FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (5th - 11th OCTOBER 1970)
This week's stories include claims that the town had been conned over the pollution in Sutton, the strange case of the Church Street safe dumped at Eccleston Mere, councillors argue over the proposed sale of council homes and a campaign for the creation of ladies only rooms within St Helens pubs.
We start on the 5th when thirty-three council sewage workers went on strike demanding a pay rise of 55 shillings a week. At the Parr works a 14-man skeleton crew worked round the clock to prevent raw sewage being pumped into the Sankey Brook.
Manweb issued their annual report this week, which showed a 5% increase in electricity consumption within the St Helens district over the previous year. Of course, electrical appliances – such as washing machines, refrigerators and radiators – could be bought from a wide range of retailers. However a yearly comparison of sales from Manweb's Bridge Street store gives us an impression of the increasing popularity of such goods, and during the year 1969 - 70 there'd been a 48% rise.
St Helens Town Council's monthly meeting on the 7th was dominated by a heated 90-minute discussion on whether council house tenants should be allowed to buy their homes. It was stated at the meeting that 250 towns in the country already had such a policy, with Tory leader Jim Hand very much in favour, saying: "An Englishman's home is his castle. If this council supported the Government's policy to sell council houses to long-standing tenants, this could be our finest hour."
However the Labour members of the council argued that the Corporation's 12,000 council homes were needed to rehouse those made homeless through the slum clearance programme. Cllr. John Potter said: "There are 8,333 families living in sub-standard houses in this town. It would be immoral to sell our houses when these people are living in squalor." After a long discussion the plan to put the council houses up for sale was rejected.
A special meeting of the council was held on the 8th to pay tribute to Alderman Joseph Murphy (pictured above with wife Bett), who had died in St Helens Hospital at the age of 67. Joe had been the Labour representative for East Sutton for 23 years and an alderman since 1966 and he served as Mayor of the town in 1960 - 61.
Also on that day union leaders met to plan an extension of the sewage workers strike with dustmen, caretakers, school cooks and gardeners expected to take part in a series of one-day strikes from next week.
Last week Valerie Belshaw had launched a campaign in the St Helens Reporter for the creation of "ladies only" rooms in pubs for the benefit of what she described as "housebound women". This week the journalist described receiving an "avalanche of support", with Pam Whitmore of Hamer Street writing: "What a wonderful idea of yours! It's a wish that I've had for a very long, long time. To be able to go for a drink on one's own, without feeling like a fallen woman, a sanctuary where a woman could go and find company would be marvellous."
Ann Westworth of Arncliffe Drive in Burtonwood, a mother of three, said she missed the social life that she used to have before starting a family: "I feel so housebound now. I have lived a life without any social activity for the past four years. I thoroughly agree that a woman's drinking room would be a marvellous idea for many women in circumstances like myself. I, and many of my friends enjoy a game of darts and dominoes as much as any man – but to go to the local and try and take part would usually be frowned upon by men."
Elsie Hill of Goodban Street in Sutton Oak said she felt "bashful" going into a pub on her own. "If there was a ladies room in my local I would often go in", said Elsie. "As it is now, if I go into a pub, even with friends, and see a lot of men there I just walk out."
On the front page of the Reporter under the headline "Action Not Hot Air" the editor wrote this damning appraisal of the Sutton pollution predicament involving Leather’s (pictured above) and Sidac: "St. Helens has been “conned”. The word was hurled about in a heated debate about pollution in Sutton at the Town Council meeting on Wednesday night. And it fits. The whole sorry story involves British Sidac Ltd., Leather's Chemical Co., and the Corporation. None of them emerge with much credit.
"It is now a part of history – the facts are not challenged – that Sidac pollute the atmosphere and Sutton Brook; that Leathers have massively polluted the atmosphere on two particularly memorable occasions; and that the Corporation have huffed and puffed in vain to prevent all this. Some of the less obvious facts emerged on Wednesday evening. They would be amusing if they were not so serious.
"LAUGH No. 1: The initial idea of installing a sulphuric acid manufacturing plant was partly to cut Sidac's atmospheric pollution.
LAUGH No. 2: The use of Sidac's by-products as a raw material in acid manufacture would clean up the effluent discharged into Sutton Brook.
