Daily Star: ‘SIN BINS’ FOR SCUM FAMILIES

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Daily Star: ‘SIN BINS’ FOR SCUM FAMILIES

BRITAIN’S scummiest families are going to be put in “sin bins” to teach them how to behave.

Thousands of the “Shameless” community will get round-the-clock supervision to make sure children attend school, go to bed on time and eat properly.

Parents who take part in the Government Family Intervention Projects will also be helped to stop them leading dysfunctional lives and to kick drug or alcohol addiction.

Around 2,000 British families, whose lives resembled those in the hit Channel 4 comedy show, have so far gone through the scheme.

Ministers now intend to involve 20,000 more in the next two years.

Each one costs between £5,000 and £20,000.

Children’s Secretary Ed Balls said: “This is tough and non-negotiable support for families to get to the root of the problem.”

But the Taxpayers’ Alliance accused ministers of wasting public cash on another gimmick scheme.

Chief executive Matthew Elliott said: “It’s yet another example of Government nannying gone too far, and will cost taxpayers dear.”

This story Spotted by a fellow Lib Dem.What next for Chek Whytes creditors.

Troubled tycoon Whyte outlines deal for creditors

Thursday, July 16, 2009, 07:00

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TROUBLED tycoon Chek Whyte hopes creditors will agree to see money from his property empire used to pay off his debts.

The Post revealed last week that Mr Whyte, who found fame on TV’s Secret Millionaire programme, was struggling to save his business amid debts totalling more than £30m.

Yesterday, his biggest creditors, including banks and the taxman, received draft proposals for him to start paying his debts by renting out properties or selling them off when the market recovers.

The Post understands that creditors have been told they will receive a minimum payment of 36p for every pound they are owed, with the possibility of 100p in the pound if the property market improves over the next five years.

If creditors force Mr Whyte into bankruptcy they are likely to receive substantially less from the forced sale of his assets.

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Insolvency experts from Begbies Traynor have been brought in to try to put together a deal under what is known as an Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA).

Mr Whyte owes £25m to Yorkshire Bank, the largest creditor, Allied Irish Bank, Bank of Ireland and Royal Bank of Scotland, all which is secured. He owes a further £1.2m-£2.5m to HM Revenue & Customs.

Unsecured trade creditors are owed about £4.98m.

Richard Saville, senior partner for Begbies, said: “I can confirm that our initial review of Mr Whyte’s business interests has been completed and we have submitted our initial findings to the various secured lenders and HM Revenue & Customs.

“Whilst this may be a slightly unusual move, we believe it an important one, given that the outline proposal requires not only the consent of his trade suppliers, who will ultimately vote on the proposal, but also requires the secured lenders to continue to allow the properties to be used to generate income.”

Ordinary creditors who are owed money through goods or services they supplied are likely to receive letters next week. The meeting of creditors – where they will get to vote on his plans – may be on August 17.

Mr Whyte owns 21 properties including the former Trent FM premises in Castle Gate, a building leased to Tesco in Long Row, five houses in Clifton Hall park, and an apartment and retail complex at Nuthall Road, Basford.

He lives at Bunny Hall in Bunny and runs businesses from Stanford Hall on the Notts/Leics border. The agreement would include parts of Stanford Hall.

Mr Saville added: “Our role in this is to look at what we believe will form the basis of the best return to creditors, taking into account all factors associated with this particular case.”

richard.baker@nottinghameveningpost.co.uk

 

New pictures for the Focus

 before you write  in i could not find one picture of a Liberal Democrat. So it stays

Comments from a fellow Lib Dem over local newspaper closure.

we’ll see what will happen when the Audit Commission reports on the affects of council newspapers on local media outlets. As it happens, I think the link between Labour policy and the closure of local newspapers is a damn site stronger than you suggest

Are labour to blame i have to say there is a good case to say so. Any Comment??

