Looe Island owner
turned down fortune
IT has been announced that the Cornwall Wildlife Trust will eventually take over Looe Island, the wish of its owner Miss 'Babs' Atkins, who has made the decision to help keep safe the special environment with the wildlife which inhabits it.
Eighty three year old Miss Atkins, bought the island, also known as St George's Island, more than 35 years ago, together with her late sister Evelyn. She died three years ago at 87, and had written books about the sisters' island life, the most well known being 'We Bought an Island'.
Miss Atkins has admitted she has received many offers for the island from developers, keen to turn it into a holiday attraction, which in some cases have reached the £2million mark, but she has decided the wildlife is more important than the money. Full story on page 19.
Bruce leads
anti-metric rally
TRAGO Mills boss Bruce Robertson led a rally in London yesterday, opposing the enforced use of metric measurements.
People from all over the country gathered for the Business Against Metrification Day, organised by the British Weights and Measures Association, of which Mr Robertson is the chairman. Demonstrators met at Parliament Square, from where they went on to the House of Commons.
A 2000 party with
a Royal flavour
TOWN councillors in Liskeard have been looking into the possibility of combining a Millennium party on August 6 with a celebration of the Queen Mother's l00th birthday on August 4.
Songs from the musicals may well be performed during the day, and it has also been suggested the birthday could be commemorated by the planting of an oak tree in Castle Park, and Happy Birthday posters being displayed in shops and houses. Other ideas incorporated draping a very large Union Jack over the front of Webb's Hotel, with an enlarged photograph of the Queen Mum, and sending a letter of congratulations.
Battle over Tamar
Bridge toll
THE joint committee, which operates the Tamar bridge, is challenging a European decision which may lead to VAT at 17.5 per cent being levied on bridge tolls.
The European Court of Justice has been considering whether the UK should fall in line with other EU states and collect tax on the country's toll roads and bridges. Joint committee members have agreed to continue lobbying for the Tamar bridge to be exempt.
SE Cornwall target
for Conservatives
CONSERVATIVE Party activists in SE Cornwall have welcomed the news that the constituency is listed as one of the Tory Party's top target seats for the next General Election. After leading a delegation of senior local Conservative Party workers to a recent target seat conference, the chairman of SE Cornwall Conservative Association said: 'The aim of the conference was to outline strategies that will take the Conservative Party on from our successes in this year's elections to victory at the General Election.'