Train pain

High Speed TrainThe proposed high speed train will reach speeds of 250mph

The government is attempting to reassure people over the noise levels from the planned HS2 high speed trains. But how loud are these trains and what can be done to mitigate the noise?

Powerful trains have long barrelled down tracks blowing their horns. But faster lines mean louder trains.

It is thought that around 4,860 homes in England will experience extra noise as a result of the proposed train line, according to a study by the Department of Transport. An estimated 10 properties will suffer from high noise levels and another 150 will need noise insulation.

So just how loud will the proposed trains be?

The government is yet to indicated the volume level, but according to the Telegraph, the Department of Transport has hired engineering firm Arup to demonstrate the noise to concerned members of the public.

A simulation of the train’s noise when it passes through various points can be heard through headphones at a series of roadshows.

THE ANSWERNo official word, but opponents estimated between 95 and 97 decibels at 50mNoise can be mitigated by wheel covers, barriers and possibly trees

The simulated sound has been created by using a recording of the 217mph high speed trains in France and then adjusting the sound to take into account Britain’s potentially even faster trains. The government believes 250mph trains could be available by 2020.

The recording is tweaked to take into account the ambient sounds from various locations along the route.

Despite an absence of official numbers, the chairwoman of the Stop HS2 group Lizzie Williams estimates at 50m from the track, the noise from the trains will be “between 95 and 97 decibels every two minutes if the line runs at capacity”.

The decibel measurement is on a scale from zero – silence – to 140 – the approximate sound of a jet engine.

Traffic on the motorwayTraffic from motorways could be more disruptive than noise from high speed trains

But speed isn’t the only determinant of train noise. How bothersome the noise is depends on the pitch and the quality of the sound, says Royal Academy of Engineering network rail research professor Roderick Smith.

“A freight train on a poorly maintained track will create a lot more noise for a longer time,” he explains.

In Germany, residents have long been used to hearing high speed Deutsche Bahn trains.

“We don’t see very many complaints when it comes to the noise of the high speed lines, but we see a number or complaints about the noise of the freight transport lines,” a spokesman says.

At 25m from the track the 85 decibel noise of their 155mph high speed train is mitigated by noise reduction measures mandated by law.

WHO, WHAT, WHY?

Question mark

A part of BBC News Magazine, Who, What, Why? aims to answer questions behind the headlines

Though attempts will be made to manage the noise in the UK, the chairman of VoxOpp (Villages of Oxfordshire Opposing HS2), Bernie Douglas, says concrete plans have yet to be released.

But there is already speculation about the tactics the government might employ to reduce the potential noise pollution.

“You can build big earth ramparts and you can also put brown picket fences that are about 5m high,” says Mr Douglas.

An even better option is planting trees, which look more natural and also absorb carbon dioxide, says Prof Smith.

But it’s debatable whether the more natural options, though aesthetically pleasing, are as effective in masking the sounds.

Tree-lined train tracksIt’s debatable whether or not trees help mitigate sound from trains

“From what we understand trees do not have much impact on noise. They could be used to hide a lot of the features, but that’s all they might be used for,” says Douglas.

There are two principle sources of the noise that comes from trains – the interaction of the wheels and the rails, and the aerodynamic noise of the train passing through the air very quickly, explains Prof Smith.

“Broadly speaking these trains are no worse than the noise from a highway and generally more acceptable in that the noise is not continuous, whereas the noise from a highway is a constant buzz throughout the day and often throughout the night as well.

“I’m not saying these trains are completely soundless and won’t cause some sort of disruption, but it can be managed and it can be managed rather easily.”

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Day in court

Matthew MacFayden in Criminal Justice; Martin Shaw as Judge John Deed; Maxine Peake in Silk; confused man; barrister; Leo McKern as Rumpole

Legal aid changes in England and Wales could mean hundreds of thousands more people representing themselves in court, judges have warned. So how exactly do you become an amateur lawyer?

You know how it works. You’ve seen the courtroom dramas – Rumpole of the Bailey, Kavanagh QC, Judge John Deed – and, by now, you’re surely a fully-fledged legal expert.

There’s the wig, of course, and you can’t forget the gown. And you have to say things like, “in my submission” and “I put it to you, m’lud”.

The case for the prosecution rests. How hard can it be?

Except that thousands of people each year find out just how onerous a task representing oneself in court actually is – and it is a phenomenon that some in the profession believe could be about to become increasingly prevalent.

