A Quick Reminder: Looking back through the archives of The Keswick Reminder from around this week 20, 30, 40 and 50 years ago
20 years ago
Special housing meeting
A special meeting arranged by the Town Council was held last night, Thursday, with representatives of the Lake District National Park Authority, Keswick Town Council, Housing Associations and the local community to try to solve Keswick’s local housing problem.
At the meeting there was an invitation to members of the public to suggest potential housing sites in Keswick for 160 new homes. There was also a series of workshops led by the National Park Authority to identify possible sites and a follow up talk by Paul Davies, chief executive of Eden Housing Association, on the results of a housing needs survey.
Senior Lake District planner Peter Winter said: “The housing survey, carried out by Cumbria Rural Homes on behalf of the Town Council and Allerdale Council, highlighted a clear need for 169 homes. We have identified a need, now the next stage is to decide where we can put those houses!”
The majority of the new homes will probably be built by Housing Associations and Mr Winter said: “There is a lot of money to be spent in the Keswick area and the Housing Associations are gearing up to do the job. I am very optimistic that we can get these sites and get the affordable homes built.”
Most of the housing problems in Keswick stem from the high prices of property which can rule out first time buyers at a stroke. Some families are in rented accommodation or find that housing is too far removed from their workplaces.
30 years ago
Late night noise pledge
Keswick police have promised that the town centre will be policed “robustly” this summer following a spate of recent complaints from hoteliers and visitors about late night disturbances.
Last Saturday night, in a period of about two hours, there were eleven arrests for various drink and public order related offences. The people have been charged and will be appearing before the town’s magistrates in due course.
Inspector Kevin McGilloway said that letters of complaint had been coming in about noise and disturbance at night in the area around the Moot Hall, mainly at times when the pubs and night club patrons came out. He said the noise detracted from the reasons people came to Keswick. It was keeping guests awake and there had been cases quoted of visitors booking in for a week and leaving after a couple of nights because of the noise.
Drought update
North West Water is spending a further £10 million to protect essential supplies of water as the region continues to suffer from a one in three hundred year drought.
The company has now invested £85 million in projects to keep water flowing despite the lack of rain. It has already brought an extra 50 million litres of water a day into supply and will increase this to well over 100 million litres by the summer. Increased detection and repair of leaks should save 65 million litres a day by June, above the original target of 50 million litres a day.
Despite recent wet weather April was another month of below average rainfall in many parts of the region. Reservoir stocks for the whole region are still only 68% compared with 92% at this time last year.
40 years ago
Keswick query on nuclear water tests
A question about tests on local water supplies in the light of fall out from the Russian nuclear disaster [Chernobyl, Ukraine] was asked at a meeting in Keswick this week attended by a North West Water Authority official. Mr. Peter Harrison, divisional manager for distribution and supplies in the North Lakes, said analysis of tests was in the hands of the National Radiological Protection Board, but they had advised there was no cause for concern.
This week the public in the North West were advised not to drink rain water, although tap water was said to be completely safe. Mr. Eric Impey commented: “If we aren’t drinking rain water then what are we drinking?”
Mr. Harrison said he had been assured there was a significant difference between water caught on a roof or in a tub and water which meandered. “They are quite confident that streams are okay,” he said. Mr. Harrison was attending a meeting of Keswick Civic Society primarily to give a talk about Keswick’s water supply and treatment.
Radiation levels in Cumbria increased by ten times last weekend following heavy rainfall. Samples of milk and vegetables were sent to London for testing although county health experts stressed there was no cause for panic or alarm.
Keswick F.C’s. champion feeling
Keswick footballers have got that champion feeling. For with three games still to play, they have clinched the Westmorland League title for the first time since the 1979-80 season.
Having already won the Invitation Trophy earlier in the season, Keswick are now going for the treble on Tuesday night in the final of the High Sheriff’s Cup when they meet Coniston at Burneside, kick-off 7-00 p.m.
Player manager Stephen Brayton said: “It must be the best season Keswick has ever had. The whole team is on a high at the moment. We have been beaten only twice in the league all season and up to now we have scored 92 goals with only 17 against. It would be nice to top the 100 mark in our remaining fixtures.”
Stephen said that the one black spot on Keswick’s season was their defeat at the hands of a strong Workington Reds side in the Cumberland Cup. Keswick were two up in that tie with just a quarter of an hour to play but succumbed in extra time. Keswick’s secret of success is probably their togetherness. Stephen explained: “We have kept virtually the same squad for the last eight years. We have had long enough to smooth out any problems. The team are all local lads and it’s a measure of our consistency that we haven’t been out of the top five positions in the league in the last eight years.”
This season, with a heavy backlog of fixtures after a bad winter, Keswick have shared their games between Walker Park and Braithwaite pitches. Stephen admitted a preference for the latter ground saying: “It’s a superb surface. It seems to suit our ball playing style.”
Planners give Pavilion go-ahead
Planners have given the go-ahead for the re-development of the Pavilion in Keswick for residential use – at the third attempt.
Two earlier applications by Graves (Cumberland) Ltd. to convert the premises in Station Road were turned down, one on the grounds that there was inadequate access and the other because of inadequate parking space and unneighbourliness. But Tuesday’s Planning Board Development Control Committee meeting agreed to a third application with a new layout for parking at the rear showing a strip exclusively for use by Brundholme Mews and providing space for fourteen cars to park and turn.
Senior planner Rachel Nutman said the scheme went “a long way” towards meeting objections. Details of the elevation are still the subject of more talks.
No to bottle bank
Keswick’s prospects of getting its own bottle bank are slim, it was reported at Tuesday night’s annual meeting of the Civic Society.
The chairman Mr. Norman Akerman said inquiries had been unsuccessful, purely on economic grounds. Penrith’s bottle bank was run by a commercial transport firm, but they claimed it was too costly to collect from places like Keswick.
50 years ago
Letter to the Editor
Dear Editor,–May I through the medium of your columns, express my deep revulsion that the local Council allowed so degrading and grotesque a spectacle as the recent sausage eating contest, to take place in the Market Square. Has Keswick so little to offer in the way of attractions that she must sink so low?
I sincerely hope that whoever is elected in the near future will ensure that no such permit will ever again be granted, and that visitors will not be deterred from coming here, by contests unworthy of Keswick’s heritage, offering not only superb scenery but facilities for swimming, boating, climbing, fishing, photography, bird-watching, to mention just a few.
G. M. Kitchener
Springs Garth
Keswick
