An Comunn Gàidhealach Publications > Sruth > Volume 1 > No. 18, 30 November 1967

Sruth, Di-ardaoin, 30mh An t-Samhuinn 1967
Three
The District Council
JLocIiafoer To-day
Local
Politics
The Big Laugh
SITE FOR NEW OFFICES
ELECT OR CO-OPT ?
John Fraser, district councillor
for Caol, has resigned from the
District Council. Mr J. Brown
took the chair for this Council
session and, on intimating the re¬
signation of the Caol member, he
asked the Clerk to read out the
letter of resignation. Mr Fraser
wrote of ill-health and many per-
' sonal commitments being the rea-
sons for his being forced into this
decision. After wishing his fel¬
low councillors “good luck and
good health,” he expressed a wish
| that some day he may again be
in the position to join them.
The resignation posed a prob-
I lem for the Council. With the
I term of office still having two-and-
! a-half years to run, the Chairman
; felt it right and proper that an
j election be held, and asked for
the members’ views,
j Mr J. U. Maclnnes, County
! Councillor for Caol, said he felt
i this was in accordance with what
j was desirable, and that he was ex-
j tremely sorry that Mr Fraser had
found it necessary to give up his
j position on the District Council.
In the short time he had been on
the Council, this was only his
second term of office, and he had
been an extremely hard worker.
Mr Maclnnes continued: “I think
it was not only a mark of the
District Council's and of the Joint
• District Council’s esteem of Mr
Fraser that he was elevated to be¬
coming Chairman of the Joint Dis¬
trict Council, but it was also a
; mark of the man’s ability.”
With regard to the filling of the
vacancy, Mr Maclnnes spoke of
the precedent of co-opting mem¬
bers, and the Council could pos¬
sibly consider the other candidate,
Mrs Paton, but that since the
election, Mrs Paton’s circum¬
stances have altered, and she is
no longer available. It would
! therefore be proper that a by-elec-
i tion be held. In continuing, Mr
Maclnnes asked the District
, Council to give some considera¬
tion to the thought that Caol not
j only needed one district county
councillor, and one county coun-
cillor, but two; “I find that
as a county councillor the work is
extremely onerous. In Caol there
is a population in the region of
2,500, by far the largest electoral
division in the County of Inver¬
ness, and I find that if I am going
to do my duty properly I have to
i sit in at practically all the com¬
mittee meetings that are held in
Inverness, and this is an ex¬
tremely heavy responsibility. While
the responsibilities on the District
Council are rather less, I still
think we should think on terms of
II two representatives for Caol, and
you might give some considera¬
tion to the machinery by which
this might be achieved this
| morning.”
Chairman Brown said that they
all regretted the reason, especially
the reason for Mr Fraser tender¬
ing his resignation. Mr Mac¬
lnnes’ remarks were noted.
The time spent considering the
| thought of four representatives be¬
ing elected from Caol did not hold
up proceedings If any of the
| members did think about it they
did not let the meeting know what
I he or she thought, which was a
j pity, because now we probably
| never will know.
Road Improvements
I As you could expect, a great
| deal of time was taken up discus-
| sing the condition and use of the
| roads throughout Lochaber. Mr
| MacGee, Divisional Road Sur-
| veyor, dealt with a number of
I questions and complaints, raneiing
from protective fencing on bridges
to extensive flooding on new roads.
What it all boiled down to was
j that Locaber District Council
| c°uld use about ten times their
j allocation of capital for road im-
| provements and, as you know
j they have no chance of getting it
owing to the immediate task of
putting yet another ring road
round London.
Arisaig Eyesore
Now, this debate should have
been held in camera to record the
expressions of shocked surprise on
the faces of the members when
some of the details of the Arisaig
district scavening business were
given. These arose from a ques¬
tion put by Miss M. J. Becher—
“Could I ask Mr Cormack, the
district sanitary inspector, what
progress has been made in re¬
fencing the Arisaig dump? It is
now over a year since the last
fence was destroyed by fire.”
Mr Cormack replied — “The
position here is that the Arisaig
dump is completely unsuitable as
a dump. It will never be satis-
fartory. We are taking steps to
acquire another dump, and we
hope to get the whole place
cleared up. No contractor is in¬
terested in doing the job of fenc¬
ing this dump; no one in the area
will tackle the job. It is a small,
awkward job.”
“Flow soon are we to get rid
of this eyespre, this scar, this
dump, which should never have
been started?” asked the member
for Arisaig. A suggestion has been
sent up to Inverness that money
be found to develop another
dump, which will cost something
in the region of £5,000-£6,000 to
develop, so the decision will have
to be made as to whether the
county can find the necessary
money.”
The Chairman remarked at this
point that it was not easy to get
money out of the County Build¬
ings for such a project.
