Council alarm over
major pop festival
by David Skentelbery
WORRIED councillors have expressed concern over a proposed pop festival to be held in open fields in the Alice in Wonderland village of Daresbury, near Warrington.
Up to 50,000 fans are expected at the Creamfields festival on the weekend of Saturday, August 26/Sunday August 27.
The festival, which has been staged at Speke, Liverpool for the last seven years, is planning to relocate to a site owned by Lord Daresbury – former head of the De Vere hotel group.
Festival bosses say the site is in the borough of Halton and claim to have already held talks with Halton Council chiefs.
But the site comprises of five large fields – two of which it is proposed to use for parking – and Coun John Price, of nearby Appleton Parish Council, says it is actually partly in Warrington.
He said: “The organisers are planning to close various local roads.
“People will start arriving around 8am on the Saturday morning and the concert will start in the late afternoon.
“It will continue until midnight when it will move into marquees and continue until around 6am on the Sunday.”
Coun Price predicted traffic problems with thousands of fans trying to reach the site from the M56.
Residents of Daresbury, Stretton, Hatton, Walton and Appleton could be expected to hear the noise.
A number of road closures were planned which could lead to access problems for some residents.
“Anyone who wanted to get married at Daresbury Church that day would not be able to,” he said.
Access problems were feared at the BUPA hospital at Stretton and there were worries about whether Warrington Hospital would be able to cope with the number of casualties, etc., arising from the event.
Representatives of local parish councils and the church have already held a meeting to discuss the issue.
Coun Price said festival organisers would be employing 500 police and 380 of their own security staff.
James Barton, chief executive of club operators Cream, said: “Creamfields is an internationally acclaimed event and over the last seven years has made a huge contribution to Liverpool’s cultural renaissance. A successful Creamfields will help promote Halton and demonstrate their willingness to deliver a major cultural event.”
Names of artists appearing have yet to be announced, but previous festivals have featured headline acts such as Scissor Sisters, Massive Attack, Pet Shop Boys Run DMC, Basement Jaxx, Faithless and Underworld.
Builders trip the
light fantastic
by Lesley Wilkinson
TWO burly builders working on Warrington Collegiate’s new campus changed their working gear for dancing clothes to promote Performing Arts classes at the college.
Kayne James and Tom Graham put on tutu skirts and dancing shoes and joined 19-year-old students Marissa Owen and Nicolle Green for an early morning dance session to promote an open day.
Potential dancers, musicians and actors are being invited to drop into the Winwick Road campus next Tuesday (March 28) between 10am and 4pm, when the Performing Arts department showcases its courses.
Dance and music demonstrations showing the range of courses and career opportunities in performing arts, will be featured.
This year students have staged a professional musical talent show and pantomime, entertained new students at the Freshers’ Ball and performed at charity events.
Rugby club wins
prestigious award
by David Skentelbery
WARRINGTON Rugby Union Club has been granted the prestigious RFU Seal of Approval and Sport England Clubmark.
The award, which is effectively a rugby kitemark, is given only to those clubs who can demonstrate that they meet the highest standards in providing a safe, effective and child-friendly environment in which youngsters can learn to play and appreciate the game of rugby union.
The scheme itself is a joint initiative between the RFU, Sport England and the Active Sports programme and the award was made after a rigorous assessment of the club.
Steve Riley, chairman of the mini and junior rugby section said: “This achievement is very much due to the work of a lot of volunteers at the club, coaches, parents and committee members and it is very gratifying to be officially recognised as a club of good practice.”
Club president Terry Critchley added: “We have a flourishing mini and junior section, with upwards of 200 boys and girls playing rugby at Walton Lea Rd every Sunday morning.
They very much represent the future of Warrington Rugby Club and this important accreditation demonstrates that we have the infrastructure in place to provide the coaching, facilities and equipment to ensure the future success of our young players, and the club as a whole.”
