February 2000

"Scratching" the Dog's Breath (Feb 27, 2000)

Government office launches investigation following collapse of Environmental company (6 Feb 2000)

Clegg cleared of final charges (Feb 1, 2000)

"Scratching" the Dog's Breath

The "tickers" and "scratchers" were out in force at the Bradford Beer Festival this weekend. With 112 new beers on offer, the "trainspotters" of the real ale world had a hard time keeping up.

This is the 3rd year that the Festival has been held at the Victoria Hall, Saltaire, after the Bradford branch of the Campaign for real Ale (CAMRA) lost their previous University venue following a fall-out with the Students Union. They are keen to get a new venue in the City centre.

Ricky Holden, one of the organisers, told KDIS that preparations had begun in April last year.

"We wrote to 150 breweries and then began the arduous task of selecting the beers. We don't use anything that we've had here in the last 3 years and we don't take any beers that are brewed just for this event."

The crowds in Bradford, and at 3 other major beer festivals across the country this weekend, are evidence that real ales and other natural food products, are no longer a minority interest. The success of the local organic growers "potato day" in Bradford and the Local Produce market in Bingley on Saturday add weight to this view.

Meanwhile, unable to taste all the new beers, the "scratchers" stagger home with extra samples in pop bottles for ticking-off later.

See The Campaign for Real Ale

Government office launches investigation following collapse of Environmental company

The Government's Regional Office has launched an investigation into what happened to a £265,000 grant it gave to Keighley Business Forum in 1998. The Forum collapsed last December with debts of £400,000.

It's demise followed closely that of an environmental company, NCEEM, which the Forum had helped create just 8 months previously.

Yorkshire Forward - as the regional government office is called, told KDIS:

Bradford Council is conducting it's own inquiries into what went wrong.

In April last year a major environmental project broke away from Keighley Business Forum to become the "National Centre of Excellence for Environmental Management" (NCEEM).

Headed by a former senior council officer, Iain Copping, it received hundreds of thousands of pounds in public funds and landfill tax grants and was set to become the major focus for Waste Management in the country. It was supported by all the key local organisations, including the Council, Bradford TEC, Bradford University and Keighley College. It had the backing of senior government ministers and had built up links across Europe and America.

Yet after only 8 months it collapsed, bringing Keighley Business Forum down with it.

Liquidators reported joint debts totalling £800,000.

KDIS has conducted it's own investigation into what went wrong.

See: Raking in the green stuff

Clegg cleared of final charges

The last outstanding charge against Bradford paratrooper Lee Clegg was finally quashed at the Northern Ireland Court of Appeal yesterday.

Clegg was originally convicted of murder in 1993 after two teenagers died when the stolen car they were driving was shot 19 times by soldiers. He was released on licence after serving less than 3 years. The murder conviction was quashed in 1998, but a final conviction of wounding the 17 year old driver Martin Peake remained.

After the verdict Clegg said: "My family and I do not intend to be victorious about the successful outcome. At the end of the day, the Glen Road shooting was a tragedy that could have been avoided."

But Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams described the ruling "a grievous insult to the families and the wider nationalist community".

Quashing the conviction Lord Chief Justice Sir Robert Carswell said the accuracy and reliability of an RUC constable's recollection of events had been shown to be suspect.

However, the judgement referred to "the highly discreditable behaviour" of which some soldiers were "undoubtedly guilty" on the night of the shooting.

In a statement issued afterwards, the Derry based Pat Finucane Centre condemned the "complete and absolute failure of the legal system to deliver justice to the families of murdered Belfast teenagers Martin Peake and Karen Reilly".

"Ten years on and the legal system has failed abysmally to bring to justice those who murdered Karen reilly and Martin Peake. This is an indictment of the entire system and brings into sharp relief the importance of the current review of the criminal justice system. Questions must be asked of the Director of Public Prosecutions as to why Clegg was never charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice following the incident."

See Previous posting
See The Pat Finucane Centre
See also Feature: They shoot joyriders, don't they?

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