From "The Strathspey and Badenoch Herald" of January 23, 1987.
A "POP and ice creams" row has re-opened the controversy over visitor facilities in the Cairngorms and led to angry clashes between a landowner and conservationists.
Conservationists have accused the landowner of an "impertinent disregard" of planning laws, and allege that facilities provided with public funds are being converted to commercial premises, competing with other traders.
He has charged them with arrogance, claims they are trying to restrict the area to "muesli bar-munching" environmentalists, and alleges they are using planning procedures to launch a "vitriolic attack on the philosophy and operation and working" of his estate.
The row is expected to come to a head on Monday, when Badenoch and Strathspey divisional planning committee is asked to rule on an application by Mr J.P. Grant the Younger.
The Rothiemurchus estate owner wants approval for the conversion of part of the Loch an Eilein Visitor Centre into a shop.
As revealed in the "Strathy" earlier this month, the application is being opposed by the North East Mountain Trust, and Badenoch and Strathspey Conservation Group.
The trust claims the proposal downgrades the Loch an Eilein centre to provide another craft and souvenir shop, of which there were plenty in the Aviemore area.
It would introduce a development inappropriate in an area chiefly valued for its untouched natural beauty and wildlife.
Unemployed David's TV stunt lands him with a job
AN off-the-cuff remark on national television brought 19-year-old David Horsman a chance in a million.
When unemployed David, from Ipswich, mentioned on the Noel Edmonds Late Late Breakfast Show that he would like to be a ski instructor, he never dreamed that he would get the chance to do just that in the Spey Valley.
Kingussie ski school owner Mr Rudi Prochazka just happened to be tuned to the channel that night and contacted the?BBC to offer David a job with his Badenoch Ski School.
David is now at least temporarily resident in Aviemore while he takes his BASI III instructor's ticket in order to instruct for Mr Prochazka over the coming season.
The opportunity was even more unlikely considering that David, who has been skiing since he was six years old and is a member of the Downhill Only Club, actually replaced his sister on the Late Late Breakfast Show.
Gina Horsman was to have done a circus trapeze stunt, but was replaced by David when she sustained an injury.
It was during the voiceover for the event to fill time as David climbed on the trapeze that his ambitions as a ski instructor were mentioned.
Valley school disruption is likely to hit soon
ANOTHER round of EIS teachers' strike action is likely to hit Badenoch and Strathspey, although the timing is being kept under wraps by the union.
Even local EIS representatives have not been given details, although strike action is unlikely to be called next week.
This week has seen the first of EIS action in Highland Region in the latest round of the campaign which is likely to affect the region for up to five weeks this term.
German town's climate is gauged by Basil
GRANTOWN'S weather man for the past 20 years, Mr Basil Dunlop, should know a thing or two about the local climate.
Basil, of "Ben A' An Lyne Macgregor", Grantown, began his daily gauge check for the Met Office in 1965, and he has maintained that daily routine, come rain, hail or shine, through two decades.
His meteorological career began when Seafield Estates installed climatology equipment for the Met Office in 1965, thinking the information would be useful in their agricultural and forestry work.
It was the same year Mr Dunlop, a forestry consultant, arrived in Grantown and, having covered meteorology in his forestry studies, he was the obvious choice for the job.
The difference between the Grantown station and the Auchintoul station at Aviemore is that readings are taken only once a day at Grantown, and not every hour.
The information from Grantown goes to the Met Office only once a month.
Cost keeps unsightly power line overhead
PLANNERS anxious to see electricity brought to a group of remote Speyside homes have put economics before environmental consideration.
They have withdrawn objections to proposals for an overhead power line in a sensitive scenic area.
North of Scotland Hydro Board officials have told Badenoch and Strathspey divisional planning committee that the cost of supplying electricity to five consumers at Speybank, near Kincraig, would be £28,000.
But thanks to an EEC subsidy, the cost to the consumers would be in the region of £500 to £700.
However, if the line was put underground, as planners preferred, the cost of the scheme would be 10 times greater. "The cost is horrific," said a board spokesman.
Now the committee has agreed to grant permission for the overhead line, running from an existing transformer to the rear of Baldow Smithy at Kincraig, then following a burn to the side of the railway line.
Mr John Partridge, divisional planning officer, had said an overhead line there would be "visually unfortunate".
He had suggested as an alternative that the line should be run through a nearby plantation, but the board said it had been unable to get a way leave from the owner.
Councillor Alistair McCook said: "We would have liked to have seen the line go underground or through the trees, but the people of Speybank are badly in need of electricity and I do not feel we should hold up the provision of a supply."
Residents claim puddle is a health hazard
ANGRY residents in an Aviemore council scheme are calling on the local authority to dry up the regular flooding they fear creates a health hazard there.
Extensive flooding occurs regularly on the roadway at Burnside Place, where residents claim it presents a danger to young children, hinders access, prevents them parking their cars at the roadside and threatens to swamp their gardens.
Mrs Joan Bain, who lives at 6 Burnside Place, has the problem almost on her doorstep and has repeatedly urged the local authority to resolve it.
"This area has been flooded for almost the past six weeks, and I have seen children actually playing in the water, dipping their hands in and even drinking it," said Mrs Bain.
"The problem has been with us since the houses were built, but it's getting worse all the time. It used to drain away in about 24 hours, but this last lot has lain for week."
Mrs Bain continues to complain to the authorities, who have now drained the area, but could face the same problem again if there is another heavy rainfall.
"They can't keep on coming along to drain it every time it rains," added Mrs Bain. "They have to find a permanent solution to the problem."
