Looking Back – news from the John O'Groat Journal of yesteryear
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Wage cut plan for council workers
From the Groat of June 1, 1923
Wick Town Council was considering cutting the wages of carters, who collected the town's rubbish, and street cleaners.
The proposal was to reduce the carters' pay by 10 shillings a week – with 5s being removed after the next pay day and the other 5s within three months. Street cleaners looked set to lose 5s a week.
The cut had been suggested because the workers "had got increased wages from the beginning of the war while officials had not received increases until much later". The carters were getting 100 per cent over the pre-war wages and that was "out of the question" at the present time, councillors were told.
However, not everyone agreed. Dean of Guild Davidson said that if it was necessary to take 20 per cent off the workmen's wages then officials' wages should be reduced also. He said: "Some of the officials got large increases and have also other means of getting wages, while the workers have not."
Bailie Green said it was "a pity that anything should be said to create class distinction" but at the same time the council had to consider the responsibilities of the higher officials, "their different stations in life and cost of living in their various spheres".
It was agreed that the matter be remitted to the finance committee to furnish the councillors with a statement of the present and pre-war wages of all employees.
Vandalism in Bignold Park
From the Groat of June 1, 1973
Three goalposts on three separate football pitches at Wick's Bignold Park had been torn out of the ground by vandals.
Members of Wick Town Council had already called for more police on the beat following serious vandalism at new houses in Kinnaird Street, and they repeated the plea at their latest meeting.
Bailie Alex B Henderson told the meeting that the goalposts had been uprooted and the iron stanchions twisted and broken.
He said it was "tragic to think that grown-ups went in and destroyed the source of pleasure of the boys from the east end of Pulteneytown", adding: "I think it is dreadful. It is no use saying what we are going to do. We should get the provost's committee to take up the matter with the police."
Councillors gave other examples of vandalism in the town. The swings in the playing field at Coach Road had been broken and in another instance of playpark vandalism two seats had been used as battering rams to damage property, leaving holes in concrete walls.
Burgh surveyor Alex S Begg said it was "certainly not being done by children".
Elsewhere, a young man who rescued a boy from drowning at Wick River was presented with the Royal Humane Society's Honorary Testimonial.
Clerical officer Alexander Steven (20) had saved nine-year-old Donald Macleod Harper after the youngster fell off the old weir and was carried into a deep pool.
British-Japanese battery plant
From the Groat of June 5, 1998
A £12 million inward investment for Thurso had been hailed as a landmark in the industrial history of Caithness.
Development officials believed the creation of a high-tech battery cell manufacturing plant would herald the regeneration of an area blighted by job losses at Dounreay and rapid emigration over the past decade.
The skills base built up around the nuclear industry in Caithness had played a key role in luring AGM Batteries, a British-Japanese joint venture, which was set to create 130 jobs, most of them skilled.
Caithness had been one of three areas competing for the project.
South Wales and north-east England had put together strong financial incentives but Thurso clinched the deal because the company had been impressed with the professionalism of the staff at Caithness and Sutherland Enterprise, Caithness had a pool of technical and skilled workers, and AEA Technology, the lead partner in the venture, already employed 207 people at Dounreay and knew the area well.
Scottish industry minister Brian Wilson, who was at Thurso College when details of the project were announced, said it was a "magnificent day for Thurso" and AGM's decision to choose the town as a major centre of production was "a tribute to its people, its environment and its quality of life".
He said the facility would place Thurso "on the international map as the centre for the manufacture of the world's most advanced and sophisticated batteries".
