Thursday 14 August 2003

By Amy Taylor, Clare Jerrom and Alex Dobson.
Troublesome boy left at roadside by social services
A 14-year-old boy was left on the side of the road, and was not
found until the next day due to Coventry social services staff
finding his behaviour too challenging.
A boy was part of a group of children who were taken on a day trip
to Bournemouth on Friday, but on their return he was dumped on the
roadside due to bad behaviour.
The workers then proceeded to take everyone else home, and did not
immediately alert anyone about the boy’s whereabouts.
Thames Valley police were finally told at 9.40pm and an immediate
search for the boy was launched. He was not found until the next
day close to the A34 road where he had been left. He was
unharmed.
Coventry Council said two members of staff have been
suspended.
Source:- The Times Thursday 14 August page 7
‘Callous’ care home’s bill for dead relative
A man has been charged £1,275 by a residential home for care
of his stepfather three weeks after the elderly man had died.
Michael Keat said he was ‘stunned’ to receive the bill once his
stepfather had passed away and assumed it was a mistake.
But then a second letter came informing him that he had agreed to
pay the care home by the month, and should have given four weeks’
notice of ending the contract.
Keat explains how in effect the care home wanted him to give notice
on when his stepfather would die. A policy he described as
‘immoral’.
The manager of Hollies residential care home in Southborough, Kent,
said his company was forced to take on contracts drawn up by the
previous owners when it started running the home.
Source:- The Daily Mail Thursday 14 August page 41
Refugees in prison despite Blunkett pledge
One hundred and thirty asylum seekers are currently being held in
prisons despite the home secretary’s pledge to abolish the
practice.
Many of those imprisoned are there because the government failing
to arrange for their deportation, they do not have genuine travel
documents or there are fears that they may abscond.
Refugee groups argue that it is immoral to keep asylum seekers
locked up alongside prisoners.
Source:- The Independent Thursday 14 August page 2
Asylum seeker guilty over Yarl’s Wood riot
An asylum seeker has been found guilty of taking part in a riot at
the £100 million Yarl’s Wood detention centre in Bedfordshire
at Harrow crown court.
Henry Momodou, aged  39, from Nigeria was convicted of violent
disorder at the centre in February 2002, and was remanded in
custody to be sentenced at the end of the trial.
The jury is currently considering violent disorder charges against
four other asylum seekers.
Source:- The Independent Thursday 14 August page 2
Scottish newspapers
Minister has pop at sheriffs
A minister yesterday said some sheriffs can be out of touch with
the needs and fears of crime victims.
Mary Mulligan, deputy communities minister, spoke out as she
addressed locals in Stirling in an area terrorised by the Haney
family, which is led by drug dealer ‘Big Mags’.
Mulligan said: “There are times sheriffs don’t seem to
understand the dreadful impact crime has upon the people affected
by it.”
She insisted that stiffer sentences were not necessarily needed,
but that problems needed to be nipped in the bud.
Source:- Daily Record Thursday 14 August page 4
Dole queues are shrinking
Unemployment fell in Scotland by more than 11,000 in the three
months to June.
However business and union leaders warned that the Scottish
executive needed to do more for the manufacturing industry where
there appears to be a “growing crisis”.
Source:- Daily Record Thursday 14 August page 24
Wheelchair row
Taxi-drivers are angry at plans to force them to make all
their vehicles wheelchair friendly.
West Dunbartonshire Council want wheelchair access to be a
licensing condition.
Source:- Daily Record Thursday 14 August page 31
Dedicated officer to beat bad neighbours
Scotland’s first police officer dedicated to tackling
anti-social behaviour is set to hit the streets of West
Lothian.
The officer is to be seconded to the new council-run neighbourhood
response team, which has been set up to take action against people
acting in an anti-social way.
Source:- The Scotsman Thursday 13 August
Welsh newspapers
‘Overcrowding rife’ in Cardiff prison –
report
A new report from the Prison Reform Trust says that Cardiff Prison
is the sixth most overcrowded jail in England and Wales.
More than three quarters of the inmates have to share a single
cell, and the report shows that drug use is also higher than
average.
Source:- South Wales Echo Wednesday 13 August page 17
Carer demands bill for the elderly
A campaign for a bill of rights for older people has been launched
in Wales.
Ken Mack wants the government to introduce legislation that would
protect older people in care homes from the trauma of being moved
around as homes close because of financial pressures.
Mack who goes under the title of Carer and Independent National
Voluntary Campaigner for People with Disabilities said that the
insecurity and uncertainty created by care home closure was having
a devastating effect on older people.
Source:- Western Mail Thursday 14 August page 9