Thursday, 6 February 2014

rail line closure 'to cost economy million

Dawlish storm damage rail line closure 'to cost economy millions'

Network Rail said the line, which is hanging in mid-air, will take a minimum of six weeks to repair

The storm destruction of the railway line connecting Devon and Cornwall to the rest of the UK will cost the South West economy millions of pounds each day, business leaders have claimed.

Network Rail said the line, which is hanging in mid-air, will take a minimum of six weeks to repair.

In Cornwall, storms have caused damage set to cost £14m to repair so far this year, the local council has estimated.

Across the South West more than 900 homes are still without power.

In Exeter, on Wednesday evening, a man was rescued from flood water at Silverton Mill.

Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service said he was found on the roof of his van. His condition is unknown.

In Kingsand and Cawsand in south-east Cornwall, the high tide overnight has caused further damage to the seafront buildings and walls.

Big waves have battered the Seaton Beach Cafe

On Tuesday night, a number of properties were evacuated after Kingsand became swamped by huge waves and stones washed ashore damaged houses and smashed windows.

'Major blow'

Resident John De Frane, who suffered a head injury, said: "A huge wave hit the house and took the door off its hinges.

"The water knocked me backwards and I went up the hallway under water and hit my head, knees, elbows and shoulders."

At the scene in Kingsand and Seaton

Johnny O'SheaBBC Radio Cornwall

Despite it being a windy night, the clock tower in Kingsand is still standing and structural engineers are expected to assess the building later.

Driving down to Seaton, it looks like a wasteland with broken branches and whole trees being pushed back by the sea.

Sand bags, rocks and boulders are scattered around and the Beach Cafe looks in a bad state.

Cornwall Council said the village clock tower was "in a dangerous condition" after it was battered by huge waves.

Following the destruction of the main railway line at Dawlish, Network Rail said it was "fully committed to restoring a key main line" and "work starts this morning".

Devon and Cornwall Business Council's Tim Jones said the closure was "hugely significant" and "hugely damaging" for the region's economy.

"We've done some initial assessments of what it will cost and we estimate it will be between £1m and £2m a day.

"The amount is based on estimates from last year when Cowley Bridge Junction was closed, disruption to business travellers, the amount lost from taxi companies and businesses around train stations - if you add it all up you come to the estimate we have.

"We've got to live with the problem of the Dawlish sea wall and come up with a financially viable solution."

But David Parlby, from the Plymouth Chamber of Commerce, said: "Financially we think it will cost £20m for each day the line is closed... to have it disconnected is a major blow."

Several homes are at risk in Dawlish after the sea wall was breached

Chris Pomfrett, chairman of the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership, said: "I think Dawlish has been an accident waiting to happen.

This, on top of the problems last year north of Exeter [Cowley Bridge Junction], asks the question when are we going to take a proper look at our transport infrastructure?

"If we want to get businesses to grow here and improve the economy, you have to have an absolutely resilient transport infrastructure."

'Totally destroyed'

On Wednesday, Prime Minister David Cameron announced an extra £100m for flood repairs across the country.

After chairing a meeting of the Cobra emergency committee, he said he had seen "the shocking pictures of the destroyed train line in Dawlish".

At the scene in Dawlish

Sophie PierceBBC South West

It is a case of the calm after the storm.

The police have cordoned off the area and, as far as they know, there has been no further movement.

Evacuated residents from nearby properties have had a second night out of their homes and the future is not good.

Engineers are coming back today, again to try and assess the situation.

Up to 150ft (46m) of railway track was destroyed and Dawlish station was also damaged on Wednesday.

Network Rail's Robin Gisby said: "What we will do in the next 48 hours is protect the line from what we understand will be another big storm over the weekend.

"So our concern at the moment is that the 260ft (80m) wall that's gone is leaving the rest of it exposed.

"We've got a lot of staff just protecting it and then we'll come up with a better assessment of how long it's going to take to rebuild."

In Plymouth, BBC Radio Devon's Jo Irving said the end of Hoe Road was "still cordoned off after waves totally destroyed part of the sea wall in two places".

BBC Radio Cornwall's Johnny O'Shea said there was debris everywhere in Seaton

In Porthleven, Cornwall, ten boats sank after the outer harbour was breached on Wednesday and a crane has been working to lift several boats out of the water.

Harbourmaster Phil Ward said: "We've got away very lightly, we've lost some stones and the lifeboat roof."

The Met Office has issued a yellow and amber warning of rain and there is a further risk of gales on Thursday night.

Wednesday, 5 February 2014

plymouth

Thousands without power and travel hit in more storms

Part of the sea wall in Dawlish was washed away, as John Ayres reports

UK winter floods

There is further flooding while power supplies and transport are disrupted after south-west England and south Wales were hit by a powerful storm.

