Developers’ ?5 million
incentive to planners
by David Skentelbery
DEVELOPERS are offering a package of benefits they claim is worth more than ?5 million in a bid to persuade planners to allow a housing development to go ahead.
Countryside Properties want to build more than 560 new homes ? some in blocks up to six storeys high ? on land off Battersby Lane, Warrington.
Offices and workshops providing or retaining up to 230 jobs would also be included in the development on the site of the former Carrington Wire Works.
Manchester-based bus company Mayne Coaches would also have their Warrington depot relocated as part of the scheme.
Warrington-based Countryside say the scheme would include 84 units of affordable housing at a discounted market price of ?75,000 or 42 units for rent ? equivalent to a cost of ?4,562,700.
In addition the company is offering to contribute ?269,000 towards improving schools provision, ?172,500 enhancements to nearby St Peter?s Park, ?125,000 open space within the site and ?50,000 for a new community building for existing and future residents.
The firm suggests this represents in total a package of benefits equivalent to ?5,197,080.
Planners accept the scheme would create jobs, clean up a redundant, contaminated site and enhance the area.
Officers are concerned the scheme would result in an unnecessary addition to the existing surplus of housing land in the borough.
A number of residents have also lodged objections. They claim four, five and six storey properties would overshadow nearby houses and roads would be unable to cope with increased traffic.
They say entertainment or community uses would be preferable.
College lecturer sells up
to help tsunami survivors
by Gary Skentelbery
A COLLEGE lecturer is selling his home and quitting his job to start a new life helping the survivors of the tsunami disaster.
Ken Hyde, aged 59 has taken early retirement after 23 years teaching at Warrington Collegiate and is heading to Thailand to help rebuild a village community destroyed by the 2004 Boxing Day tidal wave.
He?s selling his home in Kinross Close, Cinnamon Brow, near Warrington and setting off in his trusty Land Rover with only a backpack of belongings and a pocket watch.
?I went out to help the victims of the Tsunami in the summer. I ended up working in a school where 200 pupils had died. We only had one blackboard and some chalk so we had to be creative in the way we tried to teach,? he said.
Ken decided to leave his job teaching students with learning difficulties to return to the school as a volunteer teacher.
Colleagues at the Collegiate raised ?300 for him which he his putting towards a video camera and projector to help him with his lessons.
?There?s an urgent need for these children to speak English. The hotels are being rebuilt and there is a need for English speaking staff because so many were killed,? said Ken, who will navigating his own way to Thailand via boat and road.
?Rebuilding these communities and the lives of the survivors is going to take years but it?s something I need to be involved in. I?m taking my pocket watch, a rucksack and the Land Rover ? which will be a necessity in the jungle and during the monsoon season. It?s not a bad way to retire. ? he added.
Ken plans to leave in the next few weeks but will be coming back on holiday to visit his family who still live in Warrington.
Driving through desert
on charity adventure
by David Skentelbery
A WARRINGTON couple are today driving through the Sahara Desert in a 33-year-old banger to raise money for charity.
The couple, Alan Jaques and Geraldine Murphy, from Stockton Heath are keeping in touch with well-wishers and sponsors back home through their website and through Warrington-Worldwide
We reproduce photographs taken with their mobile phone which they have emailed to us.
The couple set out on the Plymouth to Dakar Challenge ? a take-off of the famous Paris to Dakar Challenge ? on Boxing Day.
During their 20-day adventure they will travel through nine countries in what has been described as the world?s ultimate banger race.
The route takes them through hundreds of miles of the Sahara.
On New Year?s Day, they cancelled what should have been a rest day to get through a border before a religious holiday.
But they had a good night?s sleep after starting the New Year with a meal in a motel.
In their latest report, from Dakhla, in the Western Sahara they say their exhaust broke. But they were able to fix it and carry on after spending a night with a fisherman and his family ? and getting stuck in the sand.
Geraldine emailed to say: ?It?s cold at night so we have only camped once so far. Seas very rough today We saw some shipwrecks and a dead turtle.?
When the couple reach Dakar they will sell their car by auction, raising as much as they can for Gambian charities.
Each two-person team in the challenge has taken a name, and Alan and Geraldine chose ?4 Weldings and a Funnel? ? a play on words not unconnected with the work they carried out on their 33-year-old Mercedes 280 before leaving.
