From Our Files: Stars ‘distress’...skate park approved...wheelie bins rejected
50 YEARS AGO
DORSET Police received several calls after a celestial hoax hoodwinked concerned residents across the coast.
Falling stars rained down in the skies from Lyme Regis to Christchurch on Saturday at around 10pm – tricking people into thinking it was distress flares from a boat in trouble.
Instead of making a wish, the callers got straight on to the police. Inspector Maynard of Dorset Police said: “We have actually established that this was a meteorite shower passing overhead which had confused one, or two people into thinking we may have had a boat in distress.”
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THREE-time world champion horse ploughing champion Mr Arthur Walter (Jack) Pearce, of Gordon Road, Lymington, died on Sunday a few days short of his 83rd birthday.
As testimony to his remarkable career in which he won 297 ploughing championships is a collection of 78 cups and shields which he proudly displayed in his home including the world cup.
Yet his most treasured possession was a certificate commemorating his first ever ploughing success at Botley in 1907 when he was 14 years of age.
Mr Pearce’s last ploughing appearance was in September when he won first prize at East Grinstead, Sussex.
He was polishing his brasses ready for another competition when he suffered a stroke.
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A BRICK shelter in Grove Gardens, Lymington, “attracts the less desirable element and is frequently used as a dormitory” New Forest District Council’s amenities committee were told.
Principal engineer Mr F Harris said the building, donated by public subscription in 1930 to the memory of Mr WM Whittaker, was in constant need of repair and he suggested that the roof be removed to make it “less attractive to vandals”.
But councillor R. Alderson disagreed, saying: “If we are to succumb to vandals we are not going to have anything left.
25 YEARS AGO
AFTER nine years of talking, Lymington councillors bit the bullet on Wednesday night and finally decided on a site for a skateboard park.
By nine votes to four, on the motion of newly elected deputy mayor elect Peter Merrick, they opted for Woodside over Deneside Copse.
Woodside residents who left the town hall bitterly disappointed were assured they would be involved in the development of the £35,000 park.
David Culver-Williams unsuccessfully moved that a decision be delayed in yet another bid to find a more acceptable location such as an industrial park – 13 having been looked at to date.
The mayor said wherever such a facility was sited they should expect problems. He said the fact was that it was local children who would be using the park and “some of them would be good, and some of them not so good”.
Mike Thorp stressed that there was nothing to link skateparks with drugs and alcohol abuse.
Kevin Ault said he was opposed to the park saying they were “ugly and noisy” and a “passing fad”.
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PARAGLIDERS have been given the all clear for continued takeoff from the cliffs at Barton-on-Sea as far as New Milton Town Council is concerned, despite the safety concerns of some residents following a number of incidents, including one flier crashing among beach huts on the undercliff.
“It’s an attraction,” said town council amenities chairman John Hutchins, “a lot of people enjoy watching it.”
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A SOLUTION to the problem of preventing Forest animals from foraging through plastic sacks of rubbish is to be sought by the district council after members rejected the introduction of wheelie bins.
Councillor Mike Thierry told Waste Management Committee colleagues “There are many things that come from America that I admire but wheelie bins are not one of them.
“Elderly people can hardly push a specialized trolley in a supermarket let alone a wheelie bin.”
A possibility was the sale at cost price to residents of dustbins with wheels – not the normal type of wheelie bin – which they could push to their gates with the sacks still in the bin.
