FROM OUR FILES
TEN YEARS AGO Friday January 31, 2014
Craignish people to get their say in house location
People living in Craignish will play a major role in deciding who will live in the six new affordable homes to be built in Ardfern this year.
Fyne Homes, the social landlord building the affordable homes on the Lower Glebe, has said people in area will be charged with establishing the Local Letting Initiative (LLI) which governs how the homes are allocated.
An LLI can ensure people living in a specific area in substandard accommodation are awarded more points on the Home Argyll housing register, thereby putting them to the top of the list.
Fyne Homes was due to host a public meeting in Craignish Village Hall on Wednesday evening, in a bid to set out the parameters of the LLI.
Jan Brown of Craignish Community Company C3 said: “There’s huge concern still about where the houses are going to be built and that local people aren’t going to get them. Hopefully this meeting will allay people’s fears.
“The LLI was one of the conditions of the planning permission but we need to establish with them what the word local means. Local, is that all of Argyll and Bute?”
But Marie Bowie of Fyne Homes said: “I want them to tell me what is local. The LLI will be drawn up in consultation with the community. If they tell us it’s Ardfern, a small area of Ardfern, or the wider Craignish area we can implement that.”
Planning permission for the controversial Lower Glebe development was granted in November alongside permission for four private homes on larger plots adjacent to the Fyne Homes development.
The local development plan said only affordable homes could be built on the Glebe.
Game, set and match after a week for Mid Argyll tennis club
The first tennis club in Mid Argyll is at full capacity just one week after opening its doors.
The Mid Argyll after-school tennis club for P4-7 pupils has already attracted 20 youngsters, aged between eight and 12, to play the sport.
The children, a mix of regular players and complete novices, are being taught by qualified tennis coaches Richard Sloan and Mid Argyll Active Schools coordinator Innes Paterson, with the support of volunteers Dinah MacKay and Josh Coates.
Innes said: “We have been blown away by the interest in the club; the class was fully subscribed within days of opening for bookings.
“We viewed this as a trial but it has already been so successful we will definitely be carrying it on into the summer.
“We are already looking forward to the better weather and getting outside to play on the full size courts.”
TWENTY YEARS AGO Friday January 30, 2004
Stuck between a cat and a rat
The annual Ardfern pantomime brought colour and light to Mid Argyll at the weekend when Dick Whittington was performed in Craignish Village Hall.
Penned by villager Vivienne Dobbie, who has written the last three village pantos, Dick
Whittington was the result of months of hard work by Iascene Drama Company, comprising villagers of all ages.
Everyone had a vital part to play, whether as an actor in the roles of weird and wonderful, colourful characters; designing and painting the sets, making the costumes, creating the lighting, arranging and playing music or working at the back of the stage; combining to produce a topnotch show that played to two packed houses on Friday and Saturday nights.
FORTY YEARS AGO Friday February 3, 1984
Swimming pool survey
The possibility of swimming pool for Mid Argyll took a step forward this week with the news that a site at Lochgilphead High School is to be surveyed.
Members of the Mid Argyll Swimming Pool committee met in Lochgilphead last week and heard the news that the director of architectural services and the director of education had given their permission for the survey to go ahead at the school site, within the next few weeks.
In May of last year, a public meeting was held in the town to gauge opinion on such a project. The general view of that meeting was that Mid Argyll should have a pool, but it would take considerable effort from the community.
Although the committee encountered various obstructions and difficulties which held up advancement on the project, the regional councillor for Mid Argyll and Islay, Mr Niall MacNeill, received credit from the committee for providing the committee with a lot of assistance and thereby overcoming the obstructions.
The committee now feels that things are beginning to move in the right direction and by spring or summer it is hoped that fundraising activities will be able to commence.
At the public meeting held in May of last year the chairman of the Pool Steering Committee outlined various features which his committee favoured.
One essential feature was that the pool should be 25 metres by 13 metres – big enough to hold county standard competitions – and that it should incorporate a training pool and have a good changing and safety facilities.
It was with regret that the committee accepted the resignation of Mr RPK Campbell, who was vice-chairperson and who has now retired and left the area to go and live in Glasgow.
The newly/elected vice-chairperson is Mrs Joyce MacDonald.
The committee intends to intimate the findings of the committee to the general public as soon as possible.
SIXTY YEARS AGO Tuesday February 4, 1964
Presbytery opposes Sunday work
Sunday work on the demolition of old property due to be razed to the ground as part of the redevelopment plan for Ardrishaig is to be vehemently opposed by the Presbytery of Inveraray.
For at its meeting held at Lochgilphead on Wednesday, the presbytery agreed to support objections lodged by Ardrishaig Vigilance and Improvements Association formed by the Ratepayers’ Association, against an application by the demolition contractors.
Ardrishaig parish minister, Rev JJ Stanley Whyte, said that the news had come to light when the county clerk, Mr A Jackson, informed the local representative on the council – Mrs Elizabeth Matheson – that the contractors had sought permission for Sunday work.
The county clerk, he added, had referred the matter to Mrs Matheson to enable her to obtain local views on the matter.
He added that the contractors claimed they did not wish to leave the site unattended during the hours of daylight in order to avoid accidents.
But only the evening before, Mr Whyte added that AVAI and the Ratepayer’s Association at a joint meeting, decided to oppose the application.
Rev Donald W MacKenzie, Inveraray, clerk to the presbytery, intimated that the Presbytery of Kintyre had indicated its agreement in principle to the disjunction of Kilberry Parish Church for inclusion in the Presbytery of Inveraray and asked that the Presbytery of Inveraray appoint a committee to deal with the matter in detail.
The object of the disjunction is to unite the parish churches of Kilberry and Tarbert.
Moderator of the Presbytery for the coming year will be Rev John Stables, Cumlodden Parish Church.
Mr MacKenzie intimated that Rev George Sutherland, the former Free Church minister at Minard who had entered the Church of Scotland, was now at Jaipur, where he expected to take up an appointment at the State University.