LAUGH No. 3: Monitors would safeguard local residents. What has actually happened?
"FACT No. 1: The atmosphere is still polluted. FACT No. 2: Sutton Brook is still polluted. FACT No. 3: There is no safeguard for local residents. A monitor which shows that too much pollution is occurring is rather like announcing that a hydrogen bomb is about to fall. Even if you know a few minutes in advance, what are you going to do about it? There's even less point in announcing it afterwards. A call to close both plants if they cannot put their house in order was branded “irresponsible twaddle.” It is no more irresponsible than endangering the health of local residents.
"They are ratepayers, they are voters, they are human beings. Surely it is not beyond the wit of the Corporation to devise some legal means of hitting both firms where it hurts – in the pocket. An injunction restraining them from further pollution – with a fine of £100 a day for failure – might see some rapid action to solve the “technical difficulties” which prevent implementation of the anti-pollution measures the Planning and Development committee believed to be imperative when they granted permission for this development."
The Reporter also revealed that thieves had stolen a safe containing £1,000 from a St Helens insurance broker's office. The police believed that the gang had posed as customers and hid in the offices of Dadge Insurance Brokers in Church Street until the staff went home. They then took the safe to waste land at Eccleston Mere where they forced it open but bizarrely left £430 in cash behind. Detectives said they were working on the theory that the thieves missed the rest of the money because of the darkness or they had been disturbed and decided to flee. When the police first found the safe they left it under observation in the field hoping the raiders would return for the rest of their loot but to no avail.
The Reporter also stated that new teenage recruits at the Coal Board's Old Boston training centre in Haydock were being made to wear hairnets. That was if the lad's hair at the front was below eye level or deemed to have been long at the back. 17-year-old apprentice electrician John Berry of Edward Street in Haydock told the Reporter: "I do not like the hair net, but I don't want to get my hair cut. Mind you, I would rather wear the net than lose my head in an accident with a lathe."
A second campaign by residents of Sutton Heath was detailed in the paper. Last year the Reporter had written about locals in Hempstead Close and Peterlee Close being up in arms about teenage hooligans. They were accused of making noise on nearby play areas at all times of the night and so council workmen removed the swings and slide. However the noisy teenagers and drunks were still using the field and it had become a popular place for dumping rubbish. Margaret Morrisey told the paper:
"We were told that the area would have trees planted in it, but it's just been left. I wouldn't mind, but look at the mess – and the noise is sometimes terrible." The council response was not very sympathetic, with George James, the St Helens Engineer and Surveyor, saying: "If the place has been turned into a rubbish dump it must be the people living round there that have done it. We have the same problem throughout the town."
On the 11th St Nicholas Church in Sutton celebrated its 121st anniversary with a special festival service featuring the Bishop of Liverpool, the Right Reverend Stuart Blanch. As well as marking the anniversary, the service consecrated the new choir vestry and gave thanks for the restoration and re-decoration of the church. The Vicar of Sutton, the Rev. Paul Conder, explained that the restoration work had been undertaken by the National Coal Board to repair subsidence damage.
However the opportunity has also been taken to rewire the church, install a new lighting system, repair masonry, re-floor the nave and vestries, redecorate and improve the heating. Rev. Conder said: "My hope now is that St. Nicholas will be well used, and that we can look forward to another 121 years as a house of prayer for all nations, and a source of blessing to untold numbers."
Next week's stories will include the plague of giant rats in Silkstone Street, the revolutionary Rainford bus fare scheme, the Moss Bank tunnel road, the Eccleston women wanting ladies-only bars and the Pilkington protest march against job losses.
We start on the 5th when thirty-three council sewage workers went on strike demanding a pay rise of 55 shillings a week. At the Parr works a 14-man skeleton crew worked round the clock to prevent raw sewage being pumped into the Sankey Brook.
Manweb issued their annual report this week, which showed a 5% increase in electricity consumption within the St Helens district over the previous year. Of course, electrical appliances – such as washing machines, refrigerators and radiators – could be bought from a wide range of retailers. However a yearly comparison of sales from Manweb's Bridge Street store gives us an impression of the increasing popularity of such goods, and during the year 1969 - 70 there'd been a 48% rise.
