Georgia battles back to bid for beauty title
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What’s your biggest fear?
Wrapping up warm for winter
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Fears roads will be left untreated
GRITTERS QUIT OVER PAY ROW COUPON
Simply cut out this coupon and choose from over 50 locations and book your two night stay online. Alternatively, call the central reservation number. Please retain this coupon and present upon arrival to avoid paying full price. Please note, this offer is valid for a two night stay only and Hungry Horse Hotels, Milsoms Hotels and the Mill on the Soar are not participating in this offer.
HOW TO BOOK:
£14.50 STAY IN HOTEL PAGE 6
www.oldenglishinns.co.uk
GB OLYMPIAN GAME TO TRY OUT TREATS PAGE 6
Bookings can be made online at www.oldenglishinns.co.uk/offer/northcliffe using the promotional code NORTH13. Alternatively, call 0845 60 86 072 quoting NORTH13.
Terms and conditions: Rates are per person per night, based on two people sharing a twin or double room for two nights, includes breakfast. Offer subject to availability and limited room allocation. If the offer is not available our Best Available Rate will be offered instead. No single occupancy. Cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer. All bookings must be made through Central Reservations and not through the hotels direct. New bookings only. Superior rooms can be booked for an additional supplement. Valid until 28th February 2013. Maximum 2 night stay. Excludes Xmas/New Year, Valentines. Calls are recorded for training purposes. OEI reserves the right to remove/change the properties during the promotion and to withdraw the promotion at any time. This is a promotional rate, so the booking is non-refundable, should you cancel the whole amount of the stay will be charged to the credit number taken at time of booking. Guest pay on departure. Please note that Hungry Horse Hotels, Milsoms hotels are not participating in this offer.
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r/northcliffe
PEOPLE Model hopes for brave Georgia
Saturday, October 6, 2012
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06.10.12
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Magazine
‘SHAWCROSS IS ROLE MODEL’
HORRORS OF WAR HIT TED
BY ALEX CAMPBELL
alex.campbell@thesentinel.co.uk
THIRTY-TWO gritter drivers have quit their jobs in a row over pay cuts – sparking fears of a winter roads crisis. Their decision means Stokeon-Trent City Council is heading into winter with just eight drivers on call for its gritting wagons. It follows a move to cut £40,000 from the £480,000 winter maintenance bill by axing payments to drivers for being on standby. Fears have been raised that the council may have to draft in costly agency workers – or leave streets without grit. The 40 drivers were previously paid to be on a standby rota from October and March, ready to be deployed at the first sign of a cold snap. But drivers were told they will no longer be compensated for being on standby and
will only be paid if they are called in to work. Payments for completing a gritting route have also been cut from a minimum of five hours pay to two hours. Now 32 of the workers have refused to agree to the new ter ms. All gritting drivers are employed in other roles with the council but have signed up for several years to top up their seasonal earnings. One driver said: “Most of the lads have been doing this for years but they won’t anymore. “If you are on standby you have to change your plans. On Christmas day you can’t have a drink. Why should we do it and not get the money?” City Councillor Duncan Walker, left, a member of the GMB union which represents the drivers, said: “I wasn’t aware of this and don’t have the full facts. “A lot of the drivers also drive bin lorries, and they would run out of the legal hours
they are able to do. It would mean either roads not being gritted or bringing in agency workers – and that would cost a fortune because they’d know the council hasn’t got any choice.” Council sources today accused drivers of deliberately trying to disrupt winter maintenance plans – and claim no concerns were raised until the day they were asked to sign up for new terms. The council, which has nine gritting wagons, says it is ‘confident’ it will have enough cover. Councillor Ruth Rosenau, cabinet member for transport, said: “Due to the increasingly difficult financial pressures all services are being reviewed. We will now only pay for work done. If it takes five hours they will get paid for five hours, if it takes two hours, they will be paid for two hours. Roads will still be gritted if we get snow.”
What do you think? Email us at letters@thesentinel.co.uk
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