On this week: Rat problems in Southery, thieves stealing from Magdalen Chip Shop and charity fundraising at King’s Lynn’s M&S back in 1998

In our regular On This Week feature we look back to what was making the headlines in 1998…

On this week: March 10-16 1998:

It was a near miss for staff at Lynn’s branch of Boots, who were runners-up in the company’s prestigious Store of the Year Award. The High Street store was chosen as the winner for East Anglia and was one of ten finalists for the best Boots large store. The Lynn team, which amounts to around 80 full and part time staff, won a silver salver and a cheque. The manager, Margaret Walford, and members of staff travelled to Birmingham for a gala dinner and to hear the results of the award. All 1,300 Boots stores compete and the award is judged on criteria such as customer service, team development and sales and marketing.

Heartless thieves have been branded ‘lower than a snake’s belly’ after they stole £200 from a charity jar. It had been placed in a Magdalen chip shop as part of an appeal to raise £1,800 to buy a laptop computer for handicapped Hilgay boy Mark James, who has cerebral palsy. West Norfolk Play-Mates charity, which launched the appeal at the beginning of the year, said the £200 from the jar would almost have brought the fundraising up to the target. A window at the chip shop was smashed and the three-litre whisky bottle which was being used as a charity bottle was stolen.

Sandringham’s Park House – the birth place of the late Diana, Princess of Wales – has been boosted by a commitment of support from the princess’s memorial fund. The hotel for disabled people, run by the Leonard Cheshire Foundation, applied for a grant of up to £2 million to safeguard its future and it has now heard it has received the “commitment of support”. The hotel applied for the money because a projected shortfall of cash from the foundation, which has leased the building from the Queen rent free since 1987. It now welcomes about 1,000 guests annually and costs £500,000 a year to run.

Eight out of nine of West Norfolk’s youth and community centres faces closure at the end of August unless users can find around £20,000 a year to run the venues themselves. News of a Norfolk County Council “hit list” of centres it may close to save costs provoked angry reactions – and fighting talk – this week. The move has been slammed by angry users who say the council is training youth workers to keep kids off the street – while closing their youth centres and effectively turfing them out.

Pelicans hockey club secured their second promotion at the weekend with a 3-0 win away to Spalding. Sean Kerry, Matt Southby and captain Simon Landles were the scorers to ensure that Pelicans would go up as champions into the Premier Division B of the Adnams East League. The men’s second XI can still be promoted, the Thirds have finished mid- table and the Fourths have gone up from Division Eight. The ladies’

Firsts have maintained their East Super League status with several gritty performances despite limited resources. West Norfolk’s Home Watch scheme now covers some 800 neighbourhoods and streets, all looking out for each other and employing specialised community knowledge to tackle and deter crime. At Wereham, for example, where the Home Watch scheme was set up two years ago, it now has 197 homes registered out of 210 properties in the village. It has now split the village into 20 areas of ten to 13 houses, each with its own co-ordinator, who liaises with the policed and other co-ordinators – resulting in one recent incident when an unusual vehicle was spotted and it turned out to have been stolen.

The legendary wartime feats of the Desert Rats will live on thanks to a poignant memorial to be built at High Ash Camp, near Mundford, in the heart of Thetford Forest. It is a spot which holds special memories for former members of the 7th Armoured Division and their families. The sandy area was the backdrop for the Desert Rats’ training early in 1944 before the troops stormed the Normandy beaches. The first turf was cut by Field Marshal Lord Carver and he will return in the autumn for the official unveiling of the £30,000 monument.

Southery residents are being urged to keep an eye out for rats which have become noticeable on Ferry Bank and Westgate Street. A meeting of the parish council was attended by Jim Barber, senior pest control officer with West Norfolk Council, who said the problem was under control, but warned people to be vigilant to keep the rats at bay. He pointed out that recent mild weather had not interrupted the breeding programme of the rodents, which usually slows down with a drop in temperature. As a result, the rat population was set to grow, he added.