Madeleine McCann search grows and Diana documentary row
DEVELOPERS WANTING to build homes, shops and offices in Yorkshire could soon be forced to contribute hundreds of thousands of pounds to prop up the region’s crumbling transport network, it was revealed during this week of 2007.
Leeds City Council’s proposals would make developers partly responsible for paying for a £4.5bn transport system to transform the area’s congestion-filled roads over the next 25 years.
Anyone wanting to build new developments already had to pay for footpaths and bus stops. But under the new proposals, which had just gone out for consultation, businesses would also be told to contribute cash for muchneeded transport improvements across vast swathes of Yorkshire.
A developer wishing to build a 114flat complex in the city centre would be forced to contribute £33,219, or £49,823 to build outside the centre. Anyone building a 144-room hotel would pay £161,974 in the centre of the city or £242,962 outside the centre, where residents were more likely to rely on public transport.
Those building office blocks would pay upwards of £233,000.
Road to Ruin campaign was highlighting the region’s poor deal on transport, and the fact that the Government had refused to pay for improvements – forcing councils to look for new ways of funding them.
KATE AND Gerry McCann came face-to-face with a huge image of their missing four-year-old daughter Madeleine, which was unveiled on a giant inflatable billboard set up on the beach in Praia da Luz, Portugal.
The 800 sq ft poster was put up by two Glaswegian advertising executives, who travelled to the Algarve to help to raise the case’s profile 25 days after the little girl’s disappearance from the family’s holiday apartment.
Mr and Mrs McCann held hands as they thanked Chris Lennox and Les Hartley for their efforts. The two men intended to travel along the Algarve coast with the poster, which also carried details of a £1.5m reward for information about Madeleine’s abduction. Madeleine is still missing.
SHOCKING NEW figures showed that vandalism was costing Yorkshire taxpayers hundreds of thousands of pounds a year, despite Government attempts to crack down on antisocial behaviour. The region’s local authorities had dealt with at least 1,500 reports of graffiti and damage to buildings such as libraries, leisure centres and swimming pools between April 2004 and March 2007.
Repair bills totalled £415, 617, and Leeds, Doncaster and North East Lincolnshire were worst hit, figures released under the Freedom of Information Act showed.
Ryedale Tory MP John Greenway said the figures were evidence that the Government’s flagship Anti-Social Behaviour Orders were not working.
He said: “Vandalism is a criminal offence and nothing is ever done about it. We as MPs often get complaints from neighbours about vandalism and unruly behaviour.” Leeds had more reported cases than any other authority, with repairs of almost £94,000.
CHANNEL 4 defied calls to pull a programme featuring graphic pictures of the car crash that killed Diana, Princess of Wales, insisting it was a responsible documentary. The Conservative Party called for the broadcaster to cancel Diana: The Witnesses In The Tunnel after newspaper reports said it included the first public airing of images taken by French photographers immediately after the collision in Paris in 1997.
Sheena Hastings.
A huge image of missing Madeleine McCann was unveiled on a giant inflatable billboard in Portugal.
A billboard campaign was started to find her