LOOKING back on some of the stories the Gazette has reported through the years...

July 1997

THIEVES who masqueraded as council officials searched the house of an elderly Thornbury couple and stole around £500 in cash.

Two men called at the home of an 87-year-old man and his wife in the Gloucester Road area pretending to be officials from Northavon District Council’s housing department.

One of the men engaged the couple, who were both partially sighted and hearing impaired, in conversation while the other searched the house, forcing open a wardrobe and some boxes, making off with a plastic box containing cash and two black wallets, also with money inside.

July 2007

CONCERNS were raised about the planning process of an application to extend a local quarry.

Sandra O’Neill, a South Gloucestershire councillor for Charfield, said that she was very worried about the applications that had been submitted to extend the Wickwar Quarry.

Cllr O’Neill said she was concerned the newly-formed development control committee at South Gloucestershire Council would not have enough experience when it met for the first time the following month to decide on the applications.

Three applications had been submitted to the council, with quarry owner Cemex wanting to expand the site by 40 acres towards Charfield, extending operating hours, five days a week, and extending operating hours for the coating plant to 24 hours a day, seven days a week to meet demand.

Cllr O’Neill said: “I am worried that the councillors on the committee are new and it takes a long time to build up knowledge and understanding of the planning process.”

A council spokesman said the new committee was being given training and would be briefed on the background to certain subjects.