The year in review

What made the news in the North Somerset Times in 2007

JANUARY

• Pet protest: Dog lovers threatened to stage a sit-in at Portishead Lake Grounds to object to plans to prevent pet owners from using the beauty spot.

Dog breeder Reyna Knight planned to stage a protest at the site after plans to introduce new bylaws to ban pets were announced.

• Flights grind to a halt over weather fears: Thousands of people faced travel chaos after the runway at Bristol International Airport closed following safety fears.

EasyJet announced it would not fly in or out of the airport after raising concerns about its planes skidding on temporary sections of the runway when landing in wet weather and a number of other travel companies followed suit meaning flights were diverted to other airports.

FEBRUARY

• Call for cleaner streets: Staff, students and teachers at Yeo Moor Infants School in Clevedon wrote to North Somerset and Clevedon Town Council calling for local footpaths to be cleaned up so children could walk to school safely.

The move followed mounting concern about the poor state of the paths, which were often strewn with dogs’ mess and litter.

• Father delivers baby daughter at home: A proud dad from Clevedon was forced to turn midwife - when he delivered his own baby daughter. Julian Bird, aged 36, of Halswell Road rushed to his wife Justine’s aid after she went into labour and delivered his daughter Lydia-Rose while being given instructions by paramedics over the phone.

MARCH

• Barn boost for Nailsea residents: An exciting project to restore a medieval barn in Nailsea received a massive lottery boost. The Nailsea Tithe Barn Trust and the town council learnt that their bid for £500,000 of Heritage Lottery Funding had been successful. The project to restore the barn, which was built in 1480, is expected to cost £923,000.

The town council has pledged £150,000 towards the scheme and £50,000 has been raised from local fund-raising and cash from the Diocese of Baths and Wells.

• Protests over traffic chaos: Thousands of people walked through the streets of Portishead to reaffirm their anger about the Cabstand traffic lights system.

Nearly 2,000 placard waving protesters took to the High Street for the march - the second of its kind - to call for changes to be made to the £800,000 light controlled junction.

APRIL

• Men’s club allows ladies to vote: A Portishead social club, which for years was run by men only, changed its constitution to allow women onto the committee.

For 90 years, Portishead Working Men’s Club, at Slade Road, did not allow women to get involved with the running of the facility, but after a special meeting members voted in favour of giving voting rights to women members.

• Help for the homeless: A hostel for the homeless in Portishead prepared to open its doors after it was shut down two years ago. North Somerset Housing took over Link House at 58 Lower Down Road and spent £400,000 converting it into eight self-contained flats, which will be allocated to homeless people across the district.

MAY

• Election landslide: The political map of North Somerset slowly turned blue as North Somerset Council was taken over by the Conservatives in the election. The results turned the authority from a Liberal Democrat/Labour joint administration into a Conservative controlled one, with Tories taking 43 of the 58 seats up for grabs.

• May Day fun: The Vikings made a welcome return to Nailsea over the Bank Holiday weekend for the annual May fair festivities. Thousands of people poured into the Scotch Horn Park on May Day for the event which is organised by Nailsea Scouts (pictured) and featured a Viking re-enactment and music from local bands.

JUNE

• Slippery vandals wreak havoc in Pill: Pill residents were left slipping and sliding after the village was swamped in cooking fat. Vandals caused chaos when they tipped over eight barrels of used cooking fat which were being stored at the rear of the Kebab Kitchen in the precinct. Gallons and gallons of the fat poured down the rear of the shops and was tramped around the village by precinct shoppers, making the area treacherous underfoot.

• Royal visitor opens new hospice: A new children’s hospice in Wraxall was officially opened by HRH The Countess of Wessex.
The royal opening of Charlton Farm was carried out by Sophie Wessex and watched by crowds of supporters of the hospice. The royal visitor was given a guided tour of the new building and spoke to a number of families which use the services provided by Children’s Hospice South West (pictured).

