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LOCAL NEWS 02/04/01 Birmingham Chamber of Commerce and Industry has called on the Government to follow the US policy and abandon the climate change levy. The 1997 Kyoto agreement committed developed countries to substantial cuts in emissions of greenhouse gases. A spokeswoman said the levy would have an impact on the "already fragile" West Midlands manufacturing sector. A herd of more than 70 red deer at Charlecote Park, near Warwick, face slaughter after bovine tuberculosis was found. The disease was found in two hinds shot during a routine annual cull at the National Trust attraction. Brendan McCarthy, National Trust regional director, said they had no alternative but to kill the animals. BID TO DEVELOP RECYCLING PLANT Toton Sidings has applied to Nottinghamshire County Council to further develop its Long Eaton site. The company, owned by English, Welsh and Scottish Railways, plans to recycle materials used in making track and sell them to firms for making concrete. The county council has asked for views on the plans which would mean an extra 25 lorries using the site on weekdays. More than £40,000 has been made available by a Staffordshire council to help homeless charities provide services to rough sleepers. Newcastle borough council has agreed to divide £43,300 between eight charities which provide services to the homeless. A spokesman for the Lyme Trust, which is to get £2,500, said the cash will help provide essential services. A £1m cycle route stretching across Birmingham is due to get the green light from councillors. The 11-mile route would take in parks and canals from Spaghetti Junction in Birmingham to Sutton Coldfield. Councillor Brenda Clarke, council cabinet member for leisure and tourism, said: "It will provide a facility people of every age can enjoy." Police have joined forces with inspectors from Travel West Midlands in a crime crackdown on some of the region's buses. Police said a number of arrests over drugs, burglary, affray, deception and forgery were made after spot checks in the Selly Oak and Northfield areas. Fines of more than £3,200 were issued by inspectors over unpaid bus fares. ARMY BROUGHT IN TO AID CULL The Army has been brought in to help dispose of 1,600 sheep at a foot-and-mouth infected farm, near Lichfield. Soldiers have been sent to a farm at Hill Ridware to assist in the mass cull and dig trenches to bury the carcasses. There have now been 28 confirmed cases in Staffordshire, the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food said. MEETING OVER VIRUS CRISIS The region's response to the ongoing foot-and-mouth crisis will be discussed at a meeting in Birmingham. Officials from local and central Government will join farmers' leaders and tourism chiefs at the meeting. John Edwards, chief executive of the development agency, Advantage West Midlands, said that help for rural businesses would be on the agenda. MAN ARRESTED OVER MURDER A man has been arrested in connection with the murder of a Staffordshire mother of three. Police found the body of primary school teacher Kerry Goddard, 36, at her home in Heath Hayes, Cannock. A Staffordshire Police spokesman said a man was arrested near Kendal by Cumbria Police and was due to be taken to Cannock police station for questioning. £10,000 FOR BURGLARY CRACKDOWN A burglary crackdown is being launched in Kidderminster after the project was awarded a £10,000 Home Office grant. The scheme will be launched in the Horsefair area of Kidderminster after it was revealed the area suffers twice the national average burglary rate. The project involves the police, Victim Support,and Wyre Forest District Council.
LOCAL NEWS 03/04/01
A second mass burial site for tens of thousands of animals slaughtered in the battle against foot-and-mouth disease is due to be opened in Worcestershire. The mass grave at Throckmorton airfield, near Pershore, will be of a similar size to the one currently in use at Great Orton, Cumbria. The national total of foot-and-mouth cases has now topped 900. A 42-year-old man is appearing before Stafford magistrates charged with the murder of a primary school teacher who was found dead at her home. He is accused of killing 36-year-old Kerry Goddard, who was discovered at the property on Adelaide Drive, Cannock, Staffordshire, last Thursday. A post-mortem examination revealed she died of head and neck injuries. The Chief Inspector of Prisons has named a young offenders' institution in Staffordshire as a centre of excellence after it received a glowing report. Swinfen Hall young offenders' institution near Lichfield was the first to receive such an accolade from Sir David Ramsbotham. The inspection team described it as an example to others in the UK The West Midlands has received £600,000 in Government grants to promote sustainable living. Nine schemes have been earmarked for the cash, which will be used to involve communities in habitat preservation, and waste reduction schemes. More than £240,000 will be used by the Farming & Wildlife Advisory Group Ltd based at Stoneleigh, Warwickshire. Three Walsall men have been killed and another two injured when the car they were travelling in careered into a brick wall near Lichfield. A spokesman for Staffordshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust said three men, aged between 17 and 29, died at the scene. One man was taken to Selly Oak Hospital with multiple injuries while the other was shaken but not badly hurt. Two men have been killed and five people taken to hospital following a three-car collision near