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From Our Files: Geriatrics of Mudeford...foul-mouthed youths...pigeon plea




50 YEARS AGO

“IT would appear to me if we don’t watch out, my own Mudeford ward will become one vast area for geriatrics,” Cllr AR Payne warned at last week’s Christchurch Development Control Committee when asked if any policy was being formulated with regard to the increasing number of applications being received from housing associations relating to the Mudeford area.

Borough planning officer Mr D Padley replied that his department had been approached by a considerable number of housing associations with regard to the considerable number of sites. “We almost seem to be receiving more of these than we do from ordinary developers.”

With this in mind he felt they needed guidance from the Department of the Environment and had sought their advice.

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“HERE is an example of planners, planning committees and local people with their feet firmly in the past," a Department of the Environment Inspector was told at a planning appeal held at Lymington town hall.

Mr RJ Roddis, representing the appellant Charles Buckwell of Whitby Road, Milford, was disputing in his final summation the comments of a planning official and local residents that the erection of a block of flats in Whitby Road could only be a harmful influence on the village.

An application for nine flats in a three-storey block had been refused on the grounds that they would “spoil the character of the road”.

Mr Roddis said in fact the road was not of particular architectural merit and the flats would change it for the better. But Mrs Castle, of Whitby Road, said, “We don’t want flats, we want more houses for families to encourage young people into the village.”

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A DESCRIPTION of New Forest land by the Southern Water Authority as being of “low agricultural use” has “staggered” Mr A Cleveland, chairman of the Commoners Defence Association.

“They never told us in 1939-45 that the Forest was of low agricultural value. We produced some of the finest crops in the British Isles.”

His comments came after a report was presented at a meeting of the Verderers Court that said the condition of drainage in the New Forest was causing “great concern”. Urgent action was needed to clear rivers whose sides had been reduced to “bogs”.

25 YEARS AGO

From Our Files week 05, 25 YEARS AGO: Simon Lyth, of Lymington based Suzuki marine dealer SAL Marine, met up with Steve McFadden alias Phil Mitchell in the top TV soap "Eastenders" who took delivery of a new Suzumar inflatable boat at the London International Boat Show. Phil enjoys relaxing with a bit of sea fishing and the new Suzumar is the new tender for his fishing boat.
From Our Files week 05, 25 YEARS AGO: Simon Lyth, of Lymington based Suzuki marine dealer SAL Marine, met up with Steve McFadden alias Phil Mitchell in the top TV soap "Eastenders" who took delivery of a new Suzumar inflatable boat at the London International Boat Show. Phil enjoys relaxing with a bit of sea fishing and the new Suzumar is the new tender for his fishing boat.

* * * * *

BRANSGORE residents who say their lives are being made a misery by drunken and foul-mouthed youths have been told that the police would not support the introduction of a new bye-law to stop drinking in public.

Around a dozen people who live in Halton Close on the Whistlers estate attended Tuesday evening’s meeting of the parish council to vent their anger at what they claim is the inaction of the authorities to tackle the problem.

Local district councillor Richard Frampton told them that he had been investigating their calls for a new bye-law that would ban drinking in public areas. He had obtained a copy of the Home Office model bye-law and had been to discuss the matter with officials of East Dorset District Council who were introducing it in Wimborne.

The bye-law makes it an offence to drink in public after they have been told not to by a police officer. Anyone found guilty could face a fine of up to £500.

“My view is that it's something or nothing,” Cllr Frampton said. “It is really up to the police as to whether they want to do it or not.”

However, that led to Halton Close resident David Taylor describing Cllr Frampton’s attitude as “spineless”.

He said he had been horrified by the activities of youths who congregate near his home, saying: “We need to do something because at times this village is lawless, we are not talking about Brookside, we are talking about a quiet residential village in the New Forest.”

But Inspector Ian Blackhouse told the meeting he was not in favour of the bye-law, saying: “The police wouldn’t support it because we’ve looked at it in other towns like Winchester which has got a lot more drinking there and it didn’t get off the ground, it didn’t work.”

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LOCAL coastal defences were put to the test for the fifth time in as many years during the Christmas 1999 storms as wave conditions again exceeded levels predicted to occur once every century.

Average wave heights of 3.4 metres were measured at Milford-on-Sea during the storms which left parts of the New Forest flooded. At times enormous seven-metre-high waves crashed over Hurst Spit.

Some council officers believe climate change may have increased the frequency of such events. The shingle bank between Milford-on-Sea and Hurst Castle again stood up strongly against the savage seas.

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A SUGGESTION that local residents should not feed pigeons and swans divided Milford-on-Sea parish councillors and led to disagreements about whether NFDC had been guilty of officialdom in dealing with an elderly lady who had refused to stop.

Cllr Brian Giles said he was an animal lover but agreed with the district council, saying there was a danger of disease spreading from feeding birds. He said that two years ago pigeons at Danestream House had ruined the fabric of the building with their droppings and at one time there had been eight dead pigeons above the top floor ceiling.

He said the woman who was causing the problem had ignored health officers’ requests to stop feeding birds.

But Cllr Chris Beeton said: “This is the first time I have heard that feeding birds is illegal.”



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