News | Page 43

A boss of a Bridlington building firm was fined for not including for workers adequate toilet and washing facilities on site. The Health and Safety Executive prosecuted Bryan Ellis Brown, a partner in Bryan Brown & Son, of Flamborough.

The British Parking Association has reacted to the Government’s plans to ban wheel clamping on private land. The BPA statement contained these objections: "Drivers should be encouraged to comply with the conditions of private car park use. Everyone recognises landowners’ rights to control their land. If drivers trespass, there must be repercussions.

Detectives are still counting the insurance cost of a lightning smash and grab heist in which jewels worth several million pounds were stolen in London. A gang broke into a low-grade security entrance to access the De Beers store inside the Royal Exchange shopping area. The arcade, based around a champagne and seafood bar, is lined by jewellers and luxury goods stores which often leave displays fully stocked to encourage window shopping.

There will be an official probe into how a dangerous criminal was allowed to flee from custody not once, but twice. David Patmore broke out from a midlands open prison in April, was seized by officers after a rooftop stand-off, and re-sentenced in the northwest recently.

A bombshell almost literally dropped at a portable toilet after a cleaning worker found a crude bomb when on a routine service. The employee opened the door and spotted what she thought was a pipe bomb at a Tacoma Public Utilities transfer station in the USA, police said. Had it gone off, the bomb would have caused “considerable damage” to the toilet and anyone standing nearby, Assistant Police Chief Mike Zaro said.

New waiting regulations in Colwyn Bay, Wales, have resulted in a surge in parking on quiet streets. Parking areas on roads in the town that were formerly free, including Queens Drive, have been converted to 60 minute zones, forcing workers to go elsewhere. Bay of Colwyn Town Councillor, William Bagnall, said: “When they actually proposed it around Queens Park I did make a comment we’d be parking on the Old Highway before long because of the restrictions.

Government figures just released revealed that crime on public transport is costing society one-and-a-half billion pounds a year. The numbers for England in 2006/07, the latest statistics which are available, showed that the total numbers of incidents on buses, rail, light rail, trams and London Underground amounted to an estimated half a million.

British Telecom are compelled to come up with clever methods to foil thefts of copper contained in their local cable network, which leave affected areas cut off and cost BT millions of pounds every year. BT’s Openreach Division has started to use SmartWater, an invisible solution which forensically tags thieves, staying on their skin for up to 60 days. There were more than 200 arrests last year for this type of offence.

Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude reacted angrily to a senior policeman, Assistant Commissioner John Yates, telling the Association of Chief Police Officers annual conference that the nation was more vulnerable to terrorist activity due to an imminent reduction in the force’s budget. Mr Maude told the BBC News channel: "I’d like to avoid public servants doing this kind of shroud-waving in public.

The decrease in public toilets (some 15 per cent approximately in the past decade) has had a negative impact on society: this is especially felt in older people. Age UK, who used to be known as Help the Aged, researched the problem and found that 13 per cent of older people (1.26 million) do not go out more than once a week.

The latest method of car theft is to literally steal the expensive ones from under peoples’ noses by taking the keys. Police have urged members of the public to be on guard and take extra security steps to protect them. The ‘M.O.’ is to burgle a premises – usually through an open access point, which is very common in the summer heat – nab the keys and simply drive off.

Crime dropped by 9 per cent last year in England and Wales, confounding fears that the recession would fuel an increase in offending. The number of murders fell by 6% to 615, the lowest since 1997, while gun and knife crime also fell. Crimes recorded by the police fell 8% from 4.7m in 2008/09 to 4.3m last year.