LANDLORD FURIOUS AT ROAD CLOSURE

A Hampshire landlord is angry that road works have closed the road leading to his pub.

Beaulieu Road in the New Forest is closed during the day until Friday, but is still open in evenings and at the weekend.

The pub's owner says that his takings are down by as much as 50% and that he may have to sack staff in order to stay open. Reginald Chester-Sterne, the pub's landlord, said: “I have to lay some staff off. If I do not take money I cannot pay staff. So this week there will be at least five staff affected.”

The pub depends on the summer season to survive, relying heavily on tourist trade to Exbury and Beaulieu Motor Museum. Chester-Sterne asked: “Why couldn't it be done earlier in the year?”

He claims that it is the third time that roadworks in the area have affected his business, and that Hampshire County Council should plan all their roadworks to happen at the same time.

However, Council leaders say they have done everything they can in order to stop disruption to local businesses.

Councillor Mel Kendal, Executive Member for Environment and Transport at Hampshire County Council, said: “The work being carried out on Beaulieu Road is part of “Operation Resilience”- a multi-million pound, long term investment to strengthen the country's rural roads and make them more resilient against the effects of extreme weather and, therefore, less susceptible to potholes.”

“Access to the pub is being maintained while work is in progress and we suspended work over the weekend, as we have been doing in the evening, to minimise the disruption for local residents and businesses. I appreciate that the works cause some inconvenience but would ask people to bear with us while this essential work is carried out.”

It is expected that work will finish this Friday, in time for the weekend trade.

WINCHESTER LEAPS UP UNIVERSITY LEAGUE TABLES

The University of Winchester has rocketed up the Guardian University league table, climbing over 25 places. The University now sits in 69th place, up from 96th last year.

The newspaper rates Universities on a variety of factors, including satisfaction with teaching and the chances of getting a job on graduation.

It appears Winchester's rise was mainly down to an increase in it's “value added score,” which rates a university's ability to turn students that have a low entry score into a student that leaves with a good degree.

The league tables not only show how good a university is overall, but also how good individual courses are. Some subject areas at the University scored particularly highly. Sport came in at 25th place and the teaching department came in at 11th.

A spokesperson for the University said: “The University of Winchester has risen 27 places in the latest Guardian University Guide 2012, published yesterday. The results showed that the University has gone from 96th place in 2011 to 69th in 2012, being one of only four universities in the benchmarking group to improve their ranking.

At subject level there has been improvement for Archaeology, Education and Sports Science. The result reflects the University’s continued focus on delivering an excellent student experience and improving programme delivery.”

Cambridge came top of the Guardian poll, displacing arch-rivals Oxford who spent the previous six years at number one.

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How to get noticed by the world's media: Pretend to be a psychic.....

A country house in rural Texas became the scene of a huge police investigation last night. The world's media was drawn to the scene. Soon, reputable news outlets were reporting a mass grave had been found. CNN and the BBC were alluding to dismembered bodies of children. Was this the unearthing of a new mass murderer?

Well, no.

The major news outlets were getting seriously ahead of themselves. There was no grave. There are no bodies. Instead, there was a tip-off from a psychic that there was a mass grave. Surely the world's respected media were not going to repeat the ramblings of a lunatic as fact? They wouldn't devote wall to wall coverage on their 24 hour news channels to it?

Well, yes. Yes, they did.

Going on no more than the report of a psychic, respected channels devoted their entire coverage to this story.  It turns out police found little more than some blood on a door and the stench of rotting meat.

Good journalism must be based on fact. Not on the ramblings of someone of questionable mental faculties.