BLACK MOUNT BUGLE

MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIRMAN

Sadly we all seemed to have missed out on what the weather forecasters promised we would have a “sizzling barbecue summer”! My wife and I did though manage to attend one outdoor supper party: the only one our hosts were able to give. Let us hope the weather experts are not forecasting a mild winter!
So far in the past 3 weeks I have just heard and seen the greatest number of geese flying in for the winter! Our holly bush is also thick with red berries: supposedly an omen of a cold winter to come. Let us hope not! As I have said before, winter is a good time to mobilise our Community Spirit and if you do know of any elderly or vulnerable persons living near you, it would be kind to keep a neighbourly eye on them.

I would also like to thank our Social Group for their wonderful organisation in running the Sponsored Walk held on Sunday the 6th of September. We all look forward to the Bonfire and Fireworks display due to be held at Dunsyre on Guy Fawkes Night on Thursday the 5th of November. The Senior Citizens Dinner is scheduled for Friday the 11th of December at Elsrickle Hall.

Since the August Bugle when I informed you all that after many years as the BMCC's highly efficient Secretary that Craig Allardice had decided to retire from the BMCC, I welcomed Alasdair Macdonald, who had very nobly agreed to take over as Secretary. He has however just accepted a great career opportunity to go and take up an appointment in Malaysia for two years, beginning at the end of October. We belatedly offer Alastair and his family our best wishes as by the time this edition of The Bugle is published he will have left Scotland. I would like to thank Barry Rosindale as he has very kindly agreed to take over as Temporary Secretary until Alasdair returns.

Charles Ritchie

Charles Ritchie Chairperson 01968 682639
Sam Cassels Vice-Chairman 01968 68267

Alison Morton-Nicholls Treasurer 01968 682676
Barry Rosindale Secretary 01899 810207
Hamish Stewart Councillor 07748 114582
Lance Armstrong 01899 810251
William Coulter 01899 810339

David Darling 01968 682387

Donald Stewart 01968 682339

BMCC MEETINGS

Members of the public are invited to attend any of our Community Council meetings, held on the first Monday of every month, held in Elsrickle Hall. Everyone will be made most welcome.

Please note: no meetings are held on Holiday Mondays

SUNDAY WORSHIP

Church of Scotland, Dolphinton
Morning Service – Sundays 10.45am

St Isadore's Roman Catholic Church, Biggar.
Holy Mass Sundays 12 noon
Weekdays (Mon, Tues-Thurs,Fri) 9.30 am

St Mungo's Scottish Episcopal Church, West Linton
Sung Communion Sundays 10.00 am
Said Communion Wednesdays 10.30 am

ELSRICKLE NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH


I understand from David Taylor that no volunteers came forward to take over his role as Neighbourhood Watch Co-ordinator. As I consider it important to keep this valuable formal contact with the Police Force I have decided to take on the role myself until such time as someone else would like to take it over.

Barry Rosindale

COUNCILLOR HAMISH STEWART

At the time I am writing this, the Council’s budget discussions are still ongoing. What is definite is that £21million has to be cut from next year’s budget compared to this year, with even bigger cuts the following year. Cuts of this scale mean that everyone living in South Lanarkshire will notice the difference to a greater or lesser degree. At the moment South Lanarkshire provides service in many ways that the Council is not statutorily obliged to offer. It is in areas such as these that cuts will occur. But areas such as the Council House modernisation programme, the school rebuild programme and the roads repair programme will continue as before. Employee numbers will undoubtedly drop but at the moment there is no intention to have any compulsory redundancies. So far 150 management posts are definitely being cut. In the first year this alone will save £1 million and £6 million every year thereafter.

The roads winter maintenance programme is pretty well set now with a budget the same as last year of £2.9 million for gritting and snow ploughing. With winters as they have generally been over the past number of years this will be sufficient to maintain the gritting programme at the level we have been used to. The bad news however is that in a hard winter like last year the budget is insufficient. Over a number of mild winters a contingency fund of £800,000 had been built up – this was all spent last year along with an additional £600,000 that was provided from central financing within the council making a total of £4.3 million. This year there is no additional funding – so hope for a mild winter!

