Class sizes on the rise...

£1.9bn car vandalism bill

VANDALS cause £1.9billion of damage to nearly 3 million cars each year, a study has found.

The cost rose 9.5% last year – but the real impact could be much higher because a third of cases are never reported to police.

Drivers spend an average £661 to repair dents, graffiti, smashed windows and keyed bodywork, according to the research by Churchill Car Insurance.

Almost a fifth of UK drivers have had their car vandalised, but 60% of police probes into the incidents are closed without identifying a suspect, the study found.

Steve Barrett of Churchill said: “We strongly advise victims report vandalism to the police.” OUR increasingly tall kids have boosted demand for longer school trousers and skirts surge by 40%.

Some 13% of male pupils are wearing longer trousers compared with 11% four years ago.

Uniform supplier Trutex also found sales of shorter lengths fell from 31% to 23% and extra-short trousers plummeted 300%. And more than half of girls wear larger skirts compared with 31% in 2013.

A girl of 11 is now an inch taller and two-and-a-half inches bigger across the chest than 20 years ago, while boys are two inches taller and four inches broader.

Trutex’s Matthew Easter said: “What was the norm a decade ago is now considered small.”