page 28 Issue No 44, December 2013 a huge thank you delivered free to every address in Kilmallie to our sponsors A huge thank you to the businesses below who have sponsored the newsletter this year. The cost of copying this newsletter has again been very generously donated by Lorna and Finlay Finlayson of Crannog Restaurant, Fort William. runner-up The paper for this issue has again been generously donated by BSW Timber, Kilmallie community Our other newsletter costs have been met by donations from the other businesses below and from KCC’s limited newspaper funds. of the year 2012 KCC reports – p2 reasons to join KCC – p3 road safety – p4 road safety & happiness - p5 councillors’ corner - p6 community policing - p5 cherishing wild land- p7 christmas lights - p8 Banavie Primary – p9 Lochaber High Notes - p10 playgroup - p11 Coastguard – p12 ambulance station - p12 Canal News – p13 Community Centre - p14 Music for All – p14 Banavie Floral - p15 FOCAL - p15 no thank you big enough - p16 shinty club - p16 art lochaber - p16 Corpach Woods - p17 Green Fingers - p17 pulp mill gantry – p18 update from Africa - p19 Rugby Club - p20 BOYD BROTHERS CLYDEBoyd wild about kilmallie – p21 (HAULAGE) LTD Fort William Ltd canal steamers - p22 getting ready for winter – p23 nights will soon be out! drawing nights will more scouting memories - p24 would you like to become a sponsor too? remembering school days- p24 thanks to Alex Gillespie for taking these pictures & staying up extra late so we could get them to press on time win We rely on the contributions from our business community Muirshearlich & Glen Loy – p25 for the cost of distributing this free newsletter to every address in our area. a prize! focus on folk - p26 We welcome sponsorship from all businesses located in Kilmallie, or with principal key personnel resident in Kilmallie. If you a very merry in john’s focus on business– p27 would you like to see your name or logo in print supporting your community newsletter, please join with our current sponsors. xmas quiz All donations, big or small, are hugely appreciated. puzzles - p27 for children age 5-11 kilmallie to you all see page 13 Please contact us at [email protected] for details. sponsors - p28 Kilmallie Christmas Lights Fund gave us a great start to the festive season - story and more pictures on page 8 What does your company do? generation family members involved in the page 2 We are a logistics company, using HGV business. Headed up by Managing Director, page 27 from the Chair focus on vehicles, specialist trailers, shipping vessels Alasdair Ferguson, with fellow directors, Welcome to a Christmas Cracker Kilmallie Community News. seasons and rail to deliver the best solutions for our Carol MacKinnon, Financial Director, Jack In this issue we highlight both the wild lands of, and road safety in, Kilmallie. customers. We also have warehousing and Ferguson, Operational Director, and Leslie In Russell’s article he reminds us that we can walk all day in Kilmallie and not business Ferguson lorries are a familiar site on storage facilities in Corpach and our own Innes, Office Admin, Director. We employ meet another soul in areas only accessible by foot, whilst our road safety greetings port facility at Kishorn Port and quayside 152 staff in total, with approximately 75 articles draw our attention to the difficulties members of our community face our roads. So this time, we spoke to warehousing in Mallaig. based from our Head office, service when trying to cross the busy main road that cuts through our villages. MD Alasdair Ferguson about his business. How long have you been operating in department and depots locally in Corpach. Congratulations to the members of the Kilmallie Christmas Lights Fund for & all best Kilmallie? What do you and your business like best organizing the funding, and a very big thank you to the local businesses and We relocated from Spean Bridge almost four about being in Kilmallie? individuals who donated the monies, to enable Kilmallie to have a Christmas What is your company name? wishes years ago into our purpose built service The people, the working environment, and tree and festive street lighting this year. Ferguson Transport & Shipping workshop and Head Office premises the business opportunity in the area. We are There are some wonderful articles in here so settle down in a comfy chair Trading as Ferguson Transport (Spean adjacent to Corpach Port, but we have been now closer to three of our main customers and enjoy. Thank you to all the contributors, newsletter team and sponsors - for 2014, bridge ) Ltd & Ferguson Shipping (Kishorn operating in and around Kilmallie for the where we aim to provide “Logistic