FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK 14 - 20 SEPTEMBER 1976
This week's many stories include the controversial decision to add fluoride to the town's water supply, St Helens Hospital's A&E gets a night-time reprieve, the rowdy Blackbrook Darby and Joan Club, the St Helens Newspaper goes compact and there's a move to clean up dirty St Helens.
We begin on the 14th when members of the St Helens and Knowsley Area Health Authority made the controversial decision by 6 votes to 4 to add fluoride to the water supply. Local dentists had been calling for fluoridation for years to reduce tooth decay in children but there were concerns over the health risks.
Later in the week the St Helens Reporter condemned the committee's decision in a front-page editorial, writing: "The decision to fluoridate the drinking water of St. Helens is ludicrous. It could be fatal. At best, fluoride is claimed to reduce or delay the onset of dental caries (tooth decay). At worst it can give people cancer."
Cllr Len Williams, the leader of St Helens Council, was another opponent. However, his main criticism was against what he called the "enforced medication", explaining: "Fluoride would be put into water that went to industry, horticulture and agriculture as well as into everybody's water whether they wanted it or not. People can get it by themselves in their toothpaste." The running costs of water fluoridation for the St Helens and Knowsley district would amount to about £20,000 a year – around £300,000 in today's money.
At the same meeting the committee members decided not to proceed with another controversial issue. That was to close the accident and emergency unit at St Helens Hospital at night. There had been enormous pushback since the decision had been taken but those in favour of the move had not helped themselves by offering differing reasons at different times for the proposed shutdown.
Lack of use by patients had been the main reason previously given but now it was stated that doctors could not be recruited to undertake the night shift. Ken Worthington, the Area Administrator, said that in the six months from February 1st to July 31st 1976, locum cover needed to be arranged on 40 days. Frank Mellor, the chairman of the Health Authority, said:
"It is not a question of money, but personnel. We cannot get doctors to do this work. Accident and emergency is not attractive to doctors, and it is a problem not just affecting Merseyside but the whole country. Locums do cost the earth, and have to be found accommodation. We had one instance of a locum arriving with his wife and three children wanting accommodation and a television provided."
However, the night-time closure of A & E at St Helens Hospital had not been completely abandoned, as the decision not to shut down the unit would be reviewed in two months. At the same meeting a decision was taken to close Haydock Cottage Hospital.
That was on the basis that the hospital's services could be provided adequately elsewhere and at the same time save about £54,000 a year. The Health Authority's decision would now be referred to the Regional Health Authority and then to the Secretary of State before closure was confirmed.
The issue had attracted a number of complaints from trade unions and Haydock councillors who had opposed the closure on the ground that the hospital had given good service to the community.
A warning was also made at the meeting that due to a chronic shortage of nurses, some wards in St Helens and Whiston hospitals might have to close during the coming winter. Consideration would be given to imposing closures "in the interests of patients" if nurses' sickness rates were higher than 5%.
One would not have thought that a Darby and Joan Club would be responsible for rowdy behaviour. However, the St Helens Reporter on the 17th described how persons attending the club at Blackbrook on Saturday nights were being accused of making a nuisance of themselves.
But they were not pensioners that were causing the trouble – but outside people attending events. At weekends the premises hosted wedding receptions and the club's neighbours in O’Sullivan Crescent said they were sick of the din. They had handed in a petition to the club's committee requesting that the number of such receptions be reduced to one a month.
Margaret Geraghty, whose house faced the club, said: "Saturday nights are really bad. We get drunks outside and sometimes you can't hear your television set for the noise. About a month ago, there was a fight."
The Reporter also described how a special meeting of the St Helens Civic Society had been held in which they had decided on a plan of action to clean up the town. That would be undertaken through the inspection of local eyesores and organising regular litter picks. "St Helens has a major litter problem," said the Society's chairman, Cllr Ray Crosby.
Vice-chairman John Tandy was even more critical, saying: "I have travelled to many countries, but I have never seen anywhere as bad as St Helens. Places such as Rutland Street and Boundary Road are atrocious. A lot of our litter is produced by careless refuse collection. And the local authority and nationalised industries seem to produce the worst eyesores." And member Brian Wilson remarked: "We think that this is a dirty town, and we aim to make it cleaner."
The Reporter wrote that October 5 1976 would be a "milestone in newspaper publishing history for the town". That was the day when its sister paper, the St Helens Newspaper, would change from its current broadsheet format into what it called a compact form.
