Council uproots hundreds of gravestones
Last Friday afternoon the Observer received a phone call from a very angry and upset lady who had just visited Kilmun cemetery with her husband to pay respects to bereaved members of their family, only to find the gravestone had been uprooted and was lying on the ground.
Immediately on entering the cemetery alarm bells started ringing when the couple noticed that numerous headstones were laying flat on the ground. Their fears were confirmed when they got to the site of their loved ones.
When we visited the cemetery ourselves there were around 100 gravestones on the ground. Many others had a yellow cross on them which meant that they had been earmarked to come down at some point in the near future. Some of those already down had foundations that would have been about one foot into the ground. Others that had been uprooted have been there for hundreds of years.
This begs the question as to whether it was really necessary to uproot so many stones - the final amount of stones will be well into the hundreds in the Dunoon area alone.
The story took a further twist when, on Tuesday morning, the police received phone calls from concerned locals who spotted council workmen taking down headstones in Sandbank cemetery before 9am.
If the headstones are, in fact, dangerous, then for health and safety reasons they should be stabilised. Nobody would argue with this.
However, the situation could have been dealt with more sensitively. There is the rather disturbing moral issue that those affected will only realise what has happened when they visit the cemeteries themselves as well as the fact that the council originally planned to secure unsafe headstones rather than uproot them.
Back in February we reported that Argyll and Bute Council had announced that they were to deal with unsafe headstones throughout the area by securing them with supportive structures, instead of laying them flat, as was common practice up until then.
Last month the council confirmed that it was to employ extra cemetery staff this summer in order to help with the re-erection programme. At the same time it announced its plans to uproot the gravestones rather than prop them up with wooden stakes. The council said that although it was not possible to give an accurate re-erection rate, it was hoped that by midsummer substantial progress would be made to resolve the problem.
A council spokesperson said: “While the headstones are the responsibility of the lair holder, the council feels it will be extremely difficult to establish who is responsible for a particular headstone - an almost impossible task within the older parts of our cemeteries.
“To avoid this research, subsequent letter writing and anguish to relatives, the council has provided funding to carry out this essential work.”
The spokesperson continued: “We identified additional funding and it’s always better to do a permanent job rather than a temporary job. Laying flat and re-erecting allows the work to be completed. Propping is only short term as the wood rots and is more unsightly.”


Unison recommends strike action for council employees
THE new council faces a major headache within weeks of taking office, as one of the unions representing its employees is consulting its members on industrial action.
Following a recent meeting of Branch Officials within the council’s UNISON Branch it was unanimously agreed to consult with the union’s 2,000 members on a proposed day of action on June 20.
The industrial action has been generated by the controversial Single Status proposals, which were designed to address outstanding disparities in pay between male and female employees. However, the process has resulted in members of staff, many of whom are already on low salaries, being faced with swingeing cuts.
If the day of action takes place, it will be the first time since its formation that Argyll and Bute Council has been involved in an industrial dispute.
A UNISON spokesman blamed the council, claiming that its Policy Development Group had the power to halt the process, which the union considers to be detrimental to its membership.
He added: “Our members have no confidence in the processes and the outcomes of job evaluation. The apparent lack of understanding and indifference being displayed by the employer has enraged them; they feel that the council has deserted its employees, who are consistently being told that they are the council’s best asset, and who have worked hard to provide services, despite continuous attacks and reductions in budgets, promoting the council’s aspirations of being “the best rural authority”.
“The day of action will see members taking strike action and participating in a lobby of the council meeting scheduled for that day. Clearly it is intended to show the depth of feeling and convince the council to make the right decision and get back to the negotiating table.”
He concluded: “We are also organising “surgeries” within various locations to advise and protect our members, and reluctantly follow a process which we believe is not beneficial to our members, the council and the users of the service.”