Engineers have been working to restore power but more than 7,000 homes are still without electricity.

In Dawlish, Devon, a section of sea wall under the railway line collapsed, leaving the track suspended in mid-air.

David Cameron will chair a meeting of the Cobra emergency committee later to consider the government's response.

It is the first time this year that the prime minister will have chaired a meeting of Cobra to discuss the floods and follows widespread criticism of Environment Secretary Owen Paterson's handling of the crisis.

Rail tracks at Dawlish appeared to run into the sea

In places, the track at Dawlish was suspended in mid-air

The prime minister's office said Mr Cameron was anxious to ensure that "all that can be done is being done".

Earlier, First Great Western said all lines between Exeter St Davids and Penzance were closed because of adverse weather conditions and it advised against travel for the rest of the day.

Part of the sea wall at Dawlish, which is between Exeter and Cornwall, has collapsed and the railway station and tracks have been severely damaged by huge waves, driven by gale-force winds.

The Environment Agency has nine severe flood warnings in place, meaning "danger to life", covering much of the south coast from Cornwall to Dorset and two areas of Somerset.

Western Power Distribution said about 44,000 customers had been affected by power cuts since Tuesday afternoon and 7,400 homes in south-west England remained without power.

Overnight 'pasting'

The Met Office said gusts of up to 70mph and 20mm of rain had spread from the South West to south-west Wales and eastern Northern Ireland overnight.

Western Power Distribution said there had been high voltage faults due to debris being blown around in Devon and Cornwall.

A significant section of the West Pier in Brighton collapsed overnight

Teams of engineers worked through the night to try to fix the faults, and the company said it would also switch circuits to work around individual faults.

Phil Davies, network service manager for the company, said they had had "quite a pasting in the South West overnight".

"We are importing some staff from south Wales and the Midlands to help and we are confident we can get everybody back [with power] today."

In other developments:

Twenty people were evacuated from Kingsand in Cornwall because their homes were being damaged by stones washed ashore and coming through their windows
Devon and Cornwall police received 300 emergency calls overnight. About 100 trees were reported blown over
In Brighton, a significant section of the West Pier skeleton collapsed amid high winds and stormy seas
Homes were evacuated on the seafront in Torcross, Devon after waves smashed the front of four buildings
Southeastern said Network Rail had put a 40mph speed restriction in place across parts of its network which will mean longer journeys on some services
South West Trains said a speed restriction of 50mph would be imposed on some routes between 10:00 and 19:00 GMT on Wednesday
Winds of up to 92mph (148km/h) were reported in the Isles of Scilly

In Wales, a number of main roads were closed by fallen trees or flooding.

Trees blocked the A465 Heads of the Valleys Road at Hirwaun, the A484 at Carmarthen and the A476 at Ffairfach in Carmarthenshire. The A484 has been blocked by flooding at Cenarth in Carmarthenshire.

Firefighters have also been called out to deal with dangerous structures. There have been two incidents in the Tenby area of Pembrokeshire with roofing being blown off buildings.

Weather information

Flooding at Burrowbridge on the Somerset Levels

The Met Office has an amber severe weather warning - meaning "be prepared" - for wind for southern England between 08:00 and 15:00 GMT on Wednesday, as well as warnings for wind and rain for other parts of the UK.

The Environment Agency's severe flood warnings cover South Cornwall, South Devon from Start Point to Dawlish Warren, South Devon from Exmouth to Lyme Regis, Lyme Regis harbour, West Bay in Dorset, Weymouth seafront, Chiswell on the Isle of Portland, and two areas of Somerset - the A361 East Lyng to Burrowbridge, and Salt Moor and North Moor.

It also has about 70 flood warnings and more than 200 flood alerts in England and Wales.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency has one flood warning for Kirkcaldy in Fife, and several flood alerts.

BBC weather presenter Matt Taylor said there would be more stormy weather on Wednesday.

BBC Weather's Chris Fawkes: "As long as the jetstream continues to be in a locked position, we will continue to see storm after storm"

"There will be another bout of potentially damaging winds into the morning rush-hour," he said.

On Tuesday, the Prince of Wales met residents in the flood-hit Somerset Levels where thousands of hectares of land remain under water and whole villages have been cut off for weeks.

Somerset residents have expressed anger at the pace at which the Environment Agency and the government have responded.

Many said there has been a slow response from the authorities to the flooding, which has affected many parts of the Levels since December.

In Cornwall, the local authority estimated storms had caused more than £4m of damage across the county in the past month.

The Met Office said another band of rain was expected to arrive from the south on Thursday.