Shrewsbury, police have said. The two men died when their car was in collision with two other vehicles on the A49 at Preston Brockhust. The road was closed for more than three hours and the injured were taken to Shrewsbury Royal Hospital. LORRY DRIVER JAILED OVER CRASH A diabetic lorry driver has been jailed after he blacked out, crashed and caused the deaths of a young couple and their baby near Market Drayton. John Davies, 67, of Mountain Ash, Mid-Glamorgan, was convicted of causing the deaths of Tony Orme, 24, Emma Cooper, 19, and baby Sally Orme. Davies was sentenced to three years in jail at Shrewsbury Crown Court. PARENTS GET DEAD SON'S AWARD The parents of a Birmingham worker who won his claim at an employment tribunal two years after his death are to receive £50,000 compensation. The tribunal decided Simon Haddon, who was sacked for taking time off to attend kidney dialysis sessions, was unfairly dismissed. Telewest Communications also agreed to reinstate Mr Haddon "retrospectively". 'RIGHT' SCHOOL CAN COST - STUDY A state education is supposed to be free, but getting your child into the right school can cost thousands of pounds, Warwick University has shown. A study has found parents will pay a premium of £20,000 to buy a home in the catchment areas of two of Coventry's most popular comprehensives. The research was carried out by masters Economic student Erick Campos. PRINCESS OPENING NEW CENTRE The Princess Royal was opening the new national Centre for Defence Medicine, which is based at Birmingham. The CDM centre, at Selly Oak Hospital, will study and teach defence-related medicine as well as provide specialist care for members of the armed forces. Military and NHS staff will work at Selly Oak and Queen Elizabeth Hospitals on military and civilian patients. OFFENDERS' INSTITUTE CONDEMNED The Chief Inspector of Prisons has condemned the "horrendous" levels of violence he found at a young offenders' institution in Shropshire. Sir David Ramsbotham described Stoke Heath YOI as "unsafe" after learning of 717 acts of violence in eight months, an average of nearly 24 a day. The institute's own files recorded some 550 incidents of assaults or fights. ANIMALS TO BE BURNT AT AIRFIELD The carcasses of animals affected by foot-and-mouth disease are due to be burnt at an airfield in Shropshire. Tern Hill Airfield, near Market Drayton in Shropshire, will be used to burn cattle and sheep. Soldiers from the 1st Battalion The Green Howards have began building the pyres with the animals due to be destroyed at three burning strips. 'SIEGE MENTALITY' HITS PROFITS A Crewe-based agriculture group says a "siege mentality" among dairy farmers after the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease has hit profits by £1.3m. Genus says it cannot reach up to half its customers because of restrictions designed to curb the disease. But a spokesman said other customers were not letting its staff near their herds, hitting profits further. £4.5m DAMAGES FOR CRASH VICTIM A promising Lancashire engineer who suffered brain damage in a car crash at Gibbet Hill Road, Coventry was awarded £4.5m agreed High Court damages. John Redfern, 30, is dependent on care by others after the head-on collision in which the other driver was killed. The award was approved against the insurers of the dead driver, Graham Dickinson which admitted liability. HOUSE PRICE INFLATION AT 10.9% The West Midlands region has seen a return to double digit house price
inflation of 10.9%. The new figure has come after a year of manufacturing
job losses and uncertainty over the future of the Rover car plant. Annual
price growth has also remained strong in the East Midlands at 9.4%, said
the Nationwide Building Society. LEAVE ANIMALS ALONE, SAYS RSPCA The RSPCA has appealed for people in the region to help to save thousands of fledglings, fox cubs and other baby animals from unnecessary handling. Many people wrongly believe the animals to be orphaned or abandoned when the parents are often waiting nearby. Superintendent Tom Austin said people should only intervene if the animal is hurt, in danger or obviously abandoned. ITV LICENCES RENEWED BY ITC Central Television's ITV franchise has been renewed as expected in a 10-year agreement announced by the Independent Television Commission. Central was one of seven operators which had agreed to the financial terms of the new agreements. ITC chairman Sir Robin Biggam said: "There is now a firm basis for ITV going forward over the next 10 years." FOUR DIE ON WAY TO WORK Police have named four men who died when the car they were travelling in careered into a brick wall. The victims, all from Walsall, were driver Kasser Chaudhry, 19, Asif Mahmood, 29, Mark Cooper, 29, and Gavin Talbot. Police said all the victims were on their way to work when the vehicle crashed. MAN IN COURT ON MURDER CHARGE A 42-year-old man was due to appear before Stafford magistrates charged with the murder of a primary school teacher who was found dead at her home. He is accused of killing 36-year-old Kerry Goddard, who was discovered at the property on Adelaide Drive, Cannock, Staffordshire, last Thursday. A post-mortem examination revealed she died of head and neck injuries. EYE CENTRE SHOULD CUT WAITS Waiting lists for eye patients in the region could be reduced when a new purpose-built cataract centre opens its doors in Cannock, health bosses said. Patients will undergo surgery at the Cannock Eye Centre next week while out-patients will be admitted from May. Divisional manager Jan Titley said: "Around 1,000 people will be treated there during the first year."
