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Wednesday, November 25, 2009
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Academy due for approval PLANS to replace a crumbling school with a £20 million academy were due to be approved today. James Brindley Science College, in Chell, is due to be replaced under Stoke-on-Trent City Council’s Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme. Plans to rebuild the school were first revealed in 2003, but the BSF scheme has been hit by delays. The school now has big cracks in walls, falling masonry, exposed iron bars in ceilings and taped-up windows. Headteacher Clive Rigby has already raised fears that to maintain the building would cost more than rebuilding it. The plans for the academy were today due to be discussed by the council’s development management committee.
F I RE T EARS FIRE TEARS T HROUGH THROUGH B OATYARD BOATYARD P AGE 2 PAGE
CLEANER TOLD TO BE A LIFEGUARD Picture: Clare Jennings
BY ALEX CAMPBELL
62-year-old who couldn’t swim made redundant
A 62-YEAR-OLD fitness centre cleaner who cannot swim has been made redundant, after being told to retrain as a lifeguard. Joan McGovern, pictured, had worked as a locker room attendant at Total Fitness, in Trent Vale, since it opened nine years ago. But Joan, who has a fear of water, was told her job was changing. As well as cleaning showers and tidying the locker rooms, Joan was asked to: ■ Provide cover on the poolside in the absence of lifeguards, pending poolside training;
■ Carry out first aid training, including using a heart defibrillator; ■ Perform maintenance and health and safety checks. But Joan, who has taken redundancy with two colleagues after they also rejected ‘updated roles’, says the changes were unreasonable. She said: “We were told the job was changing. If I stayed I would basically have had to be a lifeguard and learn to use a machine to start people’s hearts. “When I first started I was too terrified to even go near water. I did get a bit better
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after working there for a while and they’ve had me learning basic breast stroke so I could get used to it. “But I’ve never gone underwater and never would. So what am I supposed to do if somebody is drowning? “I told them that if I had to jump in to help somebody who was struggling then they’d have two people dead.” Joan, of Sorrell Gardens, Newcastle, left work on Sunday and says she was disappointed with the company’s sendoff. She added: “I was with a member of the public when I was leaving and they couldn’t believe it was my last day. “After nine years working there I thought more colleagues would have said goodbye.”
A fully-qualified lifeguard has to have significant swimming proficiency, including the ability to swim 50 metres in less than a minute, and be able to dive to the bottom of the pool. Her electrician husband Christopher, aged 57, said: “I was upset to see her come home with no present or card. She was very loyal to that company. “She could not be trained as a lifeguard, because she isn’t a swimmer. She wasn’t going to be able to jump in and save anybody.” A spokesman at the centre in Newcastle Road declined to comment on Joan’s departure.
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POWER TO THE PEOPLE: Phil Taylor.
Make Taylor BBC winner
DARTS professional Andy Hamilton says his rival and Grand Slam winner Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor should be first choice for the title of BBC Sports Personality of the Year. The short list for the award will be announced on Monday and the winner will be revealed on December 13, but the 14-times world darts champion has often been overlooked by the BBC. Mr Hamilton said if The Power reached the short list, people in this region should throw their support behind their home-grown champion. See Page 6
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