THE ARRAN BANNER 20 YEARS AGO

Saturday October 31, 1998

Shifting sand

Sand may not be the most exciting topic. Yet in the past its removal from Brodick beach got people pretty excited. More recently residents of Sannox and Corrie were fired up about the sand quarry at Sannox. Now we hear that Arran’s other main quarry could be closed at the end of the month.

Bob Haddow who runs the quarry at Ivy Cottage said that the lease is running out and landowner Charles Fforde will not renew it. It was 15 years ago that Mr Haddow’s sand extraction was moved to Ivy Cottage. This appeared to end the controversy over taking sand from Brodick beach which was considered a main cause of erosion. As well as sand for building use Mr Haddow uses it for his Scotsand water filtration company, taking it far and wide, including the Middle East.

Mr Fforde has now indicated that he wishes to reinstate and landscape the land at Ivy Cottage and Mr Haddow is considering moving his operation to Dougarie where studies have shown that a sand quarry could be constructed.

Road rage

Arran’s roads are a constant source of complaint. Too narrow, falling away at the edges, too many potholes. With this in mind Councillor John Sillars made a proposal on roads at the North Ayrshire Council area committee on Monday. The aim is to have a full review of present conditions and full costing of all necessary remedial work.

Most noticeable to ordinary motorists are the potholes. On Tuesday Mr Sillars told the community council that potholes tend to reappear quickly because only cold tar is used to fill them in, hot tar being unavailable because it cools on the ferry journey over. Now he explained, a new material is being developed which can be used cold but has the strength and performance of hot tar. If tests are successful it could be that Arran’s roads would be a significant beneficiary.

Record rainfall

Between Friday October 16 and Tuesday October 27, 330mm (approx 13 inches) of rain fell on Brodick. This should be set against an annual rainfall of roughly 75 inches. Thus almost 20 per cent of the annual rain fell in just over a week. In other words about one fifth of the year’s rain came in one 13th of the time.

Any day with in excess of 70mm is rare and, Nigel Price tells us, this has only happened twice in the last 10 years. Yet it also happened twice in the last week. Tony Smith who keeps records in Whiting Bay, found that Friday 16 was much wetter than Thursday 22. October tends to be a wet month but those figures are the wettest he has seen on Arran.

01_B44twe05 Lamlash Tennis Champions of 1998, left to right, Sally Brookes, Tim Keen and Campbell Seaton and, seated, Chris Jackson, Audrey McCrone and Eleanor Muirhead.

01_B44twe04 Julie Gurr, Garry Stevens, Paul Jordan and Ivan Simmonds have been hard at work on the Goatfell path – the first of six major footpath improvements in a £135,000 programme being undertaken by Scottish Conservation Projects.

01_B44twe01 Fred and Liz Wood in the lounge of their extensively flood damaged Glenisle Hotel which surveyors estimate will cost near to £400,000 to rectify.

01_B44twe02 Still maintaining a sense of humour, this sign appeared warning visitors that a bridge had been washed away in the recent flooding.

01_B44twe03 Residents, organisations and teams of cleaners have been seen across Arran repairing and cleaning up the damage from the two floods on Friday October 16 and Thursday October 22.