Tuesday, 10 December 2013

32 KING ALFRED AND THE DANES.
sea in long open boats, high at prow and stern, a moved by sails and oars. When they landed, the threw up an intrenchment to defend their boats, an then they seized all the horses they could find, an galloped over the country, burning and pillaging fa and wide.
5. King Egbert did his best to beat off these pirates but he died in 839, and the kings who succeeded hin were not so strong or so skilful as he was. Con sequently the Danes grew bolder. In 855 they passed a winter in the Isle of Sheppey; and from that tim: forward they began to settle in the country. Thl was the first step in the Danish conquest of England
6. Alfred was then a child. He was born in 84 the fourth son of King Ethelwulf, who succeed! Egbert. Erom his childhood he showed great lo^r of learning, but his early life was too active for hit to learn much from books.
7. Alfred’s three elder brothers were all kings England in turn; and with the third of them, Etlui red, Alfred shared the government. By this time I Danes had practically conquered the north and ■ of England, and it was all that Alfred and his brol I could do to defend Wessex against them. In H they fought nine great battles with the Danes.
8. Next year Ethelred died, and Alfred beca.....
king at the age of twenty-two. He had a heavy 11 before him, for his kingdom was reduced to the west half of Wessex, while fresh swarms of DancM W constantly landing in England. For seven years kept up a gallant struggle, but in 878 he was I'm to take refuge in the marshes of Athelney in Somei and was almost driven to despair.

%Iimi I Ihii;"¹. looked worst, however, Alfred lulil v >llni I in which he was nobly sup-IIn immi ol VVchhcx, and he won a decisive IiihI Ill'¹ l*aiiisli host at Ethandun, in ■Ml fill In tv ell 111 ■ the victory by blockading

Sunday, 10 November 2013

Tamaris

Plymouth, Devon

Roads
NGRef: SX4755 OSMap: LR201 Type: Roman Settlement, Port
River Tamarus: NNE (20) to VXELIS.

Tamaris - The Town on the River Tamar

There are two clues in Ptolemy's Geography (bk.II, ch.ii); near the the beginning of part 2, which reads:
"Description of the south side below which is the Oceanus Britannicus [English Channel]. After the Ocrium Promontorium [Lizard Point, Cornwall] is the mouth of the Cenio¹ river 14*003 51°45 (then) the mouth of the Tamarus² river 15*40 52°10 (then) the mouth of the Iscas³ river 17*40 52°20 ..."

This river remains unidentified.
River Tamar, Devon/Cornwall.
River Exe, Devon.

and also the very last sentence of part 2:
"Next to these [the Durotriges], but more to the west, are the Dumnoni, whose towns are: Voliba 14*45 52°00 Uxella¹ 15*00 52°45 Tamara² 15*00 52°15 (and) Isca, where is located Legio II Augusta³ 17*30 52°45."

VXELIS (Launceston, Cornwall); the previous entry Voliba remains unidentified.
At the mouth of the Tamar near Plymouth.
ISCA DVMNONIORVM (Exeter, Devon).

The name Tamaris is mentioned in the Ravenna Cosmology (R&C#5) of the seventh century, where it is listed between the entries for NEMETOSTATIO (Nanstallon, Cornwall) and DVRNOVARIA (Dorchester, Dorset).
The river-name Tamar is ancient Celtic, possibly meaning 'the dark one' or simply 'the river'. There are several other British rivers whose names have the same root-meaning; the Thames (Latin Tamesis) in London, the Team in County Durham, the Thame in Buckingham/Oxfordshire, and finally the Tame, of which there are three, in Warwickshire/Staffordshire, Yorkshire/Cheshire and North Yorkshire.

See: Historical Map and Guide - Roman Britain by the Ordnance Survey (3rd, 4th & 5th eds., 1956, 1994 & 2001);
Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names by A.D. Mills (Oxford 1998).

Sunday, 13 October 2013

Big jump in hospital waiting lists in Wales

Opposition parties have called the figures a "crisis" and a "national disgrace"

Figures show another significant rise in the number of patients waiting more than nine months for hospital care.

More than 13,000 in Wales had been waiting over 36 weeks in August, a rise of more than 2,000 in one month.

Welsh Conservatives say First Minister Carwyn Jones should intervene personally in "an escalating crisis".

Health Minister Mark Drakeford said the NHS in Wales had the same challenge as England but "where we differ is the way we respond and deal with these issues".

The Welsh government has previously blamed the severe winter weather for pushing up the 36-week waiting time.

Its own target is for no-one to wait that long.

The Welsh Conservatives said they recognised the Welsh government had announced extra cash for the NHS in its draft budget announcement this week but waiting times remained "unacceptably long".

Analysis

Owain ClarkeBBC Wales health correspondent

According to the Welsh government nobody should be waiting over 36 weeks for hospital treatment after being referred by their GPs

But since March there's been a steep rise in numbers of patients that have waited longer.

In August 13,147 patients across Wales had waited longer than nine months, which is 3.1% of all patients waiting

And the statistics show the problems are most acute in three health board areas.

