White horses for
funeral of little Ellie
by staff reporter
THE funeral takes place today of tragic Ellie Lawrenson, the five-year-old Warrington girl mauled to death by her uncle?s dog.
Hundreds of mourners are expected at the service at St Helens.
Ellie, from Great Sankey, will be taken to the church from her grandmother?s home in a specially made coffin decorated with fairies and a picture of herself.
She will travel in a hearse drawn by white horses.
Ellie was killed in the early hours of New Year?s Day when she was mauled by the dog, Reuben, at her grandmother?s home.
Her grandmother, Jackie Simpson, who was baby-sitting while Ellie?s parents were out seeing in the New Year, was also seriously injured as she tried to drag the dog off the child.
The dog was later shot dead by police marksmen.
Since then, a post mortem examination has been carried out on the dog, including toxicology tests to establish whether it had been built up using steroids ? a common practice in dogs used for fighting.
Police have seized more than 20 pit bull terriers on Merseyside since the tragedy.
Ellie?s uncle, Kiel Simpson has been interviewed by police but was not arrested.
No decision made yet
on council spending
by David Skentelbery
TOWN Hall chiefs at Warrington have given an assurance that the consultation process they have started on council spending in the coming year is just that – a consultation exercise.
No decisions have been made and none will be made until the consultation has been completed, according to council leader Ian Marks(pictured).
He was speaking at a meeting of the council’s executive board when members approved a consultation paper on spending in 2007-8.
The document does seek opinions on a five per cent rise in council tax leading to a rise of ?48.55 a year for an average band D property for services provided by the borough council.
But Coun Marks stressed that no decision had been made – and that the council was carrying out its pre-budget consultation earlier than usual to ensure all views could be considered.
Warrington’s policy in recent years has been to keep Council Tax rises as low as possible and, as a result, an average Band D taxpayer in the town pays ?97-a-year less than those in other similar boroughs.
The council currently faces a budget shortfall but plans to save ?4.6 million through increases business efficiency, ?2.7 million through increased income and ?1.2 through a review of lower priority services.
Yet councillors still hope to invest in new initiatives, including recruiting 22 Police Community Support Officers and taking steps to improve the environment and recycling.
They say tough decisions will be necessary with the council needing an extra ?10.9 million just to maintain existing services.
Even with savings of ?8.6 million it will be necessary to increase the Council Tax.
The consultation is being carried out this month with more detailed spending plans published next month and the council’s budget meeting on February 26.
New role for mental
health charity’s chief
by Gary Skentelbery
A Warrington charity chief has been elected chairman of the National Mental Health Providers Forum.
Making Space chief executive Elaine Parker Johnson has been with the Warrington based Mental Health charity Making Space for 17 years and been chief executive since 2004.
Delighted by her appointment, Elaine said: “The Mental Health Providers Forum has made substantial strides in representing the interests of the mental health sector to the Government and key stakeholders nationally since it was launched in 2004 and I am looking forward to continuing the good work.”
The Mental Health Providers Forum promotes voluntary sector providers as first choice partners in the design and delivery of modern mental health services that support recovery.
It was formed by a group of national and regional charities which provide mental health services and aims to improve services for people with mental health needs, through increasing the involvement of voluntary and community sector organisations in delivering these services.
The aim is to influence national and regional mental health strategies and share information and experiences among their members.
Over the next 12 months, the Forum plans to:
Increase opportunities for voluntary and community sector providers to delivery good quality mental health services
Develop its role as a representative body for voluntary sector providers of good quality mental health services
Improve the quality and accessibility of mental health services in the community
Assist in developing the capacity of voluntary and community sector agencies to deliver more services
Co-ordinate work with the NHS, its agencies, and other statutory agencies
Influence the thinking, planning, and activity of statutory agencies involved in mental health service provision, commissioning, or procurement
Improve the information available to voluntary and community sector agencies about relevant NHS and government activity in mental health
Elaine will be taking over from founding Chairman Gary Lashko and working closely with Chief Executive Judy Weleminsky.
She added: “I am delighted to be following in Gary’s footsteps as he has done an excellent job in laying the foundations for the forum. I am looking forward to an exciting and challenging year representing the forum.”
40-years on – new rescue
bid for town’s “gem”
by David Skentelbery
ALMOST 40 years after a sceptical Warrington public was informed that, in Bridge Street, they had an architectural gem, Town Hall chiefs are to make a second attempt to revive it to its former splendour.
The borough council has approved amendments to the Bridge Street Conservation Area, first designated 26 years ago, and to encourage improvements to its many fine buildings.
