Lyme Regis: Review of 2009

Former Royal Marine Grahame Forshaw was appointed harbourmaster.

Season ticket holders accused the district council of ‘ripping them off’ when parking fees in Lyme’s council car parks quadrupled in three years.

Anti-social behaviour rates soared by almost half in Lyme Regis.

Tesco announced it would take over the former Woolworth’s store.

Lyme’s bid to host the Jurassic Coast Studies Centre suffered a £1million setback after the South West Regional Development Agency pulled out.

Hot school meals were back on the menu at Charmouth Primary School.

FEBRUARY Icy weather and heavy snowfall caused treacherous driving conditions.

Anti-Tesco campaigners were dismayed after the supermarket was given planning permission.

The BBC confirmed it had been in talks with a major Hollywood studio for a remake of John Fowles’s The French Lieutenant’s Woman.

The Lyme Regis Guides said it would be forced to close unless a new leader was found.

Sales at the Co-op took an instant hit when Tesco was opened in Broad Street.

Lyme Regis Club for Young People said an ancient covenant held up the sale of its former Church Street premises.

West Dorset District Council awarded £5,000 to Lyme Regis Development Trust towards funding the Fossil Festival and £2,486 to the town museum.

MARCH The dog ban on Lyme Regis beach was extended by two months.

Lyme Regis woman Kelly Hutchings had a lucky escape when her car ploughed through railings and hung over the River Lym.

Three schoolboys banned from Tesco for ‘behaving suspiciously’ were welcomed back to the store.

An emergency council meeting was called as opposition to a new mobile phone transmitter at Lyme Regis Industrial Estate intensified.

Michaela Ellis was voted Lyme’s new mayor, replacing Councillor Sally Holman.

Schools in Lyme and Charmouth collectively raised more than £2,300 for Comic Relief.

The derelict Three Cups Hotel was top of the agenda at a meeting held by the Community Alert on Pubs and Hotels campaign.

APRIL The Red Arrows announced they would return with a £9,000 waiver for charity, performing free for Lyme Regis Lifeboat Week.

Grants totalling £15,200 raised by Candles on the Cobb were awarded to regional air ambulances and local youth organisations.

Plans to erect the O2 mobile phone mast were scrapped.

Palmers Brewery accused actor Jeremy Irons of ‘complete ignorance’ following his calls for legal action over the Three Cups Hotel.

The 13th annual Easter Parade raised more than £200 for Lyme Regis Regatta and Carnival.

The Woodroffe School was judged as ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted inspectors.

The fossil of a Plesiosaur, an extinct marine reptile, was unearthed on Monmouth Beach.

MAY Philip and Lisa Burgess, who were rescued after their helicopter crashed into Lyme Bay 10 years ago were traced on the anniversary of their rescue.

English Heritage awarded a £70,000 grant to ensure the future of the historic Cobb.

Teenagers Toby Guest and Ryan Turner saved the life of pensioner Diana Philips when they noticed a blaze at her house while fishing at the Cobb.

Civic guests from Bermuda visited Lyme Regis to celebrate the 400th birthday of their island, discovered in 1609 by Admiral Sir George Somers, a former mayor and MP of the town.

Thousands of people visited the fourth Lyme Regis Fossil Festival, Evolution Rocks!

Local food producers showed off their wares at the first ever Lyme Bay Food Festival.

JUNE Palmers Brewery revealed their plans for a multi-million pound renovation of the Three Cups Hotel incorporating a top name restaurant.

The Town Mill marked 100 years of electricity in Lyme.

Schoolboy Leon Howe joined the fight to save the Three Cups Hotel.

Bill Read was recognised for his service to Lyme Regis with an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List.

The people of Lyme Regis commemorated their longest siege in the bitter civil war in 1644.

Princesses Charlotte Tweedle and Juliette Hughes led the procession at Uplyme annual fete.

LymeNet was under serious threat of closure after its major financial backer pulled funding.

JULY Bikers taking part in the Coast to Coast charity motorcycle run said they could be forced to pull out of Lyme after they were made to feel ‘unwelcome’.

Schoolboys Ben Parry and Dom Turrell, 12, spotted a seal in the sea off Charmouth.

Sat Navs were blamed for a lorry smash at Lyme’s Guildhall – just months after the building was repaired.

Takings were almost double the previous year for Lyme Regis Jazz Festival.

The RNLI defended the need for lifeguards on Lyme’s main town beach following criticism that the service is an unnecessary waste of money.

Lifeboat Week organisers were forced to cancel some events due to the weather but still raised £20,000 for the RNLI.

AUGUST A terrified couple managed to escape what they feared could be a knife threat on Lyme seafront.

Organisations in Charmouth were set to receive thousands of pounds after the successful village fayre.

Drunken yobs gatecrashed a teenager’s birthday party at Raymond’s Hill after the bash was advertised on the internet.

Planning chiefs approved the £1.25million project to transform the ageing Marine Parade Shelters.

Celebration was the message that came from the Cancer Research UK Relay for Life in Lyme Regis.

Marine Theatre manager Nigel Day was called ‘irresponsible’ for abseiling down the side of the building.

SEPTEMBER Neighbours of Lyme Regis father Nicky Robert Prokopowycz, who attacked a teenager leaving him in a coma, wanted the man evicted.

Woodroffe School GCSE students achieved record exam results and the overall A-Level pass rate was 98 per cent.

Six-year-old Max East saved up his pocket money to make a generous donation to Bibic, a charity that helps children with disabilities.

Celebrity chef Keith Floyd died after sharing a birthday meal at Mark Hix’s Oyster and Fish House in Lyme.

Seafront surveillance cameras were called for after vandals smashed beach huts and stole property at Lyme.

Thousands lined the streets to cheer on another colourful carnival parade at Axminster.

OCTOBER Lyme Regis was set to become home to a new £7.5million study centre, helping to generate at least 25 jobs.

Objectors to a plan to build two houses in Whistler’s Wood called on councillors to reject the scheme.

Lyme Regis ArtsFest had one of the most successful years the event has ever seen.

A family of four were taken to hospital after being struck by falling rock while fossil hunting on a Charmouth beach.

Traders warned that plans to combine Lyme’s post office with a Spar store would be the final nail in the coffin for struggling businesses.

Lyme’s oldest resident Clarice Duncan died, aged 108.

Former Lyme Regis carnival queen attendant Serena Christopher lost her battle with cancer.

NOVEMBER Miracle baby Charlie West, born three months premature, made a rare visit home to help raise funds for the hospital unit that saved his life.

Around 70 donation bags filled for Tenovus in Lyme were stolen for the second time in a few months.

Thousands of people braved the rain and wind to watch a magnificent firework display in Lyme Regis.

Storm watchers risked their lives as giant waves crashed over the Cobb during hurricane-force winds.

Conservationists and fishermen feared that oil tankers anchored in Lyme Bay were an ecological disaster waiting to happen.

Second World War veteran and Lyme Regis barber Ron Baker died, aged 87.

DECEMBER The big Christmas lights switch-on in Lyme Regis was the most disappointing this decade with heavy rain and gale-force winds hampering the occasion.

Supporters of the proposed skatepark in Lyme Regis presented a petition with more than 1,000 signatures to the town council.

Christmas officially arrived in Charmouth as the village hosted its second festive street fayre.

The Woodroffe School was forced to pull out of negotiations to take over the former boys club building in Lyme Regis when it was deemed ‘unfit for purpose’.

The third Christmas Tree Festival was bigger than ever, with 30 trees decorated by local organisations.