JULY

• Hundreds of new jobs for Clevedon: North Somerset planners gave the go-ahead to a £30million business park in the Clevedon area. Rok Development proposed to create in the region of 330,000sq ft of buildings on a 20-acre site off Kenn Road, which will support more than 900 jobs.

• Diners locked into restaurant: Diners in Portishead had to be locked into a restaurant with the security shutters down after a gang of yobs caused chaos at a party in the town.

Trouble flared when a gang of teenagers attending a wedding reception at Somerset Hall started to throw glasses, bottles and plastic chairs off the hall’s balcony on to the precinct below. People dining in VII restaurant below were left terrified after glass smashed across the precinct and hit the windows of the pizza house.

AUGUST

• Convent closure: A long standing convent in Clevedon was set to close because of its ageing nun population and lack of new recruits wanting to join the faith.

The Convent of Mercy at Marine Hill, run by the Sisters of Mercy, operated in the town for 71 years, but parish priest Father Reg Gray announced the convent was to close with the nuns moving to other religious centres across the country. 

• Tombstoning teen craze could kill: Teenagers risked their lives by taking up the craze of ‘tombstoning’ from rocks at a Portishead beach.

Youngsters in the town started jumping from the rocks at Sugar Loaf Bay into the sea below, but residents warned teens they were dicing with death because of rocks lying in the waters below which were covered by the sea at high tide.

SEPTEMBER

• Sleepover flock catch lead thieves: Crimefighting worshippers staked out their church in Backwell in a bid to catch thieves stealing lead from its roof. Members of the congregation at St Andrew’s Church slept over night in the Medieval building after raiders stole lead from the roof four times in a week and their dedication paid off when thieves returned for a fifth time and were caught.

• Baby llama named: A baby llama born in Noah’s Ark Zoo Farm, Wraxall, was given a new name by a Nailsea school girl.
The North Somerset Times teamed up with staff at Noah’s Ark to launch a competition for local people to choose a new name for the animal and after much debate staff chose Lucy as a preferred name, which was put forward by six-year-old Daniella Hartnell from Nailsea (pictured).

OCTOBER

• No peace at this resting place: Funeral services at a village church were constantly disturbed by noise from operations at Backwell’s busy recycling centre.

Leaders at St Andrew’s Church were forced to complain to North Somerset Council environmental chiefs because the crashes and bangs from the tip could be heard during burials in the churchyard.

• So two schools into one won’t go: The future of two primary schools in Nailsea was confirmed to be safe after suggestions to merge or close them were dropped.

Education bosses were looking at the possibility of merging Hannah More Infants and Grove Juniors to create one large primary school, but the proposals were axed after the North Somerset Times revealed to the authority’s education bosses that they were aware of the proposals and planned to uncover the news to its readers.

NOVEMBER

• Is bang at the bogs a flash in the pan?: Mystery surrounded the cause of a series of explosions at a toilet block at a Portishead beauty spot.

Fire crews were called to the Lake Grounds numerous times after reports of flames coming from the men’s cubicles. The fires were discovered just after 7am when the area is deserted, which proved a real mystery to residents.

• Psychic fair protest: A lifelong Christian from Nailsea called for people to boycott a psychic fair, which was being held in the town on Remembrance Day.

Mary Ponsonby, who is also chairman of Nailsea Town Council, called on other Christians to stay away from the fayre - the first of its kind in the town - which was held at Scotch Horn.

DECEMBER

• Calendar Grans: A group of grans from Nailsea stripped off for a Calendar Girls style fund-raiser to raise cash for a children’s charity. The plucky pensioners from Laurel Court Residential and Nursing Home, Brockway, bared all for a quirky calendar to raise funds for Children’s Hospice South West.

• Farm’s nativity is pure animal magic: Sheep, donkeys, llamas, camels and a gurgling baby brought the Christmas story to life at a zoo farm in Wraxall. Actors and animals retold the birth of Jesus from a barn at Noah’s Ark Zoo Farm as residents in North Somerset got into the festive spirit.