Looking Back – news from the John O'Groat Journal of yesteryear
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Former licensees dispute rents
From the Groat of September 22, 1922
At the Wick Burgh Valuation Appeal Court, 28 appeals against valuations by the assessor were heard, 10 of which came from former licence holders in the town.
The court heard that since Wick had "gone dry" there had been "considerable difficulty" in renting out commercial property.
Mr P Sinclair, acting for Mrs Williamina Campbell, who had lodged an objection to the assessment for her public house, told the court that such buildings "could only be used as shops now, and already in the town there was more than a sufficiency of shops".
He explained that one shop in the High Street, lately tenanted by Messrs Sinclair & Fraser, drapers, had been vacant almost a year, and the shop occupied by the late Mr D H Wares, ironmonger, was still without a tenant. "If licensed premises were to be put on the market to let they would be in the same position as the premises referred to."
In reply, the assessor pointed to the "excellent situation" of the public house as it was "in one of the main thoroughfares on the corner of the Market Place".
However, given the loss of the licence, he advised that he would accept a lower valuation of £40.
The owner of the Caledonian Hotel in Bridge Street, which now operated as a temperance hotel, had also appealed, The court heard the property was for sale but no offers had been made.
Oil project move at Dunnet Bay
From the Groat of September 22, 1972
Caithness County Council had agreed to allow consideration of a planning application from Chicago Bridge Ltd, of Oxford Street, London, which wished to build "structures required in the prosecution of the sea oil drilling west of the Orkney and Shetland islands" on 36 acres of sand-dune land at the Castletown end of Dunnet beach.
The indications were that there were already protests to the plan on amenity grounds as "massive structures of steel embodying many thousands of tons and standing up to 600 feet in height" were envisaged.
The importance of the project and the controversy it was likely to entail meant there was an almost full attendance at the county council meeting, while members of Wick Harbour Trust were present in the public seats.
County convener Alex Rugg said the application was the responsibility of the planning committee which was composed of landward and Wick members of the county council. However, as the matter was of such interest to the county as a whole, Thurso Town Council and the Thurso members of the county council had been invited to participate in the process. And, although they would not have a vote, they would be able to speak in discussions.
County clerk Mr R Stevenson told the meeting that Dunnet Bay was zoned as an area of "high landscape value", which meant that amenity had to be considered. "I don't think think this can be decided on the jobs question alone," he said.
Kittens go nuclear
From the Groat of September 26, 1997
A new probe had been launched at Dounreay after the latest unexplained find at the nuclear plant. But this time it was animal welfare inspectors, not nuclear regulators, who were alerted.
A flap was sparked after Michelle Mason heard a muffled miaowing noise near her office in the site's communications department.
Closer inspection found it to come from a small empty storeroom. There, Michelle found a nest of six three-week-old kittens cowering in ducting below the floorboards.
"We've no idea how they got there," she said. "They were making a terrible racket and I was worried that they were a bit distressed but they were perfectly okay."
The kittens were monitored for radioactivity before being taken to the nearby animal welfare centre at Balmore, run by the Scottish SPCA. The "nuclear" family was then housed with other lost and abandoned pets seeking homes.
Michelle's boss Morris Grant said it was a mystery as to how the kittens came to be where they were found. "The only legitimate wildlife we allow to be taken on site are the police dogs," he said.
Elsewhere, Lybster petrol station was to close. Operator Ian Young said that the Portland Filling Station was "not an economic proposition", adding that the "small village station is becoming a thing of the past".
