THE ARRAN BANNER 20 YEARS AGO

Saturday September 5, 1998

First class

Brodick Post Office is the best in Scotland and that’s official. A few weeks ago they were presented with the best in the west of Scotland award after being nominated by Fred Robson of Lochranza.

Today they heard they were top in the country out of nine regions. Postmistress Janice Small will travel to London to find out if she and her team will be judged as the best in the UK.

It was when the Post Office split between counters and deliveries that Janice seized the day and decided to run it as her own business. Since then it has blossomed and it is now much more than just a Post Office.

Janice said: ‘We try to do our best. We listen to our customers and apply a bit of common sense. I don’t think you can go wrong with that.’

All eight finalists will attend a ceremony on HMS Belfast on the Thames in November where they will find out if Brodick Post Office is the very best in Britain.

Guarding Goatfell

Public bodies do listen. When objections were raised about the insensitivity of building a water treatment plant right beside the path up Goatfell, West of Scotland Water went off and designed another plant. Granted, it had an incentive to do so since its first ideas failed to pass planning.

Nevertheless, it came up with something which looks, on the face of it, completely new.

The new plan, however, is still facing criticism – the new plans show that the ground will be excavated and the new plant will be turfed over so that from the Goatfell path it will hardly be visible. Problems arise with the access path; a road will sweep round to the rear and the layers of turf will be held up by ubiquitous gabion walls.

An objector, who described the building as an Aztec fortress, said: ‘If they want to put this plant at Goatfell then they should take on board that they have a responsibility not to spoil the area.’

Yacht rescue

The Arran lifeboat was called out last Monday morning to assist the yacht Braw Lass in Brodick Bay. The Braw Lass had been dragging her anchor and had been pushed up on to the beach near the swing park. The lifeboat arrived to find the yacht stuck by its keel and in shallow water. Too shallow for the lifeboat. Help came from Donald and Alistair Bilsland in their yacht Carioca.

They launched a small inflatable into the surf and passed a rope from the lifeboat to the owner of the distressed yacht so that the lifeboat could then pull her to safety.

01_B37twe01 Arran High School pupils emerge from a building gasping for air. The children were in no danger though, they were in fact learning about the danger of fires at an educational activity hosted by Strathclyde Fire Brigade last week.

01_B37twe05 Arran’s newest business venture, the Brodick Riding Centre, started this week with owner Gavin Bell taking his first pupil on a pony trekking adventure at the Bell family farm in Corriegills.

01_B37twe04 Ayrshire and Arran Health Board chairman Dr John Morrow presents Arran paramedics Neil Gillies and Jeff Dawson with their new four-wheel drive vehicle which is designed to be able to reach the remotest parts of Arran.

01_B37twe03 Arran councillor John Sillars met Viking visitors from Norway last week. Visiting Arran to see the island’s own connections with Vikings, they were joined by NAC convenor George Steven, David Anderson of community services and Charles Currie from the Ayrshire and Arran Tourist Board.