Cornish drunk death fall avoidable, says family

From the BBC 11/07/13:

The parents of a 26-year-old man found dead on a Newquay beach have called his death "tragic and avoidable".

Oliver Doy, from Hampshire, was found dead six days after he was last seen by friends leaving a nightclub, [having travelled down to Cornwall for a weekend of body boarding with two friends].

Police said they thought he may have fallen over a cliff behind his hostel in the town.

But Deputy Coroner Andrew Cox said there was no evidence to show how he died and recorded an open verdict.

Police said CCTV footage showed Mr Doy "staggering around drunk" early in the morning on 7 January 2012.

A pathologist said the amount of alcohol in his blood was approaching three times the drink driving limit.

According to a report featured on This is Cornwall, Doy’s parents slammed Newqay’s drinking culture saying he might still be alive if bar staff at two night spots had refused to serve him.

An emotional Mrs Doy told the court: “There’s a culture of young people going to Newquay with the sole purpose of drinking excessively and I think that was a contributing factor to my son’s death.

“People in night clubs need to do their jobs. They have a duty of care, although you wouldn’t think so serving alcohol to people who have already had enough. They are putting profit before any moral duty. [If they hadn’t] perhaps none of us would be sat here now and we’d still have our Ollie with us.”

High alcohol content, high cliffs and high spirits don’t make a very safe combination.

From the suspected facts, this had a great deal in common with an incident I blogged about in 2009 involving a student who had visited Newquay to celebrate the end of his exams and fell to his death after a session of heavy drinking.

But this case is slightly more puzzling in that the coroner was unable to determine the precise cause of death. Doy had certainly not drowned but neither was there was clear indication of injuries consistent with a high cliff fall. CCTV lost track of Doy in the moments leading up to his death.

In any event, alcohol certainly seemed to play a significant part in the death.

As regards a bar serving alcohol to a person who is clearly drunk, you can forget the ‘moral duty’ aspect of it; it is an offence under section 141 of the Licensing Act 2003 to serve alcohol to someone in that state. The real problem is enforcement, of course, and how to provide a balanced, workable framework so that bars can safely serve alcohol whilst remaining in business. And, search as we might, I don’t think there are any easy answers to be found here. After all, the line between someone who has had a few drinks and someone who is dangerously drunk can be a very difficult one to consistently draw. And let’s not get hung-up on this being a problem unique to Newquay; is there any truly safe place to get seriously drunk?

Get your summer rolling with a caravan loan

Sponsored PostWith summer now in full swing and summer holidays fast approaching, there’s no better time to consider buying a caravan or motorhome.

Caravans allow for unparalleled freedom when touring around the country (or abroad), unencumbered by a strict itinerary. You can go where you like, stop where you like*, all on a schedule that suits you – not your holiday operator.

Owning a caravan makes packing for your trip away relatively easy, without that constant fear associated with ‘suitcase travel’ of leaving something crucial behind. You can load up your van with relative speed and ease and away you go.

What’s more, with your own caravan, you needn’t worry about the cleanliness and facilities of third party static vans on camping sites. It’s very much like taking your second home with you and there’s a lot to be said for having some personal space that’s truly yours on holiday.

Caravan owners are free to make more of their leisure time. A caravan can be hooked up to a car in no time and you can be headed away for a weekend’s break with very little preparation or planning. And who doesn’t a love an impromptu mini-break in the sun?

For motorsport fans, a caravan would be perfect for making the most of a summer of motorsport action with the Goodwood Festival of Speed, coupled with the British Grand Prix held each July.

With in-season testing set to return to F1 from next season onwards, British petrolheads have an even greater treat in store.

One of the two day testing events is to be tacked on to the 2014 British Grand Prix. This allows fans the chance to get up close and appreciate F1 cars in all their glory at the home of British motorsport and at just a fraction of the cost of attending the Grand Prix weekend.

Of course, die-hard fans might want to attend both events next year and what could be better than rolling up in your new caravan before settling in for nearly a week’s worth of high octane action.

If water sports are your thing, what could be better than decamping down to the shore? With so many campsites being located next to beaches, having your caravan on the seafront is the next best thing to owning your own mobile beach hut. Cornwall has some fantastic surfing beaches on the north coast or, if calmer waters are more to your liking, the south coast provides perfect conditions for swimming, snorkelling and a whole host of other activities.

However, caravans can be expensive and rather than holding off, you may want to consider a caravan loan so you can start enjoying caravanning life sooner rather than later.

Try using a personal loans calculator to get a quotation for a loan  today.

Loans are available from £3,000 to £25,000, for a term of 2 to 5 years at a rate of 5.4% APR Representative on loans between £7,500 and £10,000. You can apply via an easy online process and obtain an instant decision.

