The Roe Valley News Browser on-line

Return to news index

The Town Hall saga continues The Alexander Memorial Hall is to be replaced. The council has finally decided to accept the design by a firm of architects from London, which will preserve the much loved (but weathered) frontage. As a bonus, a new town square will be created and the design also includes a museum and a hall for performances. I assume that they will have to knock down a couple of houses to make room for all this.

The Alexander Memorial Hall

The Car Parks The DOE clamped down on semi-free parking in the town's central car parks the other day. The yellow peril and his boss went around every illegally parked car in the centre of town and slapped tickets onto the windscreens. On the first day of this action, nearly every car within sight had been thus decorated, except those parked on the double yellow lines. However, the car parks were nearly empty for the rest of the week.

No more round walks in the Country Park The recent heavy floods have caused more damage in the Country Park. Management instantly took the chance of erecting another one of their ugly fences. This one ranks with the Northern Bank and Brian Brown's prize winning monstrosity as one of the ugliest human artifacts in the area. While they were at it, they decided that this was an excellent chance to display two further pointless notices.

It is a pity that it has ever come to this. Everyone was so busy putting up fences and erecting a forest of signs forbidding various recreations, that the importance of maintaining the mill race gates just slipped their minds. Mind you, even though one can't do the round trip any more, it is quite amusing to sit by the barrier and listen to the noise of short-sighted joggers with zombie machines in their ears smacking into the unexpected obstruction. Park fanatics were not to be stopped and instantly took to the water. Let's hope all the dogs can swim as well.

This account closes with a look at the cause of all these complaints. This is where one of the old bridges used to be. The flood waters were so heavy that they undermined the rather weak foundations. The wooden structure had to be demolished. Notice the rather tastefully displayed notice on the left. Yet another tree permanently injured by an unnecessary rusty nail.

Autumn in the Valley This paper thought it might be a good idea to tell all our foreign readers that golden Autumn is coming to a close and the cold winds of Winter are starting to make life miserable. If you plan to come to Limavady, bring a coat and an umbrella. Most of the younger natives pretend to be tough and wouldn't be seen dead within spitting distance of either a coat or an umbrella.

Intensive Agriculture I have come across worrying signs that the art of grass growing has been pushed too far by some of the local farmers. I know that efficiency is a good thing, but you can overdo it, boys.

The Christmas lights are twinkling It's that time of year again. The Christmas lights have been officially turned on and you can admire Limavady town centre even more than usual. Most of the decorations are the same lights as last year and I am glad to report the Wellworth's famous «Up your's Santa» has not been retired. Brian Hunter tells me that he has invested in new decorations. So if your taste in art stretches to white painted branches fastened to the ceiling, go to the Oven Door.

The New Town Hall Work has started on the new Town Hall. The council has erected a covered walkway just outside the old building and art students from the Tech have decorated this with some rather nice Christmas motifs.

What to do with the market yard Most of the local talk is about the market yard. The town seems to be divided into four groups. Those that want the market yard sold to a developer so that a shopping complex can be built. This will magically rescue all the other shops in town. Those that think that this is a stupid idea. Why should anybody go to Market Street when they can buy all their stuff elsewhere? The farmers, who wonder why nobody has told them that their market yard is going to be sold. Everyone else, who just couldn't care less.

The previous month

Back to the start

The next month