The Judges’ Council, which is chaired by Lord Igor Judge, the head of the judiciary, has warned that government plans to remove £350m from the legal aid budget could result in a surge of amateur barristers clogging up the system.

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) insists there is “little substantive evidence” that litigants in person delay proceedings and that any increase should not significantly impact proceedings.

No clear statistics are available on how many people actually represent themselves. The Northern Irish courts services say such information is not collated in their jurisdiction and their Scottish equivalents are also not able to provide figures.

However, according to the MoJ, in England and Wales either one party or both did not state that they had legal representation in some 94,672 family cases heard by the High Court and in county courts during 2009/10.

Lindis Percy

“You have to be courageous and address your own fear”

Lindis Percy

A lawyer who acts for him or herself has a fool for a client, runs the old legal adage – but there have been prominent recent examples of people making the choice.

The Scottish politician Tommy Sheridan sacked his legal team and represented himself during his initially successful civil case against the News of the News of the World in 2006. However, repeating the same strategy did not prove quite so effective during his resulting criminal trial for perjury in 2010 – he was found guilty and jailed for three years.

Heather Mills acted on her own behalf during her divorce proceedings from Sir Paul McCartney in 2006, earning £14m for herself and £2.5m to buy a house in London – but falling way short of the £125m she had been seeking.

One less well-known serial litigant-in-person is Lindis Percy, 66, a grandmother and peace activist from Harrogate, north Yorkshire, whose activities have means she has “lost count” of the number of times she has represented herself before magistrates, in Crown and civil courts, at the High Court and in appeals.

Despite working variously as a nurse, midwife and health visitor, Ms Percy, who protests against US military bases in the UK, has spent hours in libraries poring over legal textbooks to prepare her cases.

She admits that stepping into a courtroom to take on an array of highly-trained legal professionals is terrifying. But she says that, without access to legal aid or the financial resources to instruct a barrister every time she ends up in the dock, she has little choice.

“I’d advise anybody, if they’re about to represent themselves, just to sit in a court and get a feel for the place,” she says.

“You get to understand that a court is like a theatre – you get all these characters, the judges and the ushers and the clerks.

“It’s very intimidating. It’s very difficult to cross-examine. But you have to be courageous and address your own fear.”

Legal aidAdministered by Legal Services CommissionAnnual budget of £2bnHelps more than two million people a yearCriminal Defence Service covers criminal casesCDS can advise people detained in police stationsCommunity Legal Service covers civil casesFunds solicitors and agencies to advise people on their legal problems, such as eviction, debt and family breakdown, and if necessary represent people in court

Ms Percy acknowledges that, because she has the confidence that comes with being middle class and committed to her cause, she finds it easier than most to swallow her nervousness and face down the opposition.

But, unsurprisingly, legal professionals are less enamoured of her characterisation of the plucky amateur taking on the ritual and flummery of the bench.

Nick Armstrong is a barrister with Matrix chambers whose specialisms include immigration and mental health law. He fears any reductions to the legal aid budget because most of his clients, he says, simply do not have the language skills or the capacity to present their case effectively before a judge.

Quite understandably, he adds, even the most fluent of non-lawyers rarely manage to get to grips with the finer points of law, the standards of evidence and the advocacy techniques that professionals take years of training to develop.

His advice to potential litigants in person – get represented. Quickly.

“It can be a complete disaster for the individuals involved,” he says. “I’ve watched cases implode because someone has under-prepared.

“These cases get won or lost because someone has spent an enormous amount of time with a client who doesn’t understand why it’s important to dig out every receipt and every telephone call.

“At the end of the day, the judge has to decide on the basis of evidence. If that isn’t put before them, you’ve lost.”

“It’s a bit like a school pupil going before the headmaster”

Prof Richard Moorhead Cardiff Law School

Despite the legal profession’s doubts, the phenomenon of self-representation is not well studied in the UK.

In 2005, however, Prof Richard Moorhead of Cardiff Law School carried out research on the subject for the then-Department of Constitutional Affairs in 2005.

Typically, he says, professional lawyers tend to characterise litigants-in-person as obsessive cranks who clog up the system with petty grievances.

Such plaintiffs may create problems for the legal process, Prof Moorhead says, but they are small in number.