Most people then preferred the term tabloid to describe the smaller-sized editions published by so-called "red top" newspapers like the Sun and Mirror. But tabloid, of course, also refers to a certain style of journalism and so newspapers such as the Daily Mail – and now the St Helens Newspaper – preferred compact.
The Reporter Group had taken over the 100-year-old St Helens Newspaper in 1960 and made it its mid-week edition. One of the main reasons why newspapers went compact or tabloid was to save money and as the Newspaper only lasted four more years, it sounds like it was struggling for sales in 1976, probably through competition from the free St Helens Star.
Helena House in Baldwin Street was advertising a "Great Stamp Give Away" with a full book of Co-Op stamps given for every £6 spent in their non-food departments. There was also an advert in the Reporter for the Trident Discount Centre, which had opened in Four Acre Lane in 1973. They were selling a wide range of electrical goods including colour TV, black & white TV, music centres and Hi-Fi stereo.
And finally, the Reporter said Merseyside County Council had submitted a planning application to St Helens Council for the next phase of the development of the Sankey Valley Linear Park. They wanted to landscape an area of Newton Road to provide a footpath and to plant trees so the land could be used for recreation.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the campaign to save Providence Hospital, the Morris dancing row in Rainford, the emergency drought order, the likely end of half-day closing and the Boundary Road ban on women entering a snooker room.
We begin on the 14th when members of the St Helens and Knowsley Area Health Authority made the controversial decision by 6 votes to 4 to add fluoride to the water supply. Local dentists had been calling for fluoridation for years to reduce tooth decay in children but there were concerns over the health risks.
Later in the week the St Helens Reporter condemned the committee's decision in a front-page editorial, writing: "The decision to fluoridate the drinking water of St. Helens is ludicrous. It could be fatal. At best, fluoride is claimed to reduce or delay the onset of dental caries (tooth decay). At worst it can give people cancer."
Cllr Len Williams, the leader of St Helens Council, was another opponent. However, his main criticism was against what he called the "enforced medication", explaining: "Fluoride would be put into water that went to industry, horticulture and agriculture as well as into everybody's water whether they wanted it or not. People can get it by themselves in their toothpaste." The running costs of water fluoridation for the St Helens and Knowsley district would amount to about £20,000 a year – around £300,000 in today's money.
At the same meeting the committee members decided not to proceed with another controversial issue. That was to close the accident and emergency unit at St Helens Hospital at night. There had been enormous pushback since the decision had been taken but those in favour of the move had not helped themselves by offering differing reasons at different times for the proposed shutdown.
Lack of use by patients had been the main reason previously given but now it was stated that doctors could not be recruited to undertake the night shift. Ken Worthington, the Area Administrator, said that in the six months from February 1st to July 31st 1976, locum cover needed to be arranged on 40 days. Frank Mellor, the chairman of the Health Authority, said:
"It is not a question of money, but personnel. We cannot get doctors to do this work. Accident and emergency is not attractive to doctors, and it is a problem not just affecting Merseyside but the whole country. Locums do cost the earth, and have to be found accommodation. We had one instance of a locum arriving with his wife and three children wanting accommodation and a television provided."
However, the night-time closure of A & E at St Helens Hospital had not been completely abandoned, as the decision not to shut down the unit would be reviewed in two months. At the same meeting a decision was taken to close Haydock Cottage Hospital.
That was on the basis that the hospital's services could be provided adequately elsewhere and at the same time save about £54,000 a year. The Health Authority's decision would now be referred to the Regional Health Authority and then to the Secretary of State before closure was confirmed.
The issue had attracted a number of complaints from trade unions and Haydock councillors who had opposed the closure on the ground that the hospital had given good service to the community.
A warning was also made at the meeting that due to a chronic shortage of nurses, some wards in St Helens and Whiston hospitals might have to close during the coming winter. Consideration would be given to imposing closures "in the interests of patients" if nurses' sickness rates were higher than 5%.
One would not have thought that a Darby and Joan Club would be responsible for rowdy behaviour. However, the St Helens Reporter on the 17th described how persons attending the club at Blackbrook on Saturday nights were being accused of making a nuisance of themselves.
But they were not pensioners that were causing the trouble – but outside people attending events. At weekends the premises hosted wedding receptions and the club's neighbours in O’Sullivan Crescent said they were sick of the din. They had handed in a petition to the club's committee requesting that the number of such receptions be reduced to one a month.
