Tagged: western mail
FOI FRIDAY: Mice at Manchester United, appealing students, cabbie grumbles and turning the lights off
Mice raid Manchester United < < < Manchester Evening News
I love this FOI. Simple, but effective – although the sports editor might not thank you
Manchester United had to deal with a mice infestation at Old Trafford, the M.E.N. can reveal. The outbreak was one of a number of hygiene and safety issues flagged up by council officials when they inspected the stadium restaurant, the Red Cafe and the staff canteen, last July. The Red Cafe was given the all-clear but the staff canteen in the West Stand was found to have a mouse infestation.
The council report was obtained by the M.E.N. under Freedom of Information laws. We asked for the results of the most recent hygiene inspections carried out at both Old Trafford and Manchester City’s ground, the Etihad Stadium
The wasted hours of ambulances at hospitals < < < Aldershot News and Mail
This data used to be released regularly – now FOI is required
MORE than 850 hours was lost through ambulance delays at Frimley Park Hospital in the first three months of the year.
Figures obtained by the News & Mail using the Freedom of Information Act show more than 863 hours were lost in turnaround times for ambulances serving the hospital’s A&E department between January and March.
The statistics only include the number of hours lost which went over the trust’s turnaround target of 30 minutes.
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Newspaper front pages as works of art
Last year, I posted a picture of a Western Mail front page which summed up the emotions of the Rugby World Cup for Welsh rugby fans:
Western Mail front page from the Rugby World Cup
Ask any splash sub and they’ll tell you that a front page can be a work of art (they’ll also point you to a rival newspaper whose front pages are anything but a work of art).
The Western Mail, for the 6 Nations tournament – which the Welsh won yesterday – has taken the concept of newspaper splash as a work of art to a whole new level. Each of the fronts below gained real traction and appreciation through Twitter and Facebook, but are worth seeing next to each other:
Western Mail front page ahead Wales playing Ireland
Like this:
Gallery: How the newspapers which knew Gary Speed best covered his death
The death of Gary Speed was one of those news stories which, when read first on Twitter, always makes me think: “I need to see that several more times from people I trust before I believe it.” Confirmation followed soon after.
As is increasingly the case on social networks, the actual news was soon superceded by speculation about what happened, while broadcast news and news websites kept – largely – to the facts and went heavily on tributes.
But Monday morning brought another aspect to the coverage – content from some of the journalists who knew him best – regional journalists who covered the clubs he played for and, latterly, managed.
As I tend to do from time to time on this blog, here’s a round-up of the front page from the areas with the closest connection to Speed the player and Speed the manager:
Sometimes, only words will do
So, how do you sum the mood of a nation two days after crashing out of a major sports tournament? Today's Western Mail is proof that sometimes, words are all you need.
FOI Friday: Overdue books, bedding plants, baby scans and trading standards
1. The most overdue books in town
The devil, they say, is in the detail. And the Accrington Observer got plenty of detail back from its FOI request into overdue books at Accrington Library. Not only did they find out the number of books which are overdue, and the total amount owing in fines, but they also got details of the most overdue book at each library in the area. The most overdue book in the borough is a book called Balloon, which should have been returned in 2004. That means £300 of fines are attached to that book – although the cap on fees is just £6.
Here’s one which will probably have critics of FOI claiming its proof of people abusing the act, but to me it’s just another example of councils being held to account. The Evening Chronicle in Newcastle used FOI to find out how much councils were spending on bedding plants. The total is around £500,000. It’s a good example of FOI being used to prompt a debate. On one hand, nice flower beds could be seen as a luxury councils can’t afford, but on the other, they’ll be the things people complain about if axed.
3. The cost of that first baby photo
Accusations flying of ‘stealth taxes’ on expectant mums in Birmingham after an FOI request revealed that the city’s main birthing hospital is making more than £50,000 a year from selling pictures of pregnency scans to happy (and I would imagine, some not so happy) parents-to-be. The £6-a-photo charge is much higher than at other hospitals.
FOI Friday: Dodging magistrates, the race for Oxbridge, big cats and clearing up after gypsies
Oxford University - unfamiliar territory for Welsh students?
Some interesting data from the Western Mail, which used FOI to ask how many students from each of the towns in Wales had been enrolled at Oxford and Cambridge in recent years. In some parts of Wales, not a single student has attended Oxbridge for seven years.
No shows at magistrates courts
One of the more controversial cuts decisions made by the government has been the planned closure of courts. The Southport Visiter used FOI to ask how many no shows there had been at its courts, which are due to close. The answer was that 1,778 warrants had been issued for no shows since 2008. The next question is whether that figure will rise when Sefton Magistrates closes and cases are transferred further away
Covering stories about gypsies can be difficult for regional journalists because it often leads to accusations of promoting Nimbyism. However, the Sunderland Echo added an extra dimension to its coverage of a temporary gypsy camp by asking the council how much it cost to clean up the camp. The answer was £1,700.
