Ayr’s Auchincruive Estate.
A 57-year-old woman has now been charged following a separate incident which saw a lamb killed in Largs last Sunday.
She was charged with an offence under the Protection of Livestock Act.
Police say anyone with information should call 101.