Vintage bus attacked
by gang of youths
by Lesley Wilkinson
A WARRINGTON farmer’s childhood dream of owning a London bus turned into a nightmare when his vehicle was attacked by 30 village youths.
Graham Unsworth, 60, from Ratcliffe House Farm in Bent Lane, Culcheth acquired the bright red London Routemaster double-decker bus only two months ago – when it was one of the last to be taken out of service.
He and his friend, Andy Price, 37, were giving a visiting French student a ride on the 43-year-old vehicle when they were “mobbed” by a gang of youths near Culcheth Youth Base in Church Lane.
They pushed Andy’s wife, Sharon, 38, against a glass partition, ran onto the bus and shouted obscenities.
Andy said: “A group of youths started running after the bus, so I accelerated away. As we passed the youth club, there were about eight youths standing in the road and they put a bike down to stop us.
“They were fighting to get on and shoved my wife against the glass. I got out of the cab to help, and they were hurling abuse and trying to get on the bus.”
Andy and Graham had taken the bus out for a pleasure ride for Andy’s family, his children Joshua, 11, Jodie, five, a friend and a French student staying with them.
The trouble started in Church Lane just after they dropped one of the party off. The gang of youths started getting violent during the incident which lasted about six minutes. Everyone on the bus and some nearby residents were shouting at the youths, said Andy.
The incident was reported to police after the event.
Andy said: “We were all stunned by the behaviour, you just don’t expect this. We were disgusted by their behaviour.”
Funeral of tragic
police officer
by David Skentelbery
THE funeral of the Warrington police officer tragically killed in a road accident in Thailand is to take place on Tuesday.
Police colleagues, including senior officers will attend the service at St Mary’s Church, Weaverham, near Northwich – PC Kevin Brinkman’s local church.
Cheshire Police say it will be “a full police funeral.”
PC Brinkman, 33, was a member of the Warrington Community Action Team and had previously served as a uniformed patrol officer in Warrington and Stockton Heath. He had been a police officer for 11 years and before that had served as a Special Constable.
He was due to have married his long term partner, Diana, in September and the couple have a two-year-old daughter, Chloe.
PC Brinkman went to Thailand as a member of the British police response team to help with relief work following the Boxing Day tsunami disaster.
He died after being involved in a road accident in which two other Cheshire police officers were injured.
In 2002, PC Brinkman received a Chief Constable’s commendation for bravery when he arrested two armed robbers who had held up a jeweller’s shop in Stockton Heath.
College students spend
a day at university
by staff reporter
ICT students from Warrington’s Priestley College spent a day in the company of Salford University staff working on a high technology project, which involved tackling trends in modern communications.
After listening to presentations from university staff, including Professor Nigel Linge, the group were able to demonstrate building and networking skills learned at Priestley and put them into practice in an academic setting.
During an action packed afternoon the group connected a large array of components together including hubs, routers and wireless technologies in order to form their own network. They then configured the system and eventually achieved video conferencing across the system they had built.
Peter Butterfield from the college’s ICT Department was very happy with the way things passed off.
He said: “We have supported budding PC and network builders as much as possible at Priestley as the potential for employment within this area is huge.
“The students are always keen to show off the skills that they have learned and there was no better setting to do so than when in the company of the IT professionals at Salford.”
Arts centre in search
of a ballet company
by Lesley Wilkinson
PYRAMID, Warrington’s multi-faceted arts centre, is earning a good reputation for dance and is now looking for a dance company to take up a one-year residency.
Latest figures show that the numbers attending dance classes – in Salsa, Belly Dancing and Street Dancing- have exceeded all expectations topping those in drama, music, art and holistic therapies.
In the two-month spring season more than 570 tickets were sold for the venue’s dance classes.
Pyramid has recently received funding from Arts Council England NW for the dance residency and the successful company will develop the growing dance audience from May.
The group will start in May and will stage cutting-edge performances, run workshops and create promotional material, including a video.
The residency programme will offer the company training in finance, marketing, fundraising, education and web design, and the experience of running workshops for children, teachers and professionals.
It will also offer the company the chance to develop new work for performances within Pyramid and other venues in the region, and provide the company access to arts forums, teachers and networks.
Mobile phone mast
gets the go-ahead
by David Skentelbery
A PLAN to erect a mobile phone mast at Risley, Warrington, has been given the go-ahead despite opposition from nearby residents and local councillors.
O2 were granted permission to erect the 57 ft mast and two equipment cabins on land near the pedestrian subway in Birchwood Way.
Warrington’s development control committee was told residents believed the mast would have a harmful visual impact on the area, would pose a health hazard for a nearby school and day nursery and was not needed.
Birchwood Town Council also objected on similar grounds.
A spokesman said: “There are no requirements for further O2 network coverage, as there are no issues regarding signal quality to phones on this network in the locality.”
He added that the area was already “saturated” with telecommunication installations.
O2 claimed the area did not have sufficient coverage or network capacity to provide an adequate level of service for third generation phones.
Officers said there were no adequate grounds to refuse the scheme. Health issues could be considered as the application complied with international guidelines for radiation protection.
“More 20mph speed
limits needed in town”
by Lesley Wilkinson
MORE 20mph speed limits are needed on Warrington to be extended to improve road safety and help reduce congestion has been made by the Liberal Democrats.
Coun Ian Marks, the party’s Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Warrington South, said: “The borough is implementing 20mph zones around schools and I welcome this.
“Introducing these zones is a relatively cheap and effective way to improve road safety. The Government’s own transport department has found that the risk of a child being involved in an accident is reduced by about two thirds when 20mph zones are installed.”
Coun Marks said he had met members of Warrington Cycle Campaign, who wanted to increase 20mph zones in urban areas. The cyclists claimed this would improve the quality of life, reduce congestion and cut road accidents.
He said in Warrington’s twin town Hilden there are speed limits in urban residential areas of 18.5mph (30kph) and he urged Warrington to follow this lead.
Coun Marks’ campaign has received support from Liberal Democrat MEP Chris Davies, who recently visited Warrington.
He said: “We can learn a great deal from experience right across Europe. Many continental countries have lower speed limits as a norm in residential areas. Figu
res show this brings benefits in terms of safety to our children.”
IT company wins
major NHS contract
by staff reporter
A WARRINGTON-based company has won a contract to take part in a major IT project with the National Health Service.
Strand Technology, based at the Xpdia Centre, in Birchwood, works on specialist computer softwear to help NHS staff working in mental health.
Head of the company Graham Phillips has been chosen to become part of the National Programme for IT (NPfIT) compliance programme, which covers NHS hospitals throughout the country.
“By becoming part of the NPfIT programme – our system becomes even more attractive to NHS hospitals across the UK,” he said,
The programme involves drawing together up to date computer systems across the NHS to improve the way the health service works. Over the next decade hundreds of hospitals and thousands of GP surgeries will be connected to help improve how patient records are stored and accessed.
Blaze at
mail depot
by staff reporter
FIRE crews were called to the Royal Mail sorting office in Milner Street, Warrington during the night when fire broke out in the kitchen.
Firefighters wore breathing apparatus and used a hosereel to tackled the blaze. Damage was caused to a wall and fittings. But there was no threat to any mail.
Earlier, fire crews had been called to Radley Common, Warrington after youths drove a stolen car into the middle of the common and set it ablaze. The vehicle was severely damaged.
[ 13.04.2005, 08:54: Message edited by: DS ]
