March 2007 Archives

I have to say I feel rather sad at the moment and a touch nostalgic...

It has just come to my attention that the scale model of Concorde which has had pride of place at the entrance to Heathrow Airport has been removed.

This wonderful plane ( and no I am not a plane spotter in my spare time) has been a famous landmark at the airport for more than 16 years and during that time it's estimated that more than 400 million people have seen it.

Apparently British Airways has decided not to renew the £1.5m annual rent to advertise on the roundabout at the entrance to the airport.

So, it's out with the old and in with the new because Emirates Airways have snapped up the space and will replace the Concorde model with an Airbus A380 superjumbo.

All is not totally lost because the model of Concorde is going to transported down the M25 to the Brooklands Museum in Weybridge, Surrey.

However, somehow the entrance to Heathrow will not be the same without Concorde I don't really think the Airbus is in the same class.

We will all sadly miss the old bird!.

I promised the editor of our sister paper the Buckinghamshire Advertiser that I would give their new website a plug - so here goes...

http://www.buckinghamshireadvertiser.co.uk is now live and kicking and will be bringing you all the news from across the South Bucks area on a daily basis.

The site also features an interesting section on the Tesco at Gerrards Cross saga which has been in the news spotlight for well over a year now since work was suspended when a tunnel collapsed during work on the new store.

The Tesco site at Gerrards Cross

I can also report that the Advertiser editor Julie Voyce will soon be joining the world of blogging. She is due to go 'live' early next week so I will be interested to read her daily views on life in the South Bucks area.

Back at Gazette House the news week has got off to a sluggish start. There is certainly no shortage of stories around but nothing that is really jumping out as a contender to be a front page splash.

I am sure things will pick up as the day progresses otherwise our news editor Chene might have a bit of a shock when she comes in on Monday morning, especially as content editor David Tilley is off on holiday next week.

While most people will be looking forward to the Easter break it can pose something of a headache for us at Gazette House.

A large part of my meeting yesterday with content editor David Tilley and news editor Chene Koscienly was spent planning ahead for the next week and the impending Easter holiday.

We have to get next's week Gazette finished as usual by Tuesday lunchtime and then need to have almost completed the following week's paper two days later on Thursday.

Unlike Christmas when again you have several tight deadlines but small papers the paginations for the Easter editions are pretty much as normal so it will be a tough week ahead for the newsdesk and subs.

To compound matters David is on holiday next week as he heads for Spain and some tapas and Rioja so I am sure that Chene is really looking forward to the task ahead.

I have just received an interesting email from Rachel, a pupil at Swakeleys School, telling me that she has started a petition along with fellow pupils to try and save the outdoor centre used by school across the borough in Cwen Pennant from closure.

We have received a tremendous response since we first broke this story several weeks ago and rest assured Rachel we will certainly be covering your campaign to try and save the centre in next week's Gazette.

PS: If any of our eagle-eyed readers of the Harefield edition are wondering we have not taken a step back in time at the Gazette. The dateline on the front page should have read 2007 and not 2006 as printed. Heads will roll!

This week's paper is now out on the streets but behind the scenes it was a fairly frantic deadline day at Gazette House yesterday.

We had finally settled on a story about Ken Livingstone's plans to introduce a congestion charge around Heathrow Airport unless control of the Heathrow Express rail link is given over to him as our splash for the Uxbridge and Hayes editions.

The page was designed and subbed and just about to be checked over when news broke that Tesco had failed in their bid to build a superstore in Yiewsley.

This story has been big news in the area with a long running campaign by residents to halt Tesco's bid and, in the past we have increased sale on the back of this story.

The decision was made to lead the Uxbridge edition with the Tesco story and relegate Ken's latest bid to expand his congestion charge monopoly to page two.

With time against us the newsdesk did a sterling job in turning the Tesco story around - but that wasn't the end of the chopping and changing.

We also had a strong news background feature to the Tesco decision almost ready in anticipation of the outcome of the planning appeal.

This was rapidly pulled together as the Gazette's final deadline fast approached and page five of the paper was cleared to get it in.

