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MERSEYSIDE
SCHOOLBOY WINS NATIONAL CHARITY AWARD
MERSEYSIDE schoolboy
Leonardo Bertamini has scooped the top award at the FILMCLUB Talent
Festival Awards, which celebrated the work junior reporters have
done for education charity FILMCLUB over the last school year.
The 10 year old, who attends Prescott County Primary school, has won
the FILMCLUB Young Ambassador Of The Year Award in the Primary
category at the ceremony held at The Tricycle Cinema in London on
Saturday. The FILMCLUB Talent Festival was a day to celebrate the
fantastic work that the charity’s young reporters and reviewers have
been doing over the last school year.
Leonardo has been a Young Ambassador for the nationwide education
charity since September 2011, and has completed a number of
assignments for the organisation. His assignments included
interviewing Hugh Grant, David Tennant and Peter Lord about their
film Pirates! An Adventure with Scientists and reporting from the
animation’s premiere.
Leonardo said:- "FILMCLUB is a fantastic organisation that
gives you some flabbergasting experiences. If you like film, there
is no better place to go than FILMCLUB. Look FILMCLUB up in the
thesaurus, and you'll find fun, awesome and superb."
Leonardo’s interviews and reports have featured on the charity’s
website
for the scheme’s 220,000 membership to view.
FILMCLUB is a nationwide education charity founded by filmmaker
Beeban Kidron (Bridget Jones: The Edge Of Reason) and educationalist
Lindsay Mackie, which helps school set up and run film clubs. The
charity offers children free weekly access to a variety of great
films from past and present, as well as access to film industry
news, screenings and talent. Delivering educational and cultural
engagement with substantial learning and behavioural benefits, the
club opens the door onto a dazzling world of cultures, life stories,
aspirations, times and places. Since FILMCLUB launched 7,000 schools
have joined the nationwide scheme, with 220,000 young people already
benefiting from the exposure to inspiring and potentially life
changing films every week. The FILMCLUB Young Ambassadors scheme
engages young people aged 8-18, and forms part of FILMCLUB’s Close
Encounters programme, which offers members around the country the
chance to interact with film industry professionals through
in-school visits, set visits and film events, and also act as media
spokespeople (young voices) for FILMCLUB on a regular basis.
FILMCLUB is free start-up sessions across the country to introduce
teachers to the exciting school club. For further details on
FILMCLUB and how to join, visit:-
filmclub.org/register
or call:- 0207 288 4520. |
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New campaign
aims to thwart damaging tax
THE CLA is launching a
major new initiative aimed at tackling a damaging property tax,
which threatens the future of thousands of rural businesses in the
North. Working in conjunction with the British Property
Federation, the CLA is gathering an extensive portfolio of evidence
to present to Government, highlighting how non-domestic rates levied
on empty business properties have caused financial havoc for small
business owners over the past four years.
The CLA first warned of the empty property tax “time bomb”
at
the beginning of last year, predicting that hundreds of farmers and
landowners, who had diversified into commercial lets, would be hit
by changes to empty property rates.
In April last year, the Government removed exemptions that meant
empty properties with a rateable value below £18,000 did not have to
pay rates. Since then, members with empty commercial property valued
at more than £2,600 have been liable to pay the full business rate
bill.
Now the CLA is gathering evidence from members of the rural business
community in the North to illustrate to Government the extent of the
damage caused by the tax to businesses and the communities in which
they operate.
CLA North Regional Director Dorothy Fairburn said:- “The issue
of having to pay non domestic rates on empty commercial property
remains an issue of very real concern for many CLA members. In the
current economic climate, many have lost tenants from their office
and workshop conversions and are now looking at massive empty
property tax bills.
The problem is aggravated by the fact that many of these properties
are in rural areas with poor or non-existent broadband provision,
which makes it almost impossible to attract new tenants.”
Miss Fairburn added:- “At the very least the Government needs
to put some type of concession in place for small business owners,
who face the very real prospect of financial ruin because of this
tax.
If left unchecked, it will encourage demolition and other actions to
make buildings unusable, which will not only threaten economic
recovery in rural areas but also leave a terrible legacy for
generations to come.”
Anyone affected by non-domestic rates should
email their details by
Friday, 27 July 2012. All information will be handled in the strictest of
confidence.
For further information please contact:-
Daniel Curtois, PR & Communications Manager on:- 01748 907070 or
Dorothy Fairburn, Regional Director on:- 01748 907070. |
