Rivals for the prime Watford town centre site of the Carlton Cinema are lining up for a big planning battle. The site could become a nightclub, an office block, or an extension of the Palace Theatre next door. The leases on both the cinema and the theatre expire in July. The borough council wants to buy the freehold of the cinema and the theatre. The council’s plan would safeguard the civic theatre in the 80s, while the cinema would become theatre offices, rehearsal rooms, a coffee shop and a restaurant.
The minister of Beechen Grove Baptist Church has criticised the protesters who want the Monty Python film, The Life of Brian, banned in Watford. In his church magazine, Rev. Ronald Young regrets that much of the opposition comes from Christians. He writes: “This film cannot possibly do any lasting damage to the faith and I would not be at all surprised if some who see it will finish up with greater sympathy for the Christian point of view.” Another 335 people have written urging the borough council to ban the film.
An electronic company is to double its staff and the size of its British headquarters in Watford. This will mean 62 more jobs and another 12,500 sq ft of offices and laboratories. The firm is Fluke, part of an American corporation which this month became a British limited company with a 1979 turnover of £4million. Fluke opened its Colonial Way headquarters just over a year ago. With new machinery, including a computer next month, the investment is about £750,000.
Another familiar landmark at Mill End is being demolished this week. Numbers 267, 269 and 271 Uxbridge Road – which includes the old saddlers shop – will soon be no more than a memory, to the dismay of immediate neighbours, who approached their ward councillor in a vain bid to delay demolition. The building, they pointed out, was Georgian and had been recommended for Grade II listing. A car park is planned for the site.
The first male nurse to train at Watford Maternity Hospital has just begun his course. Chris Ramsey, 24, who is undergoing the 78-week training to become a State Registered Nurse, is studying obstetrics for four weeks under new European Economic Community directives. The EEC insists that all student nurses cover obstetrics, psychiatry, community care and geriatrics to become Euro-nurses. Watford has lagged behind hospitals in other parts of Britain until now. Since the 60s many male student nurses have entered maternity hospitals for part of their training.
What was happening in the world in January 1980?