From Our Files: Food aid... tree felling... bravery award... bakery bust

* * * * *

THE question of the proposed use of Pennington Common for military training purposes was again before the Borough Council at their monthly meeting on Wednesday in last week, and after a lengthy discussion it was finally agreed to defer a formal objection for a month.

The Baths and Pleasure Grounds’ Committee stated that they had received a protest from a public meeting held at Pennington, and had been asked to endorse it, and to send copies to the Territorial Army Association, the War Office and the Member of Parliament.

* * * * *

AT last week’s meeting of the Borough Council it was revealed that the Middlesex County Council intend to purchase Elmers Court, Walhampton, for use as an approved school.

The Mayor remarked that the Middlesex County Council seemed to have taken a liking to this area. He felt that they must have many suitable places in their own county.

Cllr Major H. W. Hall said that if the place was run as an approved school, juvenile delinquents from Middlesex would be sent here.

50 YEARS AGO

A DEPUTATION from Christchurch town council met the Minister of Defence, Mr Ian Gilmore, in London on Monday, over the future of Signals Research and Development Establishment (SRDE). But he told them that he could not make a final decision on the fate of the establishment until he had talks with all the staff associations. He did not, however, dispute the suggestion that the establishment could close down sometime in the future.

* * * * *

REORGANISATION of the hospital facilities at Boscombe and Poole, including the transfer of the accident department to Poole, would result in inconvenience to patients and more discomfort, Dr Ronald Fisher, chairman of the Medical Executive Committee, and a member of the Joint Planning Committee dealing with the reorganisation, conceded at the meeting of the Highcliffe Citizens’ Association. But referring to what would be a centralised major accident unit at Poole, Dr Fisher went on: “I do not believe anybody is going to die because he is going to spend a little longer in an ambulance.”

* * * * *

AFTER two years’ respite, the threat of felling once again hangs over the open woodlands of the New Forest; all those unfenced areas so well-loved by the public, and so typical of this national heritage. Those who thought that the destruction in Rushpole Wood in 1969 had caused sufficient stir to prevent forever a repetition of such operations are now shown to have been much mistaken.

25 YEARS AGO

Frankie Dettori, champion flat race jockey and winner of seven flat races at one race meeting, put a smile on the faces of a group of young people in the New Forest when he visited them.

The jockey launched an appeal to provide another longer-stay residential home that will enable the Fortune Centre of Riding Therapy to offer additional facilities to its students. The house will be named after Frankie and will be called Lanfranco House.

* * * * *

AN army major who grew up in Highcliffe is to receive the Queen’s Commendation for Bravery after he helped rescue 50 people during the recent civil conflict in Albania.

Major Nicholas Slinger, whose parents Walter and Rosemary now live in Stanpit, was part of the Royal Artillery detachment sent to Albania earlier this year. He organised the daring rescue in March of the British Embassy in the capital Tirana.

“It was pretty hairy really as they had no food or drink for 36 hours, but Nick managed to keep everyone calm and eventually he was able to get them on an Italian ship,” his proud father told the A&T.

* * * * *

SOMERFORD Avon Vale Bakery’s 150 staff will be spending Christmas on the dole after cash flow problems caused the company to close.

The shock news was given to the 100 employees at the Airfield Road headquarters on Tuesday by the liquidators called in by company founder Stan Ford.