Go on – you know you want to!

^{*(Subject always to the need to act in accordance with all applicable laws and regulations – plus a healthy dollop of common sense!!).} 

Lloyds-Deloitte Scandal Muddies the PPI Waters

Sponsored PostFor followers of consumer finance news it would seem that the mis sold payment protection insurance (PPI) scandal goes from bad to worse! The latest incident involves the Lloyds Group and financial services provider Deloitte, and has become something of a row between the two. The saga involves a call centre staffed by personnel brought in by Deloitte to handle mis sold PPI claims for Lloyds’ customers, an undercover journalist from The Times, and some rather unusual alleged instructions to staff at the centre. It should be said that Deloitte is adamant it has not been involved in wrongdoing.

The Times’ Revelations
The Times sent a journalist into the centre, posing as a trainee, and the report that followed alleged that not only were staff encouraged to ‘play the system’ in order to slow down or deter claims, but there were also incidences of signatures being put to agreements without consent and other misdemeanours, which The Times alleges led to the contract between the two parties being terminated. Deloitte is at pains to point out that the contract was actually ended because Lloyds opted to use two providers instead of three, and it chose to close the Deloitte contract irrespective of the reports.

The Latest in a Long Line
This latest saga is just one of many that have dogged the PPI claims routine over the past couple of years; even after the High Court ruled that the lenders must pay back fees on mis sold policies there were numerous instances in which banks were fined for being too slow. The revelations that a Lloyds call centre – albeit one staffed by third party employees – has been so recently involved in similar practices will not be welcomed by the consumers.

Where the Confused Should Turn
The resultant mistrust of the banks and other lenders and apparent intent to make things difficult for consumers has left many claimants unsure of what to do next. In fact, there are good reasons for using a PPI Claims company, especially if they are looking for a stress-free and easy way of making a claim. There are plenty offering no obligation advice and help, with online applications that can take mere moments, and the benefit of expertise is many-fold. Experience, after all, cannot be bought, and with an average payout of £3000 so far there are good reasons for investigating further the possibilities of making a PPI claim.

Motorsport can be dangerous: time to reconsider pit lane cameramen in F1?

From BBC F1 08/07/13:

Formula 1 must consider introducing measures to protect people working in the pit lane from potential injury, Red Bull team boss Christian Horner says.

A television cameraman was injured by a loose wheel from Mark Webber's Red Bull during the German Grand Prix.

"It's a timely reminder that things can go wrong," Horner said.

"Mechanics have to wear safety gear and helmets. Maybe it's time we looked at some of the other people working in the pit lane having some as well."

The man injured was Paul Allen, who works for F1's official television production company, FOM. He was taken to hospital with a broken collarbone and cracked ribs.

Horner said: "It's a horrible feeling because your initial concern is for that individual.

Watching cameraman Paul Allen being nearly flipped into a somersault in the pit lane by Mark Webber’s fly-away wheel makes for horrific viewing. For me, the fact he was looking the other way filming when the wheel hit him simply makes the incident all the more horrific. Still, as nasty as his injuries were, he escaped very lightly when you consider how it could have ended.

Two F1 stewards were killed in 2000 and 2001 respectively by loose wheels escaping through gaps in the trackside fencing when F1 cars crashed (although, granted, the cars in those incidents were at racing speed rather than the mandatory pit land speed limit of 100kmph). Wheel tethers of increased strength and smaller access gaps in trackside fencing were brought in as a response.

Until last month’s freak accident in which a steward was killed after falling under a tractor hoist at the Canadian Grand Prix, there hadn’t been any further steward fatalities.

Reflecting on Allen’s injury at yesterday’s Grand Prix, it occurred to me that the sub three second pit stops we’re now routinely seeing has made life in the pit lane more dangerous than ever.

Prior to 2010, when in-race refuelling was allowed, pit stops were routinely around 8 – 10 seconds – with the refuelling aspect taking far longer than was needed to remove and replace the car’s 4 tyres. This meant the pit crews could complete the tyre change at their relative leisure.

But now that in-race refuelling has been banned, the faster pit stops have resulted in far more cars being released without their wheels correctly secured as pit crews continue push the envelope to service their cars as quickly as possible.

Horner is undoubtedly right: everyone in the pit lane needs protective clothing at the very least. Pit crews are kitted out with body armour, fire proof suits, helmets and visors. The FOM cameramen, by contrast, are wandering around in exactly the same environment clad only in Dr Martin’s, smart trousers and a short sleeved shirt. That’s horrific no matter how you slice it.

