On This Week: Looking back at headlines 25 years ago in King’s Lynn, Fakenham, Terrington St Clement and more

In our weekly On This Week feature, we take a look back to what was hitting the headlines 25 years ago, as well as a picture from 30 years ago…

On This Week: July 1 – 7, 2000

North Lynn residents are set to have their own doctor’s surgery for the first time since the estate was built in the 1940s. Work has now started on the country’s first Lottery-funded Healthy Living Centre, and the North End and North Lynn Community Trust has been lobbying for a GP since 1995 when a community survey revealed a high number of people visiting doctors. The cost of refurbishing the former St Augustine’s Club in Columbia Way is put at nearly £1.4 million and the Healthy Living Centre, which will still be called St Augustine’s, is a flagship project for the country.

Carnival time in Hunstanton was celebrated by hundreds of people and this annual event, organised by Hunstanton and District Rotary Club, drew what was estimated to be the largest-ever carnival crowd. The parade of colourful floats was on a theme of Into The Future and winner of the commercial section was the Millennium float entered by Le Strange Arms Hotel; in the open section, Redgate Middle School took first place.

Half-year profits at North Lynn’s Porvair have increased by 49 per cent to £2 million. The figures, for the six months ending May 31, are up from £1.4 million for the same period in 1999. The firm employs around 250 staff at North Lynn and a total of 650 worldwide; Porvair also has factories in America, Canada and China. At the beginning of the year Porvair announced it was hoping to invest £3 million in the North Lynn factory.

A second major donation from Fakenham’s Safeway superstore is helping towards completion of the town’s Queens Road Millennium Park. The store’s customer services manager, Allan Saunders, handed over a cheque for £2,500 to the town mayor, Philip Walker, at the site as builders continued work on finishing touches to the boating pool and bandstand areas. It was Mr Walker’s idea more than two years ago to create a community park out of the former playing fields next to the junior school.

Town centre developer Threadneedle has been accused of having a “stranglehold” on Lynn, after missing its latest deadline on a multi-million revamp which was first announced three years ago. At a meeting with West Norfolk Council, representatives from the company – which was given an extension until the end of June to find a development partner by the council – said they wanted more time. Because the June deadline was missed, the council is understood to have begun considering options as part of a fallback position.

Property worth £31,500 was stolen in a 27-minute raid from Norfolk County Council’s highways depot at Bexwell – the second major theft the site has suffered in just over 12 months following a £50,000 raid in April last year. In the latest raid, thieves stole £20,000 of aluminium road signs after cutting a padlock off the depot’s security gate. Once inside, they got into an office and found the ignition keys for an Iveco HGV and a Mazda pick-up truck which were also both stolen.

Some patients at Lynn’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital are having to wait for more than two years to see a consultant after being referred by their GPs, it has been revealed. And the latest figures also show that once a patient has seen a specialist, it could be up to 18 months before they receive an operation. The West Norfolk Primary Care Group has labelled these figures – released by Lynn and Wisbech NHS Hospitals’ Trust – as “unacceptable”. The trust’s figures also show that some 2,310 patients were waiting up to nine months for operations.

Lynn Knights’ speedway team gave team manager Nigel Wagstaff the perfect boost with an impressive 53-37 demolition of Oxford Cheetahs in front of the Sky Sports cameras. Wagstaff had threatened to quit the sport over the furore surrounding the postponement of the recent KO Cup clash with Ipswich. Wagstaff has now set his sights on bringing some silverware to the Norfolk Arena as his side has now opened up a three-point lead at the top of the Elite League.

Marriage vows were renewed for the millennium by 20 couples at Terrington St Clement Church. All the couples were either married at the church or live in the village. The service was conducted by visiting minister Canon Tony Porter, from Watlington, who also renewed marriage vows with his wife Noreen.