The schools admission process is a long haul for parents, with applications made in the autumn and places only now being offered for this coming September, 2008. At the same time Surrey County Council has been going through the equally long process of deciding how school places will be allocated for September 2009.
MPs are criticising the "lax standards" of government departments in protecting personal information. A report, from the Joint Committee on Human Rights, comes as details, released through the Freedom of Information Act, have revealed how many of those departments lack basic systems to comply with the Data Protection Act. A survey of 14 departments by the British Computer Society, published today, revealed that none of them had statistics of how many errors were on their database, nor had a budget to correct them.
Health inequality as measured by life expectancy and infant mortality has got worse since Labour came to power, a government report said today. Babies born to poor families now have a 17% higher than average chance of dying, compared to a 13% higher than average chance 10 years ago. And the life expectancy of people living in poverty has fallen further behind the average, particularly for women since around Labour's election.
At a special County Council meeting on Thursday 13th March Lib Dem Councillors questioned the commitment of both Kent County Council; and the government to tackling road flooding in in Kent. Areas of Shepway have been particularly hit with flash flooding in recent years.
A blind man hoping to complete seven marathons in seven days has had to alter his route just weeks before his first challenge. Dave Heeley, 50, will run his first marathon in the Falklands Islands but is not allowed to use Argentinian air space to reach Chile for his second. Organisers said the second challenge would now take place in Brazil.
A debate on the banning of looped cord blinds took place in the House of Commons this week. Ochil and South Perthshire MP Gordon Banks wants the UK brought into line with America, which outlawed the cords 10 years ago.