Thieves target plasma
screen televisions
by Lesley Wilkinson
AN INCREASE in thefts of plasma screen TVs in Warrington has prompted police to urge owners to get them security marked to deter thieves.
In the past three months 11 of the TVs have been stolen in the town – most worth between ?2,000 and ?4,000.
Crime reduction advisor Phil Buckley said: “We are advising people to security mark all their electrical equipment, especially high value items such as plasma TVs which are attractive to the opportunist thief and expensive to replace.” He said it only takes a few seconds to do and makes it much easier for police to identify stolen property which has been recovered.
Security marking, he suggests, can be done by etching, engraving, or using an ultra violet pen, and should include a postcode, house number, or first two letters of the house name.
He also suggests use of “Smart Water,” a forensically DNA coded solution that is invisible to the naked eye but is impossible to remove and can link property to its owner, to ensure goods can be tracked.
He said: “It’s also important for people to report anyone who approaches them in the pub or on the street and offers them the chance to buy a ‘cheap’ plasma TV – it is likely to have been stolen.”
999 calls will be
assessed by nurses
by John Hendon
WARRINGTON patients with minor complaints are to benefit from a new and improved service launched at the end of this month.
The service will mean that people with minor ailments who call 999 will be assessed by nurses and emergency care practitioners via telephone from within emergency ambulance control to make sure they get the most appropriate care.
Warrington Primary Care Trust (PCT) is putting in place alternative arrangements for managing an NHS response to these calls in partnership with Mersey Regional Ambulance Service (MRAS).
Initially the service will be run out of hours only – between 6.30pm and 8am, Monday to Friday, and all day on Saturday, Sunday and public holidays.
It will be expanded to a 24 hour service during the summer.
If a call is received by the emergency control at MRAS and prioritised as ?Category C? – neither life threatening nor serious – the caller will be transferred to a qualified nurse or emergency care practitioner who will be able to clinically assess them.
The caller may only need telephone advice ? or may require a response other than an ambulance. In these cases the assessment team will transfer the caller’s details onto Warrington Out-of-Hours Healthcare Service at Garven Place which will arrange for an appropriate response.
This includes advice from a doctor, nurse or pharmacist, a home visit by an emergency care practitioner, an appointment at the out-of-hours centre, or access to the district nursing service.
However, if a patient’s condition deteriorates, the clinical assessment team will be able to re-categorise the call to provide an immediate, emergency response. In these cases the call will be passed over to the emergency crews to respond to.
Chris Webb, the PCT’s unplanned and specialist care manager, said: “Th
is new initiative will reduce the number of ambulance journeys to non urgent cases and speed up response times to those patients who need them. It will also reduce the number of ambulance journeys to accident and emergency departments. We have successfully used emergency care practitioners within the local service for several years and they have been responding to these types of cases on a regular basis very successfully.”
The new arrangements will mean that the ambulance service will have more capacity to deal with urgent calls.
“Message in a bottle”
campaign is launched
by Lesley Wilkinson
A CAMPAIGN to help elderly patients receive the best treatment in a medical emergency, will be launched at Warrington Town Hall.
The Mayor and Mayoress of Warrington (Couns Hans and Karen Mundry) will launch the “Message in a Bottle” campaign on Wednesday March 29 at 2pm.
The campaign, sponsored by Warrington Lions, is designed to help the elderly and infirm.
Details of their medication are inserted in a special bottle to assist paramedics who have been called to the patient to determine appropriate treatment.
The bottle is kept in the ?fridge ? so the paramedics will know where to find it.
Two taken to hospital
after cable severed
by staff reporter
TWO men were taken to hospital at Warrington after suffering electricity burns.
They were involved in an incident in Napier Street when an 11,000 volt cable was severed while work was being carried out on an underground installation.
Both men suffered burns but their injuries were not life threatening.
The incident caused minor power surges which were noticed in properties across Warrington.
Ambulance and fire crews attended the incident.
