Plans for additional fire station approved and popularity of swim club booms: Memories from March 1994 and 2010

In our regular On This Week column, we look back through the pages of the Lynn News from March 10 – 16, 2010 as well as a picture from March 1994…Plans for an additional £2 million fire station in Lynn have been given initial approval by Norfolk County Council’s Fire and Community Protection Panel. The new station is earmarked for a site near the A149 Queen Elizabeth Way. But other ideas put forward by panel members in the first draft of a new safety plan have been criticised by the Fire Brigade Union and fire personnel lobbied the meeting held at County Hall in Norwich. The document included a package of proposals to help save the service £1.5 million and boost rural cover, but the FBU claims the proposals will cause 63 job losses and will lead to cuts in vital front-line services and the loss of eight fire appliances.Lynn’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital is urging patients and visitors to “use their common sense” and not bend the rules while wards are closed. Visitors will continue to be banned all weekend as the hospital tries to beat a recent outbreak of the winter vomiting bug norovirus. The building is on lock-down, with security guards on the doors to prevent people from getting onto the wards and security-controlled doors within are locked and accessible only with staff swipe cards. Some patients have been getting round the rules by meeting friends and relatives in the café at the front reception, potentially spreading germs and undermining the bug-busting ban.

Opposition is already mounting against plans for a wind farm at South Creake, with protest groups joining forces. Green energy company Renewable Energy Systems is proposing six 400ft turbines on farmland between Syderstone, Stanhoe, North Creake and South Creake, with the Jacks Lane Wind Farm generating enough clean electricity for more than 8,000 homes. But the local protestors have said: “Destroying our lovely Norfolk countryside for these hideous and inefficient machines is madness.”South West Norfolk MP Christopher Fraser wants to see large shops stopped from trading on Remembrance Sundays because of their distracting effect on people paying their respects in town centres. He was one of 12 sponsors of a Remembrance Sunday (closure of shops) Bill which was debated in the House of Commons. Mr Fraser, who is stepping down at the next General Election, said: “This is a hugely important date in our calendar and holds very special meaning for many people. It should be put on equal footing with other key dates such as Christmas Day and Easter Sunday.”Stadium improvements at the Norfolk Arena, home of the Lynn Stars, are taking shape with the new speedway season on the horizon. Stars promoter and stadium owner, Buster Chapman, hopes that the renovated concrete terracing on the third and fourth bends will be in place. The club also has an architect and engineer drawing up plans for a new bar and function room on the home straight. Bad weather through the winter delayed Chapman’s work at the stadium, but he’s now working flat out on the improvements.Motorists caught using the narrow Littleport Terrace, off Gaywood Road in Lynn, as an illegal rat-run have been handed on-the-spot fines during police checks. During a 45-minute roadside check on a recent Saturday, officers handed out fines to five non-residents caught driving down the street. Police have warned that those breaking the rules to access to Eastgate Primary School and Morrisons supermarket risk a £30 fine.Proposals for a new Islamic Centre on Lynn’s Austin Fields industrial estate have been thrown out because of “lack of parking space”. The West Norfolk Islamic Association wanted to transform two business units, next to Autoglass, into a new social, educational and religious facility for some 80 Islamic families, which would be open seven days a week from 8am to 10pm. Planning officers had recommended that the application be refused because of lack of parking spaces, although the Association claimed those visiting could easily walk to the building or pay to park in Austin Fields.Yours South Lynn’s community car is proving a big hit with residents since being donated by property developers Morston Assets at the start of the year. Residents pay 30p for each mile they use the 2008 Volkswagen Polo Blue Motion – and without the added expense of tax, insurance and MOT it’s no surprise that it has become such a popular community asset. Because of the success of the scheme, the property developer is now looking to get another car for Yours South Lynn and its residents.