In this week’s On This Week column, we take a look back at what was making the headlines this time 30 years ago, as well as a picture from the same year…
Norfolk County Council officials have promised to end the quagmire misery of residents in Queen Mary Road, Gaywood, by the end of the year. But protestors who have been fighting for years to get improvements in the street, where verges and pavements are regularly reduced to a muddy swamp in wet weather, greeted the news with suspicion. One resident, who said he would send a video of the problem to Prime Minister John Major, claimed: “All the authorities have done in recent years is change the colour of the mud.” After the latest complaints, a county council spokesman revealed that a £120,000 scheme was proposed which would solve the problem and increase road safety.
More than 100 keys have been handed in to the lost property office at Lynn Police Station in the last week – but nobody is claiming them. Police are appealing to residents who have lost car or house keys to check at the police station before paying out for new keys or locks. Sgt Peter Thompson said: “People who have lost keys think they have gone for good, but there are a lot of public-minded citizens who do the right thing when they find items and hand them in.”
The Queen is set to reap more than £1 million in the next five years in Euro farm hand-outs at Sandringham. The cash is being paid under the revamped set-aside scheme which aims to cut food mountains by paying farmers for growing nothing. Farming bodies have criticised the system and all Norfolk and Suffolk candidates in the European elections have called for further changes in the EU’s £25 billion Common Agriculture Policy.
Future and present improvements to Lynn have been unveiled in the town centre. Gordon Dawes, chairman of West Norfolk Council’s planning committee opened an exhibition in an empty shop window in New Conduit Street which gave shoppers a glimpse of the £250,000 revamp designed to create a “maritime” look for the area. Then Mr Dawes joined council representatives to view the completed pedestrianisation work which has just been completed in Tower Street.
Fishermen are calling for urgent action to combat new problems with silt in Lynn’s Fisher Fleet. They say they are faced with the choice of damaging their boats or mooring elsewhere and having to cart their shellfish all through town. But dock chiefs say the muddy sediment cannot be flushed out until the National Rivers Authority has finished its work on shoring up the southern bank of the Fleet. One angry fisherman said his boat had part of its propellor blade damaged in the Fisher Fleet which would cost him around £2,000 in repairs and lost earnings.
Wilcon Homes have given details prices for one, two or three-bedroom homes at three new estates in the area. The Templemead development in Lynn has a price range from £32,500 to £63,500; the Bishops Park estate has homes from £29,995 to £46,500; and The Limes estate at Tilney St Lawrence offers homes from £31,500 to £62,500.
News that a notorious accident blackspot at Swaffham is to have a roundabout has been welcomed by townsfolk. Numerous accidents, several fatal, have occurred at the junction of the A47 with the A1122 Swaffham Road. Norfolk County Council’s Highways Agency has announced a £460,000 scheme to build a roundabout and, from next month, part of the dual carriageway will be reduced to one lane. The right hand side of the westbound carriageway through the junction will be closed until the roundabout is constructed.
Experts are trying to sort out a glitch in the drainage system which sent untreated sewage pouring into Gaywood River. The stench from the contamination alerted a resident as the effluent – including used lavatory paper and lumps of excrement – floated on the surface of the river. The filth had gushed out of a surface water drain near the bridge at River Lane in Gaywood. The overflow followed a short, sharp cloudburst which coincided with a sewer blockage.
Back in the spotlight and hoping for good results are West Norfolk’s motoring brothers Martin and Robin Brundle. Martin has had a run of ill fortune in his McLaren, finishing in only two out of seven Formula One races this season, lasting only three laps in the recent Canadian GP. Robin will be making a competitive comeback at the Willhire 24 hours race at Snetterton in early July.