Archive
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Weetabix pick of the crop
AS crop circles come, the one shaped like a plug caused more than a little stir. It had enthusiasts in a frenzy, talking about electro-magnetic fields and the symbolic significance of the crop formation. Of course they were talking nonsense. This, like
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Out of Africa into a heart of darkness
ASYLUM seeker Burhan Warsame probably felt a false sense of security on arriving in Swindon. After all, here is an amiable modern town apparently full of amiable people with tolerant views. Yet, having escaped Somalia with a few physical scars, within
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Class of 2002
TOWN'S fresh crop of young hopefuls have been urged to turn one of Andy King's major headaches to their advantage. Youth coach Viv Busby believes the club's scholars will never have a better chance to bang loudly on the first team door due to the relatively
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Old Boys strive to save air base
FORMER airmen who served at RAF Lyneham have come out fighting in a bid to save the busy Hercules base. They have carried out their own study into the role of the transport station and have concluded that keeping the base open is the only sensible option
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Paedophile leaflet distributed
POLICE are investigating the source of an anonymous mailshot warning people in Rodbourne that there is a paedophile living nearby. Various homes in and around a street in Rodbourne have received A4 sheets through their letterboxes. Each gives the name
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Residents flee flats in asbestos scare
RESIDENTS in a block of council flats say they have been driven out of their homes because a room in their building contains walls lined with asbestos. People living in St Ives Court in Nythe say that the room has not been adequately sealed off and are
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From bingo hall to flats
THE man behind Plaza 21 has set up his own company and one of his first projects is demolishing the former bingo hall in Gorse Hill to make way for affordable apartments. Ian Thomas, who left Beaufort Western to set up Langdale Estates in Jan-uary, was
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Happy families!
THOUSANDS of pounds of National Lottery funding will create up to 80 childcare places in Swindon. The New Opportunities Fund is granting £1,787,556 to 21 schemes working in the South West and Swindon Borough Council will receive £35,261 to create four
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So much for a safe haven
ASYLUM seeker Burhan Warsame fled war-ravaged Somalia looking for safety in Britain. But after arriving in Swindon he was the victim of a motiveless attack that has left him brain damaged and terrified to leave his home. Burhan, 18, was trying to intervene
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Don Rogers' Pewsey Vale on the way up thanks to stadium grant
Hellenic League club Pewsey Vale have received a massive financial boost in their battle to secure promotion to the Hellenic Premier League. The Football Stadia Improvement Fund has awarded the Wiltshire side a grant of £41,637, which will guarantee the
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£2,000 bonus for charity
SAMARITANS in Swindon are £2,000 better off thanks to the efforts of volunteer Helen Paige. Helen, the branch's deputy director, was named overall winner in the WH Smith Chief Executive's Community Awards for her work with the charity over the last decade
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Added extras for children
HAIRDRESSING, language and music lessons and a health visitor are among the added extras being offered for children at a Swindon nursery. Leapfrog Day Nursery on Highdown Way has brought in the new services. Manager Pauline Young said the idea is to make
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Social service plan needs extra focus
SWINDON Council was last night told to provide concrete plans on how to rescue its floundering social services department. An action plan was submitted by the council following last month's scathing report into the department. But it was bounced back
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It was not as creepy as it looks . . .
CREEPY crawlies were the guests of honour at the summer fete of a Cricklade school. Spiders, cockroaches and snakes were on display at St Sampson's Junior school fete. The fete raised more than £2,400 which will go towards completing the Bath Road school's
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Auction raises lots of cash
CHILDREN will benefit from a £1,200 donation from a Swindon electronics company. Tyco Electronics, formerly Raychem, presented the cheque to the Swindon Downs Syndrome Association after a successful charity auction. Chris Geddes, one of the co-ordinators
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The gardens of delight?
