WE took a look back at some of the articles published in the Radcliffe Times on Friday, December 22, 1967.

AN export-boosting Radcliffe firm threatened to quit the town unless a County Council refusal of a planning application was reversed.

After winning a £30,000 export order for machinery, Walton of Radcliffe Sales Ltd, engineers, of Alma Street, applied for permission to extend their premises on to land in Adelphi Street. But Radcliffe Council’s streets and plans committee accepted a County Council recommendation that the application be refused.

The firm appealed to the Ministry of Housing and Local Government and hoped to enlist the support of Bury and Radcliffe MP David Ensor in an attempt to reverse the decision.

Managing director Jack Walton said at the time: “We must extend our premises to meet this very important order.

“If we cannot expand in Radcliffe, we shall have to leave the town - probably for Bolton where industry seems to be encouraged.

“I am very disappointed by Radcliffe Council’s attitude. It is discouraging local industry.”

Borough surveyor John Nuttall said the County Council expressed a wish that the land be re-developed in the future.

The County Council also felt that the extension would be too close to existing housing.

A LORRY driver escaped with only minor injuries on Monday morning when his heavy articulated lorry ploughed through a wall and hit a telegraph pole forcing it through an advertising hoarding near the Bealey Maternity Home, in Dumers Lane, Radcliffe.

Driver Graham Pearson, aged 33, of The Long Croft, Birmingham, was taken to Bury General Hospital but allowed home after treatment.

HOUSEHOLDERS in Bury, Radcliffe, and surrounding towns will have their water rates cut next April if go ahead is given to a new scale of domestic water charges drawn up by Bolton Corporation Waterworks Committee.

The savings come about because of the end of the five year ‘differential’ which has operated since Bolton took over the Irwell Valley and Bacup undertakings.

From next April, if Bolton Town Council approves the proposals, Bolton users will pay more while Bury, Radcliffe, Tottington, Whitefield and Ramsbottom residents will enjoy lower rates.

The new charges, which are expected to yield an extra £150,000 in the next financial year, will go before Bolton Town Council on January 3.