HERE’S a few stories as they were reported in the Barnsley Chronicle in this week back in 1996.
CHILDREN at a Barnsley gun club are being taught how to use lethal firearms as part of the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme.
The prestigious scheme is under mounting pressure from relatives of the Dunblane massacre victims and local politicians to drop weapons training from its schedules.
Teenagers from across the region are being brought to the Birdwell Armoury for training in the use of deadly .38 police issue revolvers.
Award scheme organisers faced condemnation for continuing to run gun courses in the face of the national outcry Thomas Hamilton’s murder of 16 children and their teacher at Dunblane Primary School.
Mrs Jacqueline Walsh, a member of the Snowdrop Campaign, the anti-gun group founded in Dunblane, said: “I think people will be offended and find it insensitive.
“I shall be bringing it to the attention of other members and writing to the Duke of Edinburgh Awards operators expressing our feelings.”
* SUPERMARKETS across Barnsley could soon be linked by radio pagers so they can instantly alert each other about shoplifters.
Police and store managers decided to set up ‘Supermarket Watch’ after a shoplifting spree, costing thousands of pounds.
They hope it will be as successful as the Pub Watch scheme on which it is being based.
Already stores in Royston, Monk Bretton, Mappiewell and Smithies are taking part in the project and the co-ordinators eventually hope to expand it throughout the borough.
A SHEPHERD wasn’t watching his flock by night in Barnsley when thieves pinched two sheep then went back and removed him and the ass as as well from the Nativity scene installed outside the town hall.
The six-feet high wooden figures had been staked to the ground. “We’ll have to look at ways of making sure the other figures don’t disappear,” said a council spokesman.
“We will have to think about increasing security maybe by using padlocks to fasten the figures to the ground.”
* THEIR legs have been crossed for 150 years but relief is at last on the way for
the congregation at Dodworth Parish Church.
A toilet is about to be plumbed in to the blessed relief of parishioners.
For 150 years the faithful have gone without and those plaiting their legs in the draughty pews have been urging vicars to keep sermons short.
But a team of 12 pensioners - some in their 80s - raised a good part of the £5,000 needed to install the toilet and drains.
It took them three years, holding coffee mornings, Sunday lunches, raffles and and other fund-raising events.
Dee Ashton, 68, said: “You might say that we have been saving pennies so we can spend a penny.
“It’s difficult waiting until you get home at our age.”
* LABOUR leader Tony Blair will be in Barnsley on Monday to lend support to Jeff Ennis, the party’s candidate for the Barnsley East by-election.
A party spokesman said: “He will be coming to lend his support to Jeff because this by-election can see the end of Conservative majority after 17 years.”
* BARNSLEY’S Michael Parkinson has confirmed he is having discussions with BBC bosses about a new chat show series after an absence of 14 years.
