From the archives

1996

A TOTAL of 1300 Cumbernauld Development Corporation Tenants in Abronhill, Condorrat, Balloch and Westfield would see their homes fall under the jurisdiction of North Lanarkshire Council, following a postal ballot. Moves were afoot to have the transfer undertaken within a matter of weeks. The residents favoured the council’s intervention over a bid by Scottish Homes and Abronhill Housing Association. The association did however count 246 locals as members and vowed to continue after securing a bank loan to fund their properties.

A MINI-OLYMPICS was go after Cumbernauld’s fourth annual carnival took place in Jubilee Park. The Cumbernauld Village venue was the ideal spot for Cumbernauld Amenities Trust to serve up a feast of fun -which took its theme from the world’s greatest sporting tournament which had just finished in Atlanta. Organiser Anne McGivern of Cumbernauld Amenities Trust said: “We believe this will be the best carnival yet. The weather is the only thing that has not been organised.”

MORE than 1000 protestors were expected to demonstrate at Broadwood Stadium in their bid to oppose plans to see the M80 extension routed through Cumbernauld.

1986

PRICELESS artifacts turned up in Cumbernauld after a bible exhibition brought 16th century scriptures in Hebrew, Greek and Syriac to Cumbernauld College.

LOCALS would soon be getting their skates on after it emerged that Cumbernauld would soon have its own ice rink. The £3 million project would be located at the western end of the town centre, opposite the Inland Revenue offices. Unusually the project would also incorporate discount warehousing space. The rink itself would boast seating for 1000 spectators and was sizeable enough to accommodate ice hockey and curling.

ONE of Cumbernauld’s most high profile sportsmen emigrated to Canada. Jim Thompson (64) had formed Cumbernauld Cycling Club, had been chairman of the Sports Council and helped to bring tournaments like the Health Race to the town. He had also helped form Cumbernauld’s pipe band. After selling his bike shop in Kirkintilloch, widower Jim left his home in Afton Road to join his daughter across the Atlantic.

CUMBERNAULD teens Lee Fitzsimmons and Karin Jackson were taking part in the Edinburgh Festival Fringe as dancers in West Side Story.

1976

BOSSES in Cumbernauld were unable to fill vacancies that promised £50 a week because of a chronic shortage in skilled workers. This was despite the fact that unemployment figures rested at 1300. Companies hoping to cash in on the North Sea oil boom were losing customers as orders remained incomplete. James Howell of Cumbernauld’s employment office said: “Over the past few months the problem is getting worse. It looks as if people who have a job are sticking to it - they are not prepared to move.”

A PIONEERING chemical firm which corrected the effects of a spillage of oil into water would make Cumbernauld its main manufacturing centre.Anti-Pollution Chemicals would take over a giant unit in Wardpark South. A Cumbernauld Development Corporation spokesman said: “It’s appropriate that the company has chosen Cumbernauld which is world-renowned for its creation of an environment which is ideal to live and work.”

CUMBERNAULD band Which Way Next were tuning up to delight an international audience at the Edinburgh Festival. Teenage Band members John Sprachan, Stewart Denny and John Brady were the local lads who would be taking on a three night run in Leith Town Hall.

1971

YOUR wage demands could lead to more redundancies - that was the stark warning from bosses at crisis-hit Burroughs who sent out letters to striking employees. Industrial relations had been troubled since April when more than 1500 workers walked out in April after rejecting a wage offer which was half of what they had asked for.

A GERMAN television crew arrived in the town to make a documentary and even had a German speaker lined up to talk about the experience of living in the new town. Austrian Josephine Keegan of Ainslie Road had married a Scot and talked presenter Hans-Dieter Grabe through her own impressions of the town. The show would be called Alternatives and intended to illustrate the ways of dealing with overcrowding in established cities.

CUMBERNAULD languished under a whopping 16,000 TONNES of rain within the space of nine days. This had flooded countless houses, paths and underpasses, turning Wilderness Brae into a river. There then followed a mini-drought after water supplies to the town centre were cut off thanks to a fault development in the mains. A waterlogged surface on the A80 caused a three car collision but mercifully no-one was hurt.