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General News
TfL: Transport for London (TfL) has announced a 6 month trial of the Intelligent Speed Adaptation (ISA) technology which aims to reduce road casualties and help drivers avoid speeding penalties. As part of the trial, which will start this summer, a London bus will be fitted with ISA, alongside a licensed Taxi and 20 TfL vehicles driven by road engineers, traffic managers & highway inspectors.
The intelligent technology enables drivers to select an option where acceleration is stopped automatically at the speed limit specific to any road in London within the M25 area. The unit can be disabled at the touch of a button, at which point it reverts to an advisory status where the current, legal speed limit is simply displayed as a driver aid. There is also a complete over-ride switch with disables the system entirely.
This is the first time all of London’s speed limits have been mapped accurately with regular updates. The trial will monitor driver behaviour, journey times and the effect that driving within the speed limit has on vehicle emissions.
DCMS: The 1,000ft long & 52ft wide pier in Eastbourne has had its listing upgraded by Culture Minister Barbara Follett, from Grade II to Grade II*, following a review by English Heritage. The pier, one of the best in the country, was originally listed at Grade II in 1971, having had an interesting history, full of changing fortunes.
Attrition rates are high, and of the 100 seaside piers built by the end of the 19th century, only 55 still survive. In England there are currently two Grade I piers (Brighton West and Clevedon), three Grade II* piers (Eastbourne, Birnbeck Pier in Weston-super-Mare and Brighton Palace Pier) and 13 Grade II piers.
DH: The first step towards producing a European prototype of a swine flu vaccine has been achieved by the Health Protection Agency (HPA), Health Secretary Alan Johnson has announced. On a visit to the HPA's National Institute of Biological Standards and Control (NIBSC, Alan Johnson learnt that researchers have sequenced the full genetic code of the virus. This is critical in understanding how the virus operates and identifying the crucial parts of the virus that can be used in vaccine manufacture.
Researchers hope that European manufacturers will be able to take delivery of candidate vaccine prototypes in the coming months so preliminary steps to mass vaccine production can begin. The HPA researchers will also work with sister organisations to compare the characteristics of this virus with other samples to gain a greater understanding of how flu infects people and how it can quickly change to evade our immune systems.
Pandemic specific vaccines will not be available until 4-6 months after a pandemic virus has emerged and hence it may be of limited use in the first wave of a pandemic. It is likely to be over a year before all of the vaccine has been delivered. It cannot be known in advance whether a pandemic will have one or more waves.
Press release ~ National Institute of Biological Standards and Control (NIBSC) ~ Symptom Checker ~
Ofsted: Ofsted have launched their 2009 revised childcare complaints commitment, which relates to complaints made against registered childminders & childcare providers. It is intended to give parents & carers easy, quick and up-to-date access to complaints information; they will no longer have to wait for an inspection to take place.
MoD: Troops on operations in Afghanistan are now trialling new hot weather ration packs, designed to feed troops with greater variety in the harsh summer temperatures. Over 300,000 of the new 24 hour multi-climate rations (MCR) will be trialled by deployed troops this summer which sees the traditional ‘biscuits brown’ and pate replaced by healthier and more suitable meals like pasta lunchtime pouches.
The MCR also includes the introduction of 20 new trial menus for general use plus 6 new menus for Halal, Vegetarian and Sikh/Hindu ranges. The MCR trial will run from May - October 2009 and will help inform the long term future of menus for 24 hour ORP in Hot Climates for summer 2010 and beyond.
BERR: Nearly 1m people will benefit from the October 2009 increase after the government approved recommendations from the independent Low Pay Commission:
* Low paid workers aged 22 and over can look forward to an increase from £5.73 to £5.80 an hour
* The rate for 18 to 21-year-olds will also rise from £4.77 to £4.83
* For 16 & 17-year-olds, the rate will go up to £3.57 an hour from £3.53
MoD: The Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team, the Red Arrows, has announced that a female pilot is one of two candidates selected to join the world-famous 'Diamond Nine'. The successful candidates - Flight Lieutenant Kirsty Moore of number X111 Squadron, RAF Marham and Flight Lieutenant Ben Plank of number 1(Fighter) Squadron, RAF Cottesmore - will fly as part of the 2010-2012 display team.
Until recently, no female fast-jet pilot had reached the stage in their flying career to fulfil the application criteria; be assessed as above average in their flying career, have a minimum of 1,500 flying hours and have completed at least one front line fast-jet operational tour.
MoD: Events to mark the 60th anniversary of the end of the Berlin Airlift and the outstanding contribution of UK Armed Forces throughout the campaign were held last week in Berlin. 40 British veterans visited the former RAF Gatow Airfield in Berlin, where they operated from during the June 1948 to May 1949 campaign.
