A fiery tale from a ‘rival scheme’

Broadcaster and writer Stuart Cosgrove, raised on the “rival” Letham housing scheme, wrote the foreword to the book.

He contributes a story he was told about Hunters by his uncle Billy, a fireman.

“In the 1980s, housewives and single mothers had come to realise that they would be rehoused in Letham and get a better council house if their own home was deemed uninhabitable.

“Some had taken it into their own hands and set fire to their own homes, rushing them and their children to the top of the housing list.

“One day the alarms went off in the fire station near Feus Road and my uncle helped the emergency response team to the site of the fire.

“When they got there a woman and her two children were sitting on top of all their worldly objects: the carpet had been rolled up neatly, the kitchen utensils were boxed away and the family’s television set and stereo unit were neatly stacked together.

“When the fire engine arrived, urgently unravelling hosepipes and fire blankets, the woman said ‘It was a close thing. We just got oot in time’.”