SEVENTY YEARS AGO Thursday April 3, 1952

Flooding of farm land in Kintyre

Major Duncan McCallum, MP for Argyll, asked the Secretary of State for Scotland in the House of Commons last week if he was aware that much good agricultural land in the Campbeltown area was being lost to flooding caused by the Backs and Machrihanish waters; and what steps he proposed to take to ensure that this land was reserved for agricultural production.

He also asked the Secretary of State, in another question, if he was aware of the necessity of redeveloping the land drainage scheme for the Campbeltown-Machrihanish area; that the farming community were unable to finance such a scheme themselves in its entirety; and if he would devise some new plan to carry out this urgent work for which a rate or levy to cover the interest charges on capital expenditure could be raised from the proprietors and farmers whose lands would be restored to regular cultivation.

Mr W McNair Snadden MP, joint parliamentary under secretary of state, replied: ‘This is one of the major drainage problems which can only be solved by new legislation.

‘In our consideration of legislative proposals, we will carefully examine the method suggested.’

Major McCallum has been corresponding and having consultations with ministers and heads of departments for nearly three years on this flooding at Machrihanish.

In 2012: For the first time in 14 years, Campbeltown Young Farmers put on a sell-out concert in the town’s Victoria Hall on Saturday evening. Sixteen members of the club put together the concert, ‘A One Night Stand’, with the help of local farmer and drama enthusiast John Armour, who was previously a young farmer.