January 2007 Archives

It's been a pretty awful start to the day at Gazette House - infact it's nothing short of a nightmare.

The new reporter who was due to start today as a replacement for Tom Parnell has left a message to say they have had a better job offer elsewhere and therefore will not be joining us.

So, that's a whole month wasted in recruiting a replacement and leaves the newsdesk desperately short of staff at a particularly busy time. There are words I could use to describe my anger at their actions in not starting today - but this is a family blog!

And if things could not get any worse our production editor has injured his knee and can't get into work on our busiest production day in Uxbridge, with deadlines to meet for a large number of the other titles we produce out of Gazette House.

That means I will have to step in and lend a helping hand and put all my other plans for the day on hold for the time being.

On a more positive note this week's Gazette is a cracking paper - and as I said yesterday the best overall edition we have produced this year. So, at least I have something to smile about at the moment!

Today we say farewell to one of our Uxbridge reporter's Tom Parnell, who is moving across the river to one of our sister papers the South London Press.

Tom has worked his way up to become a senior reporter on the Gazette and has been an extremely valuable member of the team and we are all sorry to see him leave for pastures new.

By one abiding memory of Tom will be the day he left his coat and notebook, with most of his stories for that week's paper, at his parents during a weekend stay. I took a frantic call from Tom on a Sunday night as he explained his plight.

As luck would have it Tom's parents lived near to me in Surrey so, it was a frantic Sunday night dash for his poor mum to deliver the coat and more importantly the notebook to my house.

I was delighted that the notebook would be reunited with Tom ready for Monday morning and no stories would be missed out in the Gazette. However, I am not sure Tom's mum was quite so pleased about having to turn out on a wet and windy Sunday night - stupid boy I think was her reaction!

It's been a hetic few days and now I have finished my stint as sports editor for the week I can take some time to look over the main news pages for this week's paper before deadline.

This week's Gazette is a strong edition with a really good mix of hard news stories and features - I have to say it's the best paper we have put out so far this year.

Apologies for the lack of blog activity today and this rather short and sharp entry.

Our sports editor Scott has gone sick so I have had to step in to run the sports desk this week. This means getting six pages of sport completed by tomorrow lunchtime - I think I will make it but it's going to be a close call.

At least with my head buried in sorting out football, rugby and cycling reports it means I have not had any time to bother the newsdesk about what's appearing on the news pages this week. They tell me we have a strong newslist and everything is going just fine - and I really do believe them.

Anyway, must press on with the sports pages. Being a former sports editor myself many years ago it's just like the old days .......

At long last someone has seen sense and is introducing tougher penalties for motorists caught using a hand-held mobile telephone.

I just hope this stops the idiots - like the clown weaving about on the Denham roundabout yesterday morning while on his mobile phone - from breaking the law.

However, I have my doubts that even the threat of automatically having three points on their licence and a fine of £60 is going to be a tough enough deterrent to stop some people from still using their beloved mobile phone while driving.

I fear it will take a tragic accident in the case of some motorists before it really hits home that using a mobile phone while driving is on a par with excessive speeding and even drink driving.

You quite simply can't be in control of your vehicle if you are using the phone at the same time as driving.

Alarmingly it is reported that 92 per cent of people agree with the law but 21 per cent of drivers currently admit to breaking it.

Hopefully the new penalties will finally hit home with those that continue to flout the law and the police will apply a tough approach in stopping these idiots. It will be interesting to see if the number of convictions increases now from the last reported figures in 2004, when 74,000 fixed-penalty notices were issued in England and Wales for illegal use of mobile phones while driving.

That's my rant for the day over but, when it could be a matter of life and death it makes my blood boil to see people breaking a law that is so totally uneccesary. No phone call is that important...

Since starting this blog it has proved extremely useful in re-uniting me with some of my former colleagues over the years in the business.

Memories of my days as editor of the Bracknell News came flooding back when a former photograhper on the paper contacted me from Thailand and yesterday I received a call from a reporter I worked with during my days at the Maidenhead Advertiser.

I had not heard from him for over 25 years (that shows my age!) and he had spotted my blog while searching for some information about the Uxbridge area. He now works in the world of property - far more lucrative than being a journalist - and seems to be doing very well for himself.

It is always interesting to find out what former colleagues are up to and if there are anymore of you out there then contact me and let me if you have made your fortune - and if so, what the secret is.

I have a busy schedule today and will shortly be 'crossing the border' for a meeting at our sister paper the Buckinghamshire Adveriser in Chalfont St Peter. It will then be a quick dash back to Uxbridge where I am hosting a meeting of editors from our other titles across West London and Bucks.

At the same time I will be keeping an eye on the newslist for next week's Gazette as we start to plan the early pages for the subs' to start work on.

Having negotiated a somewhat tricky journey from the snowfields of Surrey early this morning I was really looking forward to my first cup of warming coffee to get me going for the day!

But shock, horror the coffee machine was out of action - just what you need on probably the coldest morning of the winter.

On the theme of navigation the lead story in our Harefield edition this week particularly caught my eye.

