Birmingham’s Bullring shopping centre remains closed for a second day after a chemical scare which led to more than 30 people needing medical treatment.

The air in the centre was monitored overnight after it closed on Thursday.

The centre opened on Friday morning but was evacuated after seven people showed symptoms. It will remain closed until further notice, a spokeswoman said.

Police said any contamination remained “unexplained” and it was not known if was from an accident or malicious act.

Ten people were taken to hospital on Thursday with many complaining of feeling dizzy and nauseous.

The centre was opened for access before the latest evacuation on Friday morning but the shops had not reopened.

A spokesman for West Midlands Ambulance Service said seven people had been “showing symptoms” on Friday. They were treated at the scene.

Louise Hamer Brown from Bull Ring Marketing said: “We are evacuated at the moment and emergency services are performing further investigations.” Edgbaston Street remains closed between Park Street and Pershore Street.

A West Midlands Police spokesman said the incident may have been caused by “some sort of petroleum-based substance” potentially contaminating the shopping centre’s ventilation or air-conditioning system.

Six security workers were treated for the effects of fumes shortly before 0400 BST on Thursday. Later, more staff complained of fumes and the centre was closed.

A triage centre was set up away from the building to treat people for symptoms such as nausea, vomiting and water eyes and dizziness, the ambulance service said. BBC.

A Ferris wheel is to open at Gloucester Docks on Friday.

The 100ft (30m) structure, run by British Waterways, is due to start turning from midday.

The new attraction is part of a revamp of the docks, which includes shops, flats, a hotel, supermarket and factory outlets.

A spokeswoman said: “We were very keen to provide an additional attraction for the docks because there will be lots of new visitors.” BBC.

I’ve no idea how long the wheel is to remain in place and I’m not exactly sure of its attraction, then again I’m not much of a fan of amusement rides, and it’s not as if Gloucester Docks can boast quite anything like the views one gets from the London Eye.

A sixth of Gloucestershire’s street lights are to be dimmed overnight to cut carbon emissions and save money.

About 10,000 of the county’s 59,000 lights will be turned down between 2200 BST and 0500 BST at night from last Wednesday.
The move is expected to save £210,000 per year and cut emissions by 28%.

Although the lights will be significantly dimmed, the noticeable difference to people passing by will be minimal, the county council said. BBC.

Perhaps we’d better remember our torches when out late at night.

A new recycling scheme for Gloucester will mean residents’ bins will be emptied fortnightly rather than weekly.

Under the plans, due to start next January, residents will be able to recycle food waste, plastic and batteries in a separate collection. BBC.

Our bin is generally half full each week so really this makes sense and plans for additional recycling are to be welcomed.

Gloucester tourist poster

I guess Gloucester’s no different from many High Streets up and down the country – Woolworths isn’t the only shop lying empty. Gloucester’s response is to fill the empty shop windows with tourism posters.

Why I don’t understand – tourism posters in local shop windows aren’t going to encourage tourists and certainly won’t encourage new businesses. All town centre’s suffer from a similar problem – I can drive to an out of town shopping centre and park for free and shop under cover – whilst in Gloucester parking costs over a pound an hour and you’re going to get wet when it rains – add to this the increase in Internet shopping and then obviously there’s the credit crunch – it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see the trend.

For me Gloucester offers little, the shops I like are missing and the places to eat are dire – personally I’d rather drive to Birmingham and yes I pay the parking charges.

And another thing why do we have to have women dressed in their night clothes?

Source: BBC here & here.

Sixty jobs are going at a Gloucestershire-based garden centre which has been put into administration after 40 years in business.

Hurrans is blaming losses at three of its five branches, including its main centre at Churchdown near Gloucester.

The site is closing, together with branches at Leamington Spa and Malvern. Source: The BBC.

In its wisdom the Conservative run Gloucester County Council has purchased a plot of land at Javelin Park which is to the South of Gloucester just across the motorway next to the Blooms Garden Centre to build an incinerator.

Councillor Stan Waddington added: “Securing the land at Javelin Park means that we can comply fully with the government’s requirements for funding an alternative to landfill in Gloucestershire.

“It is good news for local taxpayers as it means we can secure £92m of PFI credits from central government, which was conditional on the council owning a site”. Source: The BBC.

This shoots a hole though the environmental credentials of the Conservatives, surely we need to stop using landfill – burning toxic waste in the ground is storing up trouble for the future; however who came up with the idea of burning it instead? This is just going to add to the problems of global warming.

Gloucester City MP Parmjit Dhanda says

Throughout, the council have refused to take responsibility for their plans, claiming they are being cajoled into this by the government – something Minister’s have refuted. This decision is local. This week their announcement has revealed the truth – they want to build an incinerator at Javelin Park.

I am deeply disappointed that the council continues to deny what its plans are. It defers blame onto the government but, put simply, it is the council’s decision to build an incinerator despite their manifesto commitment to oppose it. Let’s be perfectly clear – there is a choice here. They could scrap their plans for an incinerator and instead use their resources to improve the council’s recycling rate which currently stands at a meagre 36%. Friends of the Earth and Labour both agree that we should set a more ambitious recycling target of 80% by 2020.

Dhanda has a petition which you can sign here.

The web is full of websites offering deals on restaurants, shops and services, however I’ve never found one based on businesses in and around Cheltenham, so if you live locally now’s the time to visit Print My Offer and bag a deal, there’s lots of 2 for 1 offers, you can also subscribe to a weekly mailing list of newly added offers.

Parents are being warned to be on their guard after an attempted abduction in the Stroud area.

Gloucestershire Police say a girl was approached by a man as she walked towards Archway School on Thursday morning.

He was driving a black car and asked her to get in saying the girl’s mother had asked him to pick her up.

She refused and told teachers. He is described as white, around 40 with greying black hair. Source: The BBC.

Administrators at Woolworths have given details of the dates when each of its 807 stores will close over the next two weeks.

All stores will be closed by 5 January, but the first shops will shut on 27 December, just after Christmas.

All 27,000 permanent and temporary staff will lose their jobs unless a last-minute buyer can be found.

Some stores will be reopened by other retailers who have expressed an interested in buying their leases.

Shop windows will display a countdown showing how many days are left before the store closes.

Staff will be entitled to compensation under the statutory redundancy payment scheme and will be retained for a few days following store closures. Source: BBC.

Statutory redundancy payment

• 0.5 week’s pay for each full year of service where age during year less than 22
• 1.0 week’s pay for each full year of service where age during year is 22 or above, but less than 41
• 1.5 weeks’ pay for each full year of service where age during year is 41+

For the payment calculation a week’s pay can’t exceed £330 and you can’t claim for more than 20 weeks. So the most a worker could get is just short of £10,000. How does that compare to the fat cat bankers, bonuses? Derisory.