I WAS taken by my son and his wife to visit Old Town gardens in my wheelchair. The gardens were beautiful, a credit to the gardeners but oh those paths. Talk about an obstacle course. My back at the end was most painful. Surely the powers that be could
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Asylum seekers a force for good
I write in response to the letters about asylum seekers written by Frank Avenell and Harry Willis (EA, July 5). Last year asylum applications fell by 11 per cent from the year before, to 71,700. The vast majority of asylum seekers continue to come from
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Graduate training programme given accredited status
HONOURS have been heaped on award winning Swindon-based consulting engineers Halcrow Group, based in Chiseldon. The Institution of Mechanical Engineers and the Institution of Electrical Engineers have endorsed and acknowledged the company, a leading global
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Firms advised on tackling asbestos
A SWINDON training company, one of the first in the country to tackle the issues raised in the new Control of Asbestos at Work Regulations 2000, has met with huge response from local businesses seeking advice. Newsquest, publishers of the Evening Advertiser
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Surviving a nuclear nightmare
IMAGINE the scenario. Twenty missile tracks appear on the monitors of the early warning system at RAF Fylingdales, Yorkshire. Fourteen are aimed at Central London, four are aimed at Cheltenham at the Government's communication headquarters, while the
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It wasn't a waste of energy after all, says Weetabix
IT had crop circle enthusiasts talking about ancient energy lines and eerie goings-on. Overnight, there appeared by magic the strangest crop circle ever produced in the shape of an electric plug. But today the mystery over the formation in a field near
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Red faces after flats decision is quashed
A GOVERNMENT planning inspector's decision to allow a 39-flat development in Swindon's Old Town has been quashed because the official got the number of flats wrong. Grange Mill Developments Ltd originally wanted to build the 39 flats at The Paddocks,
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Are Patrick's feet made of gold?
PATRICK Broderick has single-handedly collected a small fortune on the strength of his feet. The 34-year-old sandwich packer from Upper Stratton raised a record-breaking £1,600 on the 10-mile Tony Long Wheelchair Marathon and sponsored walk. The annual
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School does a great job despite its low funding
FARMOR'S School in Fairford has received a positive report from Government Ofsted inspectors. Their report found that exam results were higher than average, behaviour was excellent, with pupils eager to learn, and management was good. Twelve inspectors
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All set to scale the Great Wall
THE steps of Swindon Town Football Club's stadium have become the training ground for walkers taking up the Great Wall Challenge later this year. Steve Cavilla, 48 of Westlea is an pharmacy assistant technical officer at the pharmacy stores at the Princess
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Some positive help for mums over 40
FREELANCE writer Jan Andersen was positively delighted when she found she was pregnant at the age of 39. But this delight soon turned to horror when the Freshbrook mum found nothing but negative information on the internet. Soon after the birth of daughter
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Village welcomes some famous faces
POSH and Becks paid a flying visit to Swindon in a bid to raise money for Wroughton Carnival but it was a strictly fancy dress affair. Caroline and Kevin MacDivett became the pop and football idols when they strode first past the finish line for the fancy
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Water firm sorry for cut in supply
THAMES Water today apologised for a cut in water supply that caused two schools to close early. Covingham Park Infants' and Junior Schools sent pupils home on health and safety grounds yesterday, because neither school had a water supply when school started
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Heather and Kelly get the Reel thing
SCHOOLGIRL Heather Weston won a dream date with an Irish boy band after entering a competition in a magazine. Heather first heard of Reel when she saw them supporting Westlife during their Coast to Coast tour. She chose her best friend Kelly Rowan to
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Old Boys strive to save air base
FORMER airmen who served at RAF Lyneham have come out fighting in a bid to save the busy Hercules base. They have carried out their own study into the role of the transport station and have concluded that keeping the base open is the only sensible option
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Damages awarded to victim's widow
A WOMAN who lost her husband to the so-called Swindon Disease has been awarded damages against British Rail. Shirley Hollister, 65, was heart-broken when her husband, David, died of mesothelioma on July 21 last year. The asbestos-related cancer is often
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Poor signposting is bad news for Steam museum
I AM writing to you about the Steam Museum, which I visited recently. It is an insult to the founders and to the devoted staff the most courteous and informed I have met that the route to the museum is so badly signposted from the M4. The visitor is tempted
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What's the big deal about identity cards?
I read with interest your Tuesday, July 2 article entitled 'MPs have little to say on identity card debate'. I am very much in sympathy with Julia Drown MP's reported confession of having no strong opinion on the matter either way. As a child born in
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Immigrants put more into the economy
It hardly surprises me that Messrs Avenell and Willis (EA, July 5) have such disdain for statistics (you were quoting Disraeli, by the way, Mr Willis), since it gives them licence to say just about anything they like without the slightest intellectual
