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Monday, December 6, 2010
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Most dramatic week ever for country’s top soap
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Page 4
PLUS: VIEWERS’ ANGER OVER X FACTOR VOTING SCANDAL – SEE PAGE 4
£300 to spend on new outfits for interviews Motorist is
SUITS YOU! £2.4M TO DRESS JOBLESS By Alex Campbell
TAXPAYERS are shelling out £2.4 million a year to buy job hunters in the West Midlands new clothes for interviews, figures reveal today.
Fans queue in One Direction frenzy
The amount handed out in clothing grants of up to £300 per person ballooned from just £1m in the previous financial year to £2.4m.
Enforced job cuts looming
It means more than £46,000 of public money is being spent in the region every week by the unemployed buying clothes.
The scheme has been extended to allow the newly unemployed to file claims. It was previously restricted to long-term unemployed. People attending job interviews are allowed to pick out their own suit, shirt and shoes from high street shops and then claim back with receipts to the value of £300. Nationally, the Department for Work and Pensions spent £24m in the UK on clothes in the 2009/10 financial year – up from £10m a year before. The figures, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, outline payments from the Government Advisor Discretionary Fund which allows Job Centre advisors to authorise handouts to help job-seeking.
Compulsory job losses at Wolverhampton City Council were looming today as it emerged the authority was extending its voluntary redundancy scheme. Bosses admitted there was “very real potential” that compulsory redundancies would have to be made as part of budget cuts of £70 million. Workers on fixed-term contracts funded by central government who had been excluded will be eligible if a planned change to the scheme is passed as expected. The change affects 150 people. A report to the cabinet on Wednesday says the council Guidance wants to make the voluntary redundancy programme “as In total, £4.1m was spent inclusive as possible in order in the region in 2009/10, to reduce the eventual num- with other payments being ber of compulsory redundan- given for transport, tools and training. Nationally, cies”. The council needs to cut ADF payments have rock£70m after the Government eted from £16.8m in 2008/09 announced 28 per cent cuts to £40m in the last year. Guidance for staff requires to local government funding. that all payments made from the fund are proven to be “a sensible use of public funds.” But on the internet there are scores of websites urging job seekers to take advantage of Pop legends Erasure will the cash. perform at Cannock Chase Department for Work and Forest next summer as part Pensions spokeswoman Clare of a seven-date UK tour. Djordjevitch said: “The GovThe synth-pop duo will ernment wants Jobcentre tale to the stage at the forest Plus to deliver a more peron June 24 as part of the sonalised service to get peoTotal Pop Tour. Tickets cost ple back into work. The ADF £34.50 subject to booking fee is in place to help Jobcentre and go on sale at 9am on Fri- Plus customers remove barday. Call the Forestry Com- riers preventing them from mission on 03000 680400. moving into work.”
Chase date on Erasure tour
One Direction fans queuing around the Civic today to bag concert tickets to the one-off gig in Wolverhampton
Hundreds in rush to get tickets By John Scott
Fans of X Factor finalists One Direction queued from 4.30am today to bag tickets for the group’s hotly-anticipated free concert in Wolverhampton tomorrow – featuring an appearance by their mentor Simon Cowell.
By 9am there were more than 1,000 people waiting for tickets in the freezing conditions outside the Civic Hall, with queues building up throughout the day. A total of 4,200 tickets were up for grabs for the one-off gig, and all of them had gone by 1.20pm.
Stage Civic Halls spokeswoman Crissie Rushton said this afternoon: “The response has been fantastic. I don’t think we’ll have any left by the end of the day.” Officials are warning people not to turn up without a ticket amid security fears. The band, featuring Bushbury teenager Liam Payne, will perform in the city after last night winning through to this weekend’s X Factor final. The city centre is set to be brought to a standstill when workers move in to start creating a stage and fenced off area in Queen Square for the fans lucky enough to get their hands on
killed after escaping car crash on M54
A driver aged 51 was killed by passing traffic after climbing from her Peugeot 306 following a crash when she lost control on the M54 near Wolverhampton.
