A look back at the biggest local stories from this day 20, 40 and 60 years ago.
1957:Romford Council, the second in Britain to do so, called upon the British government to end H-bomb tests and seek an early international agreement to ban the manufacture of all nuclear weapons.
This resolution, passed with only two Tory dissents after tense, impassioned debated, was going to be sent to the prime minister and to Ron Ledger, Labour MP for Romford, for action.
Grim warnings came from two Labour councillors.
Councillor D. Raper, chairman of Romford’s health committee and mover of the resolution, climaxed a powerful plea for “nuclear peace” with the words: “Let Her Majesty’s government grasp that opportunity and call a halt to this criminal lunacy before it is too late”.
Councillor W. A. White sombrely pointed out that doctors and scientists alike protested that if nations continued to “play about with the hydrogen bomb, then every living thing on this planet will die the most horrifying death”.
1977:Vandals went on a £2,000 orgy of destruction at a car sales site in Hornchurch.
Brake fluid was poured over 11 vehicles, three caravans and tyres were slashed.
Paul Austin of the Gladiator Motor Company said: “I could have cried when I saw the damage.”
He ran the company with his 52-year-old father Arthur.
The two men had only been in business at the South End Arterial Road site for four months.
He said: “This was completely senseless damage.
“As this is an open site we have no insurance cover for cars parked here.
“Now we have to stand the loss.
“£2,000 is an awful lot of money to find.”
1997:A paedophile whose prison sentence was coming to an end, was returning to live in Havering, even though social services said he was a threat to the community.
The 61-year-old man was going to return home to Collier Row on August 19, the Recorder revealed.
He was released on licence in March but the licence was revoked in May, after a Recorder campaign put pressure on social services and police.
The man served five years of a seven-year sentence for serious sexual assaults on children.
He was not going to be on licence when he was released, because the judge did not order that.
A prison service spokesman said it was usual for sexual offenders to be released after serving two-thirds of their sentence and then be on licence when released, until three-quarters of their sentence had been finished.
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