THE ARRAN BANNER 20 YEARS AGO

Saturday July 3, 1999

Hostile intentions

Cypress leylandii, the hedge recently identified as the greatest cause of neighbourly strife in England, may be about to spread its tentacles on Arran. Terry Crawley told Tuesday’s community council meeting of the concerns of a Corrie resident that her neighbour might be planting such a hedge with hostile intentions. NAC’s planning department can apparently do very little about these, even if they grow to their maximum height of 70 feet and their roots interfere with the foundations of neighbouring properties.

Alistair Yates, however, assured the council that such hedges on Arran were ‘easily controlled’ with the colder climate and salty air which naturally limits their growth. Any hostile intentions would therefore be likely to bear little fruit.

Raking rubbish

Access to the Brodick coup has been an issue for a while now.

This week it was a big issue for baker Lindsay Keir. For when he found that an item dear to his heart had been inadvertently thrown out he almost took up residence there, even hiring a digger to rake through the rubbish. Exactly what it was nobody seems to know, except a ‘family heirloom’.

The men on duty tell us that those seeking lost items are not that unusual, one woman even hoping to retrieve her wedding ring. But, they say, it is like looking for a needle in a haystack, but dirtier and smellier and unlikely to ever turn up.

Sewage solution

The future of Arran’s sewerage system, and the cleanliness of our beaches and sea water, came under the microscope at Tuesday night’s community council. Andrew Leith and Bill Martin of West of Scotland Water had come to outline the Coastal Communities Programme and the intention to spend £12m over the following five years providing Brodick, Lamlash, Whiting Bay, Corrie, Blackwaterfoot and Lochranza with new or upgraded waste water treatment facilities.

Works will include the removal of all existing discharges of untreated waste water and remove the existing short sewage outfalls which presently deposit waste very close to the shore. The intention is to complete the works by December 2004.

01_B27twe02 Bombs away! A young girl leaps into the pool at the annual Arran Primary Schools swimming gala held at the Kinloch Hotel.

01_B27twe05 At a meeting of the Arran Rotary a total of four cheques were handed over to local groups. Pictured at the event were the office bearers with new president John Corbett.

01_B27twe01 Landowner Charles Fforde opens the gate to the Glen Rosa footpath in a symbolic gesture of co-operation between walkers and landowners at the launch of the Arran Access Trust.

01_B27twe04 Visiting Arran after the police merger of the former U and R divisions are Chief Inspector John Beck, former Arran sergeant in the 80s, and Chief Superintendent Bill Campbell, both now in charge of Arran policing.

01_B27twe03 Pirnmill Primary held their school show last week with each class performing songs from a wide range of Walt Disney films with costumes to match.