BLACK MOUNT BUGLE

GOOD NEWS FOR BLACK MOUNT

Regular readers of the Bugle will recall that the previous two editions have carried items about the proposals by South Lanarkshire Council to reform community councils in their area. As a result of these proposals, Black Mount Community Council would have ceased to exist. It would have been amalgamated with Biggar and Symington, and our area would have been effectively administered from Biggar, with the number of local representatives significantly reduced.

There was a massive outcry from community councils and the general public, with the proposals being widely condemned. During the consultancy period, which ended on 26th June, South Lanarkshire Council received hundreds of representations condemning the proposed reorganisation, including, of course, a response from Black Mount. The good news is that the Council's Policy and Resources Committee, at its meeting on 21st October, approved significant amendments to these proposals, and have issued a revised scheme with a number of key changes. It is expected that this revised scheme will be adopted at their meeting in early December.

The most important changes affect the boundaries of community councils in the area. The original proposals were for a reduction from 65 to 49 community councils, but the revised document raises this number to 57. In essence, this means that Black Mount remains virtually unaltered. Its geographical area remains the same, with the only change being a reduction in the number of community councillors from 12 to 9.

Your community council welcomes these revised proposals as a triumph of common sense. We hope that the next edition of the Bugle will be able to report that they were adopted in December.

Brian Curle
Chairman, Black Mount Community Council

LIFE LONG RESIDENT OF BLACK MOUNT

I was extremely annoyed at an article in the last edition of the Bugle, remarks made by Barry Rosindale which were completely out of order. "Come out of your little boxes" he said "and take part in the community". I may be wrong, but I have never seen anyone from the Rosindale Box support community events such as the Church, Woman’s Guild, the local School, Rural Institute, Bowling Clubs and the Monday Club, all organisations which need endless support from all members of the community. There are also a number of people who supply transport to our Senior Citizens to enable them to keep hospital appointments, etc.

For many, Fund Raising is a continuous effort and therefore I must commend the local people for their efforts.

I am aware that many people were offended by the remarks in this article, but I can assure them their work for the community is greatly appreciated.

J D Barrie

BLACK MOUNT PARISH GUILD

On the 23rd September, the first meeting of the season, we had a visit to ‘Discover Carmichael’, Members had a guided tour of the Wax Works, saw a video of the Estate and heard the history of the Carmichael family. We then enjoyed a lovely high tea.
At the next meeting on 28th October Muriel Young the Bereavement Care representative of the Lanarkshire branch of Cruse told us about her work with people who need counselling. She works on a one to one basis, a one hour visit in the persons own home, once a week for as long as necessary,
Future dates are as follows:
1998
25th November "Open Doors" Serving the Suffering Church
Worldwide. Mr & Mrs Tolson at 2pm.
8th December Video of the Guild Rally
at the Manse at 2pm
1999
27th January Cards for all Occasions by Marjory McFarlene
The Church Hall at 2pm
5th February Open Night at 7.30pm in the Church Hall
Antarctica the Ice Continent by Professor Mike
Somerfield

Marjory Muirhead

WALSTON PRE 5 GROUP

Walston Pre 5 Group is holding a Christmas shopping Coffee Evening to take the hassle out of Christmas! This will take place on Friday 20th November in Elsrickle Hall from 7pm to 9pm. We will have stalls from:

Atkinson-Pryce Books Jack ‘n’ Jill Children’s Clothing Noah’s Ark
The Chocolate Box The Design House Home Baking
Brydens Newsagents Alan Kain Woodwork Design

There will also be a super raffle with 4 tickets for Biggar Purves Puppet Theatre, a Turkey, family tickets for Swimming and gifts from all the stall-holders. Entrance fee is £1 and includes coffee and home baking, so don’t miss this opportunity to support your local playgroup and businesses.

BLACKMOUNT CLUB

After the summer holidays we were still without a bus. With the kindness of the car drivers we visited several garden centres, and also, an orchard at Overton for plums.

At the beginning of October David our bus driver came back, we went to another garden centre and to the Gyle to do some shopping.
It was decided that we would only go out once a month as the weather was getting colder.

This month we are going to Cameron Toll to do our Christmas shopping, everyone is looking forward to this.

Helen Barr

BONFIRE NIGHT

It was not a nice day on the 5th November – very windy with very heavy showers. "Should we build a bonfire or not?" "Let’s be optimistic and hope for the best."

That turned out to be good decision. At 6.55pm the rain stopped, the Guy was carried to his seat on the bonfire and his "breeks" were set on fire. A terrific blaze got up, then the fireworks started. Quite spectacular, and maybe a bit scary, sparklers fizzing all over the place.
Then into the hall for soup and hotdogs, or juice and crisps. Where else could you have a 3 course meal for under a £1?

