Shrewsbury’s Morrisons supermarket has been given permission for a new garden centre built at the entrance to the store, it was revealed today.
The retail giant has built the centre at its Shrewsbury store in Whitchurch Road on a paved area currently used by pedestrians.
It will serve as a plant shelter and enable Morrisons to increase its horticultural range for shoppers. It is made of aluminium and steel and has a curved roof with signs attached to the centre also receiving permission.
Bosses refused to give details about the centre’s cost, but said an expansion was necessary to keep up with a growing demand. The plans have been approved retrospectively by Shropshire Council.
Plants were previously displayed in the open outside the front of the supermarket and planning officers considered the centre to have little material impact on the appearance of the site.
Morrisons spokesman Laura Stubbs said today: “The garden centre is an extension of our current in store horticultural range. Customers love the range so it made sense to increase our offering.”
In a decision notice Shropshire Council said: “The proposed addition to this large existing supermarket premises is considered to be appropriate in scale, density, pattern and design and will not adversely affect the character and appearance of the supermarket site.”
Source: www.shropshirestar.com
Morrisons trials coupon-at-till scheme as promotional war continues - Brand Republic
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Morrisons is running a coupon-at-till trial in its north east stores in a move that follows a similar initiative by rival Sainsbury's. Morrison: Andrew ' Freddie' Flintoff campaign The trial coincides with Tesco boss Philip Clarke criticising the use of ...Source: www.brandrepublic.com
Brought back from the brink of death at Morrisons supermarket - This is Gloucestershire
SUPERMARKET workers saved a customer's life when he suffered a major heart attack in store.
Beth Thomas and Laurie Merchant used their first aid skills when the man collapsed in Morrisons' fruit and vegetable aisle.
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QUICK-THINKING: Laurie Merchant and Beth Thomas, of Morrisons.
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Air ambulance lands at Morrisons
Laurie, who wants to be a paramedic, said: "Bringing him back was a miracle. He went out that morning and he might never have seen his family again."
The Nailsworth store had just opened when the drama began.
"We were called over because we are first aiders," said 24-year-old Beth, from Forest Green.
Laurie dialled 999 and, with a Great Western Ambulance call handler on the line, checked for