Meet scooter club members from June 1981

Nostalgia round-up, Tuesday, June 27:

Meet members of the North Star Scooter Club in Lynn, pictured in June 1981.

The local scooter fans, all aged between 17 and 21, had joined together in April that year and it was soon going from strength to strength. So called because club members met every week at the North Star pub, members also held regular discos and spent almost every weekend on the road, heading for traditional Mod haunts such as Scarborough and Skegness on their Vespas or Lambrettas. Photo: MLNF-WC6963

• On this week: June 25–July 1, 2006

Patients are set to benefit from shorter stays at Lynn’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital, thanks to a donation of more than £69,000 from its League of Friends. A bumper £60,000 of the cash for new keyhole surgery equipment was left to the Friends in a legacy from a mystery Swaffham woman, in one of the largest sums ever left to the QEH in a will. It brings the total donated to the hospital this year to almost £100,000, leaving it on track to match last year’s record-breaking amount of around £200,000.

Frozen vegetable firm Pinguin has taken over the cold storage site formerly occupied by Lynn’s Celsius First. The move was announced just days ahead of the pea harvest and also sees some staff move over from Celsius which had the Scania Way site neighbouring Pinguin. Celsius was in administration earlier this year and some of the business including a depot at Wisbech was sold as a going concern. Closureof the Lynn site was announced in April with the loss of around 150 jobs.

Swaffham Town Council has won its bid for a music and dancing licence for the town’s Recreation Ground, despite residents’ concerns about late-night drunken binges. Breckland Council’s licensing sub-committee has agreed to grant the licence subject to certain conditions. Under new laws the town council needs a licence to have live bands, recorded music and dances at the site as well as established events such as fun days, classic car shows and circuses.

Domino’s Pizza is planning to return to Lynn – and could create up to 30 new jobs in the process. The company is currently looking for a suitable site to open a new store, one of 50 it is planning to open around the country in the near future. There had previously been a Domino’s Pizza at Zoots nightclub in North Lynn, but the location “was not right” and it didn’t remain open.

Controversial plans for a new 600-place church secondary school in Downham suffered a setback after education chiefs this week failed to reach an agreement. The Ely Diocese and Methodist Church, which has received more than £14 million Government funding for the school, was keeping its fingers crossed when its plans went before Norfolk’s School Organisation Committee for a final decision. But the committee did not reach a consensus which means the Government’s schools adjudicator will now have to make the verdict which could take at least six weeks.

World Cup fever is reaching new heights across West Norfolk, with some fans needing urgent medical treatment delaying going to the hospital’s Accident and Emergency department so they can watch the football.

It seems footie fanatics can grin and bear the pain of fractures, sprains and even the famous broken metatarsals in a desperate bid to watch their sporting heroes on television. Staff at Lynn’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital A&E department have seen surges in patients before and after games, and are gearing up for more of the same for England’s quarter-final clash against Portugal.

Prince Edward met some West Norfolk champions when he went walkabout on the first day of the Royal Norfolk Show. He spent the first part of his marathon five-hour tour of the showground talking to exhibitors and judges in the livestock area. It brought him face to face with the Aberdeen Angus bull Grimston Fen Peter, which won the male championship and the reserve breed championship for Trevor and Kate Stebbings of Grimston.

Fakenham Town Band is to celebrate its 150th anniversary with an evening of everything from classical to big band music in a concert at the parish church. The event is in aid of a £15,000 appeal to restore the church organ, work on which is due to start in October.

West Norfolk planners look set to refuse a second bid to build 20 homes at the site of a carrot factory at Wormegay. Although the plan is supported by the parish council, it is thought the proposal for the development at Manor Farm would conflict with planning policies and that the homes would be unsustainable in a village with extremely limited facilities and services.