School contracts for parents

Parents are to be forced to sign contracts promising good behaviour from their children in the classroom. The Home School Agreements (HSAs) will be signed before the start of term and could mean that parents face a £1000 fine if their children repeatedly break the rules? The slipper never failed us.

New powers allow takeover of failing youth offending teams. Source the Guardian.

• Straw to be given power to remove ineffective staff
• Local authorities say that they were not consulted

• New powers are to be introduced to enable the justice secretary, Jack Straw, to send in a team of experts to take over failing youth offending teams with powers to remove ineffective staff.

Straw said the powers were needed in “two or three cases” and named Sefton youth offending team, Merseyside, which probation inspectors recently labelled “very disappointing” and in need of “drastic improvement”.

“I am determined to step in where youth offending teams are failing our young people,” said Straw. “While many teams undoubtedly do a very effective job, we must be able to address areas where problems arise. By directing local authorities to revamping YOTs, imposing targets for improvement, and even sending in teams of youth justice experts to help improve practice I believe we can turn them around.”

The 157 youth offending teams around England and Wales have been set up over the last 10 years to bring together probation, police, health, education and social services staff to tackle young offenders.

The Local Government Association criticised Straw’s announcement, saying it had been made without consultation. “Youth Offending Teams are doing crucial work preventing and dealing with crime carried out by children,” said the LGA’s Les Lawrence.

“Proposed changes to give intervention powers to national government are completely unnecessary. It is scaremongering to give the public the idea there is a problem without a proper explanation and where, as is acknowledged, the vast majority are actually doing excellent work in very difficult circumstances.”

The intention to bring in legislation this autumn containing the new powers was highlighted in a 12-months progress report on the government’s flagship £100 million youth crime action plan published today. It was launched by three cabinet ministers, Straw, the children’s secretary, Ed Balls, and the home secretary, Alan Johnson.

Balls and Johnson wrote to local authorities urging them to set up family intervention projects, targeted at ‘problem families’ with children who are at risk of becoming persistent offenders.

Balls said that so far only half of local authorities – 75 – were taking part in the scheme. So far there are 2,000 families in the intensive family support programme with 42 new projects set up since the publication of the youth crime action plan 12 months ago. Balls hopes it will expand to cover 20,000 problem families within the next 18 months.

The circular from Balls and Johnson yesterday urged local authorities to expand and accelerate the family intervention programmes in their area or risk losing the extra money that is available.

The scheme uses a key worker to deliver intensive support to particularly chaotic or challenging young people and families, with non-negotiable elements and sanctions if behaviour does not change. The programme costs between £5,000 and £20,000 per family.

The action plan has also seen the involvement of 26,000 young people in extra activities on Friday and Saturday nights and the introduction of street teams of youth workers to 65 local areas. Operation Staysafe removes vulnerable young people from the streets at night and takes them to a place of safety.

Ministers say they intend to clarify further local relationships between children’s trusts which bring together all services for children and the youth offending teams.

Further action has yet to be taken to provide incentives for local authorities to avoid sending young offenders into custody. Measures being looked at include making them more aware of the costs of incarceration involved. However, the revised youth action plan makes clear that ministers do not intend to make it mandatory for a formal review process to take place before a child can be sentenced to a youth jail.

One pilot scheme involving these “custody panels” run by the LGA and the Howard League showed a 42% drop in the number of children jailed as a result of the initiative.

One key part of the youth crime action plan was the promise of comprehensive packages of support – including housing and education – for young people leaving custody. Extra funding for this initiative is promised over the next two years but has yet to be announced.ends

Anger as councils foot bill for Brown’s £1.5billion social housing programme

From The Times

July 23, 2009

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Cambridgeshire councillors who have worked hard on Arbury Park estate are angry that work on some projects will have to stop

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Hundreds of building projects will be cut to fund Gordon Brown’s £1.5billion social housing programme, The Times has learnt.

