LOOKING BACK: Extra hours plea for Wick shops, Dunnet school taxi driver retires and Caithness waste concern
Extra hours sought for shops
From the Groat of August 15, 1924
Members of Wick Town Council were to consider allowing extended opening for restaurateurs’ premises during the week if they agreed to Sunday closing.
The matter had been raised by solicitors DW Georgeson & Son on behalf of three ice-cream shops in High Street and one at the harbour.
It had come just the week after “three persons” had appeared at the burgh court charged with contraventions of the burgh regulations regarding opening times.
However, before a decision was made, Provost Green suggested that the chief constable “should report on the class of young men who frequent the premises in question”.
He said he “had had several complaints from residenters in the High Street as to the noise carried on in one of these shops until the early hours of the morning”.
Also hoping to extend their trading hours were some of the smaller businesses in the town.
Dean of Guild Davidson argued that “it was only when the principal merchants closed their premises that the smaller shops could get a shilling”.
It was agreed that the council should approach the Secretary of State for Scotland “with a view to getting the shopkeepers' hours extended”.
Elsewhere, the seventh Canisbay Agricultural Show had been deemed a success even though the attendance had been slightly down on the previous year.
It was reported that a steamer that had gone ashore the night before the show at Ness of Quoys, around a mile from the show yard, had “proved something of a counter-attraction”.
School taxi driver retiral
From the Groat of August 16, 1974
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A presentation had been held to mark the retirement of a taxi driver who had spent four decades ferrying children to and from Crossroads Primary School.
Present and former schoolchildren and other friends had “contributed generously” to the collection for Chief Officer John Sinclair (Johnnie), Merchant Navy, who had started his taxi business after ill health had forced him to cut short his naval career.
He had bought a 10hp Singer car for £65 and for 40 years this “aged automobile” had been a familiar sight “trundling along the Dunnet Head-Brough-Crossroads-Barrock road”.
When he first started out he had no driving licence and no mechanical skills “but by perseverance and hard work he soon became an expert mechanic” and had acquired “an encyclopaedic knowledge of vintage automobiles”.
His first contract had been to drive the children living at the Dunnet Head coastguard station, along with the lighthouse keepers’ children, to school and he had continued doing this even as his business expanded.
Elsewhere, Wick Harbour Trust was to purchase a new £6500 pilot boat. The decision followed the agreement of the Highlands and Islands Development Board to loan the trust £2600 and up to £1950 as an outright grant.
Wick Town Council had also pledged £1000 towards the purchase.
Caithness waste concern
From the Groat of August 20, 1999
The possibility of Caithness having to take household waste from other parts of the Highlands had been met with an unfavourable response.
It had been suggested that refuse which would normally be deposited at the Longman tip could be transferred to Seater and Skye “to ease the pressure on the Inverness site which is expected to be full by the year 2001”.
But Highland councillors were unhappy with the idea of refuse being transported such a long distance and agreed to look at other options, including a stopgap site nearer Inverness.
Highland Council was examining a plan to build an energy-from-waste plant but such a facility would not be ready before 2006.
Caithness north-west councillor Alastair MacDonald said that proposals to extend the Longman tip had been opposed by bodies such as SEPA and Scottish Natural Heritage.
He maintained that “nowhere in Britain has more empty space than the Highlands and I find it difficult to accept that an alternative site cannot be found”.
Elsewhere, calls had been made for the government to cut taxes on petrol over concerns about the impact rising fuel prices were having on the Caithness economy.
Far north MSP Jamie Stone called for urgent action, saying that tourism, farming and transport had all been affected.
His call was echoed by Caithness and Sutherland Chamber of Commerce which pointed out that the UK had the highest level of duty in Europe, with 85 per cent of the price going to the Treasury.