HERE’S a few stories as they were reported in the Barnsley Chronicle in this week back in 1979
*
A WARNING that Barnsley’s rates could well increase by more than 40 per cent next year was given this week.
Borough treasurer Gordon Leech said the preliminary figure had been worked out following an announcement about grant payments to local authorities made by Michael Heseltine, secretary of state for the environment.
Mr Leech told the meeting of the expenditure subcommittee that, while it seemed that Barnsley’s settlement would be better than anticipated, there remained cause for concern over next year’s rate level.
He said working on preliminary figures it seemed that the rate increase for 1980/81 could well exceed 40 per cent.
This would take Barnsley’s present rates from 74p to 104p to which the county precept and water rate would then be added.
* AN AMBITIOUS PLAN to build new county headquarters in Barnsley - which could cost £15m over the next 15 years - has been unveiled by South Yorkshire County Council.
The proposed headquarters will cover 400,000 sq ft on the Court House Station site and will be built in three or four phases.
The first phase - which is still at the feasibility stage - is expected to cost £4.9m, and will house 570 staff who are at present in a number of different offices in Sheffield and Barnsley.
Labour leader Coun Roy Thwaites said at a press conference on Wednesday that it was essential that all staff scattered in offices in the county should be put under the same roof.
“Barnsley is now the county town of South Yorkshire,” he said. “It is bad economics to have sections scattered around the county.”
* A NEW ‘get tough’ attitude is being adopted by Barnsley Council over tenancy regulations and in future tenants who do not cultivate their gardens may have to pay for the work to be done by council employees.
The move has come about because councillors have been increasingly concerned in recent months about the standard of some council house residents.
A meeting of the council’s health and housing committee on Tuesday agreed that tenancy regulations should be firmly enforced by the housing department.
These include making tenants responsible for any damage and the cost of repairs, not making structural alterations or erecting sheds without planning consent, taking reasonable precautions to prevent fires or burst pipes, not keeping animals except a cat or dog without permission, and not even them in flats.
The regulations about gardens, which have never been enforced before, say that tenants must cultivate both back and front plots, and keep them clean and free from rubbish.
Where this is not done, the council may carry out the work and charge the full cost to the tenant.
* Plans for a commercial radio station in Barnsley have been given a green light by the government - and the station could be on the air by 1983.
Home Secretary William Whitelaw announced in the Commons that 14 independent radio schemes had been approved in principle, and a spokesman for the Independent Broadcasting Authority said the contracts for the stations would be advertised by the end of 1981.
“We are looking for groups who will run a lively and responsible local radio station, combining entertaining people with giving a service which fosters awareness of local affairs.
“There is no blueprint as such for the station, but there will be a fairly high degree of music, not just pop music but mixed,” said the spokesman.
* THE coming winter is expected to be harsh with misery predicted for motorists, but the county council has just taken delivery of a new £98,000 snow-blower.
The Rolba 1200 Snow-Blower, built in Zurich and designed to combat the atrocious Alpine drifts, is described as possibly the best snow clearer in the world and can shift 1,500 tons of snow per hour and throw it up to 65 feet from the road.
