What was on the front of the Evening News this week five, 10, 15 and 20 years ago

20 years ago

• A new multi-million pound cinema complex is set to raise the roof of Norwich's Castle Mall shopping centre.

Bosses today unveiled detailed plans to open an eight-screen, 2000-seat showpiece development on the top floor within two years.

Blueprints for the complex - the most advanced within a 60-mile radius of Norwich - are on city council planners' desks.

• Parents who have lost control of their primary school-age children are leaving them to rampage through communities around Norwich causing a £20,000-plus trail of destruction.

Children as young as eight have vandalised playgrounds and parks in areas such as Thorpe St Andrew, Costessey, Hellesdon and Taverham, it emerged today.

But now, village guardians have told their parents: 'Keep them in your own back garden — we don't want them.'

• A brave village shop owner today spoke of the moment when he chased off three armed raiders as they tried to rob a post office near Norwich.

David Cooper, who runs the village store at Easton, was attacked after the masked men burst into the store wielding baseball bats and an iron bar in front of children and shoppers.

But he managed to defend the post office and his shop and sent the men packing empty-handed.

• Families living on a troubled Norwich estate were today told that the future was in their hands if the heart of their community was ever to beat again.

A call to arms has gone out to everybody living on the Fiddlewood Estate at Catton to bring families closer together and solve the problems they face.

The community has been dogged by problems since a group of shops that formed the communal heart of the estate was forced to close down because gangs of teenagers scared off elderly residents who had been using them.

• Former world champion boxer Herbie Hide today pledged to fight to the final bell to save Norwich Lads Club as the 'For sale sign' went up on the building.

Potential buyers have already shown interest in buying the King Street club when the doors close for the last time on August 31.

One interested buyer is believed to be a housing charity. But Herbie, ex-boxer and cinema owner Les King and city businessman Kenny Cooke spent the weekend thrashing out plans to save the club. And now they have come up with an action plan.

15 years ago

• Norwich is to bid to become one of the prestigious European Capitals of Culture.

If successful, the award would put Norwich on a par with previous winners such as Paris and Athens.

Civic leaders have already begun to prepare the bid for the European Capital of Culture contest for 2008, when a British city will be chosen to hold the title. Former mayor,

• Firefighters were forced to fight a garage blaze under cover of police riot shields after a man held a three-hour siege on its roof.

The man hurled tiles at emergency crews as they battled to put out two fires and end the stand-off at the Jet garage on Aylsham Road, Norwich.

A giant clean-up operation was under way at the garage today, and the damage bill is expected to be between £5,000 and £7,000.

• Plans are in the pipeline to build a new 1,000 space park-and-ride facility on the outskirts of Norwich.

Sprowston has long been earmarked as a potential area for the scheme, which already has sites at Norwich Airport and Postwick.

But the plan for the land, off Wroxham Road, which is owned by Norfolk County Council, more than doubles the original proposals.

Families living close to the proposed site fear increased noise and pollution.

• City skateboarders are set get a lift from a £60,000 investment in three new sites across Norwich.

The city council is looking at pumping tens of thousands of pounds into a project to create skate parks in the north, south and the heart of the city.

Sites already identified as possible locations for the north Norwich park are Pointer's Field or land on the Fiddlewood estate, while in the south, Eaton Park looks

the likely contender. A city centre venue has yet to be agreed.

Ten years ago

• Norwich was today dealt a huge blow after hopes that hundreds of civil service jobs could come to the city were dashed.

Earlier this year the Evening News revealed that the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Home Office were planning on relocating

hundreds of staff here as part of Government plans to relocate 20,000 civil service jobs from London and the South East to cut costs.

Hopes were high that up to 2,500 jobs would be created in Norwich and the city economy would benefit from the knockon effect on spending in retail, property and local businesses.

But today Defra revealed that it would not be moving any new jobs to the city.

• The prospect of another crippling bus strike loomed large today after staff at First moved closer to industrial action over a pay dispute.

Following a meeting with union representatives yesterday, engineering staff have decided to ballot for strike action, with drivers set to follow suit over the next two days.

Angry staff claim the company is three months' late with its latest pay offer and have threatened to bring the city to a standstill again.

Five years ago

• A toddler found wandering alone on a busy Norwich street was saved from potential tragedy when a quick-thinking driver swerved into oncoming traffic.

Police today issued an appeal for the driver of the people carrier to come forward. The close call happened in Barrett Road, Lakenham, with the youngster wearing nothing but a nappy and a T-shirt.

Police were called at 9.30am when reports came in that a child had been found wandering in the middle of the street.

• Solar panels are set to be placed on the roof of City Hall, as the council looks to cut its energy costs and make money by selling electricity to the National Grid.

Norwich City Council's cabinet will next week be asked to agree to go ahead with the project to install the photo voltaic (PV) panels at a cost of £235,000.

The council, which has an annual electricity bill of around £110,000, says the panels will not only cut energy costs but will generate cash.