We must thank the Kerrs for collecting material and building the bonfire. Gary Ross and Robert Campbell for setting up and setting off the fireworks. The Armstrongs for allowing us to have the bonfire on the railway. Dunsyre Village Hall Trust for the use of the hall. The ladies of the Social Group for organising the food. Tarmac Quarry Products for a very generous donation for the purchase of the fireworks.

Changes to Timetable to 4th April 1999:
Mondays in weeks 1 and 2 of each month

13.40 Elsrickle

14.05 Dolphinton

14.30 Dunsyre

15.00 Walston

BLACK MOUNT PARISH CHURCH

The Choir will be singing carols round the villages of Black Mount on Sunday 20th December commencing around 6pm from Kirklands Farm, Dunsyre.
They will also be singing for the ½ hour prior to the Christmas Eve Service, which starts at 11.30pm, on 24th December at the Church.

The Church will, also, have two stalls at the Charities Fair, which is being held at the Gillespie Centre on 28th November from 10am to 3pm. The Stalls will be Home Baking and Tombola

Support at both these events will be appreciated.

ELSRICKLE WRI

Our meetings are held on the second Wednesday in the month from September to April inclusive, at 7.30pm. The schedule for the remainder of the session is as follows:
9th December : Sugar Craft
13th January : Dried Flowers
10th March : Gardening
14th April : Down-Under Tour

New members would be especially welcome.

A ‘get together’ took place at Dolphinton Hall on 17th September so that local residents could see the newly refurbished hall, meet members of the South Lanarkshire Leisure and Cultural Department and the hall staff.

Ian Murray, Halls Manager, reported on the upgrading of the hall, of others in the area and of the importance of keeping halls in small communities open and well-used. He assured us that the hall would remain open as long as it was used, even though it had been under threat in the past.

Millar Stoddart then told us about the sporting activities he has been organising with the young people in the area, including five-a-side football and golf. With winter approaching, badminton and table tennis are planned, hopefully with coaching available and not just for the youth of Dolphinton.

Mr Clark then reminded us that the future of the hall is in our hands, The council will support and offer whatever help it can, but ultimately it’s up to us to use our hall.

Over coffee and biscuits, we all chatted about the current and potential use of the hall. Ian Murray told us that for new groups formed in the area, free lets were possible for an initial set-up period as an incentive,

For those who don’t know, here is a list of the current regular activities in the hall.

Tuesday (weekly) : Yoga 7.30pm to 9.00pm For information telephone Julie Anderson 01968 660214
Wednesday 3rd week of the month WRI 7.30pm to 10.00pm For information telephone Anne Ross 01968 682224

Thursday (weekly) : Carpet Bowls 7.30pm to 10.30pm For information telephone Anne Ross 01968 682224

If you are interested in using the hall, and you can rent it for an hour or a day, please contact , initially, Pam Taylor (01968) 682203, or if you want information on starting a new activity in the area and want help with the funding, you can contact any of the Council Staff whose numbers are listed below.

Jack McLellan (Halls Officer) 01698 452639

Ian Murray (Halls Manager) 01698 452602

Millar Stoddart 01555 678672

Earlier this year, Black Mount became one of the first community councils in Scotland to have its own web site. Many local residents have taken the opportunity to access the site and read up-to-the-minute news on local events and information concerning our community.

But what is a Web Site and what is the World Wide Web? How do you access it? What can it do for you? And what has it got to do with the Internet? These and many other questions have been raised over the last few months as more local residents consider whether they should become members of the so-called ‘electronic community’.

In broad terms, the World Wide Web and the Internet are the same thing, simply a way to connect together computers all over the world by means of telephone lines. The principle was introduced in the 1960’s by the United States military, as a means of moving information around between government installations. The idea was that, should there be an attack on the U.S. which knocked out one command centre, vital defence information would still be available to other military installations since it could be transmitted via secure telephone lines between computers.

Later, in the early 1980’s, the system began to be used by the academic world to move information between universities and colleges, but it was not until early in this decade that the idea of private use of the Internet emerged. Today, literally millions of people are connected to the Internet, and the number is growing at an astonishing rate with every passing week.

The Internet has been likened to a network of international libraries, in countries all over the world, with tens of millions of books containing information on every conceivable subject. Each book, of course, has its own, unique name, and contains many pages of information. To access the information therein, an individual only has to choose the book which is needed, ‘dial’ into it, and read the details which are required. The amazing thing about the Internet is that the name or location of the ‘library’ is not needed - the system will find the ‘book’ wherever in the world it is located.

