HERE’S a selection of stories as they were reported in the Chronicle back in August 1983.

CONTROVERSIAL moves to ban the cane from Barnsley’s schools will be discussed next week.

The bid to ban corporal punishment will be discussed by the ruling Labour Group on Barnsley Council at its meeting on Tuesday.

The move comes from Barnsley District Labour Party, which has said that caning in Barnsley should be outlawed by April of next year.

It is Labour Party policy, both nationally and locally, to abolish corporal punishment.

The proposal was included in the party’s manifesto for the local council elections in May.

The issue is likely to stir up a controversy. Caning has been banned already in Doncaster, Sheffield and Derbyshire.

HEROIN is available on Barnsley’s streets — and police fear someone will die.

The number of people who are hooked on the killer drug in Barnsley is believed to be between 30 and 40.

A Barnsley Chronicle investigation reveals that heroin is selling at about £5 for a ‘fix’.

Local heroin-users are not teenagers, but usually people aged between 20 and 30 years old from all sorts of backgrounds.

The heroin-taking trend is quite new: it has sprung up alarmingly in Barnsley over

the last two years, and the fear is that it will escalate, as pot-smoking did in the town

in the 1960s and early 1970s.

POSITIVE steps could soon be taken on a scheme for an airstrip to be built alongside Doncaster Road, between Darfield and Goldthorpe.

This follows a thumbs up for the scheme from the ruling Labour group on Barnsley Council, whose members have said they support the provision of an airstrip so long as the council would not be committed to any cash outlay.

The airstrip would have a 600-yard long runway and would be used by private aircraft, small twin-engined executive aircraft and air taxi services to major airports.

BARNSLEY Football Club could be taken to court over unpaid bills for policing last season.

The Oakwell club owes £47,266, and last month was pressed to pay up by South Yorkshire County Council Police Committee.

Chairman of the Police Committee Coun George Moore said the county council had approved a reduced scale of charges which came into effect in April, but the clubs had pleaded for further cuts.

“We appreciate that things are tight in the football world at present, but I cannot say whether we can lower policing charges again.”

A spokesman for Barnsley Football Club said: “While negotiations were progressing, it was always said that if there was a reduction, it would be retrospective to the

start of the past football season.

“So it appears that now South Yorkshire County Council has gone back on its word.”

A BARNSLEY firm has provided 278 tonnes of scaffolding for the construction of the new control tower at London’s Gatwick Airport.

Gibson’s Scaffolding of Foundry Street, Barnsley, won the contract to work on the 180ft tower in the face of stiff competition from some of the world’s biggest scaffolding firms.

“It was a prestigious job,” said John Gibson, founder of the firm. “We designed the scaffolding and gave the British Airports’ Authority a set of blueprints and costs.

“We were delighted when our tender was accepted.”