St Helens Town Council's monthly meeting on the 7th was dominated by a heated 90-minute discussion on whether council house tenants should be allowed to buy their homes. It was stated at the meeting that 250 towns in the country already had such a policy, with Tory leader Jim Hand very much in favour, saying: "An Englishman's home is his castle. If this council supported the Government's policy to sell council houses to long-standing tenants, this could be our finest hour."
However the Labour members of the council argued that the Corporation's 12,000 council homes were needed to rehouse those made homeless through the slum clearance programme. Cllr. John Potter said: "There are 8,333 families living in sub-standard houses in this town. It would be immoral to sell our houses when these people are living in squalor." After a long discussion the plan to put the council houses up for sale was rejected.
Also on that day union leaders met to plan an extension of the sewage workers strike with dustmen, caretakers, school cooks and gardeners expected to take part in a series of one-day strikes from next week.
Last week Valerie Belshaw had launched a campaign in the St Helens Reporter for the creation of "ladies only" rooms in pubs for the benefit of what she described as "housebound women". This week the journalist described receiving an "avalanche of support", with Pam Whitmore of Hamer Street writing: "What a wonderful idea of yours! It's a wish that I've had for a very long, long time. To be able to go for a drink on one's own, without feeling like a fallen woman, a sanctuary where a woman could go and find company would be marvellous."
Ann Westworth of Arncliffe Drive in Burtonwood, a mother of three, said she missed the social life that she used to have before starting a family: "I feel so housebound now. I have lived a life without any social activity for the past four years. I thoroughly agree that a woman's drinking room would be a marvellous idea for many women in circumstances like myself. I, and many of my friends enjoy a game of darts and dominoes as much as any man – but to go to the local and try and take part would usually be frowned upon by men."
Elsie Hill of Goodban Street in Sutton Oak said she felt "bashful" going into a pub on her own. "If there was a ladies room in my local I would often go in", said Elsie. "As it is now, if I go into a pub, even with friends, and see a lot of men there I just walk out."
"It is now a part of history – the facts are not challenged – that Sidac pollute the atmosphere and Sutton Brook; that Leathers have massively polluted the atmosphere on two particularly memorable occasions; and that the Corporation have huffed and puffed in vain to prevent all this. Some of the less obvious facts emerged on Wednesday evening. They would be amusing if they were not so serious.
"LAUGH No. 1: The initial idea of installing a sulphuric acid manufacturing plant was partly to cut Sidac's atmospheric pollution.
LAUGH No. 2: The use of Sidac's by-products as a raw material in acid manufacture would clean up the effluent discharged into Sutton Brook.
LAUGH No. 3: Monitors would safeguard local residents. What has actually happened?
"FACT No. 1: The atmosphere is still polluted. FACT No. 2: Sutton Brook is still polluted. FACT No. 3: There is no safeguard for local residents. A monitor which shows that too much pollution is occurring is rather like announcing that a hydrogen bomb is about to fall. Even if you know a few minutes in advance, what are you going to do about it? There's even less point in announcing it afterwards. A call to close both plants if they cannot put their house in order was branded “irresponsible twaddle.” It is no more irresponsible than endangering the health of local residents.
"They are ratepayers, they are voters, they are human beings. Surely it is not beyond the wit of the Corporation to devise some legal means of hitting both firms where it hurts – in the pocket. An injunction restraining them from further pollution – with a fine of £100 a day for failure – might see some rapid action to solve the “technical difficulties” which prevent implementation of the anti-pollution measures the Planning and Development committee believed to be imperative when they granted permission for this development."
The Reporter also revealed that thieves had stolen a safe containing £1,000 from a St Helens insurance broker's office. The police believed that the gang had posed as customers and hid in the offices of Dadge Insurance Brokers in Church Street until the staff went home. They then took the safe to waste land at Eccleston Mere where they forced it open but bizarrely left £430 in cash behind. Detectives said they were working on the theory that the thieves missed the rest of the money because of the darkness or they had been disturbed and decided to flee. When the police first found the safe they left it under observation in the field hoping the raiders would return for the rest of their loot but to no avail.
The Reporter also stated that new teenage recruits at the Coal Board's Old Boston training centre in Haydock were being made to wear hairnets. That was if the lad's hair at the front was below eye level or deemed to have been long at the back. 17-year-old apprentice electrician John Berry of Edward Street in Haydock told the Reporter: "I do not like the hair net, but I don't want to get my hair cut. Mind you, I would rather wear the net than lose my head in an accident with a lathe."