But Allen’s accident raises a broader question in my opinion: should cameramen even be in the pit lane wandering around, with 22 F1 cars shooting in and out and drivers and pit crews pumped full of adrenaline?

That sounds to me very much like a recipe for disaster.

Quite frankly, I’m surprised FOM are willing to risk the potential liability by placing cameramen in the line of fire (so to speak) and without any kind of equipment to protect them.

Toilet Trouble - Not such a public convenience

From the Falmouth Packet 27/06/13:

Caught short visitors to Helston are using the outside wall of shut public toilets to relieve themselves on.

Well, I hate to say it, but I can’t think of a more appropriate wall to pee on.

This was news from Councillor Gillian Geer, a shop owner in the town who told her fellow members that people often complained to her about the situation.

“As a council and as a town we can’t have that. It turns out they are really well used – or at least should be really well used. At the moment people are using the area outside for whatever they should be doing inside,” she said.

“If we want a town people are proud of we really do not need people peeing behind a wall. Shopkeepers are witnessing it in that area.”

Goodness no! Have you seen some of the stains left by revellers in any town or city throughout the UK after a typical Friday or Saturday night out? And the last thing a full-bladdered local or visitor wants is a charge of outraging public decency should they be forced into a not-so-private ‘splash and dash’.

Section 87 of the Public Health Act 1936 gives local authorities the power to provide public toilets, but, crucially, imposes no obligation to do so. As a result, the provision of public loos tends to be something of a postcode lottery (or a local authority one at any rate).

Still, the fact remains that operating a public toilet is far from cheap with the initial construction charges representing just a fraction of the overall cost. Local authorities, invariably plagued by short termism when it comes to managing their budgets, are frequently tempted by ensuring the construction of new public toilets by way of section 106 agreements (under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990). That might ensure toilets are built at a cost to developer in exchange for wider planning rights, but allows such developers to adopt a ‘hit and run’ approach by building the toilet and then leaving the authority or new land owner with the cost of maintaining it in the future. Such toilets are often shut as soon as the developer’s work is finished.

The broader question is what to do about providing sufficient public toilets at a manageable cost. Time for a pubic (ahem) public debate, surely?

Until a solution is found, a lot of Helston folk are going to have to continue with their pained expressions and crossed legs, I fear.

Digg Reader: spoke too soon

After posting my review (of sorts) last week, my experience with Digg Reader took a turn for the worse.

At some point before the weekend, it stopped showing the number of unread items next to each subscription and then failed to show new content reliably enough to be usable.

Put simply, it stopped doing what I needed it to do.

I understand it’s a work in progress and there are developments coming, but an RSS reader needs to get the basics right from day one.

And for now, Digg Reader fails miserably on that front.

For the time being, I’ve switched to ‘The Old Reader’ which is much uglier than Digg Reader and its performance isn’t quite so snappy. Still, it offers all the functionality I need and that’s the main thing.

I’ll keep an eye on Digg Reader’s progress in the coming weeks, but they need to get the basics fixed quickly for this thing to stand any chance of surviving now it’s out in the wild.

BT engineers arrested in parking ticket swindle

From ISP Preview 01/07/13:

Police in West London have arrested eight of BTOpenreach’s telecoms engineers and another thirty have been suspended after bosses at BT were allegedly tipped off about a fake car clamping business that had netted the fraudsters around £200,000.

[BT] vans belonging to BTOpenreach have to pay around £1 million worth of fines in London every year. This is because engineers often have little choice but to park in restricted areas while carrying out vital broadband and phone repairs.

Ah – sneaky.

Still, it’s interesting that BT regard their vans being routinely ticketed for parking offences as a necessary cost of doing business. How about trying to educate their engineers to park more sensibly (I realise this isn’t always possible), but I’ve seen some Openreach vans practically abandoned they’ve been parked so badly. Time for extra training I think.

[T]he fraudsters found a way of manipulating this by creating fake claims that parking wardens had ticketed their vans when in fact they had not. On top of that the engineers were also found to be wrongly claiming overtime pay.

The City of London Police confirmed the arrests and noted that eight of the workers were now out on bail.

Which reminds me: I very nearly got run over the other day as a result of two badly-parked Openreach vans which obscured my view when crossing the road. Ironically, they were parked up outside a firm of solicitors. Still, I’m sure BT wouldn’t have needed to instruct them; they’ve plenty of their own in-house lawyers!

BT get a bad press on the whole (an awful lot of it, deservedly, I think) but I’m sure the vast majority of Openreach engineers are honest, law-abiding citizens. Certainly the chap who came out to install a new line at Law Actually HQ a couple of years ago was very helpful. It’s just a pity they aren’t all like that.