The ‘book’ is actually called a Web Site, and the ‘library’ is a computer somewhere in the world which has the Web Site stored in it. Black Mount’s Web Site is such a ‘book’, and is actually stored in a computer in Wimbledon, but no-one needs to know the location in order to find it, since, as mentioned above, the system does that automatically. All that is needed is the name. In our case, the name of our Web Site is www.renshawscott.co.uk/blackmount.

So what does an individual need to access the Internet? The requirements are a Personal Computer (PC), and a modem, which is an electronic box which connects the PC to the telephone system. The individual must also subscribe to an Internet Service Provider (ISP), a company which provides the telephone ‘connection’ to the Internet. Typically, subscriptions cost around £120 per year, but prices do vary and it’s worth shopping around. Yellow Pages and computer magazines are good sources of names of ISP companies.

There is more to the subject, of course, not the least of which is e-mail…….but more about this in the next edition of the Bugle. In the meantime, visit our Web Site if you can. You’ll find a wealth of news and information about our community and our local area.

The Senior Citizens Christmas Dinner will be held in Elsrickle Hall on Friday 11th December. All members of the community aged 60 or over are invited. Please let Anne Hutchison (phone: 01968 682256) know if you, or someone you know, is eligible for an invitation.

BLACK MOUNT SOCIAL GROUP

Black Mount Social Group applied to South Lanarkshire Council for a grant towards a Table Tennis Table. £250 was awarded and the Community Council has set aside £75 towards it. We can now arrange for the purchase of a "Rollaway" Tika Table, with nets and bats. Hopefully, soon after Christmas, tuition will be organised for the youngsters, through the Duneaton Valley Sports Initiative. Other age groups will be able to make use of it as well.

WALSTON PRIMARY SCHOOL

On Friday 30th October 1998, Walston primary School continued their centenary celebrations by holding a tree planting ceremony. A rowan tree was planted in the grounds of the school, and many people attanded this special event. Councillor Dick made a speech and put the first shovel full of soil into the hole, followed by all the children and anyone else who wanted to. The oldest child, Catherine Robertson, presented Councillor Dick with one of our special centenary pens and thanked him for attending this special event. Everybody then gathered together in the assembly hall where Councillor Gauld made a speech and cut the cake. The event was then closed when everybody received a cup of tea or coffee and a bit of cake.

WELCOME TO -

Liz and Chris Jones who have completed the community at the Old Creamery, Dolphinton.

The Ramsays with baby Ben who are soon to move in to "Sunnybank", Dolphinton.

All the best to the McAdam family who are leaving Townfoot, to be replaced in the near future by the Smiths.

Hello to Gail and Peter Struthers Wright who are living at Westmill.

Welcome to Charles and Araminta Ritchie, now living permanently at the Grange.

Every Monday,Except School Holidays : Black Mount Club : Elsrickle Hall : 12 noon
AlternateWednesdays : Black Mount Church Coffee Morning : Dolphinton : 10.30am
20 November -Walston Pre 5 Group Coffee Evening : Elsrickle Hall : 7.00pm
25 November -Black Mount Guild ‘Open Door’ : Church Hall : 2.00pm
7 December- Black Mount CC Meeting : Elsrickle Hall : 7.30pm
8 December -Black Mount Guild Video of Guild Rally : The Manse : 2.00pm
9 December-Elsrickle WRI Meeting 'Sugar Craft ' : Elsrickle Hall : 7.30pm
11 December -Senior Citizens Christmas Dinner : Elsrickle Hall
18 December -Walston Primary School Sherry and Shortbread Evening : 7.30pm
19 December-Dolphinton WRI Children’s Party : Dolphinton Hall : 2.00pm
21 December-Walston Primary School End of Term Evening Service : Elsrickle Hall

1999
13 January-Elsrickle WRI Meeting 'Dried Flowers' : Elsrickle Hall : 7.30pm
20 January-Dolphinton WRI Meeting 'Yeast Cooking' : Dolphinton Hall : 7.30pm
27 January-Black Mount Guild Meeting : Church Hall : 2.00pm
1 February-Black Mount CC Meeting : Elsrickle Hall : 7.30pm
5 February -Black Mount Guild Meeting : Church Hall : 7.30pm
10 February-Elsrickle WRI Meeting : Elsrickle Hall : 7.30pm
17 February-Dolphinton WRI Meeting - Mr D Knott, Dawyck Botanic Gardens : Dolphinton Hall : 7.30pm

Please send all your articles, dates, reports, news and advertisements to
Liz Gilfoyle, 3 Oxengate Farm Cottages, Elsrickle (Dunsyre 810373)

The Bugle is published by the Black Mount Community Council, but the views expressed therein are not necessarily those of the Council.

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