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Covering the news in and around Merseyside

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Issue Date:- 3 November 2008

You can't argue with physic!

THE IAM welcomes the new hard hitting government advert aimed at raising awareness of exactly why we have seatbelts in all our cars. The scientific approach to the aftermath of a crash means no one can avoid asking themselves why they don't take that few seconds required to protect themselves.

Neil Greig, Director of Policy and Research at the IAM (Institute of Advanced Motorists) said:- "When you wear a seatbelt you 'switch on' three decades of engineering research and allow your car to give you the full protection it was designed to deliver. It is probably the single most important safety feature in a modern car. Statistics show that young people are much more likely to be involved in crashes where no seatbelt was being worn. This leads to a terrible toll of unnecessary death, injury and lifelong dependence."

Did you know?

* Seat belt wearing rates are lower among young drivers than older drivers, lower among young male than female drivers, and lower at night than during the day

* 23 per cent of male drivers under 20 killed or seriously injured in a day-time crash were not wearing a seat-belt, compared with 26 per cent killed at night

* 16 per cent of female drivers aged 17 to 25 killed in crashes in day-time were not wearing a seat-belt, as were 11 per cent of those killed at night.

Hamilton abuse adds impetus to UNISON call to clamp down on racism at work

THE sick racist attack on British Grand Prix ace Lewis Hamilton has added fresh impetus to a top trade union’s call to step up the fight against discrimination.

UNISON’s North West region, based in Manchester, has been test-driving an ambitious new scheme to clamp down on racism in
the workplace. The programme is about to be rolled out nationwide.

Regional Secretary Frank Hont is a leading advocate of UNISON campaigns to combat racism and has been an active member of a number of community cohesion initiatives since the North West disturbances in 2001.

He said the abuse levelled at Hamilton on a Spanish website ahead of Sunday’s Brazillian Grand Prix title decider is a high profile example of why campaigns against racism are vital.

He said:- “The North West region has been fine-tuning a pilot training programme called Challenging Racism in the Workplace that is being introduced across the union’s 12 regions from October 2008.

We involved 15 branches with experience of race issues in the workplace in two phases of the pilot and engaged black members in developing solutions to the problems.

Our aim is to ensure employers actively fight racism and promote equality, rather than merely react to discrimination. Many managers have produced race equality schemes but few monitor their policies or conduct impact assessments.

We want to make sure race equality policies are more than merely paper exercises and intend to hold employers to account if they don’t comply with the law.”

Regions will work with local project teams to oversee how the scheme progresses in local workplaces for at least a year.

RICS COMMERCIAL PROPERTY SURVEY Q3 2008

THE balance of surveyors reporting demand for commercial property in Q3 has fallen at the fastest pace in a decade, says Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors' Commercial Property Survey published on 3 November 2008. However the survey shows that the mood in the North West is starting to improve.

Nationally, 52 percent more Chartered Surveyors reported a fall than a rise in demand compared to 50 percent in Q2 2008. All sectors remain firmly in negative territory for the fourth consecutive quarter with the industrial and office sectors dropping to the lowest balance in the survey’s history.

The worst hit area continues to be the retail sector with 59 percent more Chartered Surveyors reporting a fall than a rise in retail demand, a slight improvement from 63 percent in Q2. However Chartered Surveyors in the North West reported that demand and confidence in the retail sector had all improved since Q2, whilst occupier enquiries have remained the same.

Although the continuing credit turmoil and a slowing housing market are clearly weighing upon both retailer and consumer confidence, retail confidence has improved in the North West as 16% fewer Chartered Surveyors reported a fall. In addition, occupier enquiries in the North West have increased by 10% reflecting a small improvement in the industry’s confidence.

Spokesperson for the North West, Nick Davies of Lambert Smith Hampton, said:- “Whilst the North West is feeling the pain like the rest of the UK, there has been marginal improvement in the retail sector. The market is still suffering however, from a general lack of confidence which means we do not expect to see a full recovery before 2010 and this will hit the North West's industrial and distribution sector particularly hard. The impact of the Government's empty rates tax is still being felt, which has led to some landlords being forced to offer speculative inducements.”

The value of inducements in both the retail and the office property sectors rose at the fastest pace in the survey’s history (a leadm indicator of falling rents) as landlords tried to counter falling demand with incentives. The North West saw a 10% increase in inducements in the retail sectors, whilst the office property sector saw a 3% increase.

Commenting on the national picture, Oliver Gilmartin, RICS senior economist said:- “The ongoing drag from the credit crunch is permeating through rental sentiment across all regions and sectors, especially in the Central London Office market where recent worry over the health of the hedge fund industry is only adding to the sense of pessimism. The intensification in credit strains following the collapse of Lehman brothers will undoubtedly further dampen investment and occupier demand heading into the fourth quarter.”

 LOAN SHARK LENDING IS A CRIME

DON’T BE A VICTIM WE CAN HELP YOU (IN STRICTEST CONFIDENCE)

Have you or anyone you know:-

· Been offered a cash loan without paperwork?
· Been threatened when you couldn’t pay?
· Had your benefit or bank card taken away from you?
· Had a loan which keeps growing even though you are making payments?

If you can answer yes to the above you may have been bitten by a Loan Shark.
For confidential help and advice contact the Illegal Money Lending Team...
Phone:- 0300 555 2222 - (local call rate, including inclusive minutes from mobiles)
Email:- stoploansharks@liverpool.gov.uk
Text:- loan (space) shark (space) + your message to 60003

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