April 12-19
10:54am Monday 14th April 2008
This week in 1988:
THE plan to transform the imposing Victorian boardroom at Hillborough into a mosque and Muslim community centre has been approved by city councillors. The proposed scheme ran into trouble at the Guildhall last year when the city planning committee supported the idea of a mosque but not the large scale conversion and extension plans for the boardroom. These were felt by councillors to be "out of character" with a Victorian building on a prominent Worcester site. But the plans have since been significantly scaled down and were praised by councillors this week as offering "a potent mix of Eastern promise and vintage Western architecture."
The scheme still includes the construction of a 65ft high minaret.
This week in 1978:Worried parents on Worcester's Henwick Park Estate are circulating a petition to try and persuade the city council to find funds and land for a play area for their 800 or so children. It is a regular experience for the local children to be moved off the streets by the police, but there is nowhere, apart from their own tiny gardens, for the children to go.
One parent said: "During the summer holidays in particular you cannot go down any of the streets here without seeing a gang of children playing. They have got to play somewhere."
But city engineer Walter Brown warns that the council has no plans for a play area at Henwick Park.
* Edwin Peirson, principal of the Worcester College of Higher Education at Henwick, is retiring after 27 years in the post. Glowing tributes were paid to him at a special social event organised by the college Board of Governors. It was attended by current and past civic and county chiefs including seven former Mayors of Worcester. Councillor William Allington, chairman of the college governors, said Mr Peirson had masterminded the growth of the college from an establishment of 200 students to one catering for more than 1,200.
This week in 1968:A campaign committee to fight the Government's plan to build 15,000 homes in Worcestershire for Birmingham overspill families was formed at a public meeting in Worcester this week. It was called by the Worcestershire Branch of the Council for the Preservation of Rural England to hear the views of parish councils and voluntary organisations.
Lord Sandys summed up the mood of the meeting: "The planners have been beaten at Stansted and it can be done here providing sufficient pressure is brought on the Government."
The CPRE has set aside £250 for campaign expenses and legal fees to fight the Government overspill plan and it is hoped other interested organisations will give financial support. G Howard Heaton, chairman of the Worcestershire CPRE, stressed: "We love this county of ours and we must protect it from any violation of the Green Belt, such as this would be."
This week in 1958:THE Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation, Harold Watkinson has performed the official inaugural ceremony for the construction of the £6 million Ross Spur motorway which will open up a faster and better route between the Midlands and South Wales. It is due to be completed by the end of 1960 and will run for 22 miles, forming another link in Britain's future network of motorways.
* For nearly two hours on Tuesday, Worcester City Council was locked in a debate on whether, for economy's sake, to appoint a part-time manager of the racecourse at £500 a year or whether, in the interests of efficiency, to take on a full-time manager with a salary of £1,100 a year.
The dilemma follows the death of full time racecourse manager Frank Pickering. Councillor William Allington moved a successful amendment that a full time manager be appointed. He said: "I am totally opposed to the appointment of a part-time manager. Worcester is one of the most important courses in the country having regard to the number of days racing held here. Of the 73 courses in Great Britain, only two others have more racing than Worcester. The annual turnover of the racecourse is £130,000 - a sum of magnitude."