A second campaign by residents of Sutton Heath was detailed in the paper. Last year the Reporter had written about locals in Hempstead Close and Peterlee Close being up in arms about teenage hooligans. They were accused of making noise on nearby play areas at all times of the night and so council workmen removed the swings and slide. However the noisy teenagers and drunks were still using the field and it had become a popular place for dumping rubbish. Margaret Morrisey told the paper:
"We were told that the area would have trees planted in it, but it's just been left. I wouldn't mind, but look at the mess – and the noise is sometimes terrible." The council response was not very sympathetic, with George James, the St Helens Engineer and Surveyor, saying: "If the place has been turned into a rubbish dump it must be the people living round there that have done it. We have the same problem throughout the town."
On the 11th St Nicholas Church in Sutton celebrated its 121st anniversary with a special festival service featuring the Bishop of Liverpool, the Right Reverend Stuart Blanch. As well as marking the anniversary, the service consecrated the new choir vestry and gave thanks for the restoration and re-decoration of the church. The Vicar of Sutton, the Rev. Paul Conder, explained that the restoration work had been undertaken by the National Coal Board to repair subsidence damage.
However the opportunity has also been taken to rewire the church, install a new lighting system, repair masonry, re-floor the nave and vestries, redecorate and improve the heating. Rev. Conder said: "My hope now is that St. Nicholas will be well used, and that we can look forward to another 121 years as a house of prayer for all nations, and a source of blessing to untold numbers."
Next week's stories will include the plague of giant rats in Silkstone Street, the revolutionary Rainford bus fare scheme, the Moss Bank tunnel road, the Eccleston women wanting ladies-only bars and the Pilkington protest march against job losses.
This week's stories include claims that the town had been conned over the pollution in Sutton, the strange case of the Church Street safe dumped at Eccleston Mere, councillors argue over the proposed sale of council homes and a campaign for the creation of ladies only rooms within St Helens pubs.
We start on the 5th when thirty-three council sewage workers went on strike demanding a pay rise of 55 shillings a week.
At the Parr works a 14-man skeleton crew worked round the clock to prevent raw sewage being pumped into the Sankey Brook.
Manweb issued their annual report this week, which showed a 5% increase in electricity consumption within the St Helens district over the previous year.
Of course, electrical appliances – such as washing machines, refrigerators and radiators – could be bought from a wide range of retailers.
However a yearly comparison of sales from Manweb's Bridge Street store gives us an impression of the increasing popularity of such goods, and during the year 1969 - 70 there'd been a 48% rise.
St Helens Town Council's monthly meeting on the 7th was dominated by a heated 90-minute discussion on whether council house tenants should be allowed to buy their homes.
It was stated at the meeting that 250 towns in the country already had such a policy, with Tory leader Jim Hand very much in favour, saying:
"An Englishman's home is his castle. If this council supported the Government's policy to sell council houses to long-standing tenants, this could be our finest hour."
However the Labour members of the council argued that the Corporation's 12,000 council homes were needed to rehouse those made homeless through the slum clearance programme. Cllr. John Potter said:
"There are 8,333 families living in sub-standard houses in this town. It would be immoral to sell our houses when these people are living in squalor."
After a long discussion the plan to put the council houses up for sale was rejected.
A special meeting of the council was held on the 8th to pay tribute to Alderman Joseph Murphy (pictured above with wife Bett), who had died in St Helens Hospital at the age of 67.
Joe had been the Labour representative for East Sutton for 23 years and an alderman since 1966 and he served as Mayor of the town in 1960 - 61.
Also on that day union leaders met to plan an extension of the sewage workers strike with dustmen, caretakers, school cooks and gardeners expected to take part in a series of one-day strikes from next week.
Last week Valerie Belshaw had launched a campaign in the St Helens Reporter for the creation of "ladies only" rooms in pubs for the benefit of what she described as "housebound women".
This week the journalist described receiving an "avalanche of support", with Pam Whitmore of Hamer Street writing:
"What a wonderful idea of yours! It's a wish that I've had for a very long, long time. To be able to go for a drink on one's own, without feeling like a fallen woman, a sanctuary where a woman could go and find company would be marvellous."