The bigger issue, he believes, is the lack of support and assistance offered to them in an adversarial system in which the judge relies on both sides putting their cases effectively.

“Emotional distance is a problem for them but the primary problem is is that they don’t know know to put their cases in a technical way,” he says.

“They are terrified, usually. They don’t understand the substantive law, they don’t understand the procedure, they don’t understand the law of evidence.

“It’s a bit like a school pupil going before the headmaster, and the court process and procedures aren’t well-developed to help them.”

Few of us would welcome the opportunity. But if the Judges’ Council is right, more and more Britons could be about to get their day in court.



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25. Eagle

There seems to be an emphasis on winning or losing. Surely in terms of public expenditure the question is “how long does it take?”. We are about to waste millions of pounds over the next few years because cases are going to take far longer and even where the legal costs are ignored, the court’s time is financed by the tax-payer.

24. Matthew

Thanks for your response Ian. But I’m not sure how be being a law student makes me a ‘vested interest’. I think you’ll find society itself has a vested interest in maintaining the legal profession.The point remains that everyone needs lawyers. If we didn’t, lawyers simply wouldn’t exist. I’m not sure what you were trying to say or what point you were trying to make.Maybe you need a lawyer?

23. WEAPONS AMNESTY 2012

I am not a trained lawyer but have represented myself in 6 cases against lawyers and barristers and won all 6. I also acted in 8 cases in the past 3 years as a A McKenzie friend where you canhelp others whilst not being qualified and all those cases were won.I did my research and made sure I spoke clearly and concisely and put the points accross.

22. IanS

Re: IanMI was referring to actions in the magistrates court and beyond, not the civil procedure.In magistrates courts etc lay representation is not allowed.

21. IanM

The comment from Ian S is a good example of the point of the article. “Lay representatives” (i.e. non-lawyer representatives) are allowed in most court hearings that I have come across. However, you pretty much have to be a lawyer to know that………

 

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Charges over firefighter deaths

Breaking news graphic

Three Warwickshire fire service managers will face charges of manslaughter by gross negligence for the deaths of four firefighters.

Ian Reid, John Averis, Ashley Stephens and Darren Yates-Badley died in a warehouse fire in Atherstone-on-Stour in November 2007.

Warwickshire County Council will also face a charge of failing to ensure the health and safety at work of its employees.

The defendants will appear at Leamington Spa Magistrates’ Court on 1 April.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Universities ‘can’t mend society’

GraduatesUniversities have to draw up plans for how they will attract a wide range of students

Universities should not be forced to “undo the problems of 18 years of upbringing and education”, independent school heads have been told.

Peter Cottam, chairman of independent heads group, SHMIS, said skewing admissions towards state pupils is tackling the issue from the wrong end.

Admissions tutors often take account of pupils’ backgrounds when making offers.

They can ask for lower A-level grades from poor pupils with potential.

Although this practice has been going on for many years, universities preparing to charge higher tuition fees are having to set out exactly how they will recruit from underrepresented groups – such as disabled, ethnic minority and disadvantaged pupils – as they draw up access agreements with the Office for Fair Access.

These can also include waiving tuition fees, outreach work and scholarship programmes, as well as lower offers for brighter pupils.

At the moment just over 7% of pupils in England go to private schools (more attend in sixth form) but they make up about half of those at Oxford and Cambridge.

And according to the Sutton Trust charity, only 2% of students at the 25 most selective universities were eligible for free school meals – a measure of deprivation.

Mr Cottam was speaking in Telford on Monday afternoon at the annual conference of the Society of Headmasters and Headmistresses of Independent Schools, which represents 100 independent schools.

He likened pressuring universities to undo social imbalances in their intakes to trying to improve “the design of an aircraft after it has already crashed”.

He describe the “debate about the significant representation – or as Mr Clegg would have it ‘the over-representation’ – of our pupils in the most selective universities” as “carping”.

He added: “It is a blot both on our educational system and on our society that so few young people from deprived backgrounds manage to fulfil their educational potential.

“It is not a good enough response to say that life is unfair. It certainly is sometimes and not just in education, and not just limited to those from socially and economically deprived backgrounds.

“But putting this right will not be easy. There is no silver bullet and it will take a great deal of time and effort because so many factors are involved.”

“Discriminating against independent school pupils using a mechanistic template will not solve the problem, and it will also be unfair,” he said.

