From the pages of the Down Recorder, May 18, 1976

From the pages of the Down Recorder, May 18, 1976

18 May 2016

DOWNPATRICK — An early start is expected on the building of a new maternity unit at Downshire Hospital as a replacement for Hardy Greer House.

The decision was made at a special meeting of the Eastern area health board when members considered planning matters in need of urgent attention. Approval is expected from the Department of Health, but official tongues are tied.

It is strongly hoped that this decision will end a muddle over midwifery which has lasted nearly 20 years. Hardy Greer House was opened in June 1958, purely as a stop-gap pending reorganisation of hospital services in Downpatrick. At that time a new unit was promised within five years.

Since then the 25-bed unit has battled bravely while plans for its replacement seemed to be put on a long finger that got longer and longer as time passed. It has the reputation of being a first class unit, well run and with facilities as good as any unit of its type.

Today it is serving a population in excess of 100,000 people from Kilkeel to Killinchy and inland to Ballynahinch and Saintfield. More than 800 children are born there each year.

For more than two years plans have been pushed around from pillar to post for a 35-bed unit which will be right up to date as far as design and methods are concerned. All but the very latest equipment is scheduled for it. The last estimate put the price in the region of £600,000.

ARDGLASS — A row is brewing over the handling of a planning application for an old people’s home in Ardglass.

Planning officials had decided to refuse the application, although Health and Social Services bosses were already seeking tenders for the work. Now the planners have backed down and withdrawn their refusal in order to consider the application once again.

Two Down councillors have claimed the change of heart was because of a week-long intensive protest by them to the planners. The councillors, Mr. Dermot Curran and Mr Sean Quinn, are hopeful that the application will be approved.

CASTLEWELLAN — A Castlewellan man and six of his children staged a protest at Newcastle social security office on Monday. Mr James Rice said he was protesting about his unemployment benefit having been stopped.

He explained that he had brought his children to the office to force home the point that they were hungry. Mr Rice claims his benefit had been stopped after a visit to a sick brother in England last week.

A spokesman for Newcastle social security office said their dealings with claimants were confidential and he was not permitted to discuss it.

DARRAGH CROSS — Police have appealed for information to help them in inquiries into a shooting incident in which a Darragh Cross man narrowly escaped death.

The incident happened just after midnight on Tuesday when a knock was heard on the front door of a local public house. The owner declined to answer the door until the caller gave his name, but then two shots were firmed through the glass panel, narrowly missing him.

COMBER — A Comber man took a bow this week when his drama, ‘Keep Watching the Skies,’ was voted the top amateur film of the year by the London magazine, Movie Maker.

The film will go on show at the National Film Theatre, London, in September and 31 year-old Roy Spence will receive a gold trophy and a cash award of £100.

Although the film is set in a small town in America during the 1950s, most of it was show around Co Down and the actors are his relatives, neighbours and friends. Mr Spence says the film was very enjoyable to make, adding that he received a lot of help from a Comber farmer, Mr Brian Rutherford, who played the sheriff.

BALLYNAHINCH — Public anxiety is mounting in Ballynahinch over the time being taken to complete construction of a public toilet in Windmill Street — on which work began 15 months ago.

Down Council heard this week that although the contract was signed in December 1974, they do not have any control of the building until it is handed over. And that will take time.

Mr Winston Gaskin said it was absolutely disgraceful that the weekly Thursday market in the town was booming, yet not a public toilet was available.

Mr Edward McVeigh, council chairman, said that anxiety had been building up for several months and despite the efforts of councillors and officials, success had been miserably slow.

BISHOPSCOURT — A  Strangford man has claimed that the closure of the radar station at Bishopscourt is linked to the siting of the Province’s first nuclear power station.

Mr Paddy Corrigan says the “decks are being cleared for a massive investment of public capital for a totally unnecessary project.”

Last week the Civil Aviation Authority in London revealed that the radar station will be worked by remote control from September 1977 when a new Scottish control centre at Prestwick comes into operation. The RAF, however, denied that the Ministry of Defence were to withdraw from their site at Bishopscourt.

KILLOUGH — Mrs Dita Ash, from Killough, will be honoured at a luncheon in Belfast next week as one of the ‘Ulster Women of the Year’ for 1976.

Mrs Ash is well known for the many charity works. She is a dedicated worker and always ready to help. She is the president of the Royal British Legion Women’s Section for Downpatrick and and district. She virtually saved the branch from folding a few years ago by organising fashion shows in the Downshire Hospital.

She is also closely connected with the Downpatrick Branch NI Association for Mental Health, the USPCA, the Cat Protection League and was a founder member of Abbeyfield House, Strangford. She is also chairman of the Killough, Ardglass and Rural Area Combat Cancer Group, which in its short existence has already raised over £250 for the Ulster Cancer Foundation.

PORTAFERRY — A local hotel is up for sale only 15 months after its present owners bought it. The Portaferry Hotel is for sale or to let for an “undisclosed sum.”

Mrs Hazel Lilley, who with her husband John, runs the ten-bedroom hotel, would only say they were selling up for “personal reasons,” which had nothing to do with the troubles.

The hotel is the only one within a six-mile radius of Portaferry. “It has a considerable seasonal tourist trade during the summer, but also attracts commercial travellers during the rest of the year,” said a spokesman for J A Whelan, the Belfast estate agents handling the negotiations.

CLOUGH — A 20 year-old soldier, serving with the Royal Corps of Transport, was killed in an incident involving two Army vehicles on the Blackstaff Road, near Clough.

William Thomas Knight, of Hartlepool, Co Durham, was killed when the Saracen in which he was travelling struck a lorry going in the opposite direction, hit the bank and overturned. One other soldier was injured.

DRUMANESS — At least one football club is happy to see the end of the 1975-76 season — and it’s all because of cold water. The players of Drumaness Mills FC have not been getting what they for — hot water after a match.

The club are determined that next season their problems will be sorted out. They have told Down Council, who own their pitch, that their weekly rent should be reduced because heating is not available in the nearby council hall and also because the council pitch is never marked.

DROMARA — Dromara Highland Pipe Band took third place in grade two at the pipe band contest at Balmoral showgrounds on Saturday. Field Marshal Montgomery Pipe Band, from Carryduff, was third in grade three.