Cheryl loses weight
to gain an award
by Lesley Wilkinson
A WARRINGTON woman who has lost 10 stone in weight has won third place in the Rosemary Conley Diet and Fitness magazine Slimmer of the Year 2006 Awards.
Cheryl Foster, 44, of Brickhurst Way, Woolston, who is now a size 12, was presented with an award and a ?750 cheque by Rosemary at a ceremony at the Kensington Roof Gardens in London.
Rosemary said: “I am thrilled to present Cheryl with the third place Slimmer of the Year Award. Cheryl has achieved a fantastic weight loss and, as well as gaining a superb new figure, Cheryl has an active new life too.”
Between them the three finalists in the competition lost a combined 32st 9lb.
Cheryl’s weight escalated to 21 stone after an accident at work left her inactive. Her weight loss has taken five years to achieve. She now works on the salad bar at Sainsbury’s – where she can avoid temptation.
Her husband, Barry and children Darren and Kerry, are proud of her achievement.
“I had to stop work and could hardly move,” she said.
Her love of curry, chocolate and cider also took their toll on her weight. Her size 30 clothes started to get too small and she was too embarrassed to hang her size 52HH bra on the washing line.
Before the accident, Cheryl used to keep her weight in check with Morris dancing. After gaining weight she had difficulties getting upstairs and would collapse halfway up, exhausted. The final straw came when Cheryl’s son asked her not to pick him up from school as his schoolmates were making fun of him for having a fat mum.
She said: “As a response to this my husband, Barry said, ‘You’re the one who puts the food in your mouth.'”
Cheryl was so shocked by his reaction that she decided to take action. She reached her goal weight of 11 stone after taking the exercise and diet classes in Warrington.
“I was 21 stone, now I’m 11 stone, so in a way I’ve lost a whole me. But I feel I’ve got my life back and Barry’s got his wife back. It was all so worth it.”
Her bust size has reduced to 32E, her 54-inch waist shrunk to 28 inches and her hips have plummeted from 64 to 36 inches.
Man escaped from
blaze house
by staff reporter
POLICE have revealed that a man escaped from a blazing house at Birchwood, Warrington, where a woman died.
Few details of the tragedy have yet been released officially, but it is understood the dead woman was mother-of-two Joan Morris and the man who escaped from the house in Woolmer Close was her son, 27-year-old Graham Morris.
A post mortem examination was held last night to establish the cause of the woman’s death – first reported in Warrington-Worldwide yesterday (Wednesday) – but the result has not yet been
announced.
Police and fire experts are still investigating the cause of the fire.
Fire crews from Warrington and Birchwood were involved in the operation but it is believed the woman, aged in her mid-40s, had died before they could reach the scene.
“Glitter” on the internet
may not all be gold
by John Hendon
BARGAIN hunters across Warrington are being advised that all that glitters on the internet is not gold or silver or diamonds!
The borough council’s Trading Standards department is supporting advice being given by the Trading Standards Institute (TSI) and the British Hallmarking Council to shoppers to take particular care when spending their Christmas money on precious jewellery on internet auction sites.
It is not possible to detect the content of jewellery by sight or touch the gold, silver or platinum content of a piece of jewellery. For this reason, UK consumers are protected by the 1973 Hallmarking Act, which makes it illegal for anyone to describe an article as gold, silver or platinum, which is more than a certain weight, without a hallmark.
Coun Pat Wright, the council?s executive member for Community Services, said: “It is unfortunate, but sometimes when people buy from unknown traders on an internet auction site all that glitters is not gold! Shopping on-line is becoming increasingly popular but it makes it increasingly more difficult for buyers to know if they are purchasing authentic goods and getting value for money.?
Poetry sessions
start again
by staff reporter
POETRY evenings in Warrington have proved so popular that they are returning for another year.
Warrington Central Library will continue hosting the evenings on the first Friday of every month, with the first tomorrow (January 6). Events run from 7pm to 9pm and entrance and refreshments are free.
Everyone is welcome to attend whether they want to read out their poems or just enjoy listening to others’ work.
Further details are available from Wendy Molyneux on 01925 442732 or 07730 075966.
