On this week: February 15-21, 1982

In our regular On This Week feature we look back to what was making the news 43 years ago…Hundreds of people from West Norfolk who thought they had won £35,000 in a national newspaper’s bingo competition jammed the Lynn telephone exchange. They were among thousands of people across the country who found they had the final winning number in the Daily Mail’s Casino competition. Nationally, thousands dialled the Mail’s special London number and caused chaos on the nation’s phones as they tried to claim their prize. Here at Lynn, a British Telecom spokesman said: “Operators have been swamped by calls for help from people unable to get through.” The Daily Mail later told readers it was pure chance that meant there were so many people waiting for the same few numbers to complete their cards.Bottle banks could soon become a familiar feature in Lynn’s town centre if West Norfolk Council’s environmental services committee agree on a scheme to collect old bottles in the town and on a reduced scale in Downham and Hunstanton. The concept of bottle banks – rubbish skips partitioned for clear and coloured glass – has been widely accepted around the country and now Norfolk County Council has given the borough council the go-ahead to establish its own scheme.

Deprived viewers may face a surprise solution to the problems in receiving Anglia Television programmes in West Norfolk – a shock return to Yorkshire TV coverage. This could be the only way in which viewers will be able to receive news and views from the Lynn area following the disappointing performance of new transmitters. It will be a bitter pill to swallow for the thousands of people who campaigned for more than a decade to bring relay stations to the area so they could see Anglia programmes, instead of Yorkshire, on their screens.Doctors are looking for a site for a new surgery at Dersingham. The present surgery has just one consulting room and is “totally inadequate” for the three doctors and a nursing sister to treat patients. An increase in the number of people using Dersingham’s present surgery and the cramped conditions have contributed to the need for a larger building. Norfolk Family Practitioner Committee has approved the plan to find a site for a new surgery replacing the existing bungalow in Bank Road.Sixty volunteers are working on a do-it-yourself scheme to transform Lynn Baptist Church, and they aim to literally “turn-round” the Union Chapel which is at the junction of Wisbech Road and Saddlebow Road. The pulpit will be placed at the opposite end of the building, the main entrance will be moved and a “baptistry” (immersion pool) is being dug in the floor. If carried out by contractors it is estimated the whole project would have cost £25,000, but it is hoped the church members can do most of the work themselves under professional guidance. Terrington St Clement bus owner Mr George Dack has been told he must move his operating centre out of the village. The result of a two-day planning inquiry was published this week, with Mr Dack being given up to six months to get his coaches off the site at Emorsgate. Mr Dack had said if he could not keep his base in the village his local service, including the school runs, would have to be discontinued. But the inquiry inspector suggested that the coaches could just as easily be based at Mr Dack’s other site at Saddlebow Road, Lynn.A cable railway suspended 30ft above Hunstanton’s seafront has been suggested as a way of improving the town’s image as a resort. The town’s Chamber of Trade put forward the idea at its latest meeting when members discussed West Norfolk Council’s town plan. Concern was voiced over traffic proposals for the town, but the idea of pedestrianising the seafront area by closing off parts of the access roads was welcomed.An important otter breeding ground in West Norfolk has been destroyed by an internal drainage board’s drain widening work, according to the Norfolk Naturalists Trust, which claims the board removed all the cover of shrub undergrowth vital for cubbing. But the Stringside Internal Drainage Board says it faced a choice between saving otters or saving human lives, as the drain had become so clogged where it ran beside the Fincham to Boughton road that the water was level with the road. At night it was often impossible to tell the road surface from the water and it was feared a car might accidentally plunge into the drain.