The looks on the members’
faces at this stage were incredible;
you could read it—“What kind of
Dump do you get for £5,000-
£6,000?”
Snippetis
Housing — In the Spring of
1,968, S.S.H.A. are to start build¬
ing houses at Upper Achintore.
The houses are to be built in
batches of twenty.
Industry — Fort Town Council
representatives met representatives
of the H.I.D.B. last week to dis¬
cuss the need for more industry
in Lochaber.
Illumination —There will be no
Christmas lighting in the High
Street of Fort William this year.
Scouting — At the A.G.M. of
Lochaber District Scout Council,
held last week in Fraser’s Cafe,
Fort William, Mr Walter
Cameron was presented with
a Silver Acorn in apprecia¬
tion of his services to Scouting
over thirty years.
Frost — Ice on the roads over
the week-end has been its usual
hazard, and with it has come an¬
other extension to the list of acci¬
dents.
Drinking — Eight cases of
drunk and incapable were tried in
one morning at the Magistrates
Court in Fort William.
New News — Lochaber Branch
of the S.N.P. brought out the first
issue of Bratach last week. This
is intended to stimulate interest in
local and national politics.
HOUSEBUILDING PROGRESS
During October, 3,964 houses
were completed in Scotland com¬
pared with 2.687 in the same
period last year, announce the
Scottish Development Department.
In the first ten months of this
year, 35,902 houses were started
at’d 31.311 completed compared
with 30,328 and 27,594 in the
same period last year
DoubliulElecIion
Prospects
With the prospect of a by-elec¬
tion in Caol, due to the resigna¬
tion of district councillor, Mr J.
Fraser, and the possibility of a
General Election in the near
future, one might expect an in¬
crease in the political industry of
the area. This is going to be very
difficult to generate; the only poll
likely to fill a hall would be a
Veto Poll, and then the Temper¬
ance Society would have to hold
their public meetings in public
houses. Politically, they must be
the weakest of the political parties
represented in Lochaber, and it is
unlikely they will put a candidate
up for election to the District
Council from Caol.
This is a great pity from the
point of view of reporting politi¬
cal news in Lochaber. "Awch, wir
fed up wi’ politics”; “I aw right
for an argiment at work, always
passes the time, or in the pub;
there is nothing much else to
blether aboot, bit who waants tae
go oot at night fur nothing else bit
politics, efteraw it wid take away
the element of ‘lie risk’ in the
argument, if ye had tae talk aboot
something where ye kent aw the
facts.” That’s right, no different
here from anywhere elso. Who
gets in depends on how many
don’t vote, don’t you know.
The Labour Party and the Scot¬
tish Nationalists run meetings at
regular and irregular intervals, and
it’s the same faces that turn out
at them all; it’s great fun when
somebody gets up to speak. You
try to see how much of what he
is going to say; you have already
heard him saying half - a - dozen
other times. Sometimes you get
a surprise. “Jings, he has not said
that since the ’56 election; one
up for the boy; funny I did not
think he could mind that far
back.” Well, I’ll just have to
think up one of my back num¬
bers, and watch his face when I’m
saying it”!
Then, of course, there is the
special sphere of politics reserved
for Lochaber. Never under any
circumstances support an idea put
up by anyone; he is only trying to
make a name for himself.” This
is known as preserving the ameni¬
ties. This is why there will be
no smelter, and why it has taken
years to get on with the swim¬
ming pool, the by-pass, the sew¬
age. good roads, cheaper housing,
and a whole host of other small
unimportant things. When pres¬
sure gets too much and you have
to do something, then nobody has
any idea how to tackle the prob¬
lem, and it finishes up almost as
bad as it was, before you had the
item you have been waiting vears
for: the swimming pool and all the
things that have now been tagged
on to it. Previously ypu did not
have a swimming pool, but be¬
cause all previous ideas were
scrubbed, you are going to have a
swimming pool (plus); but no
public park! Oh! you are going
to have a park, but it will never
be the King George V Park; it
will probably be Elizabeth II Park,
and be about as unacceptable as
the name. Of course, the folks in
Claggan. should have a park, but
so should the folk in Fort
William.
Now, the good villagers of both
Caol and Corpach, they have no
playing field either—Why? Whose
idea did they fling out to keep
themselves from having a playing
field?
Politics? I’m fed up with them.
Whose politics? How you run
your every-day affairs is politics,
and if you are uninterested how
can you expect to be treated other
than second-class?
During a debate on the pre¬
sent circumstances, owing to
the position of Local Regis¬
trar still being vacant, and
the duties being carried out at the
District Clerk’s Office, Chairman
Brown took the opportunity to in¬
form the District Council of the
latest development in the search
for administration headquarters.
“In regard to the District
Clerk’s office and everything
else, we are in the process of
acquiring land at Lochybridge,
once intended for Police Head¬
quarters. We are now going to
acquire the ground for the District
Clerk’s offices, and we are going
to bring together all the County
services offices and the District
services offices at Lochybridge.
