Looking Back – news from the John O'Groat Journal of yesteryear
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
Disgraceful scenes at football match
From the Groat of June 15, 1923
In his column View and News, Bankhead Boy called for the suspension of a boys' football team for the remainder of the season following scenes at a game in Wick which he described as "disgraceful in the extreme".
He explained that the young lads who play football in the town deserved "every encouragement" but "at the final match on Friday evening... they were set an example we would counsel them not to follow".
The rowdy supporters of one of the teams had caused trouble and remonstrated with the ruling official following an incident in which players from that team had ignored the referee's whistle and carried on playing.
The columnist wrote: "People or players who lose their heads and cannot treat a game – even between boys – as a game would be well advised to remain at home or at the street corner." He added that "when the Harmsworth Park is properly finished the day may not be far removed when a black list will be drawn up and admission refused to those who display hooligan tendencies".
Elsewhere, members of Thurso Town Council heard that an occupant of a house due to be demolished to make way for a new housing scheme "persisted in her refusal to remove". Councillors agreed to go ahead with eviction proceedings should she fail to leave and also stated that they took no responsibility for any damage caused by the dangerous state of the building through its partial demolition.
Draining cost burden in Wick
From the Groat of June 15, 1973
Wick Town Council would have to spend £1 million on drainage before a proposed housing and industrial complex could go ahead at Barnyards Farm.
The housing and town development committee was told that the scheme would require "a complete adjustment of about a third of the drainage system on the south side of the town".
Burgh surveyor Mr AS Begg said: "The present drainage facilities are loaded. It will require a major civil engineering scheme to provide adequate drainage."
Around 350 new houses were being proposed and the drainage cost associated with each one was £3000, compared with £600 per house for the scheme at Port Dunbar.
Provost W G Mowat said the development would enhance the town and he reminded the committee: "It's the council's responsibility to provide the drains. We must do it."
Meanwhile, Caithness Planning Committee had received two requests to rezone land at South Head in Wick. The area was scheduled for industrial use but Wick Town Council wanted the put houses on the site, while the social work committee wished to extend Pulteney House care home.
The applications were problematic as the area was above the harbour and "might be useful for ancillary industry".
Members agreed that the requests were "logical" but were keen not to take a decision which would interfere with the future development of the harbour.
Anger at daycare decision
From the Groat of June 19, 1998
A mixture of anger and frustration had greeted the revelation that two village daycare centres for the elderly had been shelved.
Local groups in Keiss and Watten had been preparing for the new facilities promised under the "community care" initiative spearheaded by Highland Council and Highland Health Board.
Costing between £100,000 and £150,000 each, the centres had been on the council's rolling programme to be up and running by 2002. But both projects had been delayed after an official U-turn, news of which had been confirmed at a meeting with Bob Silverwood, the social work manager for Caithness and Sutherland.
Maureen Schoonenberg, secretary of the housing and home care subgroup of Watten Community Council, said that "everything seemed to be hunky-dory until our last meeting when we were told we had been turned down".
She added that the health board appeared to have changed its stance on day centres, claiming they brought the "ghetto-isation" of senior citizens. But she believed that was "an excuse for not spending the money".
Councillor Elizabeth MacDonald, who chaired the area social work committee, stressed that the projects had been delayed, not axed from the programme. She explained that major upgrading of Pulteney House in Wick had meant the budget for other schemes had been restricted.