However, there was one more issue. Having seen the completed page I was not happy with the overall appearance of the feature which, in my opinion, did not really jump out of the page and do itself justice.

The end result was that the page went back to the production unit and was re-designed before finally everyone, including me, was happy with the finished look.

As they say it's all in a day's work and some weeks run smoother than others....

I have just discovered a website which is fast becoming a hit with motorists and cyclists.

One of the most infuriating things for drivers and cyclists is the amount of potholes that they have to encounter on a daily basis as they go about their travels. I have to say that the roads around where I live in Surrey are real suspension shakers with potholes appearing at alarmingly regular intervals - and often nothing being done about them.

Not that some of the roads around Hillingdon are much better and for several weeks there was a particularly dangerous pothole on the roundabout as you go from the Harefield Road in to Uxbridge High Street.

It was eventually filled in but I have noticed that in the last couple of days it is starting to again shake the suspension of my car each morning.

The website http://www.potholes.co.uk has been set up for people to relate their pothole horror stories - and there are plenty of them from all parts of the country on the site.

It also tells people how they can claim against local councils for damage caused by potholes to
their vehicles, how to report potholes in roads and there is also an interesting news section.

A recent survey asked highway engineers how many potholes they had filled in their area over the past year. The tally across England and Wales was alarmingly close to one million (944,000). Taking average estimated costs for filling a pothole, the impact of this work on already stretched maintenance budgets is calculated at £56 million.

If you have any pothole horror stories then we would be interested to hear about them at the Gazette. You can either contact me through the blog or go to the have your say section on the website and post your comments.

Away from potholes this week's Gazette is now down to the main front end news pages and it looks like being another lively edition.

One of our potential lead stories for the Uxbridge edition spectacularly collapsed yesterday but like any good newsdesk the alternative they have come up with is likely to cause plenty of debate and could become a real hot transport issue for many people.

I have also just finished checking off the pages in the first part of our Top Toddler competition. I have to say there are some really chute pictures this year and I can now appreciate how difficult it was for the judges to pick the winners in the various categories.

This week's Gazette is starting to take shape as we head into another busy day.

At the moment we have no obvious splash for the main Uxbridge edition but there are several irons in the fire which hopefully will develop as the day moves on. There is one story in particular which could be a real cracker if we can pull it off (I will keep you updated).

As expected we have received plenty of feedback from last week's story on the massive pay increases for senior Hillingdon councillors and the letters continue to flood in on the decision to close the outdoor activity centre used by local school children.

I am not sure we can top last week's story on the club which places bets on which member is going to die next but, we do have a fascinating feature on the borough's hidden historical gems which have been discovered by archivists.

This week we annouce the judges' verdict in our Top Toddler Competition and you can also find out how you can vote for your own favourite child.

I went to a friend's 50th birthday bash yesterday which was hugely enjoyable.

As the wine started to flow over the roast beef the main topic of conversation was another miserable performance by the England football team the previous night.

Everybody had their own opinion on who should be playing and the best formation but, the simple facts are that despite the millions of pounds of talent on display once again the team is proving a huge letdown.

It appears I had a lucky escape by not watching the match - at least that way you don't end up being disappointed if you are an England fan!

Hot on the heels of the Gazette's best sales week of the year we have recorded a bumper day for the website this week.

On Wednesday the site had the highest number of hits so far this year for an individual day. It's always interesting to track the web statistics on a daily basis so I was particularly keen to see what had attracted so many users to the site.

The news headlines gained the most hits with the three most popular stories viewed:

1. Police car involved in accident
2. Stadium sold to mystery buyer
3. Thieves abuse wheelchair user

Also proving popular was the jobs section while without wishing to blow my own trumpet that day's blog (A-mazing twist) registered a highly encouraging number of hits.

The great thing with the website is that you can get almost instant feedback on what are the most popular stories with users while with our newspapers we have to wait two weeks to get a true picture of how sales have performed - which can often be quite frustrating.

Meanwhile, as I expected our page three lead in this week's Gazette about the Last Super Club - whose members place bets on which of them is going to die next - has generated a great deal of interest. You can also read the story on the website today.

