100 years ago

THOSE who had advocated for so long some drastic curtailment of the smoke nuisance would follow with interest, and also perhaps with a little anxiety, the proceedings in the House of Lords, when the second reading of the Smoke Abatement Bill would be moved.

The object of the measure was to strengthen the powers of the sanitary authorities so as to enable them to deal more effectively with an evil which grew in seriousness every year.

As was well known unless the emission came under the category of “black smoke,” the police were for all practical purposes debarred from taking action.

This was only another instance of that illogical legislation of which our mythical Statute Book revealed so many glaring illustrations.

Actually, of course, the colour of the smoke was of very slight importance.

The evil lay not in the colour, but in the nature; the smoke emitted from the exhaust pipe of a motor car was not less objectionable and unwholesome than smoke from coal because of the one was only pale blue and the other a disagreeable black.


50 years ago

London’s new airport that would be needed by the early 1970s should be at Stansted (Essex), said the report of the Inter-Departmental Committee on the Third London Airport just issued.

Mr Julian Amery, Minister of Aviation, said in a foreword that the Government believed this was the right choice, “We had plans for the further expansion of Heathrow (London Airport) and Gatwick (Surrey), but the day must come when they will be working at the limit of their capacity.

“It is clear from the report that the time has come to start outline planning, substantial expenditure on construction however, need not be incurred until we can assess more accurately the date when the other two airports would be saturated.”


25 years ago

Police in York and East Coast holiday towns would crack down on lager louts over the Easter weekend in an attempt to prevent trouble.

Officers would be on overtime in Bridlington ready to weed out rowdies.

They would be backed by a central Humberside force, including dog-handlers.

Their operational plan was aimed at avoiding any repeat of disturbances two years before when thugs caused damage amounting to thousands of pounds in the hotspot resort.

Vigilance would also be stepped up at Scarborough where a bylaw banning drinking in the streets had recently come into force.

One of only six towns given the experimental bylaw by Home Secretary Douglas Hurd, Scarborough had been plagued by gangs of marauding youths and scooter riders.