From our July 15th edition
25 YEARS AGO
(July 12, 1991)
A NEW Highland Council, taking on the duties of both region and district, would create an “unwieldy” administration, leaving remote Sutherland areas even more disadvantaged than they are already.
Sutherland district councillors are unimpressed by a Highland Regional Council report which is in favour of the one-tier local government system.
Although the district council does not meet again until next month, some members are already speaking out against the region’s response to a Scottish Office document on local government reform.
The consultation paper, titled The Structure of Local Government in Scotland, was released in June, three months after the government first announced its proposals to introduce a single-tier structure of local government in Scotland.
SHERIFF Ewen Stewart, whose fitness to hold office is currently under investigation, has been suspended until the outcome of an inquiry into his professional conduct, is released.
The investigation is expected to take some months to complete and is being undertaken by the Lord President of the Court of Session, Lord Hope, and the Lord Justice Clerk, Lord Ross, on the orders of Scottish Secretary Ian Lang.
It is the first step in the mechanism for removing sheriffs from the bench, contained in the Sheriff Courts (Scotland) Act 1971.
Lord Hope and Lord Ross have now recommended that Sheriff Stewart be suspended and this has been approved by Mr Lang.
Prior to this week’s announcement, Sheriff Stewart, who is presently on holiday in France, had been expected back in Dornoch Sheriff Court on August 1. He will receive his full £52,000 yearly salary plus expenses during his suspension.
A TEAM of cyclists are to try to prove they can travel faster than the train between Golspie and Tain using the new road bridge crossing. The “Bicycle beats the Train” event will be staged on August 24 and the cyclists will leave Golspie station at the same time as the 1.13pm southbound train.
Once the Dornoch Bridge is opened, Golspie’s Main Street will be the first to be negotiated by motorway travellers and around 1200 plants are being displayed to give them a welcome splash of colour. The Golspie in Bloom committee has laid out 18 hanging baskets, 31 tubs and 14 flower beds around the village this summer.
50 YEARS AGO
Top Stories
(July 15, 1966)
CONCERN has been expressed over a delay in progressing a major scheme to extend the white fish pier at Lochinver.
Local representative Donald McBain told a meeting of Sutherland County Council that there was extreme congestion at Culag pier, where white fish are landed.
He said it was feared that if facilities were not improved quickly, fishermen not tied to Lochinver would go elsewhere to land their catches.
Mr McBain told the council he had asked the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries to explain the delay and it had responded that further information was required from the council’s consulting engineers.
Without that information, the level of grant aid for the project could not be assessed.
Mr A. M. Ross, chairman of the harbours committee, felt members had not impressed the importance of this development and the need for action on the powers-that-be.
Following discussion it was agreed to remit the whole matter to the harbours committee.
FOLLOWING a letter from the Scottish Development Department on the proposed bridge at Balnacoil, Sutherland County Council is to write to the estate owners asking whether they will meet the cost of trial bores on the two sites proposed for the bridge. One site is at the existing ford and the other is further upstream and is the council’s preferred site.
WHEN Sutherland County Council considered a letter from Kildonan, Loth and Clyne District Council asking for support for an extra policeman for the Brora area, Mr A. M. Ross said that he thought that a policeman should be engaged for duties in Brora.
But the convener, Mr J. H. Mackay, said: “The disposition of the police is in the hands of the chief constable and it is a matter which is outside our province.”
This led to a protest by Mr W. W. Green, who said an extra policeman was required in Golspie as much as in Brora.
It was agreed to make a recommendation that an extra policeman should be available for Golspie and Brora.
75 YEARS AGO
(July 17, 1941)
THE county of Sutherland, with a population of roughly 16,000, sets out to raise £20,000 during its War Weapons Week from Monday, 28th July, to Saturday, 2nd August, and as the country needs the full financial support of everyone, it is everyone’s job to jump to it and invest for victory.
In a recent appeal, signed by the Lord Lieutenant, Convener and the Provost of Dornoch, it was pointed out that the enormous success which attended War Weapons Weeks throughout the country must inspire each one of us anew to prosecute the war with ever increasing vigour.
It is with the greatest confidence they invite the people of Sutherland, who have never been found wanting, to make their War Weapons Week an outstanding success by doing their utmost in subscribing to the National Exchequer, not only to secure the necessary materials to enable His Majesty’s forces to defeat the ruthless enemy but also to avert a repetition of the financial difficulties which followed the last war.
IT has taken a war to make the British people eat sensibly. Dieticians and doctors had warned us for years that the national diet contained too much meat and too few properly cooked vegetables, too much white bread and too few salads.
Then Hitler intervened and today the entire nation is being fed on a basis which is as near scientific as makes no odds.
Meat is cut to a minimum but that loss can be made good by eating fish rich in fats, such as herrings. Vegetables, which are being grown by everyone who owns even the smallest patch of ground, have been popularised by skilful government advice on various ways of cooking them.
HIS many friends will be pleased to learn that Lieutenant Victor Budge, son of Mrs Budge, Adjmere Cottage, Dornoch, has been promoted to captain.
He has been on active service since the beginning of hostilities in the Middle East.
Captain Budge left this country nearly three years ago to take up an appointment in the audit department of the Colonial Service in Uganda. He was educated at Dornoch Academy, where he had a successful scholastic career.
Proceeding to Edinburgh University, he graduated with honours in mathematics and natural philosophy. His future career will be followed with interest by his many friends.
100 YEARS AGO
(July 13, 1916)
AN OPEN LETTER TO THE YOUNG LADIES OF DORNOCH.
Ladies – In another column of today’s paper will likely appear a report of Monday’s Tribunal meeting. The report will in all probability contain a statement made by the Provost that there are a large number of idle women in Dornoch.
Should the Provost have done nothing more at that meeting than give public and official utterance to that statement, he would have done well and earned public approval.
I don’t know that in any other community could such a statement be made and made in such a way that it defies contradiction.
Your brothers and friends are sacrificing everything in order that you may have a home to live in. Trade, business and everything else is disorganised for want of hands. Much of this disorganisation could be averted if you but put aside your childish ideas and endeavour to give what assistance you could.
No! You prefer to spend the forenoon in dressing, the afternoon reading novels, on the golf or tennis greens or taking walks.
Lay aside all old notions and childish ideas. Farmers round about are unable to secure crops for want of hands and are thinking about closing down businesses while you go idly about enjoying yourselves.
There is no enjoyment that comes up to that obtained from a good, honest day’s work. Offer your services and when the war is over you can then truly say that you have done what you could to help your brother in the trenches and keep the home fires burning.
