Chronicle chief reporter JACK TOLSON takes a look at what was making the news in January 1994.

MORE BOBBIES ON THE BEAT IN RETURN TO OLD-STYLE POLICING

SWEEPING changes in the way Barnsley is policed will be introduced next week.

Police chiefs say the changes - the biggest for nearly 30 years - are in response to calls from the public for extra officers on the beat.

More officers are to be released from desk jobs while others are being told to spend less time in cars and more time walking the streets.

A new police station is also to be opened in Lundwood later this year as the police seek to work closer with the community in the fight against crime.

Police spokesman, Inspector David Keys, says the changes mark a return to the policing practices of the ‘60s.

“We’ve not invented and idea with this - in fact what we are doing is returning to the traditional community-based policing of years gone-by,” he said.

“It will certainly be one of the first times in the country that this old style of policing has been brought back and used in an urban area such as Barnsley.

“A similar style has been in operation in the rural part of Barnsley since last year and that is proving successful.”

Inspector Keys says he hopes the new-look police will be more flexible, more efficient and provide a better service for the people of Barnsley.

“There is no more money available to recruit extra officers so we have to make use of the resources we have available and we believe the new system will enable us to do that,” he said.

BARNSLEY IS WUNDERBAR!

BARNSLEY is the tops according to a German couple who keep on coming back for more.

And they dismissed claims, made by a Surrey visitor in last week’s Chronicle, that Barnsley was the dirtiest town in England, and streets were choked full of marauding yobs at Christmas.

Borge and Doris Hansin, from Spandau in West Berlin, who returned home on Wednesday after a two-week stay with friends, said they have been coming to Barnsley for about five years, ever since meeting a local couple in Lanzarote.

“It is very friendly over here,” said Herr Hansin.

“The first time we came over here my wife’s English was not very good and people could not have been more helpful.

“Being a small town, people are very friendly.”

The streets of Barnsley, he added, were not dirty - and far cleaner than those in Sheffield.

COLLECTING CANS WINS PANTOMIME TRIP FOR PHILLIP

CANNY youngster Phillip Lawson won himself and his family front-row seats for the last night of the Snow White pantomime at Barnsley’s Civic Theatre.

The competition required young people to collect empty aluminium cans during the Christmas period ad cash them in at the Alcan collection van which visits Barnsley’s Asda supermarket.

Phillip, aged six, has been scouring the area around his Monk Bretton home for discarded cans for more than two years and has already raised more than £1,500 for local hospitals.

Nevertheless, he still managed to collect more than 3,00 cans during the two-week period to win the competition.