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GREEN
STREETS OF LIVERPOOL
THE STREETS
of Liverpool will be clean and green this
weekend, thanks to a massive recycling drive. More than 300,000
people will be dancing, drinking and having fun outdoors over the
Bank Holiday at the Mathew Street festival, and they'll be creating
a mountain of litter.
Merseyside Community Recycling Forum has got together with
organisers at the Liverpool Culture Company to blitz the thousands
of cans discarded in the streets.
Chris Hennessy from Merseyside Community Recycling Forum is
recruiting volunteers to look after the can collection points that
will be set up all around the city centre. He said:- "There's
going to be huge numbers of cans just dropped or binned in Liverpool
this weekend and instead of them heading for landfill, we want to
get them recycled. Gaskills have donated the use of enough
commercial wheelie bins to collect 20,000 cans, so that's our
target, with the help of our willing volunteers."
Chris also plans to conduct a waste audit to see exactly what the
Mathew Street revellers are chucking away, to plan for more
recycling initiatives next year as the festival keeps on growing.
Creative Environment Manager Sarah Vasey said:- "People have
got to throw their cans away, so why not put them in the can
collection points and know that they are going to be recycled?
Audiences can have fun at the festival and also help the environment
in a big way."
Councillor Warren
Bradley, the city council's executive member for culture, said:-
"This is a great initiative which is rarely seen at festivals and
big music events."
Shooting
incident at the Mood Bar in Liverpool City Centre...
MERSEYSIDE Police
are appealing for information following an incident that happened at
about 2.25am on Friday 26 August 2005, police were called to the
Mood Bar on Fleet Street following reports that one of their door
staff had been shot in the thigh by a man. It is believed that
at about 1.40am two men approaced the doorstaff at the bar
requesting entry. The men were refused and they left the scene, it
is believed that they then returned about 30 minutes later. A man
then shot the doorman in the thigh before leaving in the direction
of Concert Square. He was taken to hospital where it is
believed he will be operated on over the weekend.
The offender is described as being 19 to 20 years old, of mixed
race, of very slim build with short dark cropped hair, dark clothing
and light trainers. The man who was with him is described as being
20-22 years old, 5'8" tall, of prooportionate build, of mixed race
and was wearing dark clothing.
Anyone who witnessed the incident or has information about it is
asked to contact Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
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JUST 2 MILLION OF
THE BRITISH WORKFORCE ACCOUNT FOR MORE THAN 30 MILLION SICK DAYS
SICK of being a
nation of sick workers? British workers have taken off around 78
million working days in the last 12 months…
• Workers in the North West notch up highest number of absences
• Workers aged 16 to 24 are the most likely to call in sick
We are a nation of sickly workers who are not averse to taking
time off, according to research from The Benenden Healthcare
Society. The research found that workers in Britain have
collectively taken off around 78 million working days in the
last 12 months, with some 13.9 million people having taken at
least one day off due to sickness. More shocking is that 2
million people or about 8% of the working population admitted to
taking more than 3 weeks off sick in the last 12 months,
totalling a loss of more than 30 million working days for their
employer.
Women were more likely to take time off than men, with 54% of
women having taken at least one day off, compared to 46% of men.
Meanwhile, younger workers between the ages of 16 to 24 were
also more inclined to miss work due to illness, with 68% having
taken off at least one day, well above the 50% average. However,
those aged 25 to 34 were likely to be absent more often, with
12% or 890,000 of those in this age group having taken off more
than 3 weeks in the last 12 months.
Jakki Stubbington of Benenden Healthcare said:- “Most
workers will need to take sick leave at some time and in most
cases it will only usually last a few days. However, as the
research shows, some employees are taking off far more time on
an annual basis, which can be costly to the employer. It is
concerning that over two million workers have taken more than
three weeks off work in just one year. This equates to almost
six percent of the year spent off ill.”
The research also unveiled that workers in the North West were
prone to taking off the most sick leave with 12% of people
(345,000) having taken more than three weeks off work in the
last 12 months, compared to 2% of Scottish workers. However, the
Scots were more inclined towards shorter absences with nearly
600, 000 (26%) taking between 1 and 2 days. This compares to 16%
in the north east and Yorkshire region.
Jakki Stubbington said:- “It is important for employers to
address the issue of employee absence as it can be very costly.
A healthy workforce is imperative for an establishment to
maintain productivity. Although sickness is a natural
occurrence, we would recommend that businesses look to deploy
some sort of medical scheme or healthcare benefit, to try and
reduce the levels of absence. But also take adequate protection
from employees pulling sick days, as they just want a day off.
This can be hard to do, but all employers should consider this
as each day taken off by an employee puts extra strain on others
and also looses the competitive nature of the business.”
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