Town Hall urged to act on
“outrageous” rail fares
by David Skentelbery
TOWN Hall chiefs at Warrington to be asked to call for action to end “outrageous” rail fares faced by travellers from the town compared to those in neighbouring towns and cities.
Liberal Democrat councillor Brian Axcell was stunned when he decided to take his daughter to Windermere – and discovered the cost would be nearly twice as much as from Liverpool or Manchester.
He is to ask the borough council to make representations to the Rail Passengers Council and the Rail Regulator.
He said: “If anything, Warrington could be closer to Windermere than Manchester is. Certainly there is no significant difference.
“Yet a single fare from Warrington to Windermere is ?22 compared with ?12.55 from Manchester. Similarly a return fare is ?28.60 from Warrington but only ?12.65 from Manchester.
“A single fare from Liverpool Lime Street is just ?13.95.
“Rail passengers from Warrington are being ripped-off. There can be no justifications for such differences in price.”
Coun Axcell decided in the end to take his daughter to the Lake District by car.
But he said: “I didn’t really want to drive – I wanted to keep off the roads.”
A spokesman for Virgin Trains, who run the Warrington-Windermere service, said the differential had existed for years and dated from before privatisation in 1994 when the two services were run by Inter City and Regional Railways.
The Virgin Trains service was a main line service, involving better, more comfortable trains with better facilities. The Manchester service – operated by Trans-Pennine – was a local service.
In addition, the Manchester service was subsidised by the Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive over part of the route.
The high cost of modernising the West Coast main line also had a bearing.
But Coun Axcell said: “I can’t accept this. I don’t believe the differential was as much back in 1994.
“I have also discovered that the cost of travelling to Windermere from Wigan is only ?11.35 – almost half the cost of travelling from Warrington despite it being the next stop up the line. People getting on the train at Wigan will be travelling on the same train as people from Warrington.
“I still say Warrington rail passengers are being discriminated against. It’s certainly not the way to persuade them to travel by rail rather than by car.”
The Virgin spokesman added: “Wigan is in the GMPTE area so gets a subsidy. The fares were not set by us but are based on a commercial basis.”
He added that if the tickets were booked seven days in advance, the fare from Warrington was the same as from Wigan.
Truncheon tradition
revived for Mayor
by Gary Skentelbery
A TRADITION dating back more than a century was revived when Warrington’s Mayor Ted Lafftery was presented with a special commemorative police truncheon.
The “illuminated sign written staff” was presented to Ted, who discovered he is the first retired police officer to become Mayor of Warrington, by retired police sergeant Peter Wroe, who is now curator of the town’s police museum.
Ted, a former Grenadier Guard, was “PC 41” from 1958-61 in the old Warrington Borough Force.
He was delighted to receive the unique memento from his policing days and says it will “come in handy” for any fellow councillors who step out of line at council meetings! “It is a special honour to receive this truncheon and it will take pride of place in the council chamber,” he added.
The truncheons were often presented in Georgian and Victorian times and Peter believes the last ones were presented around the time of the First World War.
“They were handed out to mark a memorable occasion,” said Peter. “But the old wooden truncheons were phased out more than a decade ago and sign written ones have not been presented for a long time.
“We have quite a few in the museum and I thought it would be quite fitting to present one to Ted as he is the first ever police officer to have the honour of becoming Mayor of Warrington.”
Knifeman arrested
after street attack
by staff reporter
A MAN was taken to hospital at Warrington suffering from a severed artery after being attacked by a man wielding a knife.
Later a 33-year-old man from Liverpool was arrested and charged with making threats to kill, affray and possessing a lock knife.
Police said the injured man was walking home in Brook Lane, Westy, Warrington, in company with a woman.
The offender appeared, carrying a knife, and attacked the man who suffered a wound to his neck. He was rushed to hospital.
The woman was not hurt in the incident.
Inspector rejects homes
plan on barn site
by John Hendon
A PLANNING inspector has thrown out proposals to demolish a barn and replace it with two houses in Withington Avenue, Culcheth near Warrington.
The inspector, who conducted an informal hearing into an appeal by developers August Blake, ruled that the barn – as an agricultural building – was on a greenfield site and that even two additional dwellings would contribute to the existing over-supply of housing in the Warrington area. Nearby residents, Culcheth and Glazebury Parish Council and Culcheth and Glazebury Action Group has opposed the scheme and had expressed fears of increased traffic using Withington Avenue. The developers have almost completed a re-development of the rest of the old Culcheth Hall Farm site, creating 16 dwellings grouped around a courtyard. Neighbours had also opposed that scheme – but the developer won approval.
“Big bug hunt” shows
insects are declining
by Lesley Wilkinson
A UNIQUE survey carried out using a “Splatometer,” to measure the number of insects on car number plates, found a decline in insects in Warrington.
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds carried out the Big Bug Count, the first survey of its kind in the world. They asked people to count the number of insects splattered on their number plate after any journey using the Splatometer – a cardboard grid to aid the counting of insects.
RSPB public affairs officer Margaret Overend said: “With news of large numbers of wasps and hoverflies across the UK this year, people in Warrington may think we are swarming with insects – but the Big Bug count tells another story.
“Motorists taking part in the survey splatted only one insect every five miles,” she added.
The idea for the survey was based on the common view that the number of insects squashed on the front of cars has declined. The survey is to form a baseline against which results from future years can be judged.
Margaret said that variation in insect numbers across the UK is small, but there appears to be a gradual increase in numbers from the south east of England to Scotland. She said her organisation will carry out research into this and its consequence for birds.
She said that many birds depend on insects as part of their diet or food for chicks, and that many species have declined in recent years. Research shows that numbers of house sparrows has dropped by 65 per cent in the last 31 years.
Possible reasons for declining numbers of insects include loss of habitat and increased use of pesticides. Future research will focus on whether wildlife-friendly gardening or agri-environment schemes are helping increase the numbers of insects.
Arsonists go
on the rampage
by John Hendon
ARSONISTS went on the rampage at Warrington in the early hours of today – starting five separate fires or or near the Riverside Retail Park.
Four of the fires involved skips at the rear of buildings and fire crews managed to extinguish them without any damage to property.
But the fifth involved a van loaded with tyres, which was almost completely destroyed.
Police and fire service experts are investigating the incidents.
In a se
parate incident, a car believed to have been stolen, careered off the road and collided with a bus shelter in Winwick Road, Warrington.
Police managed to free the injured driver from the wrecked vehicle. He was taken to hospital with suspected broken legs. Fire crews made the vehicle safe.
Firefighters were also called to XL Logistics in Dallam Lane, Warrington when a forklift truck caught fire in the early hours of the morning. No-one was hurt and work staff pushed the truck to a place of safety and tackled the fire before firefighters reached the scene.
Messages of good will
from around the world!
by staff reporter
MESSAGES of support from friends in Warrington and throughout the world came to staff at Orbit News Services, publishers of Warrington-Worldwide, following our report of a Bank Holiday break-in at our offices.
Readers were told how raiders climbed a drainpipe, smashed a window and forced security bars to enter our premises in The New Media Centre, Old Road, Warrington.
Despite computer equipment being taken, staff worked hard to clear up the damage and ensure that production continued on the online newspaper and the four monthly magazines published from the centre, Warrington Worldwide, Lymm Life, Village Life and Culcheth Life. Regular web site visitors offered their support to staff – and one member of the Reader’s Forum even offered to come and help us clear up. As well as support from the town, there were messages of goodwill from readers in Rheine, Germany, Perth, Western Australia and North Carolina, USA. Thanks to everyone for their concern.