You will recall that there was a national shortage of road salt last year caused in large part by local authorities in England having sold off their storage depots and buying on the spot market at the coldest times of year instead of buying in the summer and having a stock going in to the winter. Because these storage depots no longer exist a similar situation will arise. South Lanarkshire has attempted to mitigate this by increasing our stock going in to the winter from our normal 12,000 tonnes to 13,600 tonnes and encouraging the suppliers to keep our stock level high at all times.

The new Biggar High is up and running smoothly and work continues to get the sports field completed by next year. I have had the opportunity to visit the school on several occasions since it opened and I am very impressed by what I have seen. Complemented by the new Sports Centre and the library this is a fantastic complex and is well worth a visit to see what is on offer to all our young people. Remember that you can use your ticket for the mobile library in the Biggar library if you so wish. Parking is tight at the moment but there will be more parking created as work on the sports field continues.

Biggar Little Festival has just drawn to a close and it was good to see quite a number of Blackmount residents both attending events and performing at various things. In addition it was a great pleasure to hand over the award for the best garden in South Lanarkshire to an Elsrickle resident at the recent SLC garden awards presentation held in Biggar.

My surgeries continue as normal on the first Monday of the month at Newbigging, Dolphinton and Elsrickle halls and I can be contacted on 07748 114582 or at hamish.stewart@southlanarkshire.gov.uk

This will be the last Bugle of the year so I would like to take the opportunity to wish everyone a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year.

SERVICE IN THE COMMUNITY

Hamish Stewart nominated Effie Dickson for a Community Service Award from South Lanarkshire Council for all the work she has put in over the years behind the scenes at all sorts of events held in Dolphinton Hall. Her nomination was accepted and the award was presented at a glittering awards lunch in the banqueting Hall of the Council Head Office in Hamilton on Friday 30th October. Unfortunately Effie was unable to attend but Hamish picked up the award on her behalf and delivered it to her.

It is all too easy for the people who work in the background to be forgotten about so Hamish felt it was time that someone who never seeks the limelight got some recognition.

DOLPHINTON VILLAGE HALL

Carpet bowling has restarted for the season and as always new members are welcome. If you are interested in finding out more, please phone Ann Ross on 01968 682227.

Yoga on a Tuesday evening runs all year and Julie would be happy to hear from anyone who is keen to join one of her classes. Call her on 01968 661204.

Keeley's Pilates classes have now moved from the hall. She can be contacted on 01721 752746 by those wishing details of her new location and class times etc.

Monday nights at the Hall now offer dancing, followed by badminton - or one or the other!

Julie Ferrer has been running a class of Spanish Folk Dancing, not dissimilar from flamenco, called SEVILLANAS - she describes it as the Spanish equivalent of ceilidh dancing - the current classes are about to end, but she hopes to re-start in January. If you would like to learn more about the new classes please phone Julie on 07935 983088.

Pam Taylor

TABLE TENNIS

Now available at Newbigging village hall.
You can now book the village hall to play table tennis. There is a full sized table tennis table, two bats and balls provided.
To book phone the hall keeper on 01555 840353

BMCC SOCIAL GROUP

BONFIRE NIGHT

Thursday November 5th was a perfect evening for a bonfire!

There was not too much wind, and in the right direction.
There was no rain all evening.
There was a big pile of wood to burn, thanks to the Kerrs at Kirklands.
There was a wonderful display of fireworks, thanks to Brian and Francis.
There was even an outside light, thanks to Lance.
There were lite ropes: great fun for the kids (of all ages)
There was plenty of food: hot dogs, soup, crisps, chocolate and juice.
Thanks to the members of the Black Mount Social Group;
There was shelter in Dunsyre Hall, thanks to the MacDonald Lockharts.

There were lots of people enjoying themselves!!

FLOWER DISPLAYS

The summer flowers are past, but they have brightened up the Halls at Dolphinton, Elsrickle and Newbigging since May.
Thanks to the Cairns family, Vivienne Shaw, and Alex McMeekin respectively for looking after them, both by keeping them watered, and preventing waterlogging…
It was THAT kind of summer.
Daffodils and tulips have now been planted, ready for Spring.

All these events are financed from the proceeds of the Sponsored Walk in September.

Anne Hutchison

SENIOR CITIZENS’ CHRISTMAS DINNER

Friday December 11th is the next important date on the calendar: Elsrickle Hall has been booked, musicians arranged, and invitations printed.

Now all that is needed are guests!

Anyone who has reached their 60th birthday is welcome, and if you know of anyone who should be added to our list, please let us know : Anne 01968 682256 or Sheena 01968 682615.

