20 YEARS AGO

DISTRICT council bosses confirmed that an area at the side of the soon-to-be-built Sports and Community Hall would be allocated for use by young people, and some sort of BMW or skate park would be created.

Children were being asked to put forward ideas of what equipment they would like to see in the Tarmac area, which would be floodlit and kitted out with basketball hoops. The sum of £25,000 had been put aside, the council promised.

Digger giant JCB blamed a slump in the global economy made worse by the September 11 attacks for laying off 148 workers across all its UK sites.

More than half of the affected staff were taking voluntary redundancies or retiring, the firm said, and around two thirds were office staff.

The Rocester-based firm employed around 3,500 people at the time.