30 YEARS AGO

ASHBOURNE’S Kwik Save store was the only supermarket in town to boycott Sunday trading, after laws were lifted earlier in the year to allow some shops to open on some Sundays. The firm’s chief executive Graeme Seabrook said shoppers would end up paying for the convenience of buying their groceries on a Sunday if all shops began opening on the Sabbath.

The Gateway store led the march on Sunday trading, which was initially allowed only in tourist areas, and the Central Midlands Co-operative Society soon followed suit.

Hundreds of school pupils were facing the loss of a free school bus service, as a review got underway looking into altering the three-mile minimum distance a pupil could live away from school and travel for free to five miles. The scheme was costing the county council £6.3 million pounds per year.