“It sometimes feels as though our critics believe that the academic success of many of our pupils has either been handed to them on a plate or drilled into them and does not reflect any real ability or potential,” he added.

In January, Simon Hughes, the deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats and the government’s adviser on access to higher education, called for universities to drastically limit their intake of privately education pupils.

But Mr Cottam, a head teacher at fee-paying Halliford School in Middlesex, said the argument about making lower offers to state school pupils is based on research that shows pupils educated in the state sector tend to do better at university than independent school pupils entering with similar grades.

He argued that there are a number of studies which have different results.

One suggests there is no difference in the performance of pupils from each sector, while another suggests independent school pupils do better, he said.

He will also said that a “league table-dominated curriculum” has fostered a “narrow, utilitarian approach to education”.

“One of the consequences, albeit unintended, of our current system is that education at secondary level has become too utilitarian and too exam-focused, with the result that it is far more difficult to engender a sense of intellectual excitement and adventure and to encourage one’s pupils to take intellectual risks,” he said.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Blue Peter presenter walks a fine line for charity

Blue Peter presenter Helen Skelton walking a tightrope between the chimneys of Battersea Power Station

The presenter walked the 150m high-wire above Battersea Power Station in 11 minutes

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Blue Peter presenter Helen Skelton has walked a tightrope between the chimneys of Battersea Power Station for charity.

The 27-year-old BBC children’s presenter covered the 150m (492ft) stretch on a high-wire above the south London building in just 11 minutes.

The Red Nose Day challenge, delayed by 40 minutes because of high winds, took her to heights of 66m (216ft).

A safety device worn in case of falls was not used, as she made no slip-ups on the 18mm thick wire.

Ms Skelton completed the task at a steady speed despite her eight-metre long balance pole swaying in front of her.

She had been training in France in recent weeks, which she described as “really intense” and “physically exhausting”.

The charity challenge for Comic Relief will be shown on a future episode of Blue Peter.

Ms Skelton was inspired to do the stunt by the documentary Man On Wire, which shows Frenchman Philippe Petit walking on a tightrope between the twin towers of New York’s World Trade Center in 1974.

She previously went solo kayaking on the Amazon.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Eco-engineering hopes for frogs

Frog (Image: PA)Amphibians are among the most vulnerable groups of animals to changes to their habitat and climate
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An international team of researchers have tabled a range of engineering ideas that could help protect amphibians from future climate change.

The animals are particularly vulnerable to changes to habitat and temperature ranges, with many species also having a very limited distribution.

The scientists plan to test their ideas to see which ones are the most suitable and cost effective.

The findings have been published in the Journal of Applied Ecology.

“One of the things that has dominated research, certainly as far as climate change is concerned, is impacts,” explained Luke Shoo, from the School of Biological Sciences, University of Queensland.

“I think we are getting to a stage where a lot of managers, and researchers are demanding some sort of solution.

“What we have tried to do here is bring together a whole load of people and pooled together thoughts on the possible options.”

Dr Shoo added that the study had identified a range of potential useful management interventions.

“But so far many of these are poorly tested, and they might be expensive or only work in small areas or under specific situations,” he told BBC News.

Logging on

One of the possible solutions was to create “micro-habitat shelters”. For example, this could included forestry operators leaving a pile of dead wood, rather than clearing an entire area, so it offered protection to amphibians from drying out and temperature stress.

Frog's eye (Image: AP)Recent surveys show that about one third of amphibian species are staring extinction in the face

“You end up with strong populations,” Dr Shoo explained.

He added that there was a precedent for this kind of intervention in conservation. For example, in order to encourage healthy reptile populations, scientists have gone into overgrown areas and reduced the canopy to allow more of the warmth from the Sun to reach the ground.

“Essentially, we will be doing this in reserve,” he suggested. “We will be sheltering and reducing exposure in order to protect amphibians.”

Dr Shoo said that amphibians had a tough upbringing; “They have to deal with an aquatic life-stage, and also have a terrestrial adult stage.

“So you need an environment where you can get the eggs and the tadpoles, then you have to have to have an environment that allows them to survive physiologically as adults.”

The next stage for the project was to go out and test some of the ideas highlighted by the working group.

“We can then see if they work and get some idea of cost and whether it is possible to scale them up over a larger area,” he said.

The team were also looking to establish a web portal that would allow researchers to submit examples and studies of trails, and the outcomes of those tests.

