Friday 13 August 2004

By Amy Taylor, Clare Jerrom and Shirley
Kumar

Police to have power to arrest litterbugs

Litterbugs or those found scrawling graffiti could be arrested and
their finger prints taken under new government plans, warn civil
right groups.

Home Secretary David Blunkett said the moves outlined in the
consultation paper would overhaul outdated laws giving police the
right to arrest anyone committing an offence.

Source:- The Independent, Friday 13 August 2004, page
6

Four nursery staff sacked after BBC documentary

An undercover BBC documentary which secretly filmed nurseries
showing bad practice, has led to the sacking of four members of
staff with a fifth facing disciplinary action.

Ofsted has also issued statutory compliance notices to two of the
three nurseries ordering them to improve their standards of care.
Breaching the notice is a criminal offence.

Source:- The Guardian, Friday 13 August 2004, page 5

Scottish newspapers

One in five Scots on disabled list

Almost one in five Scots adults is disabled or suffers long-term
illness, according to a report.

Capability Scotland research claims this group suffer
discrimination, poverty and a lack of opportunity as a
result.

Disabled adults are less likely to own their own house and mostly
earn less money than able-bodied counterparts.

Source:- Daily Record  Friday 13 August page 33 

Councils’ housing plans are found to be ‘too
old’

New powers to force local authorities to modernise local
development plans should be granted to ministers, it was claimed
yesterday.

Homes for Scotland, which represents the house-building industry,
said current housing needs were being ignored because local
authority planning departments were bound by old local plans.

Source:- The Scotsman  Friday 13 August

Unpaid work punishment

Offenders convicted of antisocial offences such as vandalism will
be forced to carry out unpaid work as part of their punishment
under a pilot scheme announced yesterday by first minister Jack
McConnell.

Sheriffs will have access to a new sentence disposal known as a
community reparation order to punish offenders where there is an
antisocial behaviour element to their crimes.

They will be able to impose sentences of up to 100 hours of unpaid
work under the new sentence option which is part of a raft of
measures introduced in the Antisocial Behaviour Bill.

Source:- The Scotsman  Friday 13 August 

Schoolboy sex charge ‘not
proven’

A schoolboy was cleared of raping a girl when he was 12-years-old
at the High Court in Stonehaven.

The boy, who is now 14, was also acquitted of a second charge of a
serious sexual assault on an 11-year-old boy by Lord
Osbourne.

The boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, denied both
charges. He was acquitted of sexual assault on the boy due to a
lack of evidence ad the jury delivered a majority not proven
verdict on the rape charge.

Source:- The Scotsman  Friday 13 August 

Deaf pupil guilty of sex attacks

A deaf teenager has admitted carrying out sex attacks on fellow
colleagues at Donaldson’s College in Edinburgh.

Daryll Rennie indecently assaulted two girls and had underage sex
with a third girl when he was a student at the school for deaf
children.

Judge Lord Macfayden told Rennie to return to court next month and
allowed him to remain on bail until then.

Source:- Evening News  Thursday 12 August 

Call for teenagers’ proof-of-age cards

National proof-of-age cards should be introduced, retailers and
politicians in the capital are urging.

Edinburgh Central MSP Sarah Boyack said teenagers should ensure
that they carry proof-of-age cards when buying age-restricted
products such as alcohol.

She united with local businesses to call on the Scottish executive
to create a nationally recognised scheme.

Source:- Evening News  Thursday 12 August

Call for staff to buy homes near jail
site

Prison workers were urged to buy houses closeby to a planned new
jail in the Lothians.

Residents in the villages of Addiewell and West Calder are fighting
to de-rail the plans for the £65 million prison amid fears it
will turn the quiet area into drug-ridden ghettos.

West Lothian councillor Stewart Borrowman called for those most
affected to be given the choice of having their homes bought at
market rate or receive compensation for loss of amenity.

He added that people coming to work for the prison would be happy
to buy the houses.

Source:- Evening News  Thursday 12 August

Thugs wreck ex-homeless children’s art for
festival

Artwork created by formerly homeless children for the city’s
Book Festival has been destroyed by vandals.

Homeless charity Shelter’s Families Project in Leith was
broken into and valuables were stolen.

Artwork which two children had created for a book being launched at
the Edinburgh Book Festival was also destroyed.

Source:- Evening News  Thursday 12 August 

City chief hits out at Ponton over baby
Caleb

The issue of child protection in the wake of the death of Caleb
Ness has been used as a “political football”, Edinburgh
Council’s leader Donald Anderson has claimed.

Anderson said he “took exception” to criticisms made by
Liberal democrat councillor Tom Ponton over the council’s
response to the Edinburgh Inquiry into the baby’s
death.

In a letter to the Evening News, he described Ponton’s
comments as ill-advised and said they were not trivial issues
“to be banded about like a political football”.

Source:- Evening News  Thursday 12 August 

Welsh newspapers

‘I’m terrified of sending my mum back to
hospital’

The daughter of an 85-year-old asthma patient who had a
44-hour hospital trolley wait is terrified of allowing her mother
to return to hospital.

Catherine Melody went to the University Hospital of Wales after
suffering a sever asthma attack but her daughter says that because
of her mother’s long wait for treatment, the family is now
extremely concerned about her returning to the hospital.

Source South Wales Echo Thursday 12 August page 8