Industrial action over teacher shortages has spread to Birmingham. Members of the NUT and the NASUWT in the city voted overwhelmingly in favour of refusing to cover for vacancies or absences of longer than three days. The action is not likely to bite in Birmingham until early in the summer term as unions have to give seven days notice once the ballot result is known. A Birmingham teenager is in a critical condition in City Hospital after he was stabbed in what police are treating as a murder attempt. The 17-year-old was making his way to work when he was attacked by two men in Frances Road, Erdington, and received stab wounds to his face and body. Two men are helping West Midlands police with their inquiries. A former nurse who was wrongly given an insulin overdose after a liver transplant at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham has died. But the University Hospital Birmingham NHS Trust said the death of Teresita Cruz, 55, from Leicester, was not related to the insulin incident. A spokeswoman said she died from a blocked artery to the new liver Food traders in Birmingham are being urged to make urgent checks after it emerged that meat unfit for human consumption was in circulation. Birmingham City Council is urging food traders to check stocks for frozen chicken burgers sold by Giro Foods and Indus Foods in the city. They are labelled All Chicken Superior Chickenburgers, best before 20/02/02. Genetically-modified maize is to be planted on five sites in the region this spring as part of farm-scale trials, the Government has announced. The crop tests will be at Prees Heath, Hinstock and Rowton, in Shropshire, Wolston, in Warwickshire, and Crowle, in Worcestershire. GM oilseed rape will be grown at a site at Atherstone on Stour, Warwickshire. PROBE INTO CALL CENTRE PRACTICE Alleged oppressive working practices at a Staffordshire call centre have been revealed by a Channel 4 News probe. The programme said employees at holiday company GVC, in Burton-on-Trent, were threatened with incontinence pants if they did not reduce toilet breaks. The programme also revealed emergency exits were found to be locked during a fire alarm. POLICE TARGET 'BINGE' DRINKING Wolverhampton police are to launch a major crackdown on binge drinking in the city in a bid to stamp out crime. Officers will visit a number of the largest licensed premises in an attempt to highlight their message. Inspector Steve Ayres said: "We want to make Wolverhampton the safest city in the country. We want it to be equally safe at night as it is in the day" MP BACKS WAR HERO CAMPAIGN Lichfield MP Michael Fabricant has backed a Parliamentary campaign to award posthumous medals to soldiers killed in action. The Tory MP is supporting proposals made by Rita Restorick, whose son Stephen was the last soldier killed in Northern Ireland. Mr Fabricant said: "There is deep and broad support for this campaign." POP STARS BED OFFER TO FANS Heart-throb Robbie Williams is offering fans a night in his bed to raise money for charity, including organisations in his home town of Stoke-on-Trent. Part of the auction cash will also go to Great Ormond Street Hospital and UNICEF, for which he is an ambassador. He said: "I just want to put something back in because the Potteries gave me my humour, my spirit, everything." 'LEAVE GREEN BELT ALONE - MP Walsall's Labour MP has urged the construction industry to stop "raping our green belt". Bruce George said the "Bovis homes threat" was targeting the southern end of protected land between Birmingham and Walsall. He said a "megalopolis of the West Midlands" was looming and "green belt must be sacrosanct".
