JUST THE TICKET
Vue cinema has announced that it is slashing ticket prices in Stirling following our Fair Vue Campaign.
Standard tickets for all films will now cost £4.99 compared with £12.74 for a standard adult ticket last year.
More than 5000 Observer readers signed our petition in 2018 demanding that Vue drop its rip-off ticket prices.
People going to the Vue at Forthside were paying up to £7 more a ticket than those visiting the chain’s cinemas in Aberdeen, Hamilton, Livingston and Inverness. FULL STORY:
Plague victims could have been buried on the site of the proposed Viewforth link road according to Stirling Council’s own archaeologist.
And construction work could potentially unleash a “biological hazard”, he believes.
Stirling Council wants to build the road to divert traffic away from roads around the city.
The new route will run between the St Ninians Road junction with Snowdon Place and the Linden Avenue roundabout near Waitrose and create an inner city ring road aimed at reducing unnecessary traffic in the city centre.
A growing number of residents in Kings Park are
already saying the route will cause thousands more cars to go through their Conservation Area every day - and increase pollution there a stance backed by Stirling MP Stephen Kerr.
But 17th century plague may not have been on even their radar. Council archaeologist Dr Murray Cook told council planners that, while there are not enough archaeological grounds for him to oppose the application, measures to safeguard any potential artefacts should be taken before any work starts. In a submission to the council he said:“The proposed development area lies in the immediate environs of a number of known and potential archaeological sites.
“The road lies next to a prehistoric cemetery and associated structures located immediately to the south of Old Viewforth and, while its precise scale is unknown, it could stretch into the proposed development area. The site also lies on the immediate outskirts of the medieval burgh on a former raised beach, the base of which is associated with deposits of peat.
“This broad location was used in the 17th century to dispose of the dead from a series of early 17th century plagues which killed hundreds if not thousands of people.
“The precise location of these plague burials is unknown, though the combination of damp conditions and bodies raises the potential for excellent preservation, including any plague virus, which of course represents a potential biological hazard.”
Dr Cook said there was also “clear potential” for the presence of both prehistoric and post-medieval human remains in the development area.
“Whiile large parts of the development area have been developed,”he added,“it is possible that the plague burials if they comprised pits could survive beneath the current roads, paths and carparking.
“The exception to this is the footprint of the former New Viewforth, whose foundations were sufficiently deep to have destroyed any archaeological deposits. The proposed development will destroy these putative [assumed to exist] remains.”
Dr Cook said, however that as the precise location and nature of the remains was unclear, there was insufficient reason to oppose the application.
But he is recommending that, before any construction work begins, an“experienced and suitably qualified archaeological contractor”undertakes a photographic record of the site and its setting: excavation of a series of trenches of 10 per cent of the proposed development area (excluding any portions of the New Viewforth plot).
“If this exercise identifies archaeological features or finds of merit,”said Dr Cook,“I would recommend that these be subject to some or all of the following: excavation, post-excavation assessment, post-excavation analysis, archiving and publication in an appropriate academic journal”. He also recommends that a planning condition be attached to any consent stating that no works shall take place on the site until the archaeological works are done“to safeguard and record the archaeological potential of the area”.
Plague, which has various strains, is one of the oldest diseases known to man and spread by rodents or infected fleas.
In Stirling there are believed to have been outbreaks of plague in 1606 and 1645, the 1606 one killing over 600 people - a large part of the town’s population at that time.
A council spokesperson said the creation of the link road was an active planning application and all comments and consultations would be taken into consideration in reaching a final recommendation.