Vintage fair for hospice

Strathcarron Hospice is taking a step back in time this Saturday for its vintage fair at Bridge of Allan Parish Church Halls, from 11am until 4pm.

There will be a wide variety of stalls, including the hospice’s own StrathcarronVintage.

The vintage tearoom will also be up and running with teas and homebaking served by the Strathcarron Tea Wifies. Pictured promoting the event are Carol Thorne and Marilyn Smith, both volunteers at Strathcarron’s Vintage Shop.

Public toilets in Dunblane have been reopened - five years after they were originally closed.

The facility in Bridgend has been reinstated after local representatives and residents argued that a comfort partnership created in the town wasn’t working.

The scheme gave the public access toilets in the local library, Burgh Chambers and at a local pub, however it was argued that the service was not sufficient to meet the needs of the large numbers of tourists who now call in. Demand is said to have increased, particularly because of visitors to Dunblane to see Andy Murray’s gold postbox.

Stirling Council’s finance and economy committee agreed the toilets should be brought back into use at a meeting in June, and put a freeze on the sale of the building - which had been on the market for £40,000. A refurbishment of the building has now been completed, and the toilets are now open seven days a week from 9.20am to 3.30pm.

Stirling Council finance and economy committee convenor Neil Benny welcomed the reopening of the facility. He said: “Public toilets are actually quite important, especially in places like Dunblane which get a lot of visitor traffic. I’m glad that we have changed the policy of closures of public toilets in Stirling district and reopened our first such facility in many years. Responding to petitions quickly and recognising that the existing policy was wrong is what democracy is all about and I’m proud of the system we have in Stirling that allows people to directly shape council policy.”