Also, anyone who would like to help either at 1pm to prepare the Hall, or to prepare or serve the food in the evening, just call 01968 682256.

DOLPHINTON WRI

The Flower Show was held on August 22nd and was opened by John Graham from Newbigging. It was a very successful show in all sections.
The first Rural meeting of the new session was on September 16th, when we had a jewellery workshop with Lesley Kerr. We all made a lovely necklace.
At the October meeting Stephen Blow , Scottish Wildlife Trust at New Lanark, gave us a talk and films of wildlife at the Falls of Clyde. We also planted bulbs for the Bulb Show in March. Forsyth the Butcher in Peebles is due to visit us in November, and the Children’s Christmas Party is on 19th December.
We are off to the Bakehouse in West Linton in January, and the Bowling Tournament is in Dolphinton at the end of the month.

Jean Campbell

ELSRICKLE WRI

The winter season began in September with Roland Craig on “Life in the CID”, from bobby on the beat to present day.

The beginning of October saw the weekend away to Scarborough. This was a weekend with great weather and included a trip on the North York Moors Railway, excellent fish and chips in Whitby, as well as visits to Bridlington, Fountains Abbey and the James Herriot centre in Thirsk.

At the October meeting, Duncan Turnbull from Cairn Foods gave an interesting talk about his business in Biggar and surprised us with a huge array of different varieties of dried fruits which, among many other products, can be bought in the shop.

On November 11th Liz Banks, the manager of the Princes Street branch of Thorntons Chocolates in Edinburgh came laden with delicious goodies to give away and bargains to buy. She gave a talk to a large group of members and guests about the history of chocolate making and the Thorntons brand.

Events still to come:
28th November - Bowling Tournament
9th December – Making Christmas decorations with Margaret Leiper.
13th January - “History of the Borders” with Tom Carson
10th February – “Supper on a Fork” with Mrs J Lowry

Pam Hart

ACCOMMODATION PROVIDERS IN BLACKMOUNT AREA

Bed and Breakfast
Margaret Armstrong, Dunsyre Mains. 01899 810 251
Margaret Kirby, Walston Mansion 01899 810 338
www.walstonmansion.co.uk
Kirby-walstonmansion@talk21.com
Jane Gilchrist, Ingraston Farm, Dolphinton. 01968682219
www.ingraston.com
jane@westlinton.co.uk
Carol and Ian, Millburn House, Dolphinton 01968 682 252
www.millburnhousebandb.co.uk
info@millburnhousebandb.co.uk

Hotel
Nestlers Hotel and Country Inn, Newbigging.
01555 840 680
www.nestlershotel.co.uk
enquiries@nestlershotel.co.uk

Self Catering properties
Anne Hutchison, Roberton Mains, Dolphinton.
01968 682 256
www.annescottages.co.uk
anne@robertonmains.freeserve.co.uk
Pam Taylor, Meadowhead Barn, Dolphinton.
01968 682 203
www.unique-cottages.co.uk
Mary Christie, The Steading, Ferniehaugh, Dolphinton.
01968 682 257
www.ferniehaugh.com
Christies@ferniehaugh.plus.com
Hazel Edwards, Wester Walston Lodge, Walston.
01899 810 335
www.westerwalstonlodge.co.uk
hazeledwards007@msn.com
Sam Cassels, Whitehill Estate, Dolphinton.
01968 682 244
cottage@whitehillestate.com
www.whitehillestate.com
Braeside Cottage, Dunsyre.
01282 845 052
www.bookcottages.com

WALSTON PRE-5 GROUP

The Walston Pre-5 Group meets at Walston Primary School on a Wednesday morning, for children from 2½ years up to school age. Each session runs from 9.15am until 11.30am. We would welcome children of this age to come and join our group and if you would like to register them, please telephone Hannah or Hazel at the numbers below or call in on a Wednesday morning.

If you want to contact the playgroup, please call either

Donna Gray - 07518 334889 (Playgroup Leader)
Hannah Cairns - 01968 682240
Hazel Knight - 01899 810348

Last Date for Contributions to the next Bugle is January 22nd 2010.

Please send your articles, dates, reports, news and advertisements to: Norma Love : tel: 01899 810285
Email: norma.love@btinternet.com

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

The Community Council cannot accept responsibility for any errors for items printed in the Bugle.