May 23 to May 30 (From Worcester News)

May 23 to May 30

12:40pm Wednesday 27th May 2009 in

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THIS WEEK IN 1989:

A SPECIAL system of protective cowling, geared towards halting yobs kicking the lights illuminating Worcester Bridge into the river, are undergoing tests by bridge lighting contractors Philips.

The move comes weeks after vandals wreaked havoc on the almost completed bridge lighting scheme when dozens of lamps were wrenched from fixings and hurled into the river Severn.

It was the latest in a long line of mishaps to dog the £50,000 Worcester Bridge illumination scheme.

● County Hall has thrown a spoke in the wheel of Worcester cyclists pinning their hopes on a new £45,000 cycle route into the city centre. Two months ago the city council unveiled an ambitious cycle lanes scheme linking the city centre with the Bull Ring, St John’s and Bromwich Road by creating twin pedestrian and cycle lanes along both sides of New Road.

However, this week county highway chiefs gave the thumbs down to the scheme.

THIS WEEK IN 1979:

THERE has been an outburst of indignation from several quarters this week as a result of the county council’s revelation that it has paid a record price of £2,203 an acre for the 154- acre dairy and stock farm, known as Lower Smite Farm, Hindlip (nearly £340,000 in total). County Hall wants the site in order to create a huge refuse tip.

Local residents, the National Farmers’ Union and Wychavon district councillors are among those expressing deep concern and a full independent investigation is being demanded by Worcester city councillor Jeff Carpenter to establish whether the “jumbo” refuse tip at Lower Smite would pose an environmental threat to Worcester. He said: “The city cannot accept automatically the interpretation of county officials that the site would be remote with painless access for all types of refuse transporters. After all, we are discussing the prospect of carrying 1,000 tons of refuse every week to a location little more than a mile from Worcester’s northern boundary.”

THIS WEEK IN 1969:

WITH Worcester Waterworks “virtually stretched to its last gallon of output each day,”

consumers in the Worcester, Malvern, Upton-upon- Severn and Pershore areas are being warned to cut their water consumption to the very minimum for at least the next 18 months.

The South West Worcestershire Water Board was told by its engineer John Phillips that the waterworks was struggling to cope with a rapidly increasing demand which had now reached 5,900,000 gallons a day – 400,000 above the realistic capacity output.

Mr Phillips appealed for the co-operation of consumers for the next 18 months until the major part of a proposed £1.5 million package of extensions to the waterworks had been completed.

THIS WEEK IN 1959:

SELF service show at Worcester Public Hall. In 10 years time, three-quarters of Britain’s grocery shops will sell goods by self-service methods. This was the firm forecast of the organisers of an exhibition of self-service equipment which opened at the Public Hall this week. In Worcester – for centuries a stronghold of old fashioned over-the-counter service in shops – housewives have welcomed the prospect of self-service. At present, only a few larger stores invite customers to “help themselves” but a spokesman at the exhibition said self-service was becoming more and more popular.