Latest news with #JohnFox
Glasgow Times
22-07-2025
- Glasgow Times
Peter Krykant remembered as a 'lifesaver' at funeral
Peter, who became a public figure after he set up an unofficial drugs consumption room in Glasgow in 2020, died suddenly last month at the age of 48. At his funeral at Falkirk Crematorium yesterday (July 21) the Daily Record reports celebrant John Fox said: "The tragedy is that Peter cared so much about the cause of safe consumption and harm reduction to improve the lives and experiences of people who use drugs. "Yet he was not able to address his own mental and physical health and to find his way out of addiction and back to the safe stability of his loving family and friends.' READ NEXT: Family of Kory McCrimmon to meet First Minister in bid to tackle youth knife crime (Image: Mark F Gibson) He was also praised by MSP Paul Sweeney who said: "Peter's death is a great tragedy to all those who knew and loved him. He undoubtedly saved lives and his legacy is evident." Peter set up the consumption room, which operated in 2020 and 2021, in a converted van in Glasgow city centre. He used crowdfunding and his own money in an effort to highlight the need for a safe space for drug users to inject. The van was modelled on a similar operation Peter, who also battled addiction, visited in Copenhagen and had sterile injecting kits, swabs and Naloxone, as well as a defibrillator. The Glasgow Times previously reported Peter was found dead after police were called to Graham Avenue in Larbert on Monday, June 9 following a report of concern for a person.
The Independent
24-06-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Victims' concern over ‘need to promote narrative of peace' before Omagh bomb
There is concern among Omagh bomb victims that a need to 'promote the narrative of peace' in Northern Ireland in 1998 may have resulted in a 'light touch' being adopted towards terrorists. The Omagh Bombing Inquiry also heard concerns that the policing of terrorism in Northern Ireland at the time was not as effective as that in England. The Real IRA bomb in the Co Tyrone town in August 1998 killed 29 people, including a woman who was pregnant with twins, in the worst single atrocity in the Troubles in Northern Ireland. The bomb exploded months after the Good Friday Agreement was signed, largely bringing an end to decades of political violence in the region. The inquiry heard a statement from Hugh Southey on behalf of victims represented by solicitor John Fox. They included the families of Aiden Gallagher, Ann McCombe, Fred and Bryan White, Avril and Maura Monaghan, Oran Doherty, Shaun McLaughlin, Jolene Marlow, James Barker, Brian McCrory, Rocio Abad Ramos, Sean McGrath, Geraldine Breslin, Mary Grimes and Esther Gibson, who were all killed in the massacre, as well as several other people who were injured. Mr Southey told the inquiry it was 'possible that politics had an influence on security activities' in 1998. He said: 'In simple terms there is a concern that the need to promote a narrative of peace may have resulted in a light touch being adopted to terrorist activity.' The barrister continued: 'A key issue is whether there was a decision to relax security that was inappropriate and contributed to the bomb. 'There is a linked issue as to whether any flawed decision was political.' Mr Southey said there was a clear desire from his clients for the public inquiry to 'conduct a thorough and comprehensive review of the circumstances surrounding the Omagh bomb'. He said: 'In a real sense this may be the last opportunity for a cathartic, healing process.' Mr Southey said there was a need for the inquiry to investigate 'differential policing'. He said: 'What I mean by that is was the policing of terrorism in Northern Ireland as effective as that in England? 'Preparedness for warning calls is an aspect of this. Did England have more effective procedures to respond to bomb threats? 'The Army had regularly been called upon during bomb alerts, as it possessed a range of expertise, including bomb disposal expertise. 'However on August 15 1998 they were not deployed into Omagh following warnings being issued.' He added: 'This raises the question of why the Army were not deployed on the day of the bomb and what was the protocol governing their attendance. 'Victims and survivors submit that an aspect of preventability was whether a decision not to deploy the Army was or should have been influenced by intelligence and other material suggesting a threat.'
BBC News
19-05-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Councillor for 21-years to become new mayor of Peterborough
A councillor who has represented a ward for 21 years has been appointed as mayor of a Fox, a Peterborough First independent councillor at Peterborough City Council, will be the first female to become mayor of Peterborough since told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: "It means a lot to me really because I'm representing the city of which I was born and bred in."She will take over the position from Marco Cereste, a Conservative councillor at the authority, during a meeting on Monday. Fox, who represents Werrington, will become the 138th mayor of Peterborough, and will follow in the footsteps of her husband, John Fox, who served as mayor from Fox said he was "really chuffed" for his said she felt "very honoured" to become the new mayor. "I'm looking forward to it because I'm Peterborian through and through."I feel really excited about the year and I've got a few invites already," she to the Local Democracy Reporting Service she said she was keen to work with all the communities in Peterborough. What does the mayor of Peterborough do? The mayor of Peterborough is a very different role to the mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined mayor of the combined authority, which is currently Paul Bristow, receives a salary and is responsible for areas such as transport, skills, business support and May of each year, a long-serving Peterborough councillor is appointed as the mayor of Peterborough, with their term of office lasting for one role acts as a politically impartial chair of the authority, making sure that proper conduct takes place during full-council are also invited to attend community and fundraising events held for the mayor's charities, which they choose at the start of the civic year. Follow Peterborough news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
The Guardian
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Letter: John Fox obituary
I spent most of 1977 as an 'apprentice image maker', conceiving and producing figurative sculptures for the company Welfare State. It was led by John Fox, his wife, Sue Gill, and Boris and Maggy Howarth. Bob Frith guided the apprentices, and the Mexican printmaker José Posada was a huge influence. As stage hands we dressed as iconic figures. During shows I brought in large sculptures in drag as a Cosmic Midwife, and a fellow apprentice removed them as a Cosmic Undertaker. Everything was done on a viscerally impressionistic, generous and dramatic scale. We also learned to play instruments, carry massive sculptures in processions and work with fire. We lived in caravans on a former rubbish tip in Burnley. Foxy had a wild vision of celebratory communitas fuelled by the sort of fine anger from which love can be born. He was filled with anarchic glee and a 'yes' mentality – nothing was impossible.
BBC News
14-05-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Peterborough councillor calls for Werrington centre investment
A city councillor says a village centre has been "left behind" compared to other sites elsewhere in the First city councillor, John Fox, who has represented Werrington ward for 23 years, opposed two recent proposals for the Werrington Centre which were ultimately refused by planners in said he hoped the next applicant would meet with community representatives so they could "help to steer them in the right direction"."Most of the shops in the centre are run down, it's not what it used to be," he said. A company named Gujjar Investments Ltd submitted two separate plans to Peterborough City Council for the Werrington Centre - one for a taxi office next to the vacant Ploughman pub and the other to turn the pub itself into a sports bars and three were rejected on the grounds of noise and traffic concerns. Fox, deputy leader of the Independent group, said: "To me, none of it made sense and the taxi office would've caused little rat runs."I've been a councillor now for 23 years.. and if they just came and spoke to us and Werrington Neighbourhood Council we could've liaised with them and saved them time and effort."If you look at the centres in Orton and Bretton compared to Werrington, we were left behind."The Ploughman pub closed in early 2024 and has since been sold and added: "You've got to protect what you've got and improve with what you haven't got."Earlier this year, a former landlord of the pub, Andy Simmons, expressed serious concerns about the future of the Werrington Centre in the wake of the pub's Investments Ltd has been approached for comment. Follow Peterborough news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
