TEN YEARS AGO
Friday November 8 2013
Extension to be built at Tayvallich Primary School
An extension is to be built at Tayvallich primary, allowing the village’s pre-5 unit to be based at the school.
The expansion will see the portable building, where the P1-3 class is currently taught, pulled down and to be replaced by a new L-shaped building housing a classroom and office.
The P1-3 class and the pre-five unit, currently based at the village hall, will be taught in the new building which will be 100 square metres in size.
The proposal for the school was agreed by Argyll and Bute councillors at the recent planning committee.
Councillor Donnie Macmillan said: ‘This is long overdue. The children have been working in cramped conditions for years. This will enhance their education and I fully support the project.’
The proposed plans for the school will also see more car parking, the access road to the school widened, a footpath put in alongside the parking area and a new fence and gates installed. A date to carry out the work has not yet been set.
New look for Tarbert Harbour
A grass recreational area will be created at Tarbert Harbour after the board of trustees was awarded a grant from Entrust, the Landfill Communities Fund.
Artificial grass will be laid at the amenity area of the quayside, which will provide an open space for play and relaxation for residents and visitors.
Grass will be laid on an area currently covered in hard core which is unsightly and becomes muddy.
Tarbert Harbour’s amenity area was created in 2009 and since then has had an outdoor gym, boules area, sail shades, tables and seating, flower tubs and barbecues installed.
TWENTY YEARS AGO
Friday November 14 2003
Residents protest as Brae becomes school ‘rat-run’
A team of residents from Manse Brae, Lochgilphead, turned out at the town’s community council on Monday to protest against their street being used as a ‘rat-run’ by people dropping children off at school.
They said road traffic offences were committed every day on the Brae. The group said its main concerns were the number of cars travelling past their gates each morning; the speeds at which they travelled and that the school buses frequently used the route through the back of Lochgilphead.
They pointed out Manse Brae was too narrow to be used as a main route; that many parts had no pavements and that cars had to mount the pavements that existed to let buses pass.
One woman said: ‘It is being used as a rat-run by those dropping children off at school. ‘We are all concerned there will be an accident. There is a real possibility of children being hurt. We are taking our lives in our hands just walking out of our gates.’
Resident Ishy MacDonald monitored the volume of traffic on the morning pupils returned to school following the October holidays.
She said that between 8.30 and 8.35am there were seven cars. From 8.35 to 8.40am, four cars; from 8.40 to 8.45am, 10 cars; from 8.45 to 8.50am, nine cars and between 8.50am and 9am there were 32: more than during the previous 20 minutes put together.
Mrs MacDonald said: ‘There are no restrictions on the amount of traffic that can use it.’
She said 17 school children lived on the Brae, which runs from close to Lochgilphead Primary School to close to Lochgilphead High School, and all bar one of them had to cross the brae to get to school.
Community Police Constable Trish Collins asked if the residents had reported all suspected offences to the police. She explained police could not take action if they were not aware of the extent of the problem, so residents should write or speak to the road policing department.
Councillor Donnie MacMillan said that not one Manse Brae resident had reported their concerns to him. He said that, while he saw a lot, he could not be aware of every problem unless people spoke to him. He promised to speak to the council officials in charge of the school bus runs with regard to the buses using the brae.
The residents also questioned proposals to make the school ends of Manse Brae 20mph zones. They said that this would cause more danger because cars would slow down and then speed up in the area between the two restricted zones.
‘Why not extend it along the whole brae?’ one person said. Councillor MacMillan said Argyll and Bute Council was investigating a number of locations now that it had money to introduce lower speed limits.
Roads officials had advised the community council that after initial investigations by the council, there would be public consultation about reduced limits and other traffic calming measures.
Community council secretary Brian Christie asked: ‘Does it need to be a through-road?’ He suggested one solution might be to convert the Brae into two cul-de-sacs by creating a barrier in the middle.
The residents were also asked about parking and whether the road would be safer to walk on if fewer cars parked there.
To this they cried ‘no’ and explained they found parking on the road tended to slow traffic down and therefore some of them parked there deliberately.
Having aired their concerns and been given advice about who to contact and how, the residents left but vowed to return to the next meeting to see what progress had been made.
Promoting real friendly nappies
Today’s real nappies are convenient, economic and environmentally friendly, so there’s no reason not to use them. That was the message at an open afternoon held in Lochgilphead’s community centre.
Parents had the chance to talk to mothers who use real nappies for their babies, as well as health visitors and staff from the Group for Recycling in Argyll and Bute (GRAB) Trust.
FORTY YEARS AGO
Friday November 11 1983
Tarbert Bowling Club
Tarbert Bowling Club held its annual dinner in the Tarbert Hotel recently, when a large number of members and friends attended.
Prizewinners for the season were presented with their trophies.
Gents Champion: Alistair Mackay; Singles runner-up: Alistair Meenan. McDougall Cup: Alistair Mackay; runner-up: Ken MacDonald. Jackson Cup: Alistair MacKay; runner-up: Ken Nicholson. Ladies Singles Champion: Netta MacMillan; runner-up: Margaret MacAlpine. Pairs Champions: Maimie Dawson and Amy MacCallum; runners-up: Irene McNicol and Mary Edgar.
Ladies Section: During the season the Ladies Section, for the first time, played friendly matches at home and away.
This new venture proved a great success and secretary Mrs Anne Black has expressed her appreciation of the ladies of Tarbert and visiting clubs who made these games such enjoyable occasions.
SIXTY YEARS AGO
Tuesday November 12 1963
World experts to visit Cruachan power station
Cruachan underground power station, now under construction in the Awe hydro-electric scheme, is one of several engineering projects in Scotland to be visited next May by delegates attending the eighth congress in Edinburgh of the International Commission for large dams.
The 2,900-ton liner Meteor is to be chartered to take delegates on a round trip of Scotland. The five-day sea journey, during which they will visit major Scottish dams, is the most ambitious of five study tours being arranged.
The other four tours are by land, three covering Scotland’s dams and one visiting English and Welsh constructions. The Scottish land tours cover work as far apart as Lairg dam in the north and the Cruachan underground power station in the west.
The sea trip will cost delegates between £70 and £85 each. It begins at Leith Docks and calls at Dundee, Invergordon, Loch Ewe, Oban and Ardrossan. The visitors will tour 11 dams and two power stations.
Kilmartin rainfall
The rainfall recorded at Kilmartin in October was 296.4mms with the wettest day being October 17 with 25.9 mm.
Five days had more than 20mms and eight days had more than 10mms but less than 20mms. By October 14, the rainfall totalled 185.3mms, the same as for all March which was previously the wettest month this year.
Recorded rainfalls for October 1982 were 171.2mms; 1981 – 212.7mms; 1980 – 193.8mms and 1979 – 179.1mms.
Captions:
2013: Little Jodie Allan was one of hundreds of people to create a lantern and march proudly with it through the streets of Lochgilphead on Saturday. The five-year-old was accompanied by school children and families who had made lanterns on the theme Wilds of Argyll. NO_A45FROF_23
2003: GRAB’s Matt Lewis, Teresa Rennie with daughter Murran and Jenny Wright with son Thom. NO_A45FROF02_23
1983: 1983: The end of an era for Lochgilphead was marked with the closing of the Empire Cinema. Cinema proprietor Mrs Christine Watson, left, is pictured on the last night with projectionist John Campbell, Kilmartin, and staff members Catherine Ross and Elfrida MacLean. NO_A45FROF03_23
1983: Members of Tarbert Bowling Club with their trophies. NO_A45FROF04_23