25 YEARS AGO

JUNE 24, 1994

FREE PARKING: Traders in Bridport have gone on the warpath and their first demand is for £250,000 worth of free parking, unanimously backed by Bridport Town Council.

Dozens of traders are reporting a drop in business since the opening of Leo’s and Safeway’s out-of-town supermarkets. They want West Dorset Council to help them compete by letting shoppers in Bridport park free for the first two hours.

RESIDENT HONOUR: Beaminster Town Council has granted a request for the name of a former rural district council clerk, the late Robert Travers, to be placed on the town’s roll of honour.

In a tribute to Beaminster born Mr Travers, who died two years ago, Cllr Ralph Bugler said he was a man who had been dedicated to the town and its people.

SALE SUPPORT: National Trust funds were given a boost when West Dorset Council handed over a cheque for £6,000 to help with the purchase of Cogden Beach.

Councillor John Lock said: “This area is a national treasure and probably the most famous natural feature of the whole of west Dorset, so we are very happy to assist the National Trust to acquire the land.”

50 YEARS AGO

JUNE 20, 1969

LOCAL GOVERNMENT: Local authorities as we know them today are to disappear. If the proposals of the Maud Report are to be implemented, Bridport, Lyme Regis will find them at the mercy of a unitary body responsible for the administration of an area stretching from Lyme Regis in the west to Christchurch in the east and Shaftsbury in the north.

CLUB CONCERNS: The future of Uplyme and Lyme Regis Cricket Club is in the balance. There is a strong possibility that the club will fold up altogether unless there is a speedy revival of interest all round.

The cricket club is short of money, but its great cause for concern is the lack of interest in players and members of the public.

TRAVEL DECLINED: Dorset education committee has rejected an application from parents in the village of Walditch for their transport to be provided to convey 16 children to Bridport Primary School, a distance of just over one and a half miles.