solutions well done on another excellent issue. Port) Ltd. All companies are a part of past 50 years! Historically for Riddochs successful with partners”. We have built With all best wishes to you and yours for a very merry Christmas and a Ferguson Freight Holdings Ltd. from sawmill, TSK, Wiggins Teape pulp and paper custom built premises including our Head Happy New Year. Where are you located? mill, loading and unloading ships at Corpach Office, service workshops, welding/ Our Head Office is in Corpach on the site of basin. Our key customers in the area today fabrication and warehouses to suit our Margaret Mackenzie, Chairman KCC the Old Auction Mart adjacent to Corpach are BSW, Marine Harvest, along with Rio customer and business needs bringing our [email protected] Port and harbour. We have other depots, operating centres and facilities at Annat Tinto and the Forestry Commission. business closer not only to our key Corpach, Mallaig, Kishorn, Invergordon, How many people do you employ locally? customers in the area but the core of our Inverness and Grangemouth in Central We are a family business, founded in 1959 employees who live in the local area. Scotland. by the late Archie Ferguson and his wife Kilmallie’s Anne Ferguson, and now with 6 third natural heritage One snowy day last month, we set out to walk to the highest point habitat of European importance and now just home to a few Across in Kilmallie. It was the sort of weather that Scottish winters do best wandering seagulls, is a constant reminder of planning gone wrong. – crisp, cold and bright. We started up the track to the bothy in When development takes place which impacts on the natural 1 2 3 4 5 6 1 Cracker (7) Glen Dubh Lighe; it was straightforward enough. But from there up landscape, either on a large or small scale, there is a need for a 4 Get on the horse (5) on to the ridge of Braigh nan Uamhachan it became rougher and strategic overview of where this can best be located, rather than 7 Bagel mix at end of house (5) steeper. Despite an early start, we soon realised that we would not the current approach of treating each application in isolation. The 9 Fruit sounded like it was meant to be of the get all the way up and back down in daylight. It was still a long way Local Plan should be able to do this for some types of development. 7 8 9 imagination (7) along the ridge to the coll between Gaor Bheinn and the apparently However, there have been several recent applications in Kilmallie 10 Drink cooler (4,3) unnamed peak just to the south at 961m. The snow made for slow for housing developments in areas designated as ‘hinterland’ in the 11 Viking from the north or south east (5) going, but even on a long summer day it would still be a challenge. Local Plan. Hinterland areas should be off-limits to preserve key 12 Get away. See cap mixing it up (6) As we stood high on the ridge, admiring the deeply shadowed glens areas of crofting land or natural habitat, but the repeated 14 Part of the branch or something used as a tether 10 11 below, it was apparent how much of Kilmallie is only accessible by argument that ‘just one more house won’t do any harm’ results in (6) foot. It is easy to walk all day in Kilmallie and not see anyone else. an increasingly fragmented landscape. Forestry also has a huge 18 For writing on (5) These are the kind of wild places that fire the imagination. In impact on our area, where we are fortunate to have such beautiful 20 I find this is the best policy (7) many ways they define the character of Kilmallie, and we all want native woodlands. There seems no overall strategy for encouraging 22 Makes your eyes water, or cry? (4,3) ballot? BID Living the Lochaber in part take you did to see them protected. Indeed Scottish Natural Heritage is in the land owners to grow the most suitable trees in the best locations. 12 13 14 15 16 23 Can come before the kebab(s) (5) process of designating ‘wild lands’ which include large areas of Micro-hydro schemes are another example where KCC has been 24 Of the kidneys (5) - Kilmallie. pushing for a strategy that looks at the best solutions for the area 17 25 Halves of quarters (7) However, in some senses, protecting wild land is the easy part as a whole. We all need power, and micro-hydro can be a very Down of habitat conservation. What is more frequently overlooked are effective way of delivering this with relative little impact. 18 19 20 21 the small pieces of natural, undeveloped land closer to home. Nevertheless, there is still a need to take account of the overall 1 Scottish wind instrument (7) 2 Bares about this blade (5) These areas may be more fragmented and less remote but despite, impact of multiple schemes.