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Scotsman
11 hours ago
- General
- Scotsman
Midlothian disabled housing complex labelled 'deathtrap' over intercom system that doesn't work
A new sheltered housing complex for people with mobility issues has been branded a "death trap". Sign up to our daily newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to Edinburgh News, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Normandy Court, on the site of the old Dalkeith High School, was originally built as a supported living complex for 40 residents, with nursing and janitorial staff on site 24/7. But lack of funding for the the £17 million project forced a change of plan and it is now amenity, self-contained housing adapted for the individual needs of people aged 55 and over who require support because of a disability or restricted mobility. It has only been occupied since April this year. But resident Michael Hogg, who is recovering from a stroke and uses a wheelchair, says there are no staff on site and the intercom to give people access to the building does not work. Normandy Court, Dalkeith, offers housing adapted for people with mobility issues | contributed Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad He said: "If I'm lying in my bed it's like lying in a coffin - if there was a fire, I've no way of getting out of my bed, never mind the room. "There are no support staff living on the premises. I've got one of these buttons round my neck that I can press. But by the time they arrive I'm going to be dead from toxic fumes." Mr Hogg - an official with the rail union RMT, who has long experience of health and safety issues - said the non-functioning intercom system meant doctors, nurses and paramedics were unable to access the building. Michael Hogg, a resident at Normandy Court, describes it as a deathtrap. | TSPL He said: "There's an intercom to let people in the main door, but it isn't working, so doctors and nurses can't get in. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'There's an exit button inside my flat for the main door, but it's obsolete, it doesn't work. If I'm in my bed at night time and the doctor arrives the doctor has no way of getting in. 'As far as I'm concerned, it's a death trap that I'm living in." Colin Fox, former Scottish Socialist MSP for Lothian, visited the complex and said although the residents were generally happy with their new homes, they were concerned about the restricted access and the communication systems. 'The intercom/ controlled entry system at the front door has not worked since the beginning. The medical staff, health and safety personnel, firefighters, and delivery drivers who come regularly to the complex cannot make contact with the residents. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad "One resident told me of an incident this week where her nurse called to give her an injection - which she gets weekly - and could not access the building or make contact with her. 'After 20 minutes of trying, the nurse was ready to give up when fortunately the resident, who lives on the ground floor, spotted her 'missing nurse' from the window and managed to shout her over from the communal garden." Mr Fox said there were also other complaints - from a man in a wheelchair about how the disabled button at the entrance opens the doors against him, making it difficult for him to manoeuvre; and other residents about doors which either do not open or do not lock. He said: "The residents are concerned that none of their complaints have been acted upon. Furthermore they fear the fact the council ran out of money means they are 'stonewalling' them and they will never be done." Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Midlothian Council said the fire service had been on site and assessed it for access requirements before tenants moved. . A council spokesman said: 'We are very sorry for the recurring intercom fault and understand how frustrating this is to residents' visitors who have found it difficult to get into the building. 'As previous repairs have not fixed the issue permanently, we've arranged to have the system replaced as a matter of urgency this month. In the meantime, security staff are on site 24 hours a day and will give visitors access. We appreciate everyone's patience as we resolve this problem as soon as possible. Apologies again for any inconvenience caused.'
