February 1, 1969

BURY'S 5,000 council house tenants may be asked to do repairs on their own homes as part of a drive to cut costs.

The move is being considered as a way of stemming soaring house repair costs, which in just over three years have rocketed from £65,000 to around £90,000 a year.

A special meeting of the Housing Committee is to be held on March 12 when emergency measures will be considered.

One idea is to invite residents to carry out some repairs themselves for which they would be reimbursed by the council.

MARKET traders have warned that parking space cuts constitute "economic suicide" that will deter shoppers from coming to the town.

The reduction of parking spaces in Bury centre, culminating in the closure to motorists if Knowsley Street railway goods yard access road this week has been described as a “death knell” by Bury Open Market Traders.

Bury Transport Department has obtained a lease from British Railways on a stretch of the goods yard access road, and will be using it as temporary accommodation for buses.

Previously the road had been used by motorists to park, but the Transport Department points outs that this parking was unofficial and was only countenanced because no-one objected.

The traders complain that parking availability has become increasingly restricted and point out that car trade provides a real contribution to the market’s economic life.

Chairman of the Open Market Traders’ Association, Mr J Myers-Cough, said: “Bury is supposed to be a market town, and therefore if it lives up to its name it should provide adequate car parking facilities for shoppers.”

A BUTCHER'S shop crowded with people searching for something to feed their hungry families is not exactly the safest place for a healthy thriving duck, but unaware of the possible danger, one waddled into Mr Norman Howarth’s shop in Hornby Street on Tuesday morning.

Fortunately for “Nuisance”, as it has been named by Mr Howarth, the duck was on safe ground and only its dignity was at stake when it was placed out of the way in a cardboard box.

Mr Howarth said: “It is a good job that it came after Christmas and not before, or I doubt it would have got much further than my shop.” Mr Howarth now intends to take the duck to a friend’s farm if she is not claimed.