Furious council leaders have demanded an urgent meeting with ministers after being told that their plans are in jeopardy because there is no new money to pay for the Prime Minister’s policy, which was announced ten days ago.

Mr Brown said that £1.5billion would be found across Whitehall to fund up to 20,000 new homes for those on low incomes and on council house waiting lists. The policy was at heart of his proposed legislative programme before next year’s election.

But the Department for Communities and Local Government, which was forced to find nearly £600million, has said that the money will have to be taken from existing housing programmes as well as from plans to refurbish council and private rented homes.

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John Healey, the Housing Minister, has written to leaders of 50 councils saying that they will each lose millions from their capital allocations for next year to build and support new homes. More than 42 per cent of the fund, which is for areas that have been designated by the Government as needing new homes, has been cut.

Town hall leaders claim that this will result in developments being cut back, delayed or not going ahead. Jill Tuck, leader of Cambridgeshire County Council, which has been one of the authorities worst affected, said that she was “incandescent” when she found out that the county was going to lose half the money that had been promised for next year.

Mr Healey told the authority that its allocation to help to build 58,000 homes around the fringes of Cambridge would be reduced from £13.8million to £7.8million. “It is the worst case of robbing Peter to pay Paul I’ve ever seen. And yet again it is the Government’s friends in the North and the Midlands who are set to benefit,” Mrs Tuck said. “We will fight this tooth and nail.”

Alex Plant, chief executive of Cambridgeshire Horizons, a non-profit organisation that is co-ordinating the new developments, said many that were on the point of being signed off may have to be pulled.

He explained that the council had tried to help developers by promising some of the growth money in advance to allow the homes to be built more quickly. “Cambridge is one of the areas where we need the most affordable homes. It makes no sense at all to cut the funding,” he said.

Greater Norwich has been told it will lose more than £2.5million. King’s Lynn is losing £2.7million, Exeter and Devon £3.5million, Teignbridge £2.7million and South Hampshire £4million.

Up to 44,000 council homes and 8,600 private rented homes will also not be refurbished next year because £150million is being taken from the Government’s Decent Homes programme and a further £75million from a scheme designed to upgrade rented homes in the private sector.

Havering Council, which is challenging the decision, said that it was relying on £30million over the next two years. “If this funding is taken away, thousands of families won’t get the new windows, bathrooms and kitchens that they have been patiently waiting for,” Michael White, the council’s leader, said.

Mr Healey said that any council could bid for the £1.5billlion pot for social housing. “We have had to make some tough decisions across government about where we spend money but we need to build more homes and especially more homes available at rents people can afford.”

More Good News

DLP secures record £10m homes contract

jill burdett

July 23, 2009

A SALFORD firm has secured the biggest deal in its history with a £10m housing maintenance contract.

DLP Services (Northern), of Pendleton, was one of 30 companies to bid for the Arena Housing Group contract and won after a lengthy selection process that also involved impressing residents.

The three-year contract involves day-to-day repairs to 9,500 Arena properties across the north west, and gives an option of a further £3.3m in year four.

Lee Morris, who started DLP with his father Derek in 1991, said: “This is a massive boost to the company. The length of the contract gives us long-term security which is great for staff morale.

“It is the biggest contract we have ever won and our responsive maintenance division is at capacity now. Our priority now is not to grow this part of the company any further but to concentrate on delivering a first-class service to the clients we have got.We are in the fortunate position of having secure work for many years.”

Lee is joint director with Keith Greenhalgh, who said: “We have grown from a small roofing company with 16 staff and a £800,000 a year turnover to providing work for over 140 local people. We are well on course to achieve our projected turnover of £25m by 2012.”
 

Jailed for attacking elderly women.well how much lower do you go to find pople like this. I wonder what their mother thinks of them?

 

Chris Osuh

July 23, 2009

A PAIR of callous crooks who attacked and robbed elderly women in their own homes have been locked up.

Andrew Birchall, 25, and Carl Damien Siddall, also 25, terrorised their victims to the extent that one of them died – aged 94 – just a few weeks after they had attacked her.