Ann Westworth of Arncliffe Drive in Burtonwood, a mother of three, said she missed the social life that she used to have before starting a family:
"I feel so housebound now. I have lived a life without any social activity for the past four years. I thoroughly agree that a woman's drinking room would be a marvellous idea for many women in circumstances like myself.
"I, and many of my friends enjoy a game of darts and dominoes as much as any man – but to go to the local and try and take part would usually be frowned upon by men."
Elsie Hill of Goodban Street in Sutton Oak said she felt "bashful" going into a pub on her own. "If there was a ladies room in my local I would often go in", said Elsie.
"As it is now, if I go into a pub, even with friends, and see a lot of men there I just walk out."
On the front page of the Reporter under the headline "Action Not Hot Air" the editor wrote this damning appraisal of the Sutton pollution predicament involving Leather’s (pictured above) and Sidac:
"St. Helens has been “conned”. The word was hurled about in a heated debate about pollution in Sutton at the Town Council meeting on Wednesday night. And it fits. The whole sorry story involves British Sidac Ltd., Leather's Chemical Co., and the Corporation. None of them emerge with much credit.
"It is now a part of history – the facts are not challenged – that Sidac pollute the atmosphere and Sutton Brook; that Leathers have massively polluted the atmosphere on two particularly memorable occasions; and that the Corporation have huffed and puffed in vain to prevent all this.
"Some of the less obvious facts emerged on Wednesday evening. They would be amusing if they were not so serious.
"LAUGH No. 1: The initial idea of installing a sulphuric acid manufacturing plant was partly to cut Sidac's atmospheric pollution.
"LAUGH No. 2: The use of Sidac's by-products as a raw material in acid manufacture would clean up the effluent discharged into Sutton Brook.
"LAUGH No. 3: Monitors would safeguard local residents. What has actually happened?
"FACT No. 1: The atmosphere is still polluted. FACT No. 2: Sutton Brook is still polluted. FACT No. 3: There is no safeguard for local residents.
"A monitor which shows that too much pollution is occurring is rather like announcing that a hydrogen bomb is about to fall. Even if you know a few minutes in advance, what are you going to do about it?
"There's even less point in announcing it afterwards. A call to close both plants if they cannot put their house in order was branded “irresponsible twaddle.” It is no more irresponsible than endangering the health of local residents.
"They are ratepayers, they are voters, they are human beings. Surely it is not beyond the wit of the Corporation to devise some legal means of hitting both firms where it hurts – in the pocket.
"An injunction restraining them from further pollution – with a fine of £100 a day for failure – might see some rapid action to solve the “technical difficulties” which prevent implementation of the anti-pollution measures the Planning and Development committee believed to be imperative when they granted permission for this development."
The Reporter also revealed that thieves had stolen a safe containing £1,000 from a St Helens insurance broker's office.
The police believed that the gang had posed as customers and hid in the offices of Dadge Insurance Brokers in Church Street until the staff went home.
They then took the safe to waste land at Eccleston Mere where they forced it open but bizarrely left £430 in cash behind.
Detectives said they were working on the theory that the thieves missed the rest of the money because of the darkness or they had been disturbed and decided to flee.
When the police first found the safe they left it under observation in the field hoping the raiders would return for the rest of their loot but to no avail.
The Reporter also stated that new teenage recruits at the Coal Board's Old Boston training centre in Haydock were being made to wear hairnets.
That was if the lad's hair at the front was below eye level or deemed to have been long at the back.
17-year-old apprentice electrician John Berry of Edward Street in Haydock told the Reporter:
"I do not like the hair net, but I don't want to get my hair cut. Mind you, I would rather wear the net than lose my head in an accident with a lathe."
A second campaign by residents of Sutton Heath was detailed in the paper. Last year the Reporter had written about locals in Hempstead Close and Peterlee Close being up in arms about teenage hooligans.
They were accused of making noise on nearby play areas at all times of the night and so council workmen removed the swings and slide.
However the noisy teenagers and drunks were still using the field and it had become a popular place for dumping rubbish. Margaret Morrisey told the paper:
"We were told that the area would have trees planted in it, but it's just been left. I wouldn't mind, but look at the mess – and the noise is sometimes terrible."
