HERE’S a few stories from the Barnsley Chronicle as they were reported back in May 2001.
BROADCASTER Jenni Murray says she would fight plans to sell-off her old school.
The presenter of Woman’s Hour on BBC Radio 4 is an ex-pupil of Barnsley Girls’ High School, now the Huddersfield Road site of Barnsley College.
College chiefs put the 92-year-old building and grounds on the market late last year, a decision which has angered Jenni who is due back in Barnsley for a class reunion in the summer.
She said: “It is a beautiful old building and it was bad enough that it was made into a sixth form college rather than kept as the fine school it was.
“I am appalled to hear the building will now be sold off. The old girls are up in arms about it and I am determined to find out why Barnsley is ready to throw away another piece of its heritage.”
ORGANISERS have decided to press ahead with this year’s Penistone Show which had been threatened with cancellation because of the foot-and-mouth crisis.
Restrictions on the movement of livestock will mean some changes to the format of the show in September and some exhibition classes will have to be scrapped.
A SIX-ACRE plot earmarked for a town centre supermarket development is expected to be sold within a few weeks.
A council spokesman said talks over the sale of the site off Westway — which could accommodate a 60,000-square feet superstore with 500 parking spaces — are at a critical stage.
Both Morrisons and Tesco are believed to be in negotiations over the land, jointly owned by the council and Leeds firm Emco.
AN OLD mine shaft has reappeared, exposing a 450-feet drop.
It is near the former North Gawber colliery site at Mapplewell but is thought to be from the old Dearneside pit that was sunk in the early 1900s.
The hole first appeared in April but has gradually got bigger and tests carried out this week confirmed its depth.
The Coal Authority put fencing around to protect unsuspecting walkers and it is due to be capped in the next few weeks.
BUNGLING council staff left the authority with a £3,000 bill after starting to put up road signs in the wrong places.
The large ‘clearway’ posts and signs around Dodworth Road and Summer Lane were supposed to stop drivers parking on important busy roads.
But because of a mix up at the council, poles have been put up unnecessarily to hold signs which could just as easily have been attached to existing lamp posts.
It means roads have been dug up which didn’t need to be.
WORKERS across Barnsley could be handed mopeds and electric bikes to get them to work on time.
Coalfields Community Transport is developing and seeking funding for the plan which would help people who can’t get to work by public transport.
It comes after the success of a scheme in Grimethorpe where a minibus has been provided to ferry 20 people to an industrial estate in Wakefield.
FIRE-FIGHTERS were called out to dozens of calls yesterday lunchtime because of the ten minute thunder storm.
Thunder and lightning were blamed for fire alarms being set off at several public buildings across the town, including Barnsley Hospital and the Tankersley Manor hotel.