Time of India
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Time of India
A British waitress is going viral for being connected to the Royal family: All you need to know about her
Image credits: X A British waitress is going viral for her secret link to the Royal family and it is something you could have never guessed on your own. Lady Frances nee Armstrong-Jones is the youngest daughter of Lord Snowdon, the former husband of Princess Margaret and his wife Lucy Hogg, whom he married shortly after finalising his divorce. Frances was born seven months later to the couple. Her father, photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones was given the peerage of Lord Snowdon in 1961, a year after he married the Queen's younger sister, Princess Margaret. The couple welcomed two children, David, 63 and Lady Sarah Chatto, 61, who are the only cousins of King Charles and his three siblings on his mother's side. What does Lady Frances nee Armstrong-Jones do? Well, Lady Frances owns The Yellow Bittern, an eatery located just three miles away from Buckingham Palace. Opened in October 2024, the eatery is run by the 45-year-old along with her husband, chef Hugh Corcoran and bookseller Oisin Daves. What's unique about Lady Frances' eatery is the fact that it just has 18 seats you can book for one of the two Monday to Friday lunchtime sittings by telephone or postcard. Additionally, it is a cash-only establishment where there is no menu and the dishes for the day are written on a chalkboard. Frances' story of love Frances has not been away from the royal life. She was one of the bridesmaids during the wedding of her half-sister Lady Sarah Chatto which happened in 1994. In one of the photographs she can be seen in a frame that includes the late Queen. Her husband on the other hand is a Belfast-born Irish republican who dreams of cooking for the RMT trade unionists who have an office round the corner from their tiny restaurant. However, for them it's less of an opposites attract situation and more of a things in common ground. The duo has a similar approach to life and shares a love for a leisurely midday meal. Frances founded a magazine Her love for food and a long lunch is not limited to her restaurant. In 2017 Frances founded a food and lifestyle magazine Luncheon, which presents its readers with high culture, food and interesting conversations. She revealed to Vogue that Luncheon, which now operates in the same building as her restaurant, is "a cocktail of images, photographs, designs and illustration. And lots of conversations between a ninety-year-old artist and a 20-year-old photographer"
The Guardian
5 days ago
- Business
- The Guardian
Insourcing is essential for rail nationalisation
Sarah Nankivell is correct when she says that rail nationalisation must succeed (A great prize, but a great risk: why we all need the nationalised South Western Railway to work, 28 May). While the nationalisation of South Western Railway and the government's commitment to a publicly owned Great British Railways are welcome first steps, this is not the end of the line. The continued outsourcing of essential services – such as track and train improvements, cleaning, security and elements of station staffing – perpetuates a two-tier workforce and undermines the goals of public ownership. These outsourced roles often come with poverty wages, a lack of sick pay and inadequate pension provisions, disproportionately affecting workers from black and minority ethnic communities. Outsourcing also drains public funds. According to RMT analysis, outsourcing and subcontracting firms extract about £400m annually in profits from rail contracts. This is money that could be reinvested into the railway system to improve services and reduce fares. There is growing support for an alternative to outsourcing supported by Labour's pledge to preside over the 'biggest wave of insourcing for a generation'. The Welsh government has already begun to insource rail services, while the London mayor, Sadiq Khan, is actively considering insourcing thousands of tube cleaners. For rail nationalisation to succeed, integrating and insourcing all aspects of our railways into public hands must be the DempseyRMT general secretary I do not believe for an instant that renationalising the train operating companies will either make the trains run better or reduce ticket prices. The performance of my local company, Northern, which has been in the public sector for a good while now, is proof of that ('New dawn': first train service renationalised under Labour begins, 25 May). But it is worth calling out the Conservative party claims that private ownership has kept costs down for the lie that it is. Before privatisation in 1994, British Rail received a taxpayer subsidy of under £1bn. And it was falling. Post-privatisation, this soared to over £5bn at one point and is today still far higher than in 1994, even though, according to the Department for Transport's own figures, rail fares had risen by about a fifth in real terms by 2017, delivering an additional 'hidden subsidy' of £2bn per year because of the higher prices travellers are paying. The challenge now is achieving financial stability for the rail network in a post-pandemic world where fewer commuters are buying season tickets and fewer business trips are being made in favour of web-based virtual meetings. At least the dividends and grotesque executive salaries siphoned out of the industry by the private sector over the past 30 years will be available to help balance the WhitehouseBarnsley, South Yorkshire
Telegraph
05-05-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Outsourcing train cleaners is racist, says RMT union