MV Argyle to be named in Rothesay
The latest addition to the Caledonian MacBrayne fleet, MV Argyle, the sister ship of the Bute, will be named at Rothesay today(Friday)
The new ship, which arrived on the Clyde on Sunday from the Gdansk shipyard where she was built, is currently undergoing final preparatory work prior to the naming. The formal naming ceremony will take place at midday in Rothesay Bay by Tish Timms, wife of Peter Timms, Chairman of CalMac Ferries Ltd. The new vessel is then scheduled to take up service later on Friday, to assist with the volume of traffic expected to attend Bute’s Jazz Festival.
As in the case of her sister ship, the new Argyle will also be the seventh ship on the Clyde to have the name. The first one was a paddle steamer built in 1815 which was sold on after a matter of weeks in the Clyde. Of more significance however was the Argyle which, though built for Captain Duncan Stewart in 1866, was sold within a fortnight and partially replaced the Bute and Kyles for over twenty years on the services out of Wemyss Bay. She was owned first by the Wemyss Bay Steamboat Co. Ltd and subsequently by Messrs Gilles and Campbell – and was sold around the time the Caledonian SP Co. took over the route in 1890.
MV Bute entered service on the Wemyss Bay to Rothesay run on July 11, 2005. CalMac believes that MV Argyle will be just as successful and concludes a very important stage in the Company’s fleet renewal programme for the service and support provided to the communities on the Upper Clyde.
The new vessel is more or less identical to the Bute at 72 metres long and 15.3 metres breadth, with a load draught of 5 metres. She will carry 60 cars and 450 passengers on CalMac’s busiest route, and has two lifts for customers with impaired mobility.
The increased capacity will open up the island of Bute to many more people, and make the central belt more accessible to island residents.


Loch Fyne radio closer to reality
In the not-too-distant past, the main highway in the Loch Fyne area, as in most of the West Highlands of Scotland, was the loch itself.
Roads were rudimentary, and transport for the ordinary people either by horse and cart or Shanks’s pony.
Links between communities around the loch were strong, with trade and social contact by sea cementing the bonds.
As car ownership increased and roads improved from the 1930s onwards, the sea loch became increasingly redundant as a means of communication. Ironically, as it became easier to get around and travel distances by land, towns and villages around the large lochs actually became more isolated from one another.
Now, a small group of enthusiasts, currently based in Furnace, aims to bring a renewed feeling of community between the people on Loch Fyne’s shores.
Radio Fyneside is a brand new community radio project, which plans to broadcast to an area primarily covering both east and west Loch Fyne from Ardrishaig/Kilfinan to Cairndow.
The idea was born in the Northern Isles. While judging at the St Magnus Arts Festival in the Orkney Islands, Furnace resident Lynda Henderson was interviewed by BBC Radio Orkney, and was immediately struck by the importance of local radio in people’s lives within a dispersed community.
Recognising that the detail and texture of everyday life was there - something the national stations could never hope to match, Lynda felt that her local area on Loch Fyne could benefit from a similar local radio service. After returning to Furnace, she arranged a public meeting in the village hall to discuss the idea.
Initial interest from this meeting led to a community conference being set up by a local team in September, at which people from all round the loch were invited; 900 invitations in all were issued. Also invited were guest speakers Javad Sattar, founder of Glasgow-based community station Awaz FM, and Phil Collins of Clyde Broadcast Products, who design, manufacture and instal broadcast audio equipment for radio stations of all sizes.
The conference led to the formation of a voluntary steering group, which became a board of directors - made up of ten very capable and experienced individuals from around the local area; John Patrick (chairman), Douglas Currie, Christina Noble, John Holt, David Sillar, Morag MacNeill-Cassey, Andrew Cassey, Charles Dixon-Spain, Mags Russell and Lynda Henderson. Joint patrons are the Duke and Duchess of Argyll.
Radio Fyneside has now applied to OFCOM, the UK broadcasting industries regulator, for a community radio licence for three transmitters around the loch area, and hope to have a decision by September this year, if not before.
With an estimated 41 settlements within its proposed area, Radio Fyneside will aim to strengthen the sense of community in the region.
Lynda Henderson commented: “We hope that the provision of the first comprehensive daily local news and information service for an area divided by Loch Fyne will open up opportunities for communities to share ideas and expertise and to support each other’s initiatives.
“Everyone involved in starting the station has worked on a voluntary basis and will continue to do so. Community Radio stations run through volunteers, and Radio Fyneside will provide its volunteers with training in whatever they want to do; opportunities and experience in doing it; and offer them additional training and increased responsibility to fit and support their personal ambitions.
“It will always seek and be open to consultation with the communities it wants to serve and it will be accountable to them.
If anyone would like more information about the station and its plans - we would invite them to make contact with us through talk@radiofyneside.co.uk or 01499 500677.”