Dr Shoo said: “We will then be able to get a better sense of what has worked, and we hope to ho that quite quickly.”

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

All property types ‘dip in value’

KeysThe UK housing market has started the new year in sluggish fashion

Every property type in England and Wales fell in value in January compared with a year earlier, according to the latest Land Registry figures.

The prices of semi-detached homes fell the most, dropping by 1.6% year-on-year to an average of £153,663.

In general, house prices dipped by 0.9% in January compared with January 2010, but rose 0.2% compared with December.

The figures again showed that there was a notable geographical divide in the direction of house prices.

Properties in London increased by 1.6% in January compared with December, and were up 2.4% compared with the same month a year earlier.

This meant the average home in the capital cost £341,871.

The only other region to register an annual price rise, as well as a month-on-month uplift, was the East of England. Here, prices crept up by 0.2% in January compared with January 2010, leaving the average home in the region worth £174,550.

At the other end of the scale, homes in Wales fell in value by 4.2% in January compared with December, and were down 6.1% year-on-year. The average home in Wales cost £116,217.

As well as providing regional figures, the Land Registry breaks down house prices to property types.

Regional house price annual changesLondon: up 2.4%East: up 0.2%South East: down 0.1%South West: down 0.4%West Midlands: down 1.4%East Midlands: down 1.9%North West: down 2.1%North East: down 2.5%Yorkshire and Humber: down 2.6%Wales: down 6.1%

Source: Land Registry – January 2011

This showed that, as well as semi-detached properties falling in value, detached homes fell in value by 0.2% in January compared with the same month a year earlier.

Terraced homes fell in value by 0.8%, and flats and maisonettes by 1.3%, over the same period.

The Land Registry’s figures are considered to be the most comprehensive of house price surveys, although the publication does lag behind other surveys.

However, these figures strengthen the conclusions drawn from other surveys which have shown that the turn of the year has been sluggish for the housing market.

The number of properties sold in England and Wales was lower towards the end of 2010 than during the same period a year earlier.

And figures on prospective mortgage lending suggest there will be little pick up in activity in the coming months.

Northern Rock has announced that it is to return to some level of riskier lending by offering mortgages of up to 90% of a property’s value for the first time since it was nationalised.

It is offering a two-year fixed rate home loan at 5.99%, a three-year loan at 6.49% and a five-year loan at 6.59%.

This is not the cheapest on the market, but the bank said these products were designed to appeal to potential first-time buyers unable to raise a large deposit.

Prior to nationalisation, the lender was criticised for offering Together mortgages, which allowed customers to borrow up to 125% of the value of a property.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Exchange serves up malicious ads

Fake security warning, Paul MuttonThe infection kicked off warnings from a fake security program
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Booby-trapped adverts that hit visitors with fake security software have been discovered on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) website.

Analysis of the LSE site suggests that over the last 90 days, about 363 pages had hosted malware.

The LSE said its site was now safe and an investigation showed that ads provided by a third party were the culprit.

One victim claimed his PC was made unusable after being infected.

Security expert Paul Mutton fell victim when he viewed the site on 27 February.

He visited the LSE homepage to find out why some people reported that they could not access it.

The site was blocked by Firefox, he said, but accessible via Google’s Chrome browser.

“It seemed to work with Chrome but then a few seconds later, without having to click on anything, pop-ups started to appear,” he said.

The sheer number of pop-up adverts made his computer unusable.

“I visited the site and it compromised my machine,” said Mr Mutton.

While he was fighting to close down the flood of pop-up adverts, another window appeared that appeared to be a fake security scanner which claimed to detect lots of different malware on the PC.

Analysis of the LSE homepage by Google’s safe browsing scheme, which scans web pages for malicious code, found the site had been listed for “suspicious activity 6 time(s) over the past 90 days”.

The last time it discovered malicious activity on the site was on 27 February, the day Mr Mutton visited.

Of the 1112 pages that Google scanned on the LSE site over the last 90 days, 363 were found to be hosting malware. The malicious code it found included scripting exploits and trojans.

Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at security firm Sophos, said: “Our suspicion would be that it was the third-party advertising network running via the site that delivered the malware.”

“This so-called ‘malvertising’ is big business for cyber criminals,” said Mr Cluley.

“If they are able to plant their poisonous adverts in the streams being used by major websites then it can spread their attacks far and wide,” he said.