Modern technology is all well and good until something goes wrong and that's certainly the case in Harefield. Sat-navs are sending lorry drivers down a narrow lane in the village and residents are fed up with seeing oversized heavy goods vehicles becoming trapped in their road after being directed their by mistake.

This is not the first case - or the last - of sat-navs sending drivers down a blind alley although according to an AA spokesman: " It's easy to blame sat navs for these problems when really the same thing could happen when using an Ordinance Survey map."

This is one of many good reads in this week's Gazette - which is safely out on the streets despite the wintry weather.

However, it looks as though the snow has marooned most of my staff as the office is looking decidedly empty at the moment.

PS: Update on the coffee machine - it has now sprung back into action and I can start warming up .....

The great British obsession with hunting down a bargain has been no more evident than the great Devon free-for-all on the beach at Branscombe as thousands pick over the wreckage of the stricken container ship.

I have to say the scenes have been extraordinary with people grabbing anything they can get their hands on - and I don't think too many will be declaring their booty!

It begs the question: "Do you look a gift horse in the mouth? Well, I suppose the lure of picking up a free supply of wine for a year or a gleaming BMW bike for nothing is just too tempting for some people.

Unfortunately there is no free booty with this week's Gazette but as always it promises to be another action packed paper and great value.

My comments last week that the newslist 'fizzled out' were not met with universal approval from the newsdesk so I better be careful what I say in future!

We are working hard on several potential lead stories this morning for the Uxbridge edition. My prefered option is proving difficult to stand up at the moment but I am hopeful we will get enough to splash on what is potentially a real talking point for readers.

We also have some fairly dramatic pictures and stories from last week's storms that battered the borough and a three page special report from our Local Heroes Awards night.

It promises to be a fairly frantic few hours as we head up to deadline and with news of a train derailment in Hayes reaching us and about to be posted on the website it really is all hands to the pump.

There will be no reports of crime related incidents in this week's Gazette - and probably next week's also.

And, it's not because the borough has become a crime free zone or we don't have the room to include them - spare the thought!

The reason is that Hillingdon police's press liaison officer (press officer in my book) has gone on holiday for two weeks and there is no one else seemingly available or capable of providing us with the information.

Quite frankly I think this is a shocking state of affairs and I can only apologise in advance for the lack of crime reports in the Gazette over the next two weeks.

I think it is vitally important that a local newspaper keeps it readers up to date with what crimes are occuring in the area - and although they may not always make pleasant reading they are after all a vital part of the coverage we provide.

Hopefully when the press liaison officer returns from holiday we will have column after column of crime nibs - the only trouble is they will all be out of date by then!

On a more positive note all the pictures from last Thursday's Local Heroes Awards night have now been posted on the website:Go to http://www.uxbridgegazette.co.uk/localheroes to see them along with a full report of the evening.

Last night was a celebration of local heroes from across the borough.

The annual Gazette/Uxbridge College Local Heroes Awards was another memorable night as some truly remarkable feats and achievements by individuals were honoured.

It's always a very humbling occasion and I only have admiration for the exceptional cases of caring, courage, bravery and dedication that were featured at the ceremony held in the theatre at Hayes Community Campus.

At any event like this there have to be winners but in my mind everyone who attended last night as a shortlisted finalist was a local hero in their own right.

The awards are now in their fifth year and thanks to the generous support of Uxbridge College, and in particular Principal Rachel Davies, have continued to flourish and are now firmly established as a major event in the borough.

It certainly was a night to remember and I hope that everyone who attended enjoyed it as much as I did. And the music from the Vyners Swing Band that entertained the large audience certainly ensured that the evening went with a swing.

And, it was also good to meet up again with the band's leader Perry Parsons and have the opportunity to congratulate him on his recent award of an MBE. It is a richly deserved honour for Perry, who was the Hero of Hillingdon at last year's awards.

Next week's Gazette will be featuring the awards in full and we will also shortly be posting a special picture galary from the evening on the website.

Two things absolutely vital to producing a newspapers are reporters and sub editors.

You may think that is stating the blooming obvious but when the weather strikes and at the same time storm stories are breaking across the borough it's a problem when the majority of your staff are all stuck on the underground.

That was exactly the case this morning when a tree came down and struck a train close to Hillingdon station and closed all lines in and out of Uxbridge.

Stranded at Ruislip station were half the reporting team and a posse of subs - desperately needed to help finish our sister title the Ealing Gazette, which has a deadline this morning.

The Uxbridge reporters that managed to beat the train, bus and traffic chaos that ensued did a great job in getting the train drama story up on the site within minutes of it breaking - showing the true value of the website when it comes to breaking news. And our photographers were quickly out of their blocks to capture the drama as it unfolded.

Thanks to a vigilant member of our advertising team the rest of the reporters were rescued from Rusilip station by car and the members of the subbing team eventually got here by any means they could.

All in all it's been a frantic morning at Gazette House and with the wind still howling it looks like that might continue for the rest of the day as reports of storm damage continue to flood in to the newsroom.