From our archives
A city park which was once a no-go area for families has been brought back to life thanks to two years of hard work. In the past, most local people avoided Castlemilk Park in Glasgow, which was overgrown, and strewn with rubbish. Today it is transformed and in the past couple of years, 12,000 people have attended 600 events in the park. Much of the success of the project is thanks to Richard Bolton, the community woodland officer for Cassiltoun Housing Association, who took up his job in 2011.
He trained 500 fighter pilots, played professional football for Third Lanark, sold a company for two bob, and shunned going into to the tyre business with a man who became the Kwik-fit magnate Sir Tom Farmer. Sam Latter celebrates his 106th birthday today and is believed to be Scotland’s oldest man. To mark the occasion, he plans to regale his relatives and friends with stories of his childhood in Glasgow, where he was born the son of a Jewish immigrant master tailor.
SNP leader Alex Salmond yesterday likened Labour’s plans for devolution to a giant jelly. In a letter to Labour leader Tony Blair, pictured, he demanded details of Labour’s devolution commitments. Mr Salmond said weekend press reports had intensified the confusion surrounding Labour’s policy, and added: “Blair’s devolution package is beginning to resemble a giant jelly – wobbling about and moving in different directions whenever and wherever you probe it.”
Three men took turns yesterday at holding an oil tanker driver’s head above water after his vehicle skidded on black ice and crashed through the parapet of a bridge on the Cambusbarron-gargunnock road. The driver, Livingstone Russell Wilson, of Plean, Stirlingshire, was accompanied by his daughter Margaret, aged six. The tanker overturned as it fell into the water, trapping Mr Wilson in the wrecked cabin. His daughter, who was thrown out into the water, was rescued by a passer-by.
Agitation has begun against the bill which the Underground Railway Companies have deposited to enable them to make large increases in their fares. It hardly seems likely, however, that the maximum charges sought to be authorised would ever be put into operation unless something unforeseen were to happen. The companies want to be able to charge a maximum of 4d per mile for first class passengers and 2d per mile for third class, any journey of less than two miles to be reckoned as two miles.