Hospital facelift

Work has begun to give the Accident and Emergency department at Watford General Hospital a £110,000 facelift. The refurbishment, which will take about six weeks to complete, will involve expanding facilities and re-equipping the department. It will also provide an overall improvement in the environment for staff and patients. The department will not close at any time during the works.

[July 2, 1993]

Leisure centre bans smoking

Cigarettes are to be stamped out in the café and bar at Watford Leisure Centre. The areas are to become smoke-free zones after Watford borough councillors agreed to members’ requests to impose a ban. The decision was taken at Tuesday’s meeting of the council’s civic amenities committee in response to a suggestion made last year. Councillors heard the move would encourage customers to stay longer, resulting in higher sales per head. The move has also been viewed as a marketing opportunity for the council, enabling it to promote one of the first no smoking bars and cafes in town.

[July 2, 1993]

Bricks laid to perfection

Love it or hate it, Watford’s giant shopping centre - dubbed the “theatre of shopping” by its owners – has caught the eye of judges in a national building design competition. More than three million bricks, in first class condition and laid to perfection, helped make the Harlequin Centre the South East regional winner of the 1993 Brick Development Association Quality Brickwork Awards. It was chosen from more than 300 building projects spread throughout the UK and Northern Ireland.

[July 2, 1993]

Print workers devastated

Print workers are said to be stunned by the shock closure of their factory near Radlett. Passmore International, which employs 170 people, announced on Friday its plant in Colney Street will shut in August, although machinery will start being moved out next week. At least 90 jobs will be lost. Up to 80 workers will be offered the chance to relocate to Maidstone or Basildon as part of company restructuring.

[July 9, 1993]

Boost for town shops

Shoppers and traders seem likely to be given a boost thanks to a new project in Rickmansworth. A private market, called Shop in Store, is due to open in the town centre on Monday, providing space for up to 33 small businesses to trade at a cut-price fee. The scheme, organised by husband and wife John and Diane Laine, will see traders each taking a partitioned unit in what used to be the Tesco supermarket in Station Road. It is hoped the market will eventually attract services of all types, including food, toys, clothes and hardware retailers.

[July 9, 1993]

Council to air ideas for market

The kiss of life could be breathed in Watford Market after a thorough review is carried out by a team of specialists this year. Possibilities include opening the market on more days and moving it into the open. And one Watford councillor has suggested the market be moved to The Parade to bring life back to that part of the town centre. Despite being praised in the national press recently as a source of high quality goods at competitive prices, stall vacancies at the market during the last 18 months and custom fell. The problem is thought to be partly due to the market’s poor environment in comparison with the recently refurbished Charter Place precinct and the Harlequin Centre. Now Watford Borough Council has decided it must be given a new lease of life in order to maintain it as an “important source of income”.

[July 16, 1993]

Shopmobility plan rolls into action

Shopping in Watford is set to take on a new dimension next month when the town’s Shopmobility scheme gets off the ground. Shopmobility will give the disabled people of Watford the chance to go out shopping in their town without having to rely on others. The scheme, run by Miss Caroline Bagley and sponsored by Watford Borough Council, allows people to borrow one of a fleet of motorised and manual wheelchairs for shopping.

[July 23, 1993]

The milk of human kindness

Employees of Express Dairy will be delivering crime prevention in Watford and Rickmansworth along with the daily pints. They have agreed to work with police and keep a sharp eye out for anything or anyone suspicious while carrying out their early morning rounds. In a unique scheme, milkmen are being trained by Hertfordshire Police to watch over houses and customers. It is hoped they will provide police with information that could help solve crimes – and even save lives – across the county.

[July 30, 1993]

Open for business

After 25 years of planning, three years of work, and £33.5million, the first cars, buses and lorries started rumbling along the M1 link road yesterday. At 11.25am, quarter of an hour after Hertfordshire County Council Chairman Cllr Michael Colne had cut the ribbon, the stream of cars and lorries began to trundle along bringing business to Watford and, according to the handful of protesters, nightmares to its residents.

[July 30, 1993]

What was happening in the world in July 1993?

• A leap second is added to the clock (July 1)

• An Islamist mob sets fire to the hotel where The Satanic Verses translator Aziz Nesin resides in Turkey, killing 37 (July 2)

• Electrochemist Faiza Al-Kharafi becomes the first woman to head a major university in the Middle East (July 5)

• Musician Bjork releases her first solo album (July 5)

• An earthquake in Japan triggers a devastating tsunami that kills 230 (July 12)

• The Mars Observer takes the first photo of Mars (July 26)

• The Mafia bombs historical buildings in Rome, Milan and Vatican City, killing five (July 27)

• The first version of Microsoft’s Windows NT operating system is released to manufacturing (July 27)

• Prince Ronald ‘Ronnie’ Mutebi is crowned king of Uganda (July 31)