Council leader Ian Marks said: “The built environment is very much on our agenda.
“Bridge Street has many fine buildings. It’s just that you have to look up to see them. The lower parts have been hidden by modern shop fronts.”
In 1980, when the conservation area was first designated, Bridge Street was said to be one the finest examples of a Victorian/Edwardian shopping street in Cheshire – second only to Chester’s Eastgate Street.
But the same comparison had been made even earlier, in 1968, when Warrington Civic Society co-ordinated a street improvement scheme in which most shopkeepers took part. It resulted in the Queen visiting the town to inspect the enhanced street.
Since then, however, the street has deteriorated as unfettered re-development of shop frontages has been allowed to go on.
The new amendments to the conservation area tidy up anomalies such as half of Market Gate being in it and half out. Ironically, this will mean the infamous “skittles” receive the extra protection afforded by conservation area status.
But the council also plans to address other issues. These include the repair and restoration of parts of Cairo Street Unitarian Church, renovation of the Lion Inn in Bridge Street, removal of unauthorised signage and inclusion of the whole of the TJ Hughes store in Sankey Street, which is currently only partly within the protected area.
The War Memorial at Bridge Foot – currently outside the conservation area – will be included.
Unauthorised alterations to buildings will be tackled – by enforcement action if necessary.
The ultimate aim is, just as it was 40 years ago, to restore Bridge Street as one of the jewels in Warrington’s architectural crown.
Man dies in crash
on motorway slip-road
by staff reporter
POLICE today issued an appeal for witnesses of a crash near Lymm in which a motorist lost his life.
The incident, late last night (Wednesday) inv
olved a single vehicle on the slip-road from the M56 to the A50 at Lymm.
A car left the carriageway and collided with a tree.
The driver, the only occupant of the vehicle, was rushed to Warrington Hospital where he later died.
Anyone who has any information about the crash is asked to contact the Cheshire Police Motorway Unit.
TV chief gives insight
into media production
by John Hendon
BBC Worldwide’s director of content and production Wayne Garvie offered a fascinating insight into media production at a special event held at Warrington.
He was giving his inaugural lecture at the Warrington-based media department of the University of Chester and the talk attracted a full of house of students, not just from the media department but from many other disciplines too.
Wayne, is visiting professor in the media department. In his former role as head of entertainment at the BBC, he developed shows such as Strictly Come Dancing and Dragon?s Den.
In his lecture, he drew inspiration from Hollywood screenwriter William Goldman’s immortal phrase about the film industry – “nobody knows anything” – now often referred to as the golden rule of film making.
Goldman asserted that you can never be sure whether a movie is going to be a hit, no matter how good the script nor who starred in it.
However Wayne offered an inspirational list of 10 tips which go some way to ensuring that new concepts and ideas are less risky.
In his role with BBC Worldwide, Wayne is responsible for international production.
He said: “BBC Worldwide aims to be one of the world’s great media brands. We are planning to roll out a number of production companies across the world both to support this ambition and to further British creativity.”
Town’s GCSE pupils
continue to shine
by staff reporter
PUPILS in Warrington are continuing to shine when it comes to GCSE results.
The Department for Education and Skills (DfES) Achievement and Attainment Tables for pupils completing their GCSEs in 2006 are published today.
For 2006, 66.4 per cent of pupils achieved five or more A*-C grades – 7.2 percentage points above the national average and 5.1 percentage points better than in 2005.
Figures have been steadily increasing during the past few years, for example in 2001 50per cent of pupils achieved five GCSEs. The Council’s ranking for this period has improved nationally from 55th to 12th best performer despite Warrington being one of the lowest funded councils in the country.
This year, the DfES has introduced a new success measure – the percentage of pupils who achieve five or more A*-C GCSE grades including English and maths. Some 48.5 per cent of Warrington’s pupils achieved this compared to 45.3 per cent nationally. While this was an improvement from the previous year, improving GCSE success in English and maths is a key priority area.
The results also reveal that 98.5 per cent of pupils in Warrington achieved at least one GCSE qualification compared to 97 per cent in 2005.
Coun Sheila Woodyatt, executive member for Children’s Services, said: “The 2006 results, which show continuing improvement all round, are excellent. I am especially pleased by the results of our special needs pupils – many of these pupils would not have achieved any GCSE results a few years ago. We really do mean it when we say Every Child Matters in Warrington.”
“Employers are seeking young workers with good numeracy and literacy skills. With the new emphasis on success in English and maths at GCSE we look forward to seeing even more improvement over the next few years.”