Margaret Geraghty, whose house faced the club, said: "Saturday nights are really bad. We get drunks outside and sometimes you can't hear your television set for the noise. About a month ago, there was a fight."
The Reporter also described how a special meeting of the St Helens Civic Society had been held in which they had decided on a plan of action to clean up the town. That would be undertaken through the inspection of local eyesores and organising regular litter picks. "St Helens has a major litter problem," said the Society's chairman, Cllr Ray Crosby.
Vice-chairman John Tandy was even more critical, saying: "I have travelled to many countries, but I have never seen anywhere as bad as St Helens. Places such as Rutland Street and Boundary Road are atrocious. A lot of our litter is produced by careless refuse collection. And the local authority and nationalised industries seem to produce the worst eyesores." And member Brian Wilson remarked: "We think that this is a dirty town, and we aim to make it cleaner."
The Reporter wrote that October 5 1976 would be a "milestone in newspaper publishing history for the town". That was the day when its sister paper, the St Helens Newspaper, would change from its current broadsheet format into what it called a compact form.
Most people then preferred the term tabloid to describe the smaller-sized editions published by so-called "red top" newspapers like the Sun and Mirror. But tabloid, of course, also refers to a certain style of journalism and so newspapers such as the Daily Mail – and now the St Helens Newspaper – preferred compact.
The Reporter Group had taken over the 100-year-old St Helens Newspaper in 1960 and made it its mid-week edition. One of the main reasons why newspapers went compact or tabloid was to save money and as the Newspaper only lasted four more years, it sounds like it was struggling for sales in 1976, probably through competition from the free St Helens Star.
And finally, the Reporter said Merseyside County Council had submitted a planning application to St Helens Council for the next phase of the development of the Sankey Valley Linear Park. They wanted to landscape an area of Newton Road to provide a footpath and to plant trees so the land could be used for recreation.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the campaign to save Providence Hospital, the Morris dancing row in Rainford, the emergency drought order, the likely end of half-day closing and the Boundary Road ban on women entering a snooker room.
This week's many stories include the controversial decision to add fluoride to the town's water supply, St Helens Hospital's A&E gets a night-time reprieve, the rowdy Blackbrook Darby and Joan Club, the St Helens Newspaper goes compact and there's a move to clean up dirty St Helens.
We begin on the 14th when members of the St Helens and Knowsley Area Health Authority made the controversial decision by 6 votes to 4 to add fluoride to the water supply.
Local dentists had been calling for fluoridation for years to reduce tooth decay in children but there were concerns over the health risks.
Later in the week the St Helens Reporter condemned the committee's decision in a front-page editorial, writing:
"The decision to fluoridate the drinking water of St. Helens is ludicrous. It could be fatal. At best, fluoride is claimed to reduce or delay the onset of dental caries (tooth decay). At worst it can give people cancer."
Cllr Len Williams, the leader of St Helens Council, was another opponent.
However, his main criticism was against what he called the "enforced medication", explaining:
"Fluoride would be put into water that went to industry, horticulture and agriculture as well as into everybody's water whether they wanted it or not. People can get it by themselves in their toothpaste."
The running costs of water fluoridation for the St Helens and Knowsley district would amount to about £20,000 a year – around £300,000 in today's money.
At the same meeting the committee members decided not to proceed with another controversial issue.
That was to close the accident and emergency unit at St Helens Hospital at night.
There had been enormous pushback since the decision had been taken but those in favour of the move had not helped themselves by offering differing reasons at different times for the proposed shutdown.
Lack of use by patients had been the main reason previously given but now it was stated that doctors could not be recruited to undertake the night shift.
Ken Worthington, the Area Administrator, said that in the six months from February 1st to July 31st 1976, locum cover needed to be arranged on 40 days.
Frank Mellor, the chairman of the Health Authority, said:
"It is not a question of money, but personnel. We cannot get doctors to do this work. Accident and emergency is not attractive to doctors, and it is a problem not just affecting Merseyside but the whole country.
"Locums do cost the earth, and have to be found accommodation. We had one instance of a locum arriving with his wife and three children wanting accommodation and a television provided."
However, the night-time closure of A & E at St Helens Hospital had not been completely abandoned, as the decision not to shut down the unit would be reviewed in two months.
At the same meeting a decision was taken to close Haydock Cottage Hospital.
That was on the basis that the hospital's services could be provided adequately elsewhere and at the same time save about £54,000 a year.
