From Our Files: Stewardess in Dubai shootout...toilet trouble...baubles ‘bomb’
50 YEARS AGO
THE daughter of a Barton couple was one of the stewardesses aboard the hijacked British Airways jet which was commandeered by Palestinian gunmen at Dubai in the Persian Gulf.
Miss Lesley West is the daughter of Dennis and Lilian West, former professional ice skaters who live in Marine Drive.
Miss West, who is 24 and was making her last flight before she marries, told the A&T that shooting started and the guerrillas were brandishing their guns.
She fell to the floor as a shootout between the guerrillas and the army in the airport terminal happened.
A stewardess was shot in the shootout but not seriously injured. Miss West was able to make her escape after a few minutes.
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A REPORT by the chief housing and health officer of the New Forest District Council into the bathing conditions on Lepe and Calshot beaches was submitted to the health committee in November.
It showed that a series of tests had been carried out from 10 points along the coast from Calshot to Colgrims at high and low water, and the main interest surrounded salmonella and coliform bacteria.
Coliform type one, the more common, was of faecal origin and could be human or animal.
A fairly high reading of salmonella was found at Lepe and was probably coming from the Southampton area.
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NEW Forest District Council’s health committee is to write to Hampshire County Council deploring their refusal to follow health committee recommendations to provide additional toilets at New Milton Junior School.
The committee was told that the proposal had been rejected for financial reasons.
At a recent meeting parents told how their children were knocking on doors of people living near the school, or waiting until they got home to go to the toilet.
25 YEARS AGO
TWO of the people killed in Saturday’s plane crash at Bournemouth International Airport have been named as David Samways, from Poole, and his son Matthew, from Wareham.
The third man who died was the pilot Nabil Rada from Kent. The tragedy occurred when the pink Piper Cherokee they were travelling in came down 400m south of the runway when the engine stalled seconds after take-off.
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THERE is disappointment that the churches and schools had not become involved in the village design statement as was expressed by John Simmons at last week’s parish council meeting.
The statement will play a part in Milford's development in the future.
Mr Simmons reported that they had written to about 30 groups inviting them to a meeting in late October, to which half had said they would attend, although only nine did.
So far, they had the views of at least 300 people, a substantial figure which was about six percent of the parish. Respondents had made it clear they wanted to keep the village green and the shops around it as well as the village atmosphere. They did not want any more modern buildings or flats.
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NEW Milton police station was closed for two hours on Thursday morning after a package which looked like a letter bomb was brought in by a worried member of the public.
The concern, however, was relieved when the Jiffy bag was found to contain nothing more than a Christmas message and some festive baubles.
A woman who works for a local business came to the station as she was anxious about what the package might contain. A scenes-of-crime expert from Southampton arrived and revealed the contents, to the relief of all involved.
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STRONG criticism was made at a meeting of New Forest District Council over a proposal that elderly owner-occupiers of private dwellings who required support in warden flats should sell their homes to the council as a condition of getting the accommodation for which they would have to pay rental.
The council would pay two-thirds of the market value of the homes and the former owner should remain responsible for the cost of repairing them.
Cllr W Symons said: “The thing I don’t like is that the property should be acquired at less than the current market value and then the cost of repair is deducted. It is penalising the individual twice. It is grossly unfair.”
