Testing time for Princess?
?Scotland fans watch the Euro 96 match against England on June 15 in the Barely Besom bar at the Aviemore ice rink. Old photographs for ‘Down Memory Lane’ can be sent by e-mail to editorial@sbherald.co.uk or by post to ‘The Strathspey and Badenoch Herald’ at 44 High Street, Grantown PH26 3EH.
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From "The Strathspey and Badenoch Herald" of Thursday, April 30, 1987
A MEMBER of the royal family who once claimed she might have been a lorry driver if she had not been a princess may get the chance to try her hand behind the wheel in Aviemore next week.
Princess Anne’s visit to Scotland’s top leisure resort on Thursday, May 7, to open a major exhibition and conference may include an invitation to Her Royal Highness to test-drive a new lorry.
The Princess is opening an exhibition and conference on the Scottish freight, transport and distribution industry, but the short test-drive on the Aviemore Centre’s ring road will only be offered if a suitable vehicle is available.
She will open the conference in the Centre Ice Rink, which is not open to the public, but where she will meet officials and exhibitors on a tour of the hall.
The public will get their best chance to see the Princess when she walks from the Ice Rink, across Allendar Square to the Osprey Foyer, then on to the Four Season’s Hotel to inspect the large outdoor exhibits.
It will be from here that she may be invited to make the test-drive, between the Four Seasons Hotel and the Badenoch Hotel.
Can’t bear parting!
THE Holly and the Ivy, when they were both fully grown …. says the carol. And for two Christmas Day babies with those appropriate names, growing up means going away.
For spring sees the parting of the ways for the cuddlesome duo of Holly and Ivy, the Highland Wildlife Park’s 15-month-old European brown bears.
Holly is bound for Dartmoor Wildlife Park in Devon, where she will be a companion to a lonely five-year-old male bear.
Ivy is due to leave next month for Dundee, where she will join up with Jeremy, the Sugar Puffs bear, which hit the headlines last year after biting the arm of a youngster who climbed into his enclosure, and another male bear from Edinburgh Zoo.
Holly, named by Grantown youngster Tony Robson in a ‘Herald’ competition, said her farewells last week to head warden Steve Paterson and warden Robbie McInnes, before being drugged and crated for the long journey South.
Holly and Ivy were the seventh litter born to 17-year-old Kincraig Park favourites Bruce and Mary.
Sights set on fight ahead
THE seeds of a plan to save Grantown’s woodlands have been sown, and look set to grow into a strong local conviction to preserve one of the town’s finest features.
That could mean the purchase of 500 acres of woodland around the town at a staggering starting price of around £250,000.
Wheels are turning quickly to find the ways and means to purchase some of these woodlands to prevent them being felled.
More than 30 people attended last week’s inaugural meeting of the Grantown Woodland Fund, where they heard that action sooner rather than later would be needed to retain the woodlands for the future.
Local community councillors and forestry expert Mr Basil Dunlop were at the meeting.
"The longer the woods remain a commercial enterprise, the more likelihood there is of them becoming less attractive," Mr Dunlop told the meeting.
"The woods are nearly at a critical point, where it will soon be very difficult, if not impossible, to convert them to an uneven age selection system."
This system, of a variety of tree species and of ages, was beneficial for both amenity and wildlife value and could be quite easily done, he said.
Takeaway signs up supporters
ANOTHER attempt to extend the weekend opening hours of Grantown’s Chinese takeaway are meeting the same resistance from the local planning officer.
When planning consent was granted for the takeaway operation at 58 High Street, Grantown, in October, 1985, one condition was that the premises should not operate between 11.30pm and 7am, in the interest of local amenity.
An application by Mrs Sai Mui Wu last December to extend these hours to half past midnight on Saturdays and Sundays failed, and a similar application before planners next week is also recommended for refusal.
The applicants have submitted what they describe as a petition in support of their application.
Consent was refused in December because "the later opening would be likely to generate additional noise at an unsociable hour to the detriment of the amenity of residential properties and tourist accommodation in the area."
Film taster for whisky trail
THE "WHISKY video" proposed for the Ralia Tourist Centre is not intended to boost whisky sales but to direct tourists to Scotland’s famous Malt Whisky Trail.
Badenoch Regional Councillor Sandy Russell said that some people had a mistaken idea of the aims of the video, which is sponsored by Scottish Malt Distillers.
The move to install the video at Ralia was being opposed by Cairngorm Councillor Sandy Lindsay at last week’s full Highland Regional Council meeting.
He felt the council has a duty not to encourage the "cultural use" of whisky. He said the problems brought about by the liquor industry far outweighed the benefits.
"There is no emphasis on the promotion of whisky," said Councillor Russell, "only on the promotion of a tourist activity which is now firmly established in the Highlands – namely the Malt Whisky Trail."
The video was intended to indicate to visitors where the trail was and how to get there from Ralia.
Ski expansion ‘Special’ threat
DESIGNATIONS of Sites of Special Scientific Interest in the Cairngorms are stifling vital ski expansion in the country’s best suited area, Highland District Council planners have told the Scottish Secretary, who does not want to discuss the problem.
They say that, outwith the regime of planning control, the designation confers the power of control to the Nature Conservancy Council over any operation they deem to be potentially damaging.
Councillors heard last week that Mr Malcolm Rifkind has rejected their invitation to get round the table and discuss the vital need for ski expansion in the Cairngorm.
"It seems that expansion plans are being, and would continue to be, frustrated both by statutory powers and the advocacy of conservation agencies," planners said in a letter to Mr Rifkind.
"Skiing is a vital element of recreation, and it should be allowed to flourish in those limited areas where snow conditions are favourable."
Although their plea for a meeting with the Scottish Secretary was turned down, they still remain hopeful of achieving a head-to-head discussion.
