Purr-fect partnership as new pet insurance scheme launches in Southport

TAILS will be wagging across Southport after leading veterinary group Vets4Pets partnered with scheme insurance specialist NCI Insurance Services to launch a new pet insurance product, Cover4Pets.   NCI worked closely with Vets4Pets to develop the bespoke solution to meet the needs of customers of the fast growing veterinary group, which operates over 65 practices across the UK.  The Southport Vets4Pets branch, on Hill Lane, is offering 3 levels of cover for small animals (including dogs, cats and rabbits) following comprehensive training from NCI.

The group has ambitious expansion plans with at least a further 100 practice openings planned over the next 2 to 3 years, confirming its position as the UK’s leading branded small animal veterinary group. Vets4Pets will work with NCI as its sole partner in delivering competitively priced pet insurance to customers.

Vets4Pets managing director, Peter Watson said:- “We are committed to offering the highest quality of service to our clients and healthcare to their pets, which is why we’ll be recommending Cover4Pets Pet Insurance. Our staff have undergone extensive training for Cover4Pets to ensure our clients receive the very best advice.”

NCI’s commitment to the scheme is represented by significant investment in systems integration, specialist staff, training, marketing and promotional material. Managing director, Neil Richards-Smith, added:- “Vets4Pets and NCI share the same ethos and a common determination to offer customers a high quality portfolio of products and services at competitive prices. NCI was chosen ahead of a number of other market leaders because we can offer a bespoke, professional yet caring service to Vets4Pets and our mutual customers.”

Blackpool Gets A Shaking 

IT was not the normal seaside rock that many associate with Blackpool, but at around 00:48am on Friday, 27 May 2011, a small earthquake hit Poulton-le-Fylde. The tremor was reported to have been 1.5 magnitude, at a depth of 2.7km (1.7 miles). No damage or injuries have been reported. The small tremor was felt as far as Southport as far as Morcambe. According to seismologists, the UK experiences about 20 earthquakes a year of a similar magnitude. Beneath Britain the Earth's crust is crisscrossed with ancient cracks, or fault lines, which are constantly under stress. It is thought that the movements are as a result of a post glacial uplift left since the last ice age. Tremors are not uncommon in Britain. The last to hit the North West was again on the Fylde Coast, Lancashire.  It to was also centred on Poulton-le-Fylde, hitting around 3:30am on 1 April 2011. It measured 2.2 magnitude.   The suppressing thing about the tremors like these are that most of us do not notice them and that the majority of the ones that occur in Brittan are along the West Coast. Large earthquakes you hear on the news in parts of the world like Tokyo's 7.1 magnitude earthquake, that jolted Japan early in 2011, are due to the interaction of giant tectonic plates, slipping and crashing together, but the ones that hit the UK are not the same. In the UK the continental drift (the interaction of giant tectonic plates) results in the rock under Britain becoming squeezed from the North West. This builds up stresses in the Earths Crust, that is only relieved by slippage, at fault lines. Fault lines like crinkles in your bed covers. The changes of high of these creases in the crust are felt across the country as an tremors, small quakes, and rarely do more than dislodge a few chimneys or crack the odd wall, unlike the major continental fault line earthquakes. There are a number of active faults across Brittan and many of the tremors are experienced on the western side of England, up through the Pennines. Interestingly the largest ever recorded earthquake in the UK was a 6.1, in 1931. It produced a small tsunami and was felt throughout the UK and in northern Europe. It's epicentre was Dogger Bank in the North Sea and it had very little impact on the mainland. But despite this natural activity, a company called Cuadrilla Resources, who have just started drilling for shale gas in Weeton, on the Fylde coast, has stopped its controversial “fracking” programme to allow the British Geological Survey (BGS) to investigate any links. The company had only just began its hydro-fracking programme, that requires sending high pressure water and chemicals hundreds of meters underground, into the rock, to release trapped gas. Cuadrilla said that:- “We are confident this is just a coincidence. 5 other tremors have been reported from around the country over the same week. Minor earthquakes and tremors like this happen from time to time, but we want to check that this one was not connected.”