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

November 1977

TWO firemen resigned from Northavon Fire Brigade amid an ongoing strike over pay.

Tracey Watkins, who worked at the Pilning and Severn Beach fire station, said he had decided to bring his retirement date forward due to the strike, while 24-year-old Stuart Taylor from Tockington, who worked for the Patchway station, said he would quit to take up a new job as a milkman as there would be “less aggro”.

Mr Taylor said that by changing occupation he would be getting nearly as much pay as a fireman, but with much more free time to himself, which he would use to write novels, including a light-hearted autobiography about his life in the fire brigade.

A fire brigade spokesman said the management would not be able to guarantee the jobs of those few firemen who did not strike after the dispute was over.

He said that their union colleagues may blacklist the non-strikers, but added that rural places like Thornbury had least to fear in the strike.

November 1987

YATE Town Council was informed that there was little likelihood that a new police station would be built in the foreseeable future.

Avon and Somerset chief constable Ron Broome wrote to the council after they asked for a police station and an increase in the number of officers in the area.

He wrote: “A site has been identified in the Yate area which might, in the future, be used to provide a police station, but I regret to say that because of financial constraints, there is little likelihood that it will be built in the foreseeable future.”

The town council had made arrangements to meet chief inspector D Leach for a discussion on policing problems.