What was making the headlines in the Strathspey and Badenoch Herald of Thursday, December 25, 1986.

PLANS for a £200,000 whisky heritage centre at Ralia have been dropped.

The pull-out from the project has come in the wake of the Guinness take-over.

Guinness own DCL (Distillery Company Limited), who were behind the scheme to welcome visitors to the Spey Valley with gallons of information on the whisky industry.

Since the take-over there has apparently been a change of policy, and the company no longer intends to spend the money on the whisky heritage centre which was to have adorned the Ralia picnic site on the A9 south of Newtonmore.

"I am extremely disappointed but not surprised by the news," said Badenoch Regional Councillor and Highland Regional Council Convener Sandy Russell.

"I had advance knowledge in August that due to the take-over it was no longer going to be a project which DCL envisaged coming to fruition."

A special company, Scotch Whisky Heritage Ltd, had been set up by the malt distilling companies to promote the Ralia centre.

Planning consent was granted, and it was hoped the centre might be operational by 1987, capturing the tourist's interest and sending him off to explore the distilleries meandering down the valley of the River Spey.

Grantown lamp-post plan switched off

DISTRICT COUNCILLORS have decided not to pull the plug on Grantown's last symbols of burgh authority - its Provost Lamps.

And they are also to discuss Grantown suggestions that the town should make moves to quit the Highlands for the local government wing of Moray.

The district council, owners of the lamps since local government re-organisation, decided last month to move the lamps from Grantown to outside their new offices at Kingussie.

Since 1975 they have stood outside the Freuchie home of Grantown's last provost, local solicitor Mr Gordon McCulloch.

Now, following a 486-signature petition and a plea from local representatives Mrs Elizabeth Main and Duncan MacKellar, the lamps are to be put in storage until a new home can be found for them in Grantown.

Councillor MacKellar said: "A lot of good ideas have come from our chief executive, but this is not one of them in view of the flak it has attracted.

"The petition speaks for itself, and the lights should remain in the town. And in future when we consider moving equipment from one area to another, we must look at it more closely."

Grantown Community Council members had suggested that the lights should go outside a heritage centre, which they want to see provided for the town.

Cold cash row is heating up

BADENOCH AND Strathspey councillors are to press ahead with their own cold weather cash allowance - but they will continue their protests over the Government's scheme.

They say the Government scheme contains anomalies and is unlikely to be of great benefit to the Spey Valley - one of Britain's coldest places.

Now they have agreed to make an automatic £3 a week payment to an estimated 450 people on supplementary benefit whenever the temperature at Aviemore falls below an average of -2C.

Under the Department of Health and Social Security scheme, there will be a flat-rate payment of £5 a week when the average temperature over a Monday to Sunday period falls below -1.5C, based on readings taken at the coastal Kinloss weather station.

Only households where there is a member of the family over 65 or under two, chronically sick or disabled will qualify.

Claimants will have to apply for the payment, which will only be made if the applicant has savings of less than £500.

Councillors are critical of the choice of Kinloss as the trigger-point, and are to press for Aviemore to be used instead. And they also want the £500 savings figure raised, and payment to be automatic.

Councillor Duncan MacKellar, who initiated the local scheme, said the department had changed the rules so that they benefited no one.

Budget plea for Highland schools

HIGHLAND EDUCATION authorities have been getting a "raw deal" from Government and should be allowed to double their spending on building new schools next year.

Local government finance expert Dr Arthur Midwinter has been shocked by the condition of many schools in the region which he said were in a grim and depressing state - some even still with outside toilets.

Mr Midwinter, senior lecturer in administration at Strathclyde University, said the region had been getting a raw deal from Government over the past four years.

He recommended the education committee be allowed to spend £3,500,000 in 1987/88, which is some £1,500,000 more than their provisional allocation.

He also advised that a databank detailing the condition of every school in the region should be drawn up and might help attract better allocations in the long term.

With the exception of Tayside, the Highland authority had fared worse than any other from capital allocations.

The education committee accepted both recommendations, and a copy of Dr Midwinter's report is to be sent to the Scottish Secretary.

"If I were a parent I do not think I could accept some of the conditions under which children are being taught," he said.

He added that the resilience of pupils in putting up with the conditions was surprising and praiseworthy.