Today at Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court both were both handed an indeterminate sentence for public protection.

Birchall, of Broadbent Avenue, Ashton under Lyne, pleaded guilty to two counts of robbery and two counts of burglary, and Siddall, also of Broadbent Avenue, Ashton under Lyne, pleaded guilty to counts of robbery.

Each will serve a minimum of three years and four months before they are eligible for parole.

Their first victim was a 68-year-old woman who tried to fight the intruders but ended up being gagged and robbed.

Another victim, age 94, collapsed soon after the robbery and died in hospital.

The 68-year-old was asleep in her bedroom at an Ashton sheltered housing development at 11.35pm on January 20 when she was woken up by one of the pair breaking in through a window.

She got out of bed and tried to push him back, but she was shoved to the floor and the pair managed to get into the house.

After being held down they shoved something in her mouth to stop her from screaming before stealing her handbag and fleeing, leaving her bruised and shaken.

The second victim was targeted two days later. The 94-year-old, of Ashton, woke up in the morning to find Birchall and Siddall moving her piano.

The pair grabbed her and shook her violently demanding cash.

Their actions were utterly shameless and at no point did they show any remorse for their actions.

Det Con Andrew Fink

 They then dragged her from room to room, shaking her constantly, while the terrified victim pleaded to be let go as she had no money.

A neighbour who heard the victim shrieking called police and when officers arrived they saw Birchall running from the house with a scarf over his face.

Amazingly, he then ran back into the victim’s house, broke a police officer’s hand in the struggle which followed, before jumping through the front window.

He later turned up at a hospital under a false name for treatment to cuts.

Siddall was detained at the scene and Birchall was eventually tracked down by blood he had left at the scene of another burglary nearby.

The 94-year-old victim collapsed four days after the robbery, and remained at Tameside General Hospital until her death on February 19.

Det Con Andrew Fink, from Tameside CID, said: “Birchall and Siddall are two vicious, calculating thugs who sunk as low as to violently rob two defenceless and vulnerable women living alone. Their actions were utterly shameless and at no point did they show any remorse for their actions.”

Hazels attack on political blogs do they offer the facts?

“Perhaps because of the nature of the technology, there is a tendency for political blogs to have a ‘Samizdat’ style,” she said. “The most popular blogs are rightwing, ranging from the considered Tory views of Iain Dale, to the vicious nihilism of Guido Fawkes… mostly, political blogs are written by people with disdain for the political system and politicians, who see their function as unearthing scandals, conspiracies and perceived hypocrisy. Until political blogging ‘adds value’ to our political culture, by allowing new voices, ideas and legitimate protest and challenge, and until the mainstream media reports politics in a calmer, more responsible manner, it will continue to fuel a culture of cynicism and despair.”

A quick preliminary. The category of “political blogs” is vast. Some are more professional than others; some are more opinionated than others; some concentrate on finding stories, and others on expressing views on the stories of others. So it is very hard to make general points.

That said, there is nothing wrong with unearthing “scandal” and “perceived hypocrisy”. It’s actually a vital role. What matters is that it is done in a fair and accurate way.

Professional journalists have a number of golden rules. One is that facts are carefully checked before publication. Another is that any party that plays a material role in a story, for good or bad, has the right of reply. A third rule – perhaps slightly more “golden” for the regional than the national press – is that stories should be selected on their news value, regardless of who “wins” and who “loses” as a result. In other words we ask ourselves questions like: Is this something the public needs to know? Is it something people would want to know? Is it, regardless of vested political interests, important?

Do political bloggers meet these standards? It varies, but generally they don’t. A fair few are good at checking their facts; most are pretty poor on right-to-reply; virtually all select what they write about on partisan grounds.

What do you think about blogs? waste of time, i have no idea. People seem to read it so untill they stop i will carry on Hazel. But what ever you think it’s one more tool to use.