While many sites rely on third-parties to provide adverts, that can have its risks, said Mr Cluley.

“Unfortunately when an infection does get through it’s likely that the users will blame the website, not the ad network,” he said.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

China pollution ‘to harm growth’

File image of a woman walking past a coal-fired power station in Beijing on 25 February 2011China’s rapid economic growth has left skies and waterways heavily polluted
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The man in charge of protecting China’s environment has warned that pollution and the demand for resources threaten to choke economic growth.

Environment Minister Zhou Shengxian said conflict between development and nature had never been so serious.

He said if China meant to quadruple the size of its economy over 20 years without more damage, it would have to become more efficient in resource use.

Otherwise, he said, there would be a painful price to pay.

His comments came ahead of China’s annual session of parliament, which opens on 5 March.

They also came a day after Premier Wen Jiabao said China was lowering its annual economic growth target from 7.5% to 7%, in part because of its impact on the environment.

Mr Zhou’s comments came in an essay posted on the website on the Ministry of Environmental Protection.

Analysis

Zhou Shengxian wants to see environmental protection become a key plank of the new Five Year Plan (2011-2015) to be debated during the annual session of the National People’s Congress.

Chinese ministers do not often publish their ideas like this. (It happened nearly two years ago when China’s central bank governor published a series of essays on reserve currencies and reform to the international financial system.)

The environment minister’s statement is an open call for a paradigm shift away from the model of high input, high resource consumption, and high pollution, to sustainable growth to ease the conflict between economic and social development, and the environmental damage it has caused in the past three decades.

Chinese scholars say China’s energy intensity per unit of GDP is at least five times that of Japan. Social stability is another factor as more people are enraged by worsening air, water and soil pollution.

It remains to be seen if his call will be translated into real action as China’s economic engine roars ahead.

“In China’s thousands of years of civilisation, the conflict between humanity and nature Zhou Shengxianhas never been as serious as it is today,” he wrote.

“The depletion, deterioration and exhaustion of resources and the deterioration of the environment have become serious bottlenecks constraining economic and social development.”

China, he said, would suffer unless issues of air and water pollution were prioritised.

He suggested that his ministry should take on a greater role in tackling greenhouse gas emissions and that new development projects be assessed for their impact on climate change.

In recent decades, development has been prioritised over the environment, meaning that China now has some of the most polluted skies and waterways in the world.

It relies heavily on coal and is the world’s leading CO2 emitter. It overtook the US as the world’s biggest car and van market in 2009.

In recent years there have been numerous examples of industrial spills or dumping that have damaged waterways and in some cases harmed residents.

The BBC’s Martin Patience in Beijing says that the government has repeatedly promised to tackle pollution, but then failed to enforced these decisions.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Views sought on high-speed rail

Concept image of high-speed trainThe new line – and high-speed trains – would cut the London to Birmingham journey time to 49 minutes
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The government is to begin its consultation on the proposed high-speed rail line from London to Birmingham.

The route would cut journey times by around half an hour, with work due to begin in 2015 if the plan is approved.

Opponents argue that the £17bn scheme will be a waste of money and that updating the existing West Coast mainline would be a better investment.

But Transport Secretary Philip Hammond says the high-speed line (HS2) will mean a £44bn boost for the UK economy.

The project – introduced by Labour and continued by the coalition government – has proved highly controversial, with many living along the proposed route complaining that it will damage the environment.

Groups campaigning against the scheme will demonstrate their disapproval on Monday by lighting a chain of beacons at beauty spots through which HS2 is scheduled to pass.

Opponents include not only residents’ groups and local councils but some Tory MPs, while the rail industry and business are in favour of the line.

Government documents being released later will give more details about the project.

Mr Hammond said: “HS2 will be a piece of national infrastructure which will bring benefits to Britain as a whole.

“Of course we will do everything we can to mitigate the impacts on areas like the Chilterns but projects like this have to be decided on the basis of the national interest and the overall net benefits it will bring to Britain.”

Mr Hammond will outline the case for HS2 at a conference in Birmingham.

There are plans to extend the line to Manchester and Leeds.

Last week almost 70 business leaders, including CBI director-general John Cridland and former British Airways chief executive Willie Walsh, gave their backing for HS2.