The woman from Staffordshire, is understood to have been hit by a car and a lorry near the spot where she lost control. The woman’s blue estate car ploughed into bushes alongside the hard shoulder of the westbound carriageway between junctions 2 for Stafford Road and 3 for Albrighton at 7am yesterday. She managed to get out of the damaged car in the dark and is thought to have walked on to the hard shoulder before being hit. Ambulance, police and fire crews rushed to the scene, near a pedestrian foot bridge off Pendeford Hall Lane, Pendeford. The drivers of the car and lorry were treated for shock. The westbound carriageway was closed for seven hours while police combed the scene and debris was cleared. Witnesses are asked to contact police on 0121 626 1285. In another incident, a woman driver was taken to hospital after her silver Toyota Corolla was in collision with a lorry on Wolverhampton’s ring road. The crash was at the Bilston Street island at about 12.37pm this afternoon. The woman’s injuries were not life-threatening, according to the police.
Driver dies after illness
Big chill forecast to end in midweek
Sub-zero temperatures left the West Midlands shivering again today, but forecasters predicted milder days to come later this week. Temperatures fell to -8C (18F) in the south of the region and are expected to hover around freezing until Wednesday. Last night the mercury plunged to -18C (0F) in North Yorkshire. Temperatures are predicted to plunge to -12C (10F) in the region overnight, but they could pick up later in the week to a relatively balmy 5C (41F). The National Cold War Exhibition at RAF Cosford near Wolverhampton was closed today because of heating problems in the hangar. Fish have died at the lake at Willenhall Memorial Park because ice has caused falling oxygen levels. A 64-year-old man died in Darlington while clearing snow outside his home yesterday and a 75-year-old man was found in snow at a caravan park in Cleethorpes. ● Round-up – Page 7
A driver died of a suspected heart attack after being taken ill at the wheel in Wolverhampton today. It happened near the Copper Bowl pub, Laburnum Continental Airlines and Road, Lanesfield, at about one of its mechanics were 8.05am. West Midlands Ambu- “criminally responsible” for lance Service spokesman the French Concorde crash John Hawker said that de- which killed 113 people, a spite best efforts, the man French court ruled today. The American firm was was confirmed dead at the scene. A woman in the car at fined £170,000, while John Lucky One Direction fans who queued to get concert tickets today the time was supported by Taylor, 42, received a 15month suspended jail term. tickets. Work will start at 2pm tomor- a ticket for her and collected one for ambulance crews but did not ● Full story – Page 15 require further treatment. myself as well.” row. Charlotte Wood, a 14-year-old North Lichfield Street will be shut throughout the afternoon and during East Wolverhampton Academy pupil from Elmdon Close, Oxley, queued for the show, which starts at 6pm. Lisa Elwell, 37, from Winchester almost two hours for her ticket. “It Wildcard X Factor contestant Wagner Carrilho today reRoad, Fordhouses, managed to get her was well worth the wait. Now I can’t hands on tickets for herself and 10- wait for the concert to start,” she said. vealed he had asked to be taken off benefits following alleWolverhampton City Council mayor gations he should not have been claiming. year-old daughter Bethany. He said he knew he would be getting paid from touring “She was determined to see the Councillor Malcolm Gwinnett said this show because she loves the band and afternoon: “I am pleased by the re- and shows as a result of X Factor, and said he didn’t want particularly likes Harry. I was equally sponse but not surprised by the people to view him as a “parasite”. The reason he went on the show was because he didn’t want to be on benefits. determined that she was not going to turnout.” ● Probe – See Page 4 ● Full story and pictures – Page 5 miss school and so I was happy to get
Airline fined on Concorde crash
Wagner off benefits
HOW THE GRITTERS TARGET ICY WEST MIDLAND ROADS – SEE PAGE 8