Wednesday 28 January 2004

By Amy Taylor, Natasha Salari, Clare Jerrom and Alex
Dobson

The government has halted plans to dock housing benefit
from nuisance neighbours.

Chris Pond, the work and pensions minister, said the plan had not
been abandoned, but there is already a range of measures that can
be used to deal with antisocial neighbours.

Frank Field, the former minister for welfare reform, who suggested
the idea said that it was “only a matter of time” before the reform
went through.

Source:- The Financial Times Wednesday 28 January page
2

Suicide pupil’s 12 years of bullying

A boy who took a fatal overdose of painkillers had been
bullied at school since the age of four, an inquest has
heard.

The coroner recorded a verdict of suicide on 16-year-old Karl
Peart. His mother told the hearing in Alnwick that he only felt
safe at home.

He had attended Hirst High in Ashington, where a fortnight later,
another pupil, Gemma Dimmick, is also thought to have committed
suicide.

Source:- The Daily Mail Wednesday 28 January page 17

Countryside retreat

Black and Asian people rarely visit rural Britain. Raekha
Prasad examines why – and reports on moves to make them more
welcome

Source:- Guardian Society Wednesday, 28 January page
2

Capital gains and losses

The amount that communities stick together is to be
measured in the government’s annual survey of British households
for the first time this year.

The Office for National Statistics will ask the same set of
questions on the issue in future years in order to measure whether
a sense of neighbourly responsibility is increasing.

Source:- Guardian Society Wednesday 28 January page
4

What else can I do?

As an area manager in a council’s environmental services
department, Nick takes street cleaning seriously. Options for his
next career move.

Source:- Guardian Society Wednesday 28 January page
132

Brave new world

Pam Alexander’s career could never be described as
uneventful – and that’s unlikely to change now she is one of
the most powerful figures in regeneration.

Source:- Society Guardian Wednesday 28 January page
6

Circles of life

A revolutionary new community support group aims to
prevent paedophiles from re-offending by extending to them a hand
of friendship.

Source:- Guardian Society Wednesday 28 January page
7

Not just a phase

Private and voluntary sector providers of state health
services can now join the NHS Confederation – and influence pay and
conditions. Is this proof that new partnerships are here to
stay?

Source:- Guardian Society Wednesday 28 January page
8

Savvy media

Mental health and learning difficulty issues have become
popular subjects for programme makers. But are they portrayed
realistically, and are disabled actors getting a piece of the
action?

Source:- Guardian Society Wednesday 28 January page
10

Everything in moderation

Once beset by allegations or race discrimination and
unreliable services. Hackney Council, under the leadership of
mayor, Jules Pipe, seems to be making a recovery.

Source:- Guardian Society Wednesday 28 January page
14

Scottish newspapers

Scotland’s first cannabis café will open this
week after the drug is downgraded from a Class B to a Class C
status.

The Scottish Cannabis Coffee Movement said people would be allowed
to use the drug in the Purple Haze Café in Leith when it is
reclassified.

The SSCM is launching a campaign, which is backed by the Scottish
Socialist Party, to create a network of cannabis tolerance zones
across Scotland.

Source:- The Scotsman Wednesday 28 January

Crime figures rise for repeat youth offenders

The number of crimes committed by persistent young offenders rose
last year, new figures show.

Offences committed by young people increased from 29,232 in 2001-2
to 30,129 in 2002-3, according to the annual report of the Scottish
Children’s Reporter Administration.

A record number of cases – 37,727 – were also referred to the
Children’s Reporter but the number of children being dealt
with by the system fell from 15, 132 in 2001-2 to 14,404 in
2002-3.

A Scottish executive spokesperson said the figures proved that the
executive was correct to crackdown on young offenders through
measures in the Antisocial Behaviour Bill.

Source:- The Scotsman Wednesday 28 January

Appeal over child rapist’s term

A judge who jailed a child rapist for five years failed to
take account the gravity of the offence, appeal court judges heard
yesterday.
James Taylor admitted raping a child who could have been as young
as 13 months old.

Colin Boyd QC, lord advocate, said judge Lord Reed might have acted
on a flawed expert report produced by a clinical psychologist, and
said there was now material suggesting that the rapist could pose a
“substantially higher” risk of offending again.

The crown is challenging the sentence imposed on Taylor at the
court of criminal appeal in Edinburgh and is seeking to increase
the sentence.

Source:- The Herald Wednesday 28 January

Education minister says: I genuinely can’t tell you
if there has or hasn’t been a rise..eh?

Education minister Peter Peacock has branded statistics
which show an increase in violent incidents in classrooms
unreliable.

The figures from schools and councils show that incidents have
risen from 1,898 in 1989 to 6,899 in 2003.

Peacock branded the figures unreliable and when asked if he
believed violence was rising, he added: “I genuinely cannot
tell you whether there has or has not been a rise because the
evidence does not tell us that.”

Source:- The Daily Record  Wednesday 28 January page
2

Welsh newspapers

A teenage girl expelled from a Swansea school has won a
legal victory that will allow her to attend another school in the
city.

The 15-year-old was asked to leave the school last year because of
behavioural problems, and Swansea Council wanted her to attend a
pupil referral unit.

But the girl and her mother argued that she had been bullied and a
court agreed that she had the right to return to mainstream
education.

Source:- Western Mail Wednesday 28 January page 2

Healthy outlook

A half-page feature in which Welsh assembly health and
social services minister Jane Hutt sets out the achievements of the
NHS in Wales.

Source:- Western Mail Wednesday 28 January page 10