From Our Files: Refusal over trees...cyclone damage...controversial art
50 YEARS AGO
THE principal of the residential development of land adjoining 250 Lymington Road, Highcliffe, opposite the recreation ground is not in dispute but a proposal by Boyland Ltd to erect a three-storey block of 11 self-contained flats there with garages would involve the felling of a “terrific” number of trees Christchurch Development Control were told last week.
They refused to grant permission on the grounds of the felling of the trees and overdevelopment of the site.
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A “COMPLETE disaster” is one councillor’s description of New Forest District Council’s £1-and-a-quarter-million golf course at Bramshott Hill.
Councillor Doreen Rendell spoke out against additional expenditure on the course at Tuesday’s Amenities Committee meeting.
She said: “The course was badly planned from the word go and is costing us more and more money. It petrifies me that someone thinks we are a bottomless pit financially.”
All the council was financing, she added, was “ a pub with a slightly better view.”
The course has been “bedeviled” by drainage problems caused by the emergence of underground springs which had been dormant during the construction period.
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A FORMER Lymington family who immigrated to Australia three years ago lost all their possessions as a result of terrifying experiences when cyclone Tracey ripped through Darwin.
Mr Mike Fields, his wife Rhoda and their four children were left with only one wall of their home still standing.
The cyclone left a death toll of 50 with thousands homeless. The family took shelter under their beds and Mr Fields found himself accidentally stranded outside at the height of the cyclone and the bed under which he would have taken refuge completely crushed after two walls collapsed.
25 YEARS AGO
A CONTROVERSIAL work of art has divided the Sway community as a solo art exhibition by Macedonian artist Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva opened at the ArtSway gallery.
The sculpture titled ‘Ambush’ is a wall constructed from nearly a tonne (4,000 blocks) of Anchor butter and forms part of an exhibition entitled ‘Who Am I?’
Ms Hadzi-Vasileva who lives in Lymington said her choice of material was designed to be thought provoking and aimed also at making people consider the world in which they live.
The piece she says is designed to create an artificial space within the gallery and warns that people should take the smell of highly mature butter as part of the aesthetic experience.
But local councillor Barry Rickman said: “I simply question the value of it. I have to stress, I am not a philistine and I will go and have a look at it, but I heard Anchor sponsored it and I would have thought they could put the product to better use.”
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TOTTON residents have lost their fight to stop planning permission being granted for 70 new homes on the Testwood House Farm Site and will not have to rely on their bid to get the land declared a village green if they are to stop the Linden Homes development.
More than a hundred people, the town council and the Hampshire Wildlife Trust have objected to the proposal.
Immediately before casting his vote amongst the 13 in favour, Coun. Richard Frampton declared: “I’d like to make a public apology to the people of Totton for being nothing more than a government puppet today.”
He said councillors were being forced to build homes by central government and “if we don’t say where they are going, they will.”
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TWO dozen ponies believed to have been sold criminally with their mothers at New Forest Beaulieu Road pony sales have been signed over to the RSPCA.
The owner who had hoped to sell them on as children’s ponies lost interest in them when faced with ongoing veterinary bills of around £3,500.
The foals, all aged between three and six months, were sold for as little as £3 each. Rob Dazely regional manager for the RSPCA said: “This incident shows the irresponsibility of people who go to sales to buy horses at knock down prices without thinking of the huge commitment they have taken on.”