It is without doubt one of the most bizarre stories we have had this year and has already found its way into at least one national newspaper.

There has also been some interesting comments posted on the local Hillingdon Chat forum http://www.hillingdonchat.com.

I must admit the comments about the uncanny resembalance between one of the club's members and council leader Ray Puddifoot made me smile...

I have just received the latest weekly sales figures for the Gazette and they have certainly put a smile on my face on a cold wintry morning in Uxbridge.

The figures for the March 7 edition of the Gazette show our highest sale of the year and a large increase from the previous week.

It was a particularly strong paper and the sale of the Hayes edition rocketed by almost 1,000 copies from the previous week, giving us an increase of more than eight per cent on the corresponding period last year.

I have to say it's not too difficult to understand the reason for such a strong sales week for the Hayes edition the headline says it all: 'Two murders in one week.'

Newspaper sales are always difficult to predict on a weekly basis and a whole host of factors, apart from the strength of your stories, like big sporting events, school holidays and even the weather can affect them.

However, not matter what the circumstances it's always likely that really big stories can increase your sale and that was certainly the case for the March 7 edition.

On the previous occasion of our best sales figures of the year our newspaper sales manager treated us to some posh chocolate biscuits - this time I am looking forward to a selection of the finest cream cakes available in Uxbridge.

The real trick now is to maintain the increase in sale ...

There has been an amazing twist to the council's decision to start charging traders across the borough to place boards advertising their businesses outside their shops.

I have mentioned this new legislation in previous blogs and made my own views well known. We have also covered the story in depth in the pages of the Gazette, especially the horror and outrage from traders to charge them nearly £400 to place the boards outside their shops.

The council originally claimed that their decision to start charging came after they had received complaints from residents about the safety of pavements for blind and partially sighted people, the elderly and parents with pushchairs.

I have to say this all sounded rather suspicious at the time and it was difficult to understand how making traders cough up the cash to display the boards was going to make our pavements any safer.

However, it has now come to light this week that the council only ever received ONE formal complaint about the advertising boards being a safety hazard.

It appears on this basis they have gone ahead to start charging traders nearly £400 to obtain a licence to have A-boards outside their premises.

Quite rightly traders across the borough are up in arms following this latest revelation and it makes me believe that it is no more than a gravy train for the council rather than a genuine piece of common sense legislation.

We have covered the story in this week's Gazette, which is out today, and are awaiting a formal response from the council to the latest twist to this story.

I will be extremely interested to hear what they have got to say ...

It's been an extremely hectic morning at Gazette House and for all the right reasons.

I described last week's paper in my blog as another 'strong edition' and was taken to task for being 'so modest' and told that I should let the readers be the judge of that.

Well I have no hesitation in saying that this week's Gazette is a really strong edition with several stories that are going to be real talking points across the whole borough. It's been one of the best overall news weeks for a while and we had a great selection of stories for the early news pages.

We received a healthy response to last week's splash about plans to close the outdoor activity centre used by school children across the borough.

However, I expect a bulging postbag in response to this week's lead story about the massive pay increases being proposed for senior councillors in the borough.

These include a whopping 56.1 per cent for council leader Ray Puddifoot and 71 per cent for deputy leader David Simmonds. The increases come at the same time that a number of community groups and voluntary organisations in the borough have seen their funding slashed by the council and now face a very uncertain future as they scrabble around to keep going.

All I can say is watch next week's Gazette for what I expect to be a general outcry of horror and amazement from many of our readers to this news.

I am also sure there will be some interesting debate at the council meeting on Thursday when the proposed increases will be discussed.

Another story you will be absorbed by is our page three lead about local club which places bets on which of them is going to die next. It makes fascinating reading especially as the no-smoking ban which comes into force in July means that this particular club's days could be numbered in more ways than one.

Anyway, as usual to catch up with all the week's local news make sure you pick up a copy of the Gazette when it hits the streets tomorrow morning.

PS: Team Gazette asked me not to mention how they got on in the Hasbro charity football tournament last Friday. However, I feel it only fair to report that they finished bottom but one of their group with one solitary victory. I think it's back to the training ground lads ...