No helmet for 1 in 5 bike kids
‘Catastrophe’ warning to MPs as 2,500 mail branches face the chop
NEARLY a fifth of children aged four to 13 don’t wear bike helmets, a poll found.
Of the parents surveyed, 18% said their child “never” wore head protection, and over half went without on skateboards or scooters.
This was despite hospitals getting nearly 50 A&E visits an hour due to wheel sports-related injuries.
The report’s co-author, Dr Gary Freed of CS Mott Children’s Hospital, Michigan, said: “It’s concerning. helmets are vital to preventing head injuries.” Percentage of UK’s 11,500 sub-postmasters thinking of quitting A HOST of branches have closed in recent years as sub-postmasters retired or simply quit.
Shopkeeper Angelo Baluyot said in 2015 he was forced to shut his outlet in Llanrhos, near Llandudno, North Wales.
He said: “I am resigning, although I don’t want to and I don’t want to cause inconvenience. But I am subsidising my post office business from my shop.” In Branches are at increasing risk REPORT ON FUTURE OF SUB-POSTMASTERS
2017, Little Madeley, near Stoke, lost a branch when the postmaster retired.
And last July, one in Straford-uponAvon shut when the shop it was in changed hands. Councillor Victoria Alcock said: “Many people still rely on the local post office for their pensions.” COMMUNITIES face the “catastrophic” loss of 2,500 post offices unless ministers intervene, MPs are warned today.
Around 1,000 branches are already listed as shut, with two out of every three closures triggered by sub-postmasters quitting.
The Commons Business Select Committee will be told their morale has been “eroded” as online shopping hits business. Some 22% of the 11,500 that are left plan on closing or downsizing in the next 12 months.
The alert from the National Federation of Sub-Postmasters comes amid the Mirror’s High Street Fightback crusade.
Revenue received by the network of post offices from providing Government services plunged from £576million in 2004-5 to just £99million in 2017-18.
The NFSP is to tell an inquiry: “A tipping point has been passed. It is increasingly difficult to make a decent living.”
The organisation wants a Government subsidy to be extended past 2021 and for sub-postmasters to get better pay. The Business Department said the “vital” network had received £2billion of investment since 2010. ■ BOXES for posting pre-paid parcels are to be introduced nationwide by Royal Mail after trials were hailed a success.
We have now passed the tipping point in us trying to make living