British aircraft flew more than 175,000 trips to & from the city as the RAF, supported by civilian pilots and Army teams on the ground, faced the most challenging of conditions in ensuring that the two million people living in Berlin did not starve or freeze to death when their supplies were cut off by the Soviets.
Events will culminate on 26 September 2009, the anniversary of one of the final flights, with a commemorative event organised by the Ministry of Defence at the Berlin Airlift Memorial in Staffordshire. Service veterans, those who supported from the civilian population, and their families, are urged to apply for tickets to attend to what is likely to be the last major commemoration for this remarkable endeavour.
Press release ~ Veterans UK – application Form ~ Berlin Airlift ~ British Berlin Airlift Association ~ BBC: Bitter-sweet memories of Berlin Airlift ~ Berlin Airlift Memorial Staffordshire
LD: Land Data, the NLIS regulator, has announced a new channel strategy for NLIS (the National Land Information Service), which includes a new license option allowing businesses to operate as a licensed provider of NLIS data. The new channel strategy has been devised to make NLIS more accessible, cost effective and ultimately more competitive.
Over the next 3 months, Land Data will brief companies on a new channel licensing option, enabling them to operate as an electronic conveyancing search distribution service. Under the terms of the new license agreement, the channels will handle authoritative searches from official data providers including all Local Authorities in England & Wales. The information is distributed to the licensed channels by the NLIS hub.
MoD: The first batch of a fleet of versatile, protected vehicles has been delivered to troops on operations, complete with the latest battle-ready upgrades. Weighing over 7 tonnes, the Panther Command and Liaison Vehicle (PCLV) is fitted with the latest high-tech developments, including a remote-controlled weapon system that allows the user to operate a machine gun with a camera & joystick from inside its turret.
It can operate in all weather conditions, day & night using thermal imaging equipment that ‘sees’ in the dark and the vehicles are protected against a range of threats including small arms, blast & anti-personnel mines.
Press release ~ Panther Command and Liaison Vehicle (PCLV) ~ BAE Systems Global Combat Systems - Panther
DfT: Rail Minister Andrew Adonis has officially opened the upgraded £8.9bn ‘West Coast Mainline’. The line, which runs from London to Glasgow serving destinations including Birmingham, Manchester & Liverpool, has been completely overhauled over the past 5 years. The upgrade sees journey times fall by up to 30% and a 45% increase in long distance train services on the line.
The route is the UK's main rail artery and one of the most intensively used lines in Europe, handling 40% of the nation's rail freight. Passenger numbers on the line have doubled since 2004, while improved journey times have caused a massive shift from air to rail on the busy Manchester to London route, with rail now accounting for two-thirds of journeys, up from one third in 2004.
DCMS: A new visitor centre to help bring alive the mystery & majesty of Stonehenge, the UK's internationally renowned World Heritage Site, has been given the go-ahead in principle by the Government. The Stonehenge Programme Board, chaired by the Culture Minister, Barbara Follett, and Transport Minister, Andrew Adonis, has recommended that the centre, costing up to £25m, should be built at Airman's Corner.
The way is now clear for work to be done on working up a design, seeking planning permission and raising funding to deliver the project. The Government also announced that the site will be further enhanced by closing the A344 which, at present, takes traffic very close to the stones.
Press release ~ Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites World Heritage Site (WHS) ~ English Heritage ~ Traffic on A344
OS: Following the announcement of a new business strategy for mapping agency Ordnance Survey, further details were last week unveiled to an audience of industry stakeholders in London (comments requiredby 29 May 2009). The event was held at NESTA, the independent organisation with the mission to ‘make the UK more innovative’, and saw the enhanced web mapping portal, OS OpenSpace, showcased for the first time.
The free to use service, for which the event marked the official re-launch, provides greater access to Ordnance Survey mapping than ever before. As well as new terms that allow for businesses to use the service, boundary information is also available for the first time, making it possible for users to display information based on administrative regions.
ScotGov: A new agreement to help improve the use of mapping information by over 70 public bodies in Scotland has been announced. The agreement with Ordnance Survey allows Scottish councils, government departments and other public bodies to use Ordnance Survey's mapping information for a wide variety of purposes, and to exchange map-based information about their work. It should result in savings across Scotland's public sector.
The One Scotland Mapping Agreement replaces two previous GB-level Agreements - the local government Mapping Services Agreement and the Pan Government Agreement for central government.
SQA: The Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) has embarked on a project to develop a training pack to be used in the delivery of the PDA: Introduction to Tutoring ESOL. SQA is seeking an academic partnership with an SQA approved centre to pilot & evaluate the draft version of the training materials. The deadline for responses is 12 noon on Tuesday 26 May 2009..
Press release ~ Invitation to Quote (scroll down)
