This week 10, 20, 30 years ago

10 Years Ago

Commuters were told to avoid the tube as part of a campaign to reduce overcrowding on the busiest section of the Northern line in South London.

Transport bosses wanted to ease the “exceptionally busy” Northern line stretch between Tooting and Clapham by putting up posters advising people the alternative walking or cycling routes to their destination.

A disabled rights crusader persistently flouted an Asbo by blocking traffic, a court heard.
Maria Whitefield breached the antisocial behaviour order by blocking a bus in Denmark Hill.

She also blocked traffic in Lambeth Palace Road. Prosecutor at Blackfriars Crown Court, Gabrielle McAvock said of the most recent incident: “police attended and she was abusive to officers”.

The Bonfire Night in 2013 was the quietest on record for firefighters with just 119 fires in the capital on November 5.

The figures from the London Fire brigade marked the continued decline of bonfire night call outs, falling from 125 last year and 130 the year before. In 2010, crews dealt with 175 fires and in 2007 firefighters tackled 334.

The statistics revealed a 64 per cent drop in Bonfire Night fires across the six years.

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20 Years Ago

Residents gave police a standing ovation after they raided crack dens on their estate.

People came out of their homes on the Cressingham Gardens Estate in Brixton to cheer on police as they raided the five homes on the estate that were operating as crack houses for addicts of the drug.

Officers from the newly-formed Brixton Pro-Active Unit, immigration officials and Lambeth council joined forces for the operation and the council homes were handed back to housing officers.

Police warned parents that kids using this year’s must-have Christmas toy could not use it without a moped license.

The go-peds, which started at £150, looked like children’s toy scooters, but police warned that they would need to be taxed and licensed before being taken out onto the roads.

Riders were also told they would have to have a license and wear a helmet as well as having working headlights and a number plate.

Surrey County Cricket announced that funds were in place to push ahead with the controversial redevelopment of the Oval.

And Lambeth council confirmed that it had given the thumbs-up to the plans for a new £million stand. Residents living near the stand argued that at .m high, the stand would tower over their gardens and block out the light.

But it meant that a legal payment offered by the organisation to pay for projects that would compensate local residents under the Town and Country Planning Act, could be collected by the council.

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30 Years Ago

Hundreds of neighbours turned out to pay their last respects to a murdered beat bobbie.

In a poignant tribute to PC Patrick Dunne, 46, the funeral procession passed many of the streets where the officer had been a familiar and well-liked face.

All 250 police and CIVILIAN staff from Clapham police station attended the funeral.

Gary Nelson, from Woolwich was 36 in 2006 when he was jailed for gunning down PC Dunne in Cato Road 12 years earlier.

The Met’s Fraud Squad were urged to investigate claims that staff at an estate agents were selling repossessed homes to property companies at knock-down prices.

Lewisham East MP Bridget Prentice calls followed an internal investigation by the company of practices at one of its branches in Lewisham.

The investigation had been triggered after it emerged that the repossessed homes had been sold to developers who sold them on at the full market value almost immediately after acquiring them.

Government plans to deregulate the buses in London had to be shelved in the face of widespread public opposition.

Transport groups and politicians had warned of a free-for-all if the move had gone ahead because it would have opened the door to private bus companies which could have been free to set ticket prices and timetables.

But Transport Secretary John MacGregor said it was still the Government’s plans to push ahead with the deregulation of the capital’s buses.

 

 

Picture: Original public domain image from Wikimedia Commons