But Lizzie Williams, chairman of the Stop HS2 group, called the project “a complete waste of taxpayers’ money when we can least afford it”.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Councillor in ‘retard’ tweet rant

Hull city councillor John FarehamUnison is demanding action over the comment
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A councillor branded people protesting against cuts at a Hull City Council meeting “retards” in a rant on Twitter.

Conservative group leader John Fareham made the comment after Friday’s meeting, which saw the council approve a controversial £65m savings plan.

It read: “15 hours in council today very hard hitting day and the usual collection of retards in the public gallery spoiling it for real people.”

Mr Fareham, who has since apologised, has been criticised by Mencap.

Unison has demanded action is taken over his “disgraceful behaviour”.

Plans approved at the meeting, which was delayed due to hecklers, included the axing of 1,400 jobs and cuts to day care centres, leisure centres and highway budgets.

The Bricknell councillor said the comment was “misguided”, and added in a further Twitter post that it came after he was “abused for hours, returned home to excrement in house and saw intimidation”.

“I apologise unreservedly. I got it wrong and I’m sorry”

Councillor John Fareham Hull City Council

He added: “I apologise unreservedly for the adjective (sic) in my earlier tweet about the intimidation by some people. I got it wrong and I’m sorry.”

Unison regional organiser Steve Torrance said several people with physical and learning disabilities were in the public gallery at the time.

He added: “Not only are Councillor Fareham’s remarks offensive and unwelcome generally, they are of particular concern given that members of the public with disabilities were present in the gallery throughout the council debate as well as the people who care for them.

“Unison will be petitioning the next council meeting calling for the council leader to defend the rights of disabled people not to be abused in this way and for action to be taken over Councillor Fareham’s disgraceful behaviour towards members of the public and trade union members.”

Mr Fareham was reprimanded by the Lib Dem-run council’s standards committee last year for making derogatory remarks about other staff.

He was ordered to write a letter of apology and attend a training course.

A Mencap spokesman said: “Councillor Fareham has now apologised for using that language, both on Twitter and to Mencap.

“We campaign about the use of language offensive to people with a learning disability because we believe that it contributes to a culture where harassment and bullying of people with a learning disability is all too common.”

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

On the front line

Iain Duncan Smith on campaign trail in Easterhouse, Glasgow, ScotlandIain Duncan Smith, pictured here during a by-election visit to the Easterhouse estate in Glasgow, is spearheading a huge welfare shake-up
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Iain Duncan Smith describes welfare reform as his “mission”. But it is a mission which he is now having to pursue in the teeth of an economic blizzard blowing the other way.

The problem is the lack of jobs for people to take up. A situation only likely to get worse as public sector job cuts begin to bite and more graduates come on to the labour market.

So to find out just how just tough it is to find work, I went with the work and pensions secretary on a visit to the Walthamstow Jobcentre Plus, in north-east London.

What quickly became clear was that the people here were hardly the workshy or unemployable.

Many were skilled workers, with good employment records, decent CVs and little, if any, previous experience of unemployment.

Robert, a carpenter, tells Mr Duncan Smith, that in 25 years he has never known it so difficult to find work, vacancies, he says, are often filled before he has even been able to apply for them.

He is also scathing about the lack of work created locally as a result of the Olympics. (Something Mr Duncan Smith promises to look into).

Reuters

Diane, who lost her job with a housing association in October, tells us she has applied for more than 20 jobs without success – even though she has worked most of her life.

She is now worried that she and her husband risk losing their home because they can no longer keep up with their mortgage payments.

Mr Duncan Smith listens sympathetically and acknowledges that the lack of work for people like Diane and Robert is a serious concern.

“It’s a real issue,” he says “that people with skills can’t find a job when we say there is a skills shortage out there. We need to create the jobs.”

But Mr Duncan Smith is hopeful that with economic recovery, jobs will return. He points out that nationwide there are about half a million vacancies.

The figures at the Walthamstow Jobcentre are nevertheless daunting.

There are around 6,700 claimants registered at the centre, but on average only about 250 vacancies available each day.

The Jobcentre District Manager Graham Houghton believes that in many ways the job market now is tougher than following the recession of the 1980s.

“I think it is tough,” he says. “The labour market has changed; the nature of jobs has changed. A lot of people in east London worked in manufacturing and are now having to look at careers in customer service and security. That is a big, tough change.”

The problem is – even if economic recovery and welfare reform do in time make it easier to find work – in the short term the future looks extremely hard even for those with good skills and a strong work ethos.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.