General News

IPCC:  IPCC (Independent Police Complaints Commission) Commissioner Mike Franklin, who leads on Stop & Search for the IPCC has issued a statement.

Press release & links

MoD:  The Royal Military School of Music (RMSM) at Kneller Hall is where musicians learn about life in an Army band and it owes its creation to an unintentional yet highly embarrassing public affront to Queen Victoria .

Press release & links

TKF:  Chief Executive of The King’s Fund, Chris Ham, has responded to the Public Accounts Committee’s report on achievement of foundation trust status by NHS hospital trusts. 
Press release & links

MoD:  The Armed Forces have announced the fields from which they will select those to be made redundant in Tranche 2 of the Armed Forces Redundancy Programme.

Press release & links

MoD:  Training facilities for troops and the quality of life for residents have improved thanks to the work of the Middlewick Stakeholders Group, which came together in 2009 to tackle problems of vandalism on the firing range, which required costly repairs and denied troops use of the facility.  The illegal riding of motorbikes across the ranges also posed a hazard to walkers enjoying access to the land and a noise nuisance to neighbouring residents.

Press release & links

MoD:  A team of tri-Service regular, reservist & international medics have spent the last few days taking part in an intense training exercise for their upcoming deployment to .  The exercise at Towthorpe Lines, Strensall, was designed to pull together over a year's worth of build-up planning for a 3-month operational tour of duty in .

Press release & links

FSA:  Morrisons is recalling all batches of certain smoked mackerel fillet products.  Due to a processing error, some may be undercooked.  If you have bought any of the products don’t eat them.  The Food Standards Agency has issued a Product Recall Information Notice.

Press release & links

FSA:  Snacks has recalled Giants ‘Just Fruit’ mixed dried fruits because of incorrect allergy information. The affected products, with a ‘best before’ date of July 2012, contain sulphur dioxide not mentioned on the label.  If you’re sensitive to sulphites don’t eat this product. The Food Standards Agency has issued an Allergy Alert.

Press release & links

MoD:  The British Army's radio service has embarked on a major promotion of listening to radio via the internet for 2012.  Garrison FM has joined with the BBC & commercial radio for an initiative called Radioplayer, aimed at making all radio services available in one place.

Press release & links

STFC:  The pioneering Dark Sky Discovery initiative (led by STFC) is inviting the public to nominate the best local stargazing spots to join a growing national network of sites.  Millions of viewers recently saw 6 new Dark Sky Discovery Sites being unveiled on 'Stargazing LIVE', the BBC Two astronomy show. 

The initiative also made a nationwide appeal on Stargazing Live - especially to community groups, open space organisations, schools & local astronomy clubs - to nominate the best stargazing spot in their local area.

Press release & links

DCMS:  The Art Fund and the Crafts Council have launched this year’s £75,000 Art Fund Collect scheme, which aims to boost public collections with craft.  Curators from museums & galleries across the country are being invited to apply for exclusive preview access to COLLECT, Europe ’s leading art fair for contemporary objects, in order to select one work they would like for their museum.  

Curators have until 14 March 2012 to submit their applications to take part.  The shortlist, compiled by the judging panel, will be announced in April 2012.

Press release & links

TfL:  Detailed research from Transport for London (TfL) shows pedestrians feel safer & less rushed using the new Pedestrian Countdown technology system, which will be rolled out across the Capital from summer 2012.  The system reduces confusion & uncertainty for pedestrians by displaying how long they have left to cross the road ‘when the green man goes out’. 

The digital displays count down the time between the green man symbol going out and the red man appearing.  By replacing the blackout period with a numerical counter, pedestrians are able to better judge whether they have enough time to cross the road reducing uncertainty and helps them to make more informed choices.

Press release & links

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