Blackpool Nostalgia in 1993: Skating on thin ice, drink driving increase and the bank robber who dropped the cash

Danger warning of skating on thin ice

Young people in Stanley Park were risking their lives by walking on treacherous thin ice. The Fylde was gripped under arctic conditions and park rangers continued their battle with vandals to maintain the warning signs around the potential death trap. Blackpool leisure services client officer Fred Rigby said rangers were replacing the wrning signs at the rate of 20 a week.

The vandals were putting younger children at risk by removing the warnings, he said.

“The water is five feet deep and once you go under there is no guarantee you will come up in the same place. Then you are trapped under the ice.

“The bottom is slippery and you may not be able to stand up again.”

North West Water spokesman Peter Gregory warned of the dangers of frozen reservoirs, rivers and canals.

“They might look attractive but the ice is often thin.

“The water is often deep and extremely cold. If people want to go ice skating, they are far better gooing to a proper rink.

Snow had fallen in most areas during the night.

Police disappointment as drink drive figures showed increase

Boozy New Year motorists who ignored drink-drive warnings were rapped by Lancashire Police as figures for how many drivers had been stopped, were released.

More motorists tested positive on New Year’s Eve than the previous year despite the force’s extensive anti-drink drive campaign.

Police stopped 95 vehicles during the day and evening and 14 failed the breath test, 2% up on the previous year.

Superintendent Ian Baron said: “We are very disappointed with the figures from New Year’s Eve.”

Since December 7, police in Lancashire had stopped 2,863 derivers, of whom 245 tested positive or refused to take a breath test.

Supt Baron said the overall campaign figures were down on 1991, but fewer motorists were stopped.

They were still, however, waiting for the full Christmas purge figures.

The picture was not quite as black over the whole of the festive period though.

A police spokesman said: “The campaign has not finished and we have to be cautious but we have had fewer positive tests than last year.”

During the 1991 campaign there were more than 3,000 tests in the county, of which 358 were positive or refused. On New Year’s Eve, 70 motorists were stopped, with nine failing the breath test.

Bank robber dropped cash as he made his hasty getaway

A robber who ran into a car and dropped his cash bundle as he fled from a Blackpool bank was being hunted by detectives.

The raider was in such a rush to escape with his haul from the TBS in Westcliffe Drive, Layton, that he ran into a parked Mercedes and dropped the money.

He fell to thr ground at the junction with Grenfell Avenue, but quickly picked himself up, gathered the money and escaped in a car.

But he left about £400 behind which the public collected and returned to the bank.

The bandit walked into the premises and handed a note to the 26-year-old cashier.

Police said the cashier saw what appaeared to be the barrel of a gun, about four inches long, sticking from his jacket.

The note demanded money and he was handed about £1,000 in notes.

The raider never spoke and after his fall when he struck the car, he quickly scooped the money from the road before making off in a light blue car, possibly a Ford Sierra, which had been parked behind the Layton Travel Office.

The police interviewed the driver of the car involved in the accident.

Detective inspector Bruce Dutch said: “No one saw a gun but the cashier assumed there was one from what she saw of a metal barrel and the way he was holding it.”

“It’s so bad we are afraid to go out”

Estate residents spoke of their fury at the rising tide of crime which led to their streets being dubbed Blackpool’s Moss Side.

Householders on the Mereside estate blamed youngsters, the police and Blackpool Council for their plight.

Increases in burglaries, vandals and car thefts left some living in their car. A widow living in Bowness Avenue told how her home was burgled and ransacked while she was attending her brother-in-law’s funeral. In tears, she said: “I have lived here 43 years and I have never known anything like it. It has got so bad you are afraid to go out.”

Councillor Greenhalgh, who was collecting petition signatures to present to Lancashire’s police committe said residents had started likening the area to Moss Side in Manchester. She wanted to work with youngsters to bring back a sense of community.