FOI FRIDAY: Prisoner DVDs, pot hole surprise, selling hospitals and policing the EDL
Wha't's that Nemo? Don't worry about the shark, you'll never guess who's watching us at HMP Durham?
The DVDs prisoners are allowed to watch (Sunday Sun)
An interesting thing to ask from the Sunday Sun: The catalogue of DVDs available for hire inside HMP Durham. The selection is both random – Finding Nemo anyone? – and perhaps worrying – more violent stuff is on the list too.
The cost of selling a hospital (Peterborough Evening Telegraph)
With selling off land and buildings one option for many public bodies suddenly short of cash, this FOI from the Evening Telegraph could be interesting. They used FOI to ask the Peterborough and Stamford NHS Trust how much they had spent on consultants relating to the planned sale of the hospital site in Peterborough. The answer was £600,000 – before a buyer is even found.
The cost of policing the EDL (Lancashire Telegraph)
I get irritate by the fact journalists are constantly told to use FOI to find out how much the police spent on specific events. It should be quite easy to work out, why can’t press officers just find out? The Lancashire Telegraph turned to FOI to find out how much it had cost to police an English Defence League protest in Blackburn. The answer is £1.4million.
Discrimination payouts (London Evening Standard)
The Evening Standard reports on £10million in payouts for cases brought against health trusts and councils in London for discrimination – age, sex, disability and so on. The £10million was made up of out-of-court settlements. This could be a gift that gives all over the country.
The expenses of university top brass (Western Mail)
The Western Mail is the latest paper to put FOIs to universities to good effect, getting details of the credit card and expenses claims from uni top brass:
Senior staff at universities in Wales have run up credit card and expenses bills of more than £182,000 in two years, claiming for chauffeur services, luxurious hotels and meals.
The vice-chancellor of Glamorgan University spent £3,037 on chauffeur services.
A former deputy vice-chancellor at Newport University charged £239.96 in expenses to a credit card – spent on bean bag website Bean Bag Bazaar.
Pay rises at colleges (Yorkshire Evening Post)
Redundancies at further education colleges have become quite common in recent months as bosses look to balance the books. The Yorkshire Evening Post gave some added context to redundancies in Leeds by using FOI to find out how the salaries of vice principles have changed. They’ve gone up 18% since 2010.
Attacks on speed cameras (BBC)
Police forces have often used attacks on speed cameras as a reason for not revealing data about specific cameras. So this FOI makes interesting reading on the BBC Website – the number of speed cameras attacked in Wales.
Library fines (Bracknell Standard)
Ok, so we’ve seem the library fines FOI before, but I wanted to mention this one because it also broke down how much was owed by members at each library, making for an entertaining ‘which area is worst’ article.
Getting tough on pot holes (Birmingham Mail)
The Birmingham Mail used FOI to find out how many claims for damages to cars caused by pot holes Birmingham City Council had received, and how much had been paid out. It turns out the real story was the number of complaints the council was rejecting, using little-known laws to do so.
And finally…. A gift which keeps on giving (Sunday Sun and others)
The DVLA must be dead chuffed someone asked them for details of the number of drivers in their area who have more than 12 points on their licence. It is a gift which keeps on giving – as this story in the Sunday Sun proves. It’s cropping up all over the place.
FOI Friday: Uni expenses, shoplifting, driving tests and a speed camera success story
1. The expenses of university top bods
With £9,000 a year tuition fees very likely for many students starting university, there’s probably never been a better time to stick the finances of universities under the FOI microscope. The Sunday Sun has done just that, asking for the expenses of senior officials at universities in its areas:
UNIVERSITY bosses notched up more than £130,000 on credit cards and expenses in two years….on five-star hotels, posh restaurants and supermarket shopping.
A former Teesside University Deputy Vice Chancellor put £116 on the plastic during a trip to a Singapore boozer.
And Northumbria pro-vice chancellor, Professor Paul Croney, claimed for a £652 bill at a Hong Kong bar and restaurant.
The Sunday Sun asked five of the North’s universities – Northumbria, Newcastle, Durham, Teesside and Sunderland – to show us bills submitted by their Pro-Vice Chancellors and Deputy Vice Chancellors over the last two years, a request made under the Freedom of Information Act.
The figure – £132,494 spent by the 25 executives whose UK average salary tops £60,000 – has emerged in the week that Newcastle University announced they are planning to join Durham University by charging £9,000 tuition fees.
Can such expenses be tolerated when they are effectively been funded by higher tuition fees? Some of the best information lies in the smallest details:
More than half of that total [at Durham] covered a £44,225 ‘Travel Card’ bill for Professor Seth Kunin in the Arts and Humanities department.
And in Teesside – which seems to tell its top staff to buy food for events from supermarkets and claim it back – there was this gem:
Professor Cliff Allan – who has since left for another university – spent £12,509 in the two-years, staying at several five-star hotels in India and China, including The Imperial in New Delhi. He also spent £60.56 on his Barclaycard in Housams 1985 Ltd, a Middlesbrough DIY store – which the university said relates to three “minor items of office equipment”.
