'Communty Newswire' service closes

THE COMMUNITY MEDIA TRUST has announced the closure of its Community Newswire service from today.

The Media Trust ran the Community Newswire in partnership with the Press Association and was a project designed to get news from charities and good causes into the main stream media.

The Media Trust Chief Officer Caroline Diehl had this to say:

The Government spending review has resulted in a number of service cuts and unfortunately this includes our hugely popular Community Newswire service. The service will close on 31 March. We are actively seeking replacement funds and it is absolutely our intention to reintroduce Community Newswire as soon as we are able.

Organisations that have benefited from the Community Newswire, are asked to write to Nick Hurd MP, Minister for Civil Society at the Office for Civil Society, to ask him to reconsider cutting the funds for this service.

Has your organisation in Holderness ever benefited from the Community Newswire? E-mail us at hu12@gmx.com and let us know your thoughts on this and other community and voluntary sector funding cuts.

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Elections 2011 begin - key information from the East Riding Council

THE LOCAL ELECTIONS will be held on Thursday, 5 May. All 26 East Riding of Yorkshire Council wards will be contested, returning a total of 67 councillors, together with more than 1500 seats on town and parish councils in the area.

The notice of election has been published and the council will publish a statement of persons nominated no later than noon next week on Wednesday, 6 April. The closing date for nominations is noon on Monday, 4 April, with the final deadline for withdrawals noon on Thursday, 7 April.

The other key date is on Thursday, 14 April, which is the last day for requesting a new postal or proxy vote, which must be done by 5pm. Thursday 14 April is also the deadline for people to apply to be included on the register of electors. All registered electors will receive poll cards including those in receipt of a postal vote.

The national referendum on the AV (Alternative Vote) voting system also takes place on Thursday, 5 May. All polling booths will be open from 7am to 10 pm.

The votes for both elections will be ‘verified’ (ie establishing the number of votes cast checked against ballot papers issued) on the Thursday night but the count and declaration of results will not take place until Friday, 6 May. East Riding of Yorkshire Council election votes will be counted from 9am on the Friday at the four count centres (Beverley, Driffield, Goole and Haltemprice leisure centres). The town and parish council votes will also be counted at these venues.

The referendum results on AV will then be notified to Wakefield town hall for the regional declaration on Friday night.

Issued by the East Riding of Yorkshire Council.

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News from LINk - Your voice on health and social care

THE MARCH 2011 edition of the ERYLINk Newsletter has been published. The East Riding of Yorkshire Local Involvement Network is the public and patients' voice on health and social care in the area. Reproduced on Scribd:
ERYLINk March 2011 Newsletter

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Protest March in support of workers at Saltend construction site

AROUND 800 PEOPLE marched through Hull City Centre yesterday in support of workers who have been "locked out" from their jobs at the Vivergo Fuels construction site at Saltend.

Trade Union representatives from different construction sites around the country joined local supporters from the private and public sectors in Hull in a serious but buoyant protest march. Representative of the workers Keith Gibson said BP was the leading company behind the Vivergo consortium which also included DuPont and British Sugar and should be the target of action to encourage it to act on behalf of the workforce.

Vivergo Fuels have previously issued a statement saying they had cancelled the contract with Redhall Solutions Ltd who were employing the workers because the works should have been completed by February 2011.

Keith Gibson said at the workers rally yesterday "There has been a great turnout and we are here to step up the action and hit management where we can. The job's going nowhere. There is four to six months work outstanding and we want to go back and finish that job."

As well as supporting the construction workers the protest march took on a wider "anti-cuts" theme and was joined by workers from Hull City Council. One speaker from the National Shop Stewards movement called for a one-day general strike in a campaign to force the Government to back down on its austerity programme.

The dispute continues.

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Traffic disruption into Hull expected again as Saltend dispute continues

TRAFFIC PROBLEMS may be experienced again this morning on roads into Hull as the dispute at Vivergo Fuels escalates today.

The biggest protest to date is expected today (Monday 28th March 2011) from 6am as trade unions continue their action against the termination of their contracts. Last week a similar protest caused massive tailbacks in traffic affecting Hedon and Preston.

A protest march in support of the workers will be held later this morning in Hull which is likely to see workers from other industries and areas of the country showing their support.

Motorists can expect to face traffic problems on the roads around the BP Plant at Saltend, up until 10:30am this morning.

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