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Earthquake hits Britain
Seismograph reading
copyright of the British Geological Survey
(BGS)
THOUSANDS all over
Britain where woken at 00:56.46GMT on 27 February 2008 by an
earthquake. Seismograms at the British Geological Survey (BGS)
recorded the 10 second quake as a 5.3 on the Richter Scale. Three
hours later, an aftershock with a magnitude of 1.8 was felt in large
parts of England and Wales. The US Geological Survey also measured
the quake, but they had recoded it as magnitude 4.7.
"An earthquake of this size, of a magnitude of five or thereabouts,
will occur roughly every 10 to 20 years in Britain. This was a
natural tectonic earthquake caused by a shift in an existing or
newly created fault line. The epicentre was approximately 8km east of
Market Rasen and around 6.2 miles deep. Reports suggest that the
earthquake has been felt widely across England, even around 125
miles away in London. It's not particularly big in terms of a world
context, but in terms of the UK, it's a significant event.
Historically they are rare, but it was the most severe earthquake to
strike Britain in 25 years." said BGS.
"Buildings across the county were damaged, including in
Gainsborough, Louth and Boston, Police phone lines in Lincolnshire
were swamped in the hour following the temblor, with nearly 200
emergency calls and 326 non-emergency calls.
One man was injured when a chimney fell through his bedroom ceiling
and many homes and businesses were damaged by the tremor."
said Lincolnshire
police.
Since 1985, historical records show that that area has had 7 other
recorded earthquakes with three being recorded below 2.0ML and four
recoded around 2.0ML to 2.9ML.
Please help the BGS by filling their
online questionnaire. |
Aquatics Centre to make a splash
THE country’s
newest Olympic size swimming pool is to be known as Liverpool
Aquatics Centre. The finishing touches are being made to the
50 metre facility in Wavertree ready for opening next month.
It has now been filled with more than a million litres of water, in
a mammoth operation which took 5 days.
The state-of-the-art pool will be one of only a handful of Olympic
size facilities in the UK. It is 3 pools in 1, with the main pool
designed to be divided in 2 plus another 20 metre pool. It has a
unique moveable floor to allow the the depth of the water to be
varied.
It’s the biggest investment in the city’s swimming facility for
decades, and will benefit the local community and also be used as a
training centre by the city’s elite swimmers, putting an end to the
70 mile round trips they have to make to Manchester and Wigan.
Council leader Warren Bradley said:- “The local community are
counting down the days until the opening of this brilliant new
facility.
It is not just for our own elite swimmers, but also
the local community including recreational groups, mothers and
toddlers and schools.
We already have first class athletics, football, gymnastics and
tennis facilities in Liverpool, and the pool will allow us to bid to
host national swimming championships so that people can cheer on our
athletes in their home city.
It is another boost for Liverpool
in our year as European Capital of Culture.”
Spectators will be able to watch the swimmers in a 400 seat arena,
and it is expected the site will also host major championships.
The £17 million project includes additional investment to improve
the Lifestyles leisure centre next door, which will see a major
expansion of the gym with more than 100 pieces of equipment.
The entire sports complex, which also includes the Indoor Tennis
Centre, Athletics Centre and extensive synthetic and grass sports
pitches will be re-named Wavertree Sports Park. And the city
council has agreed a suggestion from children at nearby St Hugh’s
Catholic Primary School that the centre should recognise the
contribution that black swimmer James Clarke made to sport in
Liverpool. A plaque is to be erected at the complex to
celebrate his pioneering work in introducing swimming lessons for
youngsters in Wavertree in the early 1900’s during which he saved
the lives of many people who had got into difficulty in the River
Mersey and Leeds-Liverpool canal.
The majority of funding - £13 million - is coming from the city
council, with a further £4m of Lottery cash from Sport England.
The Aquatics Centre will replace the original 80 year old Picton
Baths which had to close because of structural problems.
Stewart Kellett, Regional Director of Sport England North West,
said:- “We are extremely pleased to be able to invest such a
substantial amount into the development of a 50m pool for Liverpool.
As an organisation, we are committed to increasing participation in
physical activity and sport across the North West and the likes of
Wavertree Sports Park and the Liverpool Aquatics Centre will play a
huge part in helping us to achieve this. Not only will it be a
world-class training and competition facility, but a place for us to
nurture our young talent and somewhere for the local community to
enjoy.”
New
text message service set to help Local Authorities track pupils’
term-time holidays
AS the
Government announces that more 6.8 million school days were lost due
to family holidays during the 2006/07, Truancy Call Ltd (www.truancycall.com)
has launched Term Time Tracker to help tackle the issue. This brand
new service enables Local Authorities (LAs) and schools to monitor
term-time absences. It acts as a reminder to parents and pupils
about their agreed absence and helps schools monitor the safety and
welfare of the pupil during his/her time away from school.
The system tracks school’s approved holidays and sends a text
message to parents on the date of the pupils leave, wishing them a
safe trip, reminding them of the date they should return and what to
do if they do not return back by that date. Term Time Tracker
automatically checks its database each day and should a child’s
return be overdue, adds them to an email list sent to the operator
of the system everyday. They then call the child’s school to
ascertain whether or not the child is back. Pupils remain on this
list until they are marked as having returned, ensuring that no
pupils ‘slip through the net’ and that their extended holiday
absence is monitored and tracked until they’re safely back in class.
If a pupil does not return on the agreed date, the pupil, parents,
school and Council’s education welfare team, are all sent a text
message. If a child still hasn’t come back to school the next day,
the Senior Education Welfare Officer can activate a reminder to both
parents and the pupil requesting that they get in touch to provide
an update on their expected return.
Under the Department for Children, Schools & Families (DCSF)
Education Regulations 1995, schools have the discretion to grant up
to 10 days holiday during term time, although many now discourage
this because of the disruption it can cause to a child’s education.
Stephen Clarke, Managing Director, Truancy Call Limited, commented:-
“If the Government is to take action against parents taking
their children out of school during term time, Local Authorities
need to introduce a system that can help manage these absences.
Attending school regularly is vital for a child’s education and even
a couple of days off here and there can be very disruptive.” |
