Take a trip back in time with the Herald as we go ... Down Memory Lane (November 28)

50 YEARS AGO - November 28, 1962

THE opening of Kirkintilloch’s new swimming baths was not going to take place before February the following year. While all the building work was completed and the baths looked ready for business, a great deal of finishing off work remained to be completed.

The Lennoxtown premises of the Royal Bank of Scotland were broken into. An attempt to blow the safe failed and the intruders made off without a penny.

40 YEARS AGO - November 29, 1972

THE Indoor Sports Centre at Balmuildy Road, in Bishopbriggs, was granted a public house licence - despite strong objections from local churches.

However, the Lanark Licensing Confirmation Court decided unanimously that Huntershill Outdoor Recreation Centre should not be licensed.

The decision to licence could not have been closer and the chairman had to use his casting vote to split the seven-seven deadlock.

Ministers objected to both licences.

The Reverend Macnaughton, from Cadder Church, told the court he thought this would be the first licence of its kind in Scotland.

The general agreement after the court decided to grant the Balmuildy Road licence was that they had done so purely on an experimental basis.

The Reverend Jones, from Kenmure Church, said he and his colleagues were representing their respective kirk sessions and based its argument on the grounds that “this would expose the young to the dangers of strong drink”.

BISHOPBRIGGS police clamped down on the selling of alcohol to under-age teenagers following comments by Provost James Proctor at a licensing court.

The Provost commented on the apparent upsurge and prevalence of under-age drinking and warned certificate holders to beware of the consequences of “knowingly” selling drink to those under 18.

30 YEARS AGO - December 1, 1982

RESIDENTS in the Westergreens area of Kirkintilloch were up in arms about flooding problems.

The Herald highlighted complaints about flooding on a footpath near The Loaning.

Residents said there had been flooding outside their homes and were going to start a petition demanding that action be taken to tackle the situation.

Several people attended a surgery held by East Dunbartonshire MP Norman Hogg to complain.

Mr Hogg wrote to the divisional roads engineer asking for urgent action to be taken.

THIEVES broke into the main store at Woodilee Hospital and made-off with supplies valued at around £800. The haul included several big containers of cheese, corned beef, butter, gammon, cases of fruit and 60 dozen eggs.

20 YEARS AGO - December 2, 1992

CALLOUS thieves conned their way into an 80-year-old man’s home and robbed him of his life savings.

The heartless conmen posed as workmen to get into the pensioner’s home in Thistle Street, Kirkintilloch.

They told their victim there was a problem with the house’s piping and that the water needed to be checked.

But while one set about his make-believe inspection, the other is believed to have raked through the man’s personal belongings, snatched hundreds of pounds in savings and rent money and stole a sentimental retiral watch.

Other items of jewellery were also swiped in the callous raid.

10 YEARS AGO, December 4, 2002

STRATHKELVIN and Bearsden Labour MSP Brian Fitzpatrick was under mounting pressure to resign over the Stobhill acute services issue.

Save Stobhill campaigners were bitterly disappointed to be told there would be no in-patient or step-down beds in the ACAD, and branded it little more than a ‘day-care centre’.

Campaigner and former chairman of Stobhill Hospital NHS Trust, Lex Gaston, called on Labour MSP Brian Fitzpatrick to resign over the issue.

Mr Gaston said: “Brian Fitzpatrick said at the hustings meeting before last year’s by-election that he would stand down if acute services and beds were to go from Stobhill.”

Mr Fitzpatrick responded: “I have made clear from the outset my desire to see the new £60million ACAD hospital project make early progress, so that we can have it on site together with in-patient beds. At the last debate I made it clear to Health Minister Malcolm Chisholm that I would use the presence of the ACAD at Stobhill to continue making the case for in-patient beds.”

LENZIE Bowling Club was targeted by thieves twice in the same day.

A pack of cigarettes and a bottle of whisky were taken during the first break-in and around £80 of damage was caused.

In the second incident, the intruder removed a board from the broken window.

However, the alarm was raised by a local resident and the youth ran off.

Did you know?

Kirkintilloch had a ski club. In November 1972 it had a membership of around 50 people and it was appealing for new members as only a handful of them lived in the town.

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