The Health Authority's decision would now be referred to the Regional Health Authority and then to the Secretary of State before closure was confirmed.
The issue had attracted a number of complaints from trade unions and Haydock councillors who had opposed the closure on the ground that the hospital had given good service to the community.
A warning was also made at the meeting that due to a chronic shortage of nurses, some wards in St Helens and Whiston hospitals might have to close during the coming winter.
Consideration would be given to imposing closures "in the interests of patients" if nurses' sickness rates were higher than 5%.
One would not have thought that a Darby and Joan Club would be responsible for rowdy behaviour.
However, the St Helens Reporter on the 17th described how persons attending the club at Blackbrook on Saturday nights were being accused of making a nuisance of themselves.
But they were not pensioners that were causing the trouble – but outside people attending events.
At weekends the premises hosted wedding receptions and the club's neighbours in O’Sullivan Crescent said they were sick of the din.
They had handed in a petition to the club's committee requesting that the number of such receptions be reduced to one a month.
Margaret Geraghty, whose house faced the club, said: "Saturday nights are really bad. We get drunks outside and sometimes you can't hear your television set for the noise. About a month ago, there was a fight."
The Reporter also described how a special meeting of the St Helens Civic Society had been held in which they had decided on a plan of action to clean up the town.
That would be undertaken through the inspection of local eyesores and organising regular litter picks.
"St Helens has a major litter problem," said the Society's chairman, Cllr Ray Crosby.
Vice-chairman John Tandy was even more critical, saying:
"I have travelled to many countries, but I have never seen anywhere as bad as St Helens. Places such as Rutland Street and Boundary Road are atrocious.
"A lot of our litter is produced by careless refuse collection. And the local authority and nationalised industries seem to produce the worst eyesores."
And member Brian Wilson remarked: "We think that this is a dirty town, and we aim to make it cleaner."
The Reporter wrote that October 5 1976 would be a "milestone in newspaper publishing history for the town".
That was the day when its sister paper, the St Helens Newspaper, would change from its current broadsheet format into what it called a compact form.
Most people then preferred the term tabloid to describe the smaller-sized editions published by so-called "red top" newspapers like the Sun and Mirror.
But tabloid, of course, also refers to a certain style of journalism and so newspapers such as the Daily Mail – and now the St Helens Newspaper – preferred compact.
The Reporter Group had taken over the 100-year-old St Helens Newspaper in 1960 and made it its mid-week edition.
One of the main reasons why newspapers went compact or tabloid was to save money and as the Newspaper only lasted four more years, it sounds like it was struggling for sales in 1976, probably through competition from the free St Helens Star.
Helena House in Baldwin Street was advertising a "Great Stamp Give Away" with a full book of Co-Op stamps given for every £6 spent in their non-food departments.
There was also an advert in the Reporter for the Trident Discount Centre, which had opened in Four Acre Lane in 1973.
They were selling a wide range of electrical goods including colour TV, black & white TV, music centres and Hi-Fi stereo.
And finally, the Reporter said Merseyside County Council had submitted a planning application to St Helens Council for the next phase of the development of the Sankey Valley Linear Park.
They wanted to landscape an area of Newton Road to provide a footpath and to plant trees so the land could be used for recreation.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the campaign to save Providence Hospital, the Morris dancing row in Rainford, the emergency drought order, the likely end of half-day closing and the Boundary Road ban on women entering a snooker room.
We begin on the 14th when members of the St Helens and Knowsley Area Health Authority made the controversial decision by 6 votes to 4 to add fluoride to the water supply.
Local dentists had been calling for fluoridation for years to reduce tooth decay in children but there were concerns over the health risks.
Later in the week the St Helens Reporter condemned the committee's decision in a front-page editorial, writing:
"The decision to fluoridate the drinking water of St. Helens is ludicrous. It could be fatal. At best, fluoride is claimed to reduce or delay the onset of dental caries (tooth decay). At worst it can give people cancer."
Cllr Len Williams, the leader of St Helens Council, was another opponent.
However, his main criticism was against what he called the "enforced medication", explaining:
"Fluoride would be put into water that went to industry, horticulture and agriculture as well as into everybody's water whether they wanted it or not. People can get it by themselves in their toothpaste."
The running costs of water fluoridation for the St Helens and Knowsley district would amount to about £20,000 a year – around £300,000 in today's money.