Cardiff and Vale had 4.8% of patients waiting longer than 36 weeks, Cwm Taf 4.7% and Betsi Cadwaladr 4.3%.

But don't forget there's another target - 95% of patients should be treated within 26 weeks.

Only 88% of patients across Wales had been treated within that time.

Opposition parties argue that along with missed targets on cancer treatment times, A&E waits, and ambulance response times, it all suggests the Welsh government's is losing its grip on NHS performance,

The result, they argue, is patients having to suffer for longer.

Shadow health minister Darren Millar has written to Mr Jones saying the situation was "a crisis that needs immediate priority".

He said: "I hope you will agree that patients across Wales - particularly the elderly and vulnerable - should not be faced with such long waits."

He added that he sought assurances the NHS delays would dealt with by Mr Jones personally.

Meanwhile, Kirsty Williams, leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats, said the figures were a "national disgrace".

"Why must patients in Wales have to put up with such an inferior service when compared to the rest of the UK?" she said.

"Years of Welsh Labour incompetence has led to thousands of people having to wait an awful long time until the start of their treatment.

"No one should have to wait this long, but it's particularly dreadful to think of the large amount of elderly people that are being forced to wait months on end."

On Tuesday, it was announced that the Welsh NHS would be given £570m of extra funding over three years during the Welsh government's draft budget.

Finance Minister Jane Hutt said the extra money would help the NHS in Wales to avoid a scandal such as the one in Stafford Hospital, where hundreds of patients died as a result of neglect and abuse.

Health Minster Mark Drakeford said: "We know there are significant challenges in the NHS. These are exactly the same challenges being faced by the NHS in England.

"Where we differ is the way we respond to and deal with these issues.

"As a result of our action, 92% of people in Wales are satisfied with the care they receive from the NHS."

Saturday, 17 August 2013

Welsh GP prescriptions

Welsh GP prescriptions up 50% but total cost is falling

Wales dispenses more prescriptions per head than the rest of the UK

The number of prescriptions dispensed by GPs in Wales has grown by more than 50% in 10 years.

More prescriptions are given per person in Wales, which scrapped charges in 2007, than any other country in the UK.

Last year 74.2 million prescriptions were written, up from 48.8 million in 2002.

However the total cost of prescribed medicines has fallen to its lowest level in nine years.

The new figures showing a 52.3% increase in prescriptions have reignited a political debate over Wales' free prescriptions policy.

“Start Quote

Prescribed medicines represent the largest non-staff element of the NHS budget so it is vital to get value for money from this investment”

Raj AggarwalNational Pharmacy Association

Wales became the first UK nation to scrap prescription charges. Scotland and Northern Ireland have since done the same.

Welsh Conservatives would reintroduce charges for some people, spending the money saved on other parts of the NHS.

But the Welsh government pointed out that it was up to doctors to decide if a patient needed a prescription, and making them free had not changed that.

Wales dispenses 24.3 prescription items per head of population, compared to 20.8 in Northern Ireland, 18.7 in England and 18.6 in Scotland.

A Welsh government spokeswoman said: "The number of prescription items dispensed increased by 20% in Wales between 2007 and 2012 and 26% in England over the same period.

"There is no link between the number of prescriptions per head and prescription charges - Wales has dispensed more prescriptions per head than England since as far back as 1973."

Conservative shadow health minister Darren Millar said the "freebie policy" had created a perception that medicines cost nothing.

"The truth is that there is no such thing as a free prescription," he said.

"Welsh Conservatives would end this culture by scrapping Labour's free-for-all and invest the savings into improved access to modern cancer treatments, extra cash for our hospice movement and improvements in stroke care."

Raj Aggarwal, a pharmacist from Cardiff and a board member of the National Pharmacy Association, said: "Prescribed medicines represent the largest non-staff element of the NHS budget so it is vital to get value for money from this investment.

"There is a huge amount of waste - up to half of all medicines for long-term conditions are not taken as intended by the prescriber."

Despite the increase in prescriptions the overall cost has actually fallen to its lowest level in almost a decade - £557.5m.

A Welsh government spokesperson said: "Costs have declined as patents on 25 drugs expired in 2012 and there was a subsequent availability of generic equivalents at a lower cost.

"Over the past 12 months the largest savings were made in medicines for the treatment of cardiovascular disease and for the treatment of central nervous system disorders, showing a total reduction in cost of £28m as a number of medicines came off patent."

Reasons include a fall in the cost of drugs to the NHS when their patents expire, allowing other manufacturers to produce cheaper generic versions.More on This Story

mengele

dumnonia

Thursday, 6 February 2014

rail line closure 'to cost economy million

Dawlish storm damage rail line closure 'to cost economy millions'

At the scene in Kingsand and Seaton

At the scene in Dawlish