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

May 1997

POLICE warned homeowners enjoying the hot May weather in 1997 to be aware of “sneak thieves”.

Doors and windows should be kept locked at all times to stop opportunistic thieves from slipping into homes, they said.

The advice came following an theft in Frampton Cotterell.

STAFF at a Safeway supermarket in Yate raised £1,500 for the St John Ambulance division of Chipping Sodbury and Yate.

The money was used to purchase a new ambulance, which was dedicated to Yate Baptist minister Rev Leslie Stoke.

A MOBILE takeaway van that regularly parked itself on Chipping Sodbury’s high street was discovered to be selling food without a licence.

A letter of complaint was sent to the van following a meeting of Sodbury Town Council.

Cllr Roy Vickers said: “I have had quite a lot of complaints about noise levels, filth and parking problems because of the van and it is just not fair.

“If the van’s owner paid his business rates like everyone else then it wouldn’t be so bad.”

May 2007

THE name of a new primary school in Pilning was announced as St Peter’s following a consultation involving parents and children in the area.

Education chiefs were yet to reveal the site of the new £2.5million school, which was replacing Redwick and Northwick primary schools.

The merging of the two schools was made possible by falling pupil numbers, and got the go-ahead in 2006 after a consultation revealed overwhelming support for the move.

A MAN died after colliding with a van on the M5 near Almondsbury.

He was thrown from his car and died at the scene of the accident.

The incident caused miles of tailbacks.