4 Friday, 5 December 5 2014
Bin men blamed for decline in paper recycling
The chairwoman of a Stoke-onTrent residents’ association has blamed bin collectors have been a sharp decline in paper recycling in the city. Paper recycling has fallen by 50% in the last year according to Stokeon-Trent City Council’s Quarterly Business Review. Karen Bowen, chairwoman of Townsend Residents Association said: “I recently witnessed our local bin men tipping the paper box contents into the glass and cardboard recycling bin. “This was not an isolated case but the whole length of the street – Theodore Road, Bucknall - so maybe it has happened in other streets.” The council report says the decline may be because of residents failing to use the separate box for paper, and instead putting it with other materials in the blue recycling bins. But it does say waste operatives may be putting paper boxes in with the mixed recycling due to ‘operational issues.” Councillor Andy Platt, the city council’s cabinet member for green enterprises and clean city, said: “There may be occasional instances when recycled waste has to be mixed with residual waste but this is not a frequent occurrence. “The vast majority of contamination is down to residents mistakenly putting the wrong items in their blue bins. “One obvious factor is that people just don’t use as much paper as they used to. “We’re certainly working hard to reverse the trend and get our recycling rates back up to where they should be, but we are going to need residents’ help to make it happen.”
CHRISTMAS TRANSFORMATION: Festive decorations go up in Market Square (above) for the switch on in Stoke on Saturday (below).
Drunk dad burgled Oak Hill home as the owner slept Former decorator then found plastered at the wheel of a stolen car
A former painter and decorator from Stoke-on-Trent has been jailed for burgling the home of a woman as she slept upstairs. Stephen Gilmore, 25, of London Road, Stoke-on-Trent broke into a woman’s house on Chamberlain Avenue, Oak Hill, Stoke, and stole from her handbag in her front room. He stole two mobile phones, the keys to her new courtesy car, and a
USB stick before leaving the property. He was later found by police slumped behind the wheel of the stolen vehicle, having drunk 14 beers and vodka, Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court was told. Gilmore was already disqualified from driving after an offence in 2012, and now faces a further five-year ban from driving. He was arrested on October 21 and
pleaded guilty to all offences, but insisted he couldn’t remember breaking into the Oak Hill house. Mitigating for Gilmore, Mr Anis Ali said: “He understands the stress he has put his family through, he is deeply embarrassed and ashamed. “He is unlikely to see his partner of seven years, and his three children for a long time and they are unlikely to have any financial help.
“I am asking you to reduce his sentence for as little as possible for the sake of his family. “It was not a pre-planned burglary, and there was no confrontation between Gilmore and the woman… and she was unaware anything was going on at all.” Judge Glenn told Gilmore: “You have to understand, the burglary is a very serious offence indeed.
“I find it very hard to believe you remember exactly what you had to drink – and gave that in quite some detail – but you can’t remember committing the burglary.” He was sentenced to 16 months in jail - split into12 months for breaking into the house on Chamberlain Avenue, and four months for driving while disqualified, and driving while under the influence of alcohol.
A team of Staffordshire entrepreneurs is about to row across the English Channel to raise cash for the Donna Louise Children’s Hospice.
The crew, including Waterworld chief Mo Chaudry, will row 450 nautical miles from London to Paris, including a 36-hour Channel crossing.
The Tower to Tower Rowing Challenge will take place over six days and six nights in May 2015, starting at Tower Bridge in London and ending at the Eiffel Tower in Paris. It aims to raise £90,000 to fund two children’s nurses at the Donna Louise Children’s Hospice, in Trentham which cares for children who are facing life-threatening illnesses and their families. Nathan Walton, 46, managing director of JSW Insurance Services in Newcastle-under-Lyme, is one of the rowing crew.
He said: “It’s something I knew would push me somewhere I had never been. So I just had to say yes.
The crew members are being coached by the team that trained comedian John Bishop in his crosschannel challenge. James Williamson, 28, personal trainer and owner of Evolve Total Body Fitness said: “I’m looking forward to the physical challenge, but the worrying side of it will be the lack of sleep and lack of food.” Waterworld boss Mo Chaudry said: “I’m a family man, I’ve got children of my own. “It’s going to be an extraordinary challenge.”
Bosses row from London to Paris in aid of Donna Louise Hospice
“Having done a couple of the training sessions so far I know it’s going to be very tough.”