Thurso licence granted, Land values ‘too high’ and No clearance for Santa’s grotto units

LOOKING BACK: News from the John O’Groat Journal of yesteryear

Licence granted for Thurso hotel

From the Groat of April 24, 1925

A licence to sell alcohol to guests staying at the Pentland Hotel in Thurso had been granted by the town’s District Licensing Court despite an objection signed by 19 residents.

This was the third time that such a licence had been applied for – previously it had been unanimously refused.

The ratepayers who had objected had done so on the grounds that there were already “excessive drinking facilities” in the burgh, that the policy of the court was the refusal of applications for new licences, the necessity for catering for travellers and visitors who preferred a temperance hotel, the fact that in a Temperance Poll two years previously 344 electors had voted for the abolition of licences in the town, and in the “moral and social interests of the community”.

Countering the argument, solicitor Peter Sinclair stressed that the new owners were “daughters of a local crofter” who had, to their credit, “brought the hotel up to a first-class standard”.

They had increased the number of bedrooms from 12 to 26 and there were five public rooms.

The solicitor said that they did not want to establish a bar in the hotel, only serve alcohol to their guests with meals.

Despite a plea from the Rev A J Morrison, who said he hoped the “bench would keep in view the moral and social aspect of the case”, the court granted the licence by majority.

Increase in land values would ‘deter new industry’

From the Groat of April 25, 1975

Caithness County Council’s plan for attracting new industry to Wick looked set to be “strangled by red tape – through no fault of their own”.

It had been revealed at a local planning committee that land which the council had purchased at Wick Airport the previous year at a price of £1000 per acre had been valued at “a comparatively astronomical” £5000 per acre.

It had come to light when a firm had shown interest in a 3.9-acre site and the district valuer from Inverness had assessed it.

It was reported that “never were landowners so unhappy to see the value of their property multiply fivefold, as they face ‘such severe difficulties in interesting industrialists’.”

The council had written to the Scottish Development Department for permission to sell the land for less than the valued price.

But permission had been denied as such a move was allowed very rarely and only for sales to charities or non-commercial operations.

Councillors took the view that the situation involved a “major point of principle” and decided to challenge the department’s decision.

Chairman John Young commented that “we are never going to get development if we ask for a figure like this”.

Santa’s grotto units had no proper clearance

From the Groat of April 28, 2000

Former nuclear waste containers used to create a Santa’s grotto in Thurso had been released from Dounreay without proper clearance.

An investigation had found that the paperwork needed to release the items from the licensed nuclear site for community use had not been filled out correctly.

But site operator the UKAEA and the industry regulators were confident that the containers had posed no risk to families who went to see Santa, and fresh monitoring had confirmed that they were not contaminated.

The former ISO shipping containers had been used for temporary storage of low-level nuclear waste before being gifted to voluntary group Thurso Beyond 2000.

Meanwhile, a huge rubbish dump at Dounreay was to be dug up because it was thought to contain radioactive waste.

More that 50,000 tonnes of supposedly clean building material had been tipped in the geo at the east end of the site since 1960. But recent tests had found evidence that radioactive waste and asbestos had been dumped there as well.

The dump was out with the boundary fence of the licensed nuclear site and should only have contained building waste.

Contractors had already carried out work to remove 7000 tonnes and it was expected that it would take at least five years to sift through the remaining 50,000 tonnes.

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