Big Freeze causes chaos in region as grit supplies locked away
TREACHEROUS FREEZING weather continued to cause chaos across the region during this week of 2010.
Grit supplies were being removed from isolated rural locations in Yorkshire and stored in secure council compounds to prevent the theft of critically low stocks.
North Yorkshire County Council said grit was being locked up to ensure it is not taken from salt bins in the countryside and put on driveways and paths at private properties in towns and villages.
The decision meant farmers subcontracted by the authority to keep rural roads gritted were instead being supplied with sand.
A teenager was killed and his mother seriously injured in a tragic accident on the roads. Firefighters worked in snow and ice for nearly three hours but were unable to save the life of the 16- yearold boy, who was trapped beneath an articulated lorry on the A1M north of Barton on the North Yorkshire border.
The boy and his mother were hit by the lorry when they got out of their car after it crashed into the central reservation barrier in freezing conditions.
Hundreds of Yorkshire schools had breached Government rules by allowing more than £ 30m of taxpayers’ money to sit idle in their bank accounts, while at the same time around one in five of the region’s secondary schools had debts of £ 10m.
New figures showed almost £ 500m meant to run children’s education was left untouched in schools’ accounts countrywide. Secondary schools were not allowed to have a surplus higher than five per cent of their budget, while primary and special schools were restricted to eight per cent. But almost a quarter of the region’s schools – 543 in total – were hoarding £ 30m beyond the permitted limits.
The Government was now warning headteachers and council leaders they could face a crackdown to ensure this public money was used to fund education. The surplus was revealed as fears were raised over the number of schools building up deficits in Yorkshire. Just under one in five secondary schools had run up losses of £ 10m, while the overall deficit across all schools in Yorkshire was £ 14.1m in the previous year.
Food companies were urged to come clean about secret research into potentially harmful nanotechnology. The House of Lords Science and Technology Committee said companies should be compelled to tell regulators about their work on tiny particles that could improve the flavour and texture of food or increase its shelf life.
They also called for a public register of food products and packaging containing nanomaterials and more Government- funded research into possible health hazards.
The potential effect they might have on the human body was still largely a mystery – although some were already in use by the food industry.
By the end of the week a massive 7.0 magnitude earthquake and two huge aftershocks had struck the impoverished Caribbean nation of Haiti.
The extent of the devastation was still unclear, but there were fears that thousands of lives could have been lost.
Haiti’s worst quake in two centuries hit south of the capital Port- au- Prince, wrecking the presidential palace and hundreds of other buildings. Thousands of people spent the night outside amid fears of further aftershocks.
The Red Cross said up to three million people have been affected, and described the earthquake as a “catastrophe”. Haiti’s envoy to the US said the cost of the damage could run into billions.
Grit supplies were removed from rural locations to prevent the theft of critically low stocks.