TWENTY YEARS AGO

Saturday 21 September, 1996

Field of dreams

Work on the new sports field at the Ormidale Park is now well under way. Originally there was a disagreement on whether it should be sited in Lamlash or Brodick. Brodick was eventually chosen as it was nearer the pier and it would be independent from the school.

The project is costing around £850,000 and will include a full-sized football pitch, a smaller artificial pitch with floodlights and a 350-metre running track with four changing rooms. The sports association committee hopes that the facilities will bring new events to the island and is to urge North Ayrshire Council to hold district competitions there. The project is due to finish in November with plans for a celebrity to open the field.

Arrant arrogance

While people generally take considerable interest in any filming that happens on the island and welcome programmemakers, there has been some muttering over the BBC production team taking over portions of the island for the filming of The Missing Postman.

The ferry has been fully booked with a wardrobe truck, a dining bus, a kitchen truck, a road truck, a catering truck and a camera and lighting truck, all 10.5 meters long. On top of this, the Ross Road will be closed next Wednesday with a threat of a £100 fine for anyone driving on it as well as parts of Lamlash being closed to the public. The feeling from many, including Councillor Evelyn Sillars, is that this ‘arrant arrogance’ is riding roughshod over the island.

Petrol pump push

Moves are going ahead to try to replace the provision of petrol northbound between Blackwaterfoot and Brodick, a distance of some 30 miles. No petrol has been available since the closure of the pump at Pirnmill some months ago and a committee of people from Pirnmill and Lochranza has been formed which is at present putting together a business plan and is determined to see this through. There is no site earmarked but Synne Campbell, who was one of the first to promote the idea, felt that Lochranza would be an ideal location. The absence of a petrol pump could probably cause people to break the law as ‘people do store’, said Mrs Campbell.

B38twe04 Tom McQuade of the British Heart Foundation presents a £6,000 defibrillator to Doctor Angus Campbell and Geoff Dawson. The lifesaving piece of equipment was bought by the Lamlash Medical Centre with half of the cost being covered by the BHF.

B38twe05 David MacClelland, who recently received planning permission for a multi activity visitor centre and craft village at Balmichael farm, has now also introduced quad bike riding at the farmstead.

B38twe01 A 47-strong party making up the McTaggart Scott Loanhead Band visited Arran for the first time last week. They did two concerts, one in Brodick Hall and a combined one with Arran Brass at Brodick Castle, pictured, on Sunday.

B38twe02 Sports Association chairman Alastair Dobson sits on a rock on the new sports field and surveys the work in progress at the Ormidale Park.

B38twe03 Elizabeth Kelso and Wilma Robertson, who this year represented the osland in the annual SWRI golf competition. The competition was held at Minto in Roxburghshire and Elizabeth and Wilma were second overall.