At the same meeting the committee members decided not to proceed with another controversial issue.
That was to close the accident and emergency unit at St Helens Hospital at night.
There had been enormous pushback since the decision had been taken but those in favour of the move had not helped themselves by offering differing reasons at different times for the proposed shutdown.
Lack of use by patients had been the main reason previously given but now it was stated that doctors could not be recruited to undertake the night shift.
Ken Worthington, the Area Administrator, said that in the six months from February 1st to July 31st 1976, locum cover needed to be arranged on 40 days.
Frank Mellor, the chairman of the Health Authority, said:
"It is not a question of money, but personnel. We cannot get doctors to do this work. Accident and emergency is not attractive to doctors, and it is a problem not just affecting Merseyside but the whole country.
"Locums do cost the earth, and have to be found accommodation. We had one instance of a locum arriving with his wife and three children wanting accommodation and a television provided."
However, the night-time closure of A & E at St Helens Hospital had not been completely abandoned, as the decision not to shut down the unit would be reviewed in two months.
At the same meeting a decision was taken to close Haydock Cottage Hospital.
That was on the basis that the hospital's services could be provided adequately elsewhere and at the same time save about £54,000 a year.
The Health Authority's decision would now be referred to the Regional Health Authority and then to the Secretary of State before closure was confirmed.
The issue had attracted a number of complaints from trade unions and Haydock councillors who had opposed the closure on the ground that the hospital had given good service to the community.
A warning was also made at the meeting that due to a chronic shortage of nurses, some wards in St Helens and Whiston hospitals might have to close during the coming winter.
Consideration would be given to imposing closures "in the interests of patients" if nurses' sickness rates were higher than 5%.
One would not have thought that a Darby and Joan Club would be responsible for rowdy behaviour.
However, the St Helens Reporter on the 17th described how persons attending the club at Blackbrook on Saturday nights were being accused of making a nuisance of themselves.
But they were not pensioners that were causing the trouble – but outside people attending events.
At weekends the premises hosted wedding receptions and the club's neighbours in O’Sullivan Crescent said they were sick of the din.
They had handed in a petition to the club's committee requesting that the number of such receptions be reduced to one a month.
Margaret Geraghty, whose house faced the club, said: "Saturday nights are really bad. We get drunks outside and sometimes you can't hear your television set for the noise. About a month ago, there was a fight."
The Reporter also described how a special meeting of the St Helens Civic Society had been held in which they had decided on a plan of action to clean up the town.
That would be undertaken through the inspection of local eyesores and organising regular litter picks.
"St Helens has a major litter problem," said the Society's chairman, Cllr Ray Crosby.
Vice-chairman John Tandy was even more critical, saying:
"I have travelled to many countries, but I have never seen anywhere as bad as St Helens. Places such as Rutland Street and Boundary Road are atrocious.
"A lot of our litter is produced by careless refuse collection. And the local authority and nationalised industries seem to produce the worst eyesores."
And member Brian Wilson remarked: "We think that this is a dirty town, and we aim to make it cleaner."
The Reporter wrote that October 5 1976 would be a "milestone in newspaper publishing history for the town".
That was the day when its sister paper, the St Helens Newspaper, would change from its current broadsheet format into what it called a compact form.
Most people then preferred the term tabloid to describe the smaller-sized editions published by so-called "red top" newspapers like the Sun and Mirror.
But tabloid, of course, also refers to a certain style of journalism and so newspapers such as the Daily Mail – and now the St Helens Newspaper – preferred compact.
The Reporter Group had taken over the 100-year-old St Helens Newspaper in 1960 and made it its mid-week edition.
One of the main reasons why newspapers went compact or tabloid was to save money and as the Newspaper only lasted four more years, it sounds like it was struggling for sales in 1976, probably through competition from the free St Helens Star.
There was also an advert in the Reporter for the Trident Discount Centre, which had opened in Four Acre Lane in 1973.
They were selling a wide range of electrical goods including colour TV, black & white TV, music centres and Hi-Fi stereo.
And finally, the Reporter said Merseyside County Council had submitted a planning application to St Helens Council for the next phase of the development of the Sankey Valley Linear Park.
They wanted to landscape an area of Newton Road to provide a footpath and to plant trees so the land could be used for recreation.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the campaign to save Providence Hospital, the Morris dancing row in Rainford, the emergency drought order, the likely end of half-day closing and the Boundary Road ban on women entering a snooker room.