A VERY special occasion took place at the Community Centre on Friday 20th September when Merkinch Community Council marked its 25 years with a get-together of members old and new and others who had been closely involved with the organisation over the years.

After welcoming everyone, the present chairman, Ali MacLean, thanked the ladies of the Active Adults for their efforts in laying on a lovely spread. He then touched on some of the Community Council’s achievements down the years and paid tribute, particularly, to Anne McCreadie and Dell McClurg, who were then presented with silver quaichs and brooches to mark their years of service to the community.

On show were screens covered with newspaper cuttings of the many occasions over the years that the Community Council had hit the headlines over a wide range of issues.

A pleasant social evening followed with old friends being reunited and highlights of the council’s achievements being recalled.

1977 - Merkinch Community Council is set up as part of local government reform.

1978 - MCC campaign for the refurbishment of Merkinch Primary School, including improved facilities and equipment and new toilets. MCC are also instrumental in setting up a Dog Warden service in Inverness following numerous complaints about packs of dogs wandering the streets and even the landings of flats.

1979 - A survey commissioned by MCC on the state of the housing in South Kessock found that three out of every four tenants suffers from damp and 83% had badly fitting doors and windows. Inverness District Council were accused of allowing the Ferry area to deteriorate. Incidentally, the South Kessock houses, when built in the early 1930s, cost £351 each!

1980 to 1982 - Parents of children at Merkinch Primary were out in force - sometimes travelling as far as Dingwall - to fight against the proposed closure of the school, not once but twice within a two-year period. Pupils would have had to go to Dalneigh or Central PS. MCC were much involved in co-ordinating the campaign to fight the closure. In the event the P1/2 annexe at Coronation Park, situated where the Corbett Centre now stands, was closed.

And so it has gone down the years: the Community Council have been involved in setting up tenants associations, providing better bus services, bus shelters, street signs, organised annual environmental clean-ups, tree-planting, street parties, charity collections, supported the provision of the Grant Street car park and so forth.

It is quite a record, and certainly one that Merkinch Community Council can be proud of.

The kitchen crew - kept pretty busy behind the scenes making sure everyone had plenty to eat and drink	There was a kiss for birthday boy Tom Skinner, who celebrated his 89th just a couple of days earlier and was still enjoying the opportunity to mark the occasion!
Merkinch as a community has endeared itself to a succession of community police officers down the years, including the now retired Blair Anderson (left) and Callum Mackay.	Left - Councillor Chrissie Cumming (centre) presented a silver quaich and a brooch to each of the two longest-serving members of the community council, Anne McCreadie and Dell McClurg.