The council response was not very sympathetic, with George James, the St Helens Engineer and Surveyor, saying:
"If the place has been turned into a rubbish dump it must be the people living round there that have done it. We have the same problem throughout the town."
On the 11th St Nicholas Church in Sutton celebrated its 121st anniversary with a special festival service featuring the Bishop of Liverpool, the Right Reverend Stuart Blanch.
As well as marking the anniversary, the service consecrated the new choir vestry and gave thanks for the restoration and re-decoration of the church.
The Vicar of Sutton, the Rev. Paul Conder, explained that the restoration work had been undertaken by the National Coal Board to repair subsidence damage.
However the opportunity has also been taken to rewire the church, install a new lighting system, repair masonry, re-floor the nave and vestries, redecorate and improve the heating. Rev. Conder said:
"My hope now is that St. Nicholas will be well used, and that we can look forward to another 121 years as a house of prayer for all nations, and a source of blessing to untold numbers."
Next week's stories will include the plague of giant rats in Silkstone Street, the revolutionary Rainford bus fare scheme, the Moss Bank tunnel road, the Eccleston women wanting ladies-only bars and the Pilkington protest march against job losses.
We start on the 5th when thirty-three council sewage workers went on strike demanding a pay rise of 55 shillings a week.
At the Parr works a 14-man skeleton crew worked round the clock to prevent raw sewage being pumped into the Sankey Brook.
Manweb issued their annual report this week, which showed a 5% increase in electricity consumption within the St Helens district over the previous year.
Of course, electrical appliances – such as washing machines, refrigerators and radiators – could be bought from a wide range of retailers.
However a yearly comparison of sales from Manweb's Bridge Street store gives us an impression of the increasing popularity of such goods, and during the year 1969 - 70 there'd been a 48% rise.
St Helens Town Council's monthly meeting on the 7th was dominated by a heated 90-minute discussion on whether council house tenants should be allowed to buy their homes.
It was stated at the meeting that 250 towns in the country already had such a policy, with Tory leader Jim Hand very much in favour, saying:
"An Englishman's home is his castle. If this council supported the Government's policy to sell council houses to long-standing tenants, this could be our finest hour."
However the Labour members of the council argued that the Corporation's 12,000 council homes were needed to rehouse those made homeless through the slum clearance programme. Cllr. John Potter said:
"There are 8,333 families living in sub-standard houses in this town. It would be immoral to sell our houses when these people are living in squalor."
After a long discussion the plan to put the council houses up for sale was rejected.
Joe had been the Labour representative for East Sutton for 23 years and an alderman since 1966 and he served as Mayor of the town in 1960 - 61.
Also on that day union leaders met to plan an extension of the sewage workers strike with dustmen, caretakers, school cooks and gardeners expected to take part in a series of one-day strikes from next week.
Last week Valerie Belshaw had launched a campaign in the St Helens Reporter for the creation of "ladies only" rooms in pubs for the benefit of what she described as "housebound women".
This week the journalist described receiving an "avalanche of support", with Pam Whitmore of Hamer Street writing:
"What a wonderful idea of yours! It's a wish that I've had for a very long, long time. To be able to go for a drink on one's own, without feeling like a fallen woman, a sanctuary where a woman could go and find company would be marvellous."
Ann Westworth of Arncliffe Drive in Burtonwood, a mother of three, said she missed the social life that she used to have before starting a family:
"I feel so housebound now. I have lived a life without any social activity for the past four years. I thoroughly agree that a woman's drinking room would be a marvellous idea for many women in circumstances like myself.
"I, and many of my friends enjoy a game of darts and dominoes as much as any man – but to go to the local and try and take part would usually be frowned upon by men."
Elsie Hill of Goodban Street in Sutton Oak said she felt "bashful" going into a pub on her own. "If there was a ladies room in my local I would often go in", said Elsie.
"As it is now, if I go into a pub, even with friends, and see a lot of men there I just walk out."
"St. Helens has been “conned”. The word was hurled about in a heated debate about pollution in Sutton at the Town Council meeting on Wednesday night. And it fits. The whole sorry story involves British Sidac Ltd., Leather's Chemical Co., and the Corporation. None of them emerge with much credit.