Outsourcing train cleaners is racist, the RMT rail union has said. The union said that it wanted to end 'exploitative' agency hiring on the railways. It said outsourcing trapped thousands of black and minority ethnic staff in insecure jobs without pensions, training or promotion prospects, creating an 'effectively segregated' workforce. Outsourcing also lowered service standards across the rail network, the union said, as it called on the Government to bring the agency workers in-house. Eddie Dempsey, general secretary, said the RMT intended to fight 'tooth and nail' to hold Sir Keir Starmer to his promise to oversee 'the biggest wave of in-sourcing for a generation'. Mr Dempsey said black and ethnic minority workers 'bear the major brunt of this super-exploitation and are effectively trapped in second-class employment, unable to progress in a train company or Network Rail'. These claims are detailed in a new report, How Outsourcing Embeds Systemic Racism on the Railway, published on Tuesday. The report found that 58 per cent of outsourced cleaners and caterers were non-white, compared with a quarter of staff employed directly by train operators. People of African ethnic origin made up 22 per cent of all outsourced cleaners, but only five per cent of the workforce at National Rail and other operators. To understand the impact of this disparity, the RMT surveyed more than 500 outsourced workers. It said the results 'shed light on how outsourcing creates occupational segregation' and is 'reproducing systemic racism'. Lack career opportunities Train company employees have benefits, training and career progression that agency workers do not, despite working alongside one another on a daily basis, the union said. Seventy-seven per cent of black and minority ethnic respondents reported having never discussed a promotion, and 68 per cent said they had had no further training in the past three years. One respondent told the RMT: 'The only time the manager talks to his employees is to discipline them. I'd probably get the sack for asking.' Not all those surveyed wanted to move to a different role, with some just wanting to be properly paid and recognised. 'I'm happy being a cleaner but would be happier working for LNER, to be the same as the other station employees,' said another respondent. The report said: 'The prolific use of outsourcing by private train operating companies, and the failure to challenge this on the part of Network Rail and the publicly owned TOCs [train operating companies] has led to a significant level of ethnic and racial segregation in the rail workforce.' Eighty-three per cent of those surveyed said they believed passengers would get better service if roles were brought in-house under Great British Railways. 'We would be given proper training on how to deal with the customer and give the customers much better advice,' said one respondent. Another suggested the Government could reinvest money not spent on private contractors in improving train services. A spokesman for Network Rail said: 'Network Rail has a history of insourcing since deciding to bring the day-to day maintenance of our railway 'in-house' in 2004 when 15,000 workers were moved from private contractors, into Network Rail. 'The day-to-day safe running, operation and maintenance of our railway is delivered by direct employees.' A Department for Transport (DtT) spokesman told The Telegraph: 'Diversity and inclusion is pivotal to any industry's success, and we will continue working with industry to ensure everyone that works on our network is valued and respected.' The spokesman said Labour's plan to renationalise the railways, creating a Great British Railways state-owned enterprise, 'will sweep away decades of failure, ending fragmentation and waste and delivering for passengers, taxpayers and staff.'
The National
24-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The National
Mick Lynch to join Scottish rock band at Edinburgh show
Glasgow's The Tenementals, a group of academics, artists, and musicians who tell the city's radical history and untold stories through song, will be joined by special guests at their Portobello Town Hall gig on May 3. Mick Lynch, former Secretary-General of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT), will deliver May Day Greetings, which will mark International Workers' Day. Lynch, who received extensive attention whilst leading the RMT in a series of strikes in 2022-23, appeared alongside The Tenementals at The Revelator Wall of Death in the former Barclay Curle shipyard in March 2023. READ MORE: Scottish refugee charity hits out at Glasgow's call for asylum seeker pause The former union leader was keen on the Glasgow band playing one of their songs, which references the famous figurehead of the Clyde shipyard workers, Jimmy Reid. Gladman, who will feature in the forthcoming BBC Scotland sketch show Good for Her, will also appear on the evening alongside Scottish Poetry Library Young Makar, Leah Sinforiani. Singer and founder of The Tenementals, David Archibald, said he is 'delighted' that Lynch will be joining them to deliver the speech. 'When we performed alongside Mick Lynch in The Revelator Wall of Death, it was an unforgettable event,' he said. (Image: The Tenementals) 'We had only played two gigs previously when Stephen Skrynka, who had built the wall of death with a group of volunteers, approached us about appearing alongside Mick in The Revelator. 'He was keen on us singing 'Universal Alienation (We're Not Rats)', a song which references Jimmy Reid, the trade unionist famous for being the figurehead of the Clyde shipyard workers when they organised the world-famous work in on the yards in 1971. 'We were honoured and delighted to do so. The Revelator is relatively small, so we had to keep secret the fact that Mick was appearing, but there was an extraordinary buzz about the place when it dawned on the attendees who was going to be speaking. It was, in anyone's book, a special night. 'After the event, we kept in touch and explored future collaborations.' Archibald, who is also a professor of political cinema at the University of Glasgow, added: 'We are delighted now that Mick will deliver May Day Greetings to our event. It promises to be another extraordinary event.' The National previously told how the band is best described as Leonard Cohen meets The Clash, and that the eight-piece aims to breathe fresh life into the city's past. The Tenementals aim to retell Glasgow's 'radical history' through punchy riffs and self-proclaimed 'banging' lyrics. The band's back catalogue includes songs about the statue on the Clyde dedicated to the people who fought in Spain during the Spanish Civil War, the 1820 radical republic uprisings, and the famous trade union activist Jim Reid, and a plethora of some of the most important working-class stories from the city. Click here for tickets and more information for the show on May 3.
