Blackpool Nostalgia in 1981: Cane ban, storm force winds, beer strike and first computerised timetable

Councillor’s calls for cane ban rethink

A plan to scrap the cane in Lancashire schools would lead to scores of children being sent home, causing trouble for parents and the police, a teachers’ leader warned.

Lancashire’s secretary of the powerful National Union of teachers called for a swift rethink at a meeting of the county council on what he called ‘a doctrinaire and possibly ill-advised scheme.’

Frank Shuttleworth said the NUT felt bound to remind head teachers that they had the power to exclude and suspend children.

If the cane was abolished, many more children would have to be dealt with in this way.

“If we can’t use corporal punishment, we will need sanctions in order to keep discipline in schools,” he said.

“It is only logical that the number of children suspended and sent home is going to increase.

“If the children are not in school, they will be a burden on parents and possibly the police.

“If the county council wants to ban the cane, councillors must be prepared to pay the price.”

High winds batter the coastline

Winds of up to force 10 battered the Fylde Coast but Blackpool escaped with little damage.

“The Illuminations got off quite lightly,” said a spokesman for Blackpool Borough Council.

“There has been some damage and we had a team of men out all night but we suffered far less than in the storms three weeks ago.”

Most of the damage was at North Shore.

Police say they had a few reports of minor damage but the fire brigade had no calls at all during the night in the Blackpool area.

Winds gusted to 54 knots and prevented the Pandoro container ship Tipperary from leaving its berth at Fleetwood.

Sand was blown across the promenade on the Golden Mile and workmen had to clear the road for traffic to pass safely.

Revolutionary new college timetable

The age of the computer had reached college timetabling in Blackpool and Fylde - and in a big way.

When the 700 ‘O’ and ‘A’ Level students at Blackpool and Fylde College started their new academic year, they were given a computerised timetable within half-an-hour of enrolment. This was a job which had taken staff and students at least a week to thrash out in the past.

The revolutionary new system, believed to be the most advanced in the country, was the brainchild of John Gray, senior lecturer in physical science.

It was programmed through an ordinary £2,500 computer and was hailed by College Principal Michael McAllister as a ‘superb example’ of how computers can be used to get more efficient use of expensive labour, such as teachers.

Barrels run dry as beer strike goes on

Brewery delivery men were meeting to discuss their week-old strike which had hit the Fylde’s Whitbread pubs.

Many of the Blackburn based brewery’s pubs were selling other brews as Whitbread supplies dried up and brewery bosses had told scores of pubs in Lancashire, Cumbria and Yorkshire to buy elsewhere to stay open.

The dispute, involving around 100 transport and warehouse workers, could have had a disastrous effect on Blackpool’s much needed Illuminations income, if it became a lengthy wrangle. The workers at the Shadsworth distribution depot in Blackburn, walked out the week before over a pay dispute. They were meeting to discuss a plea by management to return to work for further talks. Some Fylde pubs had already started to feel the effects of the dispute.

Blackpool’s gauntlet pub in York Street was forced to close when it ran out of draught beer, but reopened the next day after buying from other sources.

Mr Simeon Davies, manager of the Miller Arms in Singleton said draught beer supplies were adequate but his selection of wines in the restaurant may be limited.