"It is now a part of history – the facts are not challenged – that Sidac pollute the atmosphere and Sutton Brook; that Leathers have massively polluted the atmosphere on two particularly memorable occasions; and that the Corporation have huffed and puffed in vain to prevent all this.
"Some of the less obvious facts emerged on Wednesday evening. They would be amusing if they were not so serious.
"LAUGH No. 1: The initial idea of installing a sulphuric acid manufacturing plant was partly to cut Sidac's atmospheric pollution.
"LAUGH No. 2: The use of Sidac's by-products as a raw material in acid manufacture would clean up the effluent discharged into Sutton Brook.
"LAUGH No. 3: Monitors would safeguard local residents. What has actually happened?
"FACT No. 1: The atmosphere is still polluted. FACT No. 2: Sutton Brook is still polluted. FACT No. 3: There is no safeguard for local residents.
"A monitor which shows that too much pollution is occurring is rather like announcing that a hydrogen bomb is about to fall. Even if you know a few minutes in advance, what are you going to do about it?
"There's even less point in announcing it afterwards. A call to close both plants if they cannot put their house in order was branded “irresponsible twaddle.” It is no more irresponsible than endangering the health of local residents.
"They are ratepayers, they are voters, they are human beings. Surely it is not beyond the wit of the Corporation to devise some legal means of hitting both firms where it hurts – in the pocket.
"An injunction restraining them from further pollution – with a fine of £100 a day for failure – might see some rapid action to solve the “technical difficulties” which prevent implementation of the anti-pollution measures the Planning and Development committee believed to be imperative when they granted permission for this development."
The Reporter also revealed that thieves had stolen a safe containing £1,000 from a St Helens insurance broker's office.
The police believed that the gang had posed as customers and hid in the offices of Dadge Insurance Brokers in Church Street until the staff went home.
They then took the safe to waste land at Eccleston Mere where they forced it open but bizarrely left £430 in cash behind.
Detectives said they were working on the theory that the thieves missed the rest of the money because of the darkness or they had been disturbed and decided to flee.
When the police first found the safe they left it under observation in the field hoping the raiders would return for the rest of their loot but to no avail.
The Reporter also stated that new teenage recruits at the Coal Board's Old Boston training centre in Haydock were being made to wear hairnets.
That was if the lad's hair at the front was below eye level or deemed to have been long at the back.
17-year-old apprentice electrician John Berry of Edward Street in Haydock told the Reporter:
"I do not like the hair net, but I don't want to get my hair cut. Mind you, I would rather wear the net than lose my head in an accident with a lathe."
A second campaign by residents of Sutton Heath was detailed in the paper. Last year the Reporter had written about locals in Hempstead Close and Peterlee Close being up in arms about teenage hooligans.
They were accused of making noise on nearby play areas at all times of the night and so council workmen removed the swings and slide.
However the noisy teenagers and drunks were still using the field and it had become a popular place for dumping rubbish. Margaret Morrisey told the paper:
"We were told that the area would have trees planted in it, but it's just been left. I wouldn't mind, but look at the mess – and the noise is sometimes terrible."
The council response was not very sympathetic, with George James, the St Helens Engineer and Surveyor, saying:
"If the place has been turned into a rubbish dump it must be the people living round there that have done it. We have the same problem throughout the town."
On the 11th St Nicholas Church in Sutton celebrated its 121st anniversary with a special festival service featuring the Bishop of Liverpool, the Right Reverend Stuart Blanch.
As well as marking the anniversary, the service consecrated the new choir vestry and gave thanks for the restoration and re-decoration of the church.
The Vicar of Sutton, the Rev. Paul Conder, explained that the restoration work had been undertaken by the National Coal Board to repair subsidence damage.
However the opportunity has also been taken to rewire the church, install a new lighting system, repair masonry, re-floor the nave and vestries, redecorate and improve the heating. Rev. Conder said:
"My hope now is that St. Nicholas will be well used, and that we can look forward to another 121 years as a house of prayer for all nations, and a source of blessing to untold numbers."
Next week's stories will include the plague of giant rats in Silkstone Street, the revolutionary Rainford bus fare scheme, the Moss Bank tunnel road, the Eccleston women wanting ladies-only bars and the Pilkington protest march against job losses.