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

October 1997

AVON county councillors called on the Secretary of State for the Environment to lift his order directing the county to find 80 gypsy pitches.

Members of the county travellers sub-committee unanimously agreed to ask the DoE to withdraw the order because of a proposed change in the law.

The DoE issued a consultation paper on Government proposals to reform the act - a significant shift in policy.

If the proposal became law, it would have given local authorities more power to move on illegally parked caravans. County councils, which at the time had to find sites, were also hopeful they would be let off the hook.

The consultation paper argued that the 1968 act was too loosely defined and had become an open-ended commitment for local authorities, “draining taxpayers’ money and undermining the gypsies’ responsibility to provide it for themselves”.

Members of the travellers sub-committee agreed to formulate a response to the paper.

October 2007

SOUTH Gloucestershire Council proved its green credentials by agreeing to build a new eco-friendly council headquarters in Yate at a cost of £29million.

Planning watchdogs gave the green light for the innovative office complex on the junction of Badminton Road and Stover Road.

The offices, which include wind turbines, a biomass boiler and automatic lighting controls, became the council’s third main regional centre after Thornbury and Kingswood.

Councillors said they hoped the complex, due to open by 2010, would ultimately save taxpayers’ money by bringing around 900 staff from rented offices across the area under one roof.