This is a step in the riight direc¬
tion.”
“Is it, Mr Chairman?” asked
the County Member for Caol, Mr
J. U. Maclnnes. “I have not heard
much about this, and am quite as¬
tounded to hear that the District
Clerk’s Office is to be at Lochy¬
bridge. Well, it may be right, but
it seems to me that you will be
away from the population.”
“We will be in the centre of
the population,” interjected the
Chairman.
A discussion then arose as to
where exactly the site of the build¬
ing would be; where the Police
Headquarters were to be; nobody
knew where the Police Head¬
quarters were to be other than
the Chairman, who explained,
“This side of the school.” (The
meeting was being held in the
Alexandra Hotel).
It was then established that it
was to be next to the “Old Ware¬
house.”
“The one on Lochyside road?”
(This, of course, was to prove that
there is more than on “Old Ware¬
house” in Lochaber!) The Caol
member at this crucial point could
have used the assistance of the
“resigned Mr Fraser.”
“I may be insular here, but it
seems to me that the office could
have been put right bang in the
middle of Caol.” Without waiting
to hear the next part of the stand¬
ing member’s argument, this sug¬
gestion brought about the type of
nonsence We are accustomed to
hearing about in a Parliamentary
debate.
“The speaker’s remarks were lost
amid a great amount of laughter.
Caol HA’ HA’ HAW’ HAW’.”
But Mr Maclnnes carried on, and
rightly so. ‘There is an
element of common - sense
here, because if it is in Caol
it immediately does meet the
needs of the village of Caol. and
I might remind you that it is the
biggest part of the district. We
have a better place where the old
hall is; all the ’buses to Corpach
go there, and anybody visiting the
office by car can easily do so to
Caol. It is in the centre, and it
certainly would have served a
large part of the community with¬
out them having to travel.”
He went on to exploit this argu¬
ment, giving further proof of the
necessity of considering the posi¬
tion of these offices to be in Caol,
despite continued attempts by the
Chairman and other members to
interrupt.
The Chairman finally remarked,
“It is a decision of the County,”
to which Mr Maclnnes retorted,
“It is a case of expediency; we are
are suffering from one of the
County mistakes.”
“No, no,” was the cry; when
the ground was bought it was for
the purpose of a Police Head¬
quarters or County Offices.
The star remark of the whole
day’s proceedings was: “I think
we all agree that ground is not
easy to come by just now for any¬
thing.”
No! It came from a member
of the District Council, not a
builder’s salesman. In this dis¬
trict where, if you were looking
for a new name for it, to suit the
times, it would be 1DLELAND.”
S1VP Condemns
Devaluation
A meeting of the Corpach and
Banavie branch S.N.P., held in
Banavie on Monday night, discus¬
sed fully the possible effects of the
Highland economy of the London
Government’s drastic devaluation
of the £.
The Branch regarded the latest
measures as the final humiliation
forced on a Government which
had long since abdicated any pre¬
tended right to govern Scotland.
While devaluation itself might
aid tourism and give a slight tem¬
porary boost to whisky exports,
benefits would be short-lived, and
in any case were designed to help
the London Treasury as chief
beneficiary. . . and not Scotland.
These measures were entirely
negatived by the continued and
crippling effect of S.E.T. on the
Highland Tourist Industry—a tax
the S.N.P. condemned—and by
the coming increase in oil and pet¬
rol prices and increases in rent and
rates which must follow the rais¬
ing of Bank Rate.
While home timber production
might be encouraged, employment
in the Lochaber Pulp Mill could
be adversely affected by the higher
prices which would operate when
timber had to be imported from
dollar sources.
The meeting accused the
Government of throwing away
priceless Scottish assets, saying
that once coal was eliminated as a
serious competitor, oil prices might
soar as had happened elsewhere.
Besides, supplies of imported oil
were vulnerable during crises, and
the real costs of oil (including the
cost of defending the source of
supply had never been realistic¬
ally compared with coal.
From T. G. Smith
TO THE CLACHNAHARRY
BARD
Good on yer, sport, I’m glad
y’ took
Me flamin’ point up quick,
Td better take another look.
An’ see what makes yer tick !
I’ve met yer triidges — felt yer
weather —
Sleet an’ rain an’ snow,
I’ve ripped me britches on yer
heather —
Watched yer bracken grow.
I’ve met yer Donald John, in¬
deed,
Th’ only man y’ve got;
An’ he’s got guts enough t’ lead
E’en you, yer faint-heart Scot !
Well, stick yer Hieian’s, cats
and kits,
Yer weak-kneed Hielan’ bludger
— Yer kind o’ moaning gives
th’ sauits
T’ me,
Yer old mate
SMUDGER