We look back at what was happening in Norwich this week five, 10, 15 and 20 years ago through the front pages of the Eastern Daily Press.

20 years ago

• A £60 million leisure, shopping and housing scheme to turn rundown Riverside into Norwich's own Docklands development is set to be unveiled.

Designs for the 42-acre site have been drawn up by one of Britain's most famous architects.

The plans show how the current road between Norwich railway station and Carrow Road will be ripped up and turned into a walkway.

• Norwich City football club officially confirmed they had debts of more than £5 million and must make more sweeping cuts to survive.

Club secretary Andrew Neville laid the Canaries' future firmly on the line in a letter to Carrow Road's army of stewards..

He told the match-day stewards their pay would be cut because the club could no longer keep it at Premiership levels.

Cuts have already included virtually abandoning the club's £1 million training centre at Colney, with the 'football department' being moved back to Carrow Road, the draining of the showpiece hydrotherapy pool because of the cost of the heating bill and the club's nationwide scouting network being axed, along with Canaries stalwart Duncan Forbes.

• Hard-up families in Norwich could be left without water by a new card payment scheme that can cut off supplies, it is feared.

Anglian Water is piloting budget unit 'smart cards' which can cut off the water supply after they run out.

The cards, based on electricity and gas meter-style varieties, run on credits and are designed to prevent customers running up arrears.

The big fear of consumer advisers is that the system would mean those in poorer households ending up cutting themselves off.

• Controversial cable boxes in the Norwich area have suddenly grown - because of the weather.

Families opened their doors to find the boxes outside had shot up 10 inches and become noisier.

Summer heat has played havoc with the boxes' system, making them overheat, so Bell Cablemedia has had to extend the top of the boxes to fit cooling fans.

• Mike Walker was today appointed manager of Norwich City football club.

After a day of intense activity at Carrow Road, the man who led the club to the heights of Europe was unveiled to the waiting media late this afternoon - less than an hour after the dismissal of Gary Megson.

Megson, 37, flew back from his summer holiday this morning and met members of the board, including the acting chairman Barry Lockwood, at the Canaries' Colney training centre at three o'clock.

• Heartbroken parents told how a rare viral infection took the life of their four-year-old 'little angel'.

Amie Moore died on Saturday, two days after being struck down by a brain virus after a family barbecue.

Parents Yvonne, 47, and David, 39, of Proctor Road, Sprowston, said her death had devastated the family.

• Norwich City football club's returning hero, Mike Walker, today urged fans and businesses to rally round and give the club an urgent cash injection.

Carrow Road box office staff this morning saw the first signs of a rush for season tickets following Gary Megson's departure yesterday. Trading at the club's souvenir shop was off to a brisk start, too.

While promising the players a diet of blood, sweat and tears, Walker acknowledged the fans who forgave his move to Everton in 1994 and have campaigned ever since for his reinstatement. In the end that campaign became 'almost impossible to resist', he said.

15 years ago

• An alarming increase in the number of thieves targeting vulnerable OAPs today prompted police to launch a new crime prevention project.

Pensioners are to be given packs containing leaflets and stickers in a bid to reduce the number of bogus caller raids.

Burglars in Norwich are increasingly targeting elderly victims who they see as being easier to con and pose less of a threat.

• Drivers venturing into the heart of Norwich are set to be hit with on-street parking charges of up to £1.20 an hour.

Pay and display machines will be springing up across the city centre during the next few weeks in preparation for a project designed to ease traffic congestion and improve the environment.

Drivers have been warned city council traffic wardens will be out in force to clamp down on people who flout the new laws, brought in under the Road Traffic Act 1991.

Restrictions will cover busy city centre roads including Prince of Wales Road, Rouen Road, Ber Street and St Benedict's, although it will still be free to park in the evenings and on Sundays.

10 years ago

• Plans for the controversial Northern Distributor Route around the city are set to receive a boost as the Government gears up to award the city millions of pounds in development cash.

Housing and planning minister Yvette Copper is expected to reveal Norwich has been awarded Growth Point Status (GPS), a pledge that will provide cash to support much-needed house and road building schemes in the city.

It is hoped the new status will add extra money - and political pressure - to plans to build an NDR, dual further stretches of the A11 and A47, and create more affordable homes.

• Grandmother Maureen Mann simply cannot stop smiling after her daughter-in-law gave birth to the family's third set of twins - a 343,000 to 1 chance.

Three of Mrs Mann's children have now had twins, giving the proud grandmother the family she always dreamed of.

Mrs Mann, 59, said: 'I think it is absolutely brilliant. I was an only child so I'd always hoped for a big family!'

• A motorcyclist was fighting for life after an horrific crash on one of the city's busiest roads which brought rush hour traffic to a standstill.

The victim's motorbike burst into flames and ended up on the roof of a car after the smash in Guardian Road on the ring road just after 7am.

The motorcyclist and car driver were both taken to the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital with serious injuries.

• A young football fanatic who was told he would never play the sport he loves again after he was diagnosed with a rare disease has stunned experts by returning to the pitch.

Goalkeeper Josh Harl, 14, looked destined for a glittering football career and hoped to play between the sticks for Norwich City.

The youngster, from Mill Road, Stoke Holy Cross, had received a whole host of awards from Football in the Community summer schools.

When he was seven he was selected to join Norwich City football club's player development centre.

But just months later, in June 1999, he was suddenly rushed into hospital after getting pains in his leg so bad that he was unable to walk.

Five years ago

• A long-held plan to build 1,000 new homes on the edge of Norwich has taken a significant step forward with the selection of a developer to carry out the first phase of the project.

Norwich City Council and the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) have chosen Taylor Wimpey as the partner to deliver the first homes at the site in Three Score, Bowthorpe.

Backers say the scheme - the first of its kind in the country - will deliver much-needed homes and create hundreds of jobs while building work is carried out.

But the council has faced pressure to make sure proper community infrastructure and facilities are put in place and the development does not repeat the mistakes of the Queen's Hill development in Costessey.

• A block of flats and shopping centre that has been blighted by complaints over living conditions and car park pot-holes is up for sale - and calls are being made for the council to take action over the troubled complex.

Earlham House, in Earlham Road, has been the subject of much debate in recent years with long-running battles over the car park and court action over insufficiently heated flats.

A 125-year lease has now been advertised for the site for £2.35m.

• A spate of injuries at a newly refurbished playground has led to safety concerns from parents.

Four people have told the Evening News about injuries which also include a head wound and a broken arm, but it is thought that more than seven children have broken bones at the Sprowston playground in the last seven weeks.

Sprowston Parish Council clerk June Hunt said she was only aware of one incident since the refurbishment and no full details of any of the incidents had been reported.