MAN QUIZZED OVER FATAL SHOOTING An Atherstone man is being questioned by police investigating the
fatal shooting of a slaughterman in Cumbria. Steven Smart, 28, of East
Sussex, died at Newcastle General Hospital from head injuries after he
was shot with a bolt gun at Great Orton, near Carlisle. The weapon was
being used to stun animals during a mass cull of livestock ordered to
curb foot-and-mouth disease. An aerospace firm has announced a £12m investment aimed at strengthening its position in the industry - news that has been welcomed by unions. TRW Aeronautical Systems will build a new factory in the West Midlands. Equipment services staff at sites including Coventry, Wolverhampton and Liverpool are being encouraged to move to the new factory. CRACKDOWN ON ANIMAL CRUELTY RSPCA chiefs have urged people to help police stamp out cockfighting in the region following the successful prosecution of a Birmingham man. Javid Iqbal, 46, received a three-month prison term for allowing his house in St Benedicts Road, Small Heath, to be used for the bloodsport. Insp Alistair Keen said the conviction was only possible due to a tip-off. Business leaders in the West Midlands have welcomed the Bank of England's decision to cut interest rates by a quarter of a point to 5.5%. Birmingham Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Lowry Maclean said it would be good news for local firms. He added: "If the cut in interest rates has the desired effect then our members will greet it as a timely boost." OAP CHARGE MAN
REMANDED A Derby taxi driver has been given an eight-month suspended sentence
for hoarding petrol during the fuel crisis last year. Saqib Bashir, 28,
caused a major incident costing more than £100,000 when petrol he
was storing at an empty house leaked. Mr Bashir was also ordered to pay
costs of £1,000. AIRFIELD CARCASS BLAZE HALTED
MUSIC THREAT EMPHASISED Technology allowing fans to download their favourite music from the internet could sound the death knell for record shops, a Worcester expert is warning. Lee Marshall, a sociology lecturer at the city's University College, said downloading was the biggest threat to the music industry for years. The academic has organised Britain's first conference on the subject. CAFE-BAR LICENCE GRANTED A new £2.5m cafe-bar in Shrewsbury town centre will have a late licence three nights a week despite, objections from local residents. They had wanted licensing magistrates to reject a special licence for the proposed Bar Med operation. It means the cafe-bar will open until midnight on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. FOOTBALL MEMORABILIA FOR SALE Memorabilia from the West Midlands' most famous football clubs is to go on sale at a Shropshire sporting auction. The sale, to be held at the Cosford auction rooms, includes programmes, autographed cuttings, and postcards spanning most of the 20th century. It also has 39 items from former Villa and Wolves winger Les Smith, including autographed menus.
A 37-year-old Warwickshire man has been charged with the murder of a slaughterman at the site of a mass foot-and-mouth stock cull in Cumbria. Keith Hubbard, of Atherstone, is to appear before Carlisle Magistrates. Former butcher Steven Smart, 28, of St Leonards, East Sussex, died in hospital after being injured by a bolt gun at the former airfield in Great Orton. Illegally imported poultry products from China have been found in
Birmingham, the city council said. The authority is cracking down after
claims the foot-and-mouth outbreak could have been caused by illegally
imported meat used in pigswill. A spokesman said:"Investigations are continuing
at a number of sites across the city and with port authorities."
Concerns that a landfill site in Warwickshire is being used to bury
animals affected by foot-and-mouth have been expressed by a leading MEP.
Phillip Bushill-Matthews, representing the West Midlands, is visiting
the site at Ufton which a mile from his house. He said: They may be doing
a good job but to the question: Who is in charge? the answer is nobody."
Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott has done his bit to boost British tourism -by buying an unframed print of a World Heritage site in Shropshire. Mr Prescott bought the £7.95 black and white picture of the bridge which gives the picturesque town of Ironbridge, near Madeley, its name. The MP showed his support for tourism which has been hit by foot-and-mouth. A radical shake-up of mental health services in Solihull has been announced in a bid to improve patient services. All mental health services will now be taken over by the Specialist South Birmingham Mental Health NHS Trust. A Solihull Community Council spokesman said: "Solihull's small group of consultant psychiatrists will benefit from joining south Birmingham." DRIVERS 'WANT SPEED INCREASE' Motorists in the West Midlands want to be allowed to drive faster on the motorways, according to a survey. Research commissioned by Nav/Trak, which provides traffic information, showed 27% of the region's motorists want the limit increased to 80mph. The survey also revealed that 18% - the highest figure of any region in the country - want it increased to 90mph. CCTV CAMERA SYSTEM SHORTLISTED FALLS IN BURGLARY AND CAR CRIME West Midlands Police said there were 10,000 fewer victims of burglaries and vehicle crime in the past 12 months. Police figures also showed overall crime in the force area had fallen slightly, by 0.02 per cent. Assistant Chief Constable Chris Sims said: "These figures give a clear indication of some of our achievements over the last 12 months." PARTNERSHIP TO CLEAR BACKLOG A public-private partnership could be formed to clear the £50m maintenance backlog of roads and footpaths accrued by Birmingham City Council. The authority has already vowed to undertake pothole and pavement repairs within 28 days. Cllr Mike Leddy, cabinet member for street services, said: "We need to make further improvements." EYESORE HOMES TO BE FLATTENED Housing chiefs have given the go-ahead for the demolition of unpopular
maisonette blocks in Birmingham. The homes are located on the Allens Croft
Estate in Brandwood and the demolition is part of a multi-agency regeneration
initiative on the estate. Cllr Dennis Minnis, cabinet member for housing,
said: "These blocks have become very unpopular."
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