From our Files: 960 homes thrown out...coins mystery...local bobby assurance
50 YEARS AGO
THE application by Hoburne Development Co. Ltd. For planning permission for the erection of 960 dwellings on 100 acres at Hoburne Farm, Highcliffe, was refused by Dorset County Council’s Development Control Committee at their meeting.
As previously reported in the A&T nearly 700 of the dwellings were to be low priced properties which could be extended as families grew.
Grounds for refusal were that the site which is bound by the A35, A337 and Hoburne Lane was outside the area allocated for residential use in the approved town map, green belt and white belt land reasons and an application by the Ministry of Agriculture to the loss of good agricultural land.
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THERE is a possibility that the coin collection found in a garden shed and sold at Sotheby’s on Tuesday for £236,761 may have been part of the estate of the late R.W.Whitehead of Wooton.
It is understood that a consignment of something in the area had been sent to Sotheby’s this week but secrecy has been maintained as to where the coins come from or the identity of the seller.
The collection comprised over 300 English and Continental coins and medals and were found by a man in a garden shed of a house he had inherited from an elderly relative.
The seller went on a treasure hunt after he had found about 20 coins in a drawer and Sothbey’s told him that they were probably part of an important collection.
The coins fetched more than five times their pre-sale estimate.
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A REPORT from the Chief Constable of Hants Sir Douglas Osmond, states that crime has increased by 20 per cent in the county and that the rate of men leaving the force was also becoming greater.
He said that 91 experienced men had left the force in the past year and 77 new recruits taken on.
A continuation of this state of affairs would result in serious trouble. “In all my years in the force, I can’t remember such a steep increase in crime,” said the Chief Constable.
Because of the increase, he added, large numbers of men had to be taken off the beat which resulted in increased violence on the streets.
“The whole thing becomes a vicious circle,” he added.
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SPENDING a penny cost a sailor £10. He was seen by a policeman urinating in the street in Hythe.
When asked what he was doing the 17-year-old said: “What does it look like?”
He was fined £10 by Hythe magistrates after being found guilty of committing an indecent act in a public place.
25 YEARS AGO
New Milton junior has been organising this year’s school fete and as part of it the children have been designing a national Millennium costume.
Winning design was drawn by 8-year-old Hayley Bolter. It will now be made by a local theatrical costumier and paraded at the fete.
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A RESIDENT on an open plan estate at Hordle who have been made to put in for planning permission for a 19-year-old hedge has accused New Forest planners of being heavy handed.
Ian Hunt told Hordle parish council that he was angry as the hedge of his home in Larch Close had been established when he bought it.
“Haven’t they got anything better to do, its pettiness gone mad!” he fumed.
Mr Hunt, who has also been made to seek permission for a shed, said that had been in his garden for 14 years.
He said NFDC staff had been “unhelpful” adding: “I had to drag it out of them.”
Mr Hunt said he did not know that a condition in the original planning permission for the estate 35 years ago removed the right to erect walls, fences and hedges.
The parish council said another resident had also had to submit an application for a hedge. Parish clerk Mrs Sally Case said the applications arose after an enforcement officer was called to the estate.
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VILLAGES in the New Forest are not to lose their local bobby and police beat house offices are not to be closed of the properties sold. Hampshire’s Assistant Chief Constable Ian Readhead has assured.
Although some forces had abandoned it, Hampshire he said had a strong commitment to retain the traditional values of “coppering” in rural communities. The intention was to build on what was already a good service.
The New Forest’s police chief Supt. David Ball said he was “sick and tired” of misinformed rumour and gossip over the future of village bobbies. “Inaccurate gossip” and “alarmist” propaganda he said was creating a lot of unnecessary disquiet.
He said he had to reassure one distraught policeman’s wife that their house was “not being evicted and their house sold under them.”
But he said times had changed and officers were now more “conscious” of time spent on duty and time off duty when they did want to be “disturbed.”
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THE long established New Milton pet food and garden business in Station Porter and Clark will be closing down due to the owner not wanting to renew the lease. Proprietor Brian Cowley told the A&T: “The main reason I’m not renewing the lease is not because it is bad, but because I want to take semi-retirement.”
“I would like to see it kept going but I want to do something completely different and find a new venture.”
He admitted: “Customers are disappointed because it’s part of New Milton and its history. It provides a very good service.”