During a visit to Singapore in November 2009 he also spent £116.33 in the Cocoon Bar & Supperclub.
There’s a growing rumbling in university circles that universities should be exempt from FOI because they won’t be relying on the public purse directly in years to come. I think we all know that’s more than a little misleading.
To Crawley [and the Observer] we go for an old favourite – the speed camera FOI. I mention it here because Sussex Police has bucked a trend among police forces and revealed the location of the busiest speed camera – ie the one issuing the most tickets – and the number of tickets issued. Other police forces have said no in the past for various reasons, my favourite being the fear that such information could lead to vandalism. For anyone asking this question again, referring to Sussex in the FOI request might be a good idea.
The attacks against council big wigs go on – and the Chorley Guardian spotted one FOI-based national story which showed that four of their council’s officials, between them, earned £500,000. I mention this story here because it’s a good example of taking someone else’s FOI story further, and getting more out of it. In this case, the Guardian got the chief executive, Donna Hall, to open up her pay package to the paper which provided much more context.
Good stuff from the Coventry Telegraph which used FOI to find out various statistics from the Driving Standards Agency about driving tests in the Coventry area – including someone who had 25 attempts before passing!
FOI Friday: Investigating business grants, frisky Welsh folk and the 104-year-old criminal
1. Spending money to talk about cuts
The Waltham Forest Guardian reports on an interesting spending choice at the local council – an £18,000 advertising campaign to tell people the council would protect local services which people care about. The campaign follows on from another £27,000 campaign to find out which services people wanted protecting.
2. Complaints against social workers
An interesting story from the Coventry Telegraph, which quotes a report obtained using FOI to reveal who makes complaints against social workers in the area. The most interesting fact is that 10% of complaints are made by young people about their care.
3. Partying on the university budget
I’m never sure whether the active use of FOI by politicians in Wales is a good thing or not – largely because I believe politicians only turn to FOI when they are being denied access to information through other channels which they perhaps have a right to request information through. Either way, an Assembly member in Wales used FOI to find out how much universities were spending on hospitality – four in South Wales clocked up £6.4million over three years. One to chew over?
FOI Friday: Nightstalker, OAP abuse, crime in villages and shredded letters
The conviction of Delroy Grant, the Nightstalker sex attacker who police failed to catch despite being given a golden opportunity to do so, has been headline news this week. The News Shopper in London took the opportunity to republish an invesitgation it conducted into the hunt for the Nightstalker prior to Grant’s arrest.
Reporter Linda Grant used FOI to ask how many suspects had been arrested or interviewed (none at the time), and had cost £102,000 to process 2,054 DNA samples. The Met, however, refused to tell the paper how many additional crimes they were attributing to the Night Stalker at the time. A good example of FOI to shed light on an active case.
We see a lot of FOIs relating to abuse of children, but the Evening Gazette in Teesside reports on cases of abuse to elderly people by council-employed carers. Abuse reports included financial abuse, verbal abuse and a case of medication error.
The village where no crimes are solved
The village of Hagley, near Bromsgrove, was scene of 30 vehicle crimes and 29 burglaries last year. None were solved. The figures were obtained using FOI and published by the Bromsgrove Advertiser – a clever use of FOI to get two sets of data which paint a very interesting picture.
Crimes committed in police stations
Police stations are proving to be fascinating places for FOI requests. Following on from break ins at police stations and thefts from police stations comes this one from the Bristol Evening Police: The 226 crimes committed inside police stations – over half of which were for criminal damage. A few arsons too. You can see a similar request from GetReading here.
The other things seized at court
Remember the FOI about the number of knives seized at court? The Gloucester Citizen follows a similar line, but chose to ask for a list of everything seized at court from visitors. As well as knives and blades, screwdrivers, CS sprays and darts were also seized, along with cameras and recorders
If ever there was one job which was likely to provoke abuse, it’s the role of traffic warden. And so it seems in Swansea, where the South Wales Evening Post reports on 73 reported attacks on traffic wardens, the worst of which involved knocking down a traffic warden and driving off.
Kidnapping is a crime which is quite rare, and therefore tends to make the headlines when it happens. In Cambridgeshire, the Evening News used FOI to find out how often kidnaps were reported, and what the motives were, and how long people were held for. The resulting article is a fascinating insight into some unusual crimes.
THE number of cyclists in Wales fined for riding on the pavements has more than quadrupled since 2008. A total of 318 people were given £30 fixed penalty notices in 2010, compared to just 54 in 2008, according to figures released under the Freedom of Information Act.
Royal Mail’s love of the shredder
The Royal Mail initially refused to reveal how many letters it destroys a year, on the grounds it would cause negative publicity, but later relented and revealed it shreds 25 million letters year.
And here’s one to keep an eye on. Tory MP Robert Halfon has FOI’d 100 top universities to see how many of them have received donations from ‘Middle East sources’. First to be revealed this way is Durham University, which took £11,000 from Iran, and a total of £700,000 from the region.
