A look back at the biggest stories of this week from 60, 40 and 20 years ago.
1958: Two major building projects were scheduled for Romford.
They included two 10-storey “skyscraper” blocks of 50 flats in the first outline plan to re-house 278 families and a scheme to build 208 lock-up garages for council tenants.
They had been approved in principle by Romford’s go-ahead building and planning committee.
These plans challenged the government “freeze” policy on local authority building and the plan for the Waterloo Road area needed to receive county approval before further action was taken.
Both plans had to also be formally accepted by the next council meeting.
The Waterloo Road development included 50 dwellings for the elderly, 70 three-bedroom dwellings and Romford’s first 10-storey “skyscraper” blocks of two-bedroom homes.
1978: A shock report revealed that the numbers of unruly children suspended for attacking teachers or disrupting classes had soared.
In 1977, 24 pupils were suspended from Havering’s schools, the same number as for the whole of 1975 and 1976 together.
Havering’s education chiefs heard that of the borough’s 22 secondary schools, 14 had been involved in the suspension of pupils since September.
And in that time, six teachers had been physically attacked by pupils.
Incidents at schools in the previous six months included a teacher being threatened with a hammer by a pupil, an unprovoked attack on a teacher who was kicked and punched and a pupil threatening a teacher with a workman’s saw.
A special “sin-bin” for “scoundrel” pupils was to be set-up in Havering due to the rise in incidents.
But Labour Councillor Steve Clark feared the scheme would create a “school for scoundrels” and a “breeding ground for criminals”.
1998: A hospital launched an investigation after files of patients’ private medical records were mistakenly posted to a Romford woman.
Margaret Kebell was astonished to receive her health file and those of 21 strangers following the bungle at King George’s Hospital, Goodmayes.
The package had been intended only for the hospital’s internal mail but somehow it was placed among a pile of letters for posting.
Mrs Kebbell, of Carlisle Road, said: “This kind of mistake is simply disgusting.
“What if the records had got into the wrong hands?
“Many of the documents contain private information about old people who live on their own.”
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