This week 10, 20, 30 years ago

10 Years Ago

Underwater police teams dredged a pond in search of discarded weapons as part of the Operation Trinity anti-gang crackdown.

Specialist teams of frogmen had to break the ice on top of Southwark Park pond, in Canada Water, to search for weapons.

Police teams carried out sweeps of the Aylesbury Estate, in East Walworth, around Nursery Road Park and Salisbury Road. No weapons were found but leaflets were distributed to residents.

Closing Lewisham Hospital’s A&E would send a “tidal wave” of extra patients to South London’s other already overstretched hospitals.

Matthew Kershaw was drafted in to save the South London Healthcare Trust’s three hospitals – Queen Elizabeth in Woolwich, Queen Mary’s, Sidcup and Princess Royal Hospital in Bromley – which were put into administration in July after racking up debts of more than £150million.

In his report to Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, he said downgrading Lewisham Hospital to save the SLHT hospitals was unavoidable.

Camberwell and Peckham MP Harriet Harman said: “The effective closing of services at Lewisham Hospital will hit like a tidal wave at King’s College Hospital.”

People were being invited to tell new bosses what they thought of plans for the Livesey Building at an open day on Wednesday.

But a campaign led by the South London Press and supported by the Friends of Livesey Museum revealed the authority did not own the premises and was only its trustee, so could not sell it.

Readers were told that at the open day, people would be able to talk to members of the Treasure House team and council and their views would be taken into consideration.

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20 Years Ago

John Prescott came under fire for “shattering the dreams” of council tenants trying to buy their homes.

The Labour MP announced plans to halve tenants’ discount on the market value of their property from £38,000 to £16,000.

The move would put hundreds of families out of the market to take advantage of the previous Tory Government’s Right to Buy scheme.

The MP said that five per cent of homes were going to companies rather than individuals through a loophole in the law.

Tenants would be approached by the companies to buy them on their behalf using the Right to Buy Scheme.

They then sold them on for a profit. He said the scheme had therefore reduced the supply of affordable homes.

A youngster became the only child enrolled in a nursery school.

Mitchell Bettell loved nothing more than to get messy with glue and paint. But he was forced to play on his own at the Alleyn’s Community Playgroup in Darrell Road, East Dulwich.

Mitchell, who was three in 2003 had other playmates, but they just stopped turning up.

The nursery had three trained staff and a student helper, with space for 16 children.

Staff warned that the playschool would have to close unless more three-year-olds were signed up.

Nine out of 10 secondary schools in Lambeth were earmarked for rebuilds following the promise of £159million in extra Government funding.

Lambeth council announced plans to rebuild two of its schools while carrying out repairs to crumbling classrooms at six other secondary schools. The ambitious scheme would take six years.

Under the plans, a new school was to be built in Norwood. As well as Government funding, the scheme would be paid for using Private Finance Initiative loans from industry.

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30 Years Ago

Ambulance crews warned that an overhaul of South-east London’s ambulance fleet was urgently needed before lives were put at risk.

They accused ambulance bosses of wasting money keeping existing vehicles on the road rather than investing in new ones.

And doctors slammed the service, complaining of lengthy waits for call-outs to seriously ill patients. Dulwich MP Tessa Jowell led calls for extra funding to fix the ailing fleet of ambulances following an inquiry into the service south of the river.

She found that 55 of South-east London’s 69 ambulances were more than five years old and 39 were nearly a decade old.

Hundreds of campaigners marched to the department of health in Whitehall in protest at plans to merge two hospitals.

A total of 50,000 people signed a petition against the plans to merge Guy’s Hospital in London Bridge and St Thomas’ Hospital in Waterloo. Campaigners glued the pages of the petition into a mile-long chain from St Thomas’ across Westminster Bridge to the department of health.

The march was led by Vauxhall MP Kate Hoey and the Save St Thomas’ Hospital Campaign.

A watchdog warned entire sections of South London’s rail network could grind to a halt when British Rail was privatised.

The Central Transport Consultative Committee (CTCC)’s boss spoke out after the Government unveiled plans to put parts of the network out to tender.

CTCC chairman Major General Lennox Napier voiced fears that it would leave the network south of the river in danger of financial collapse.

He said rail links such as South London Lines, Kent Link, Southwestern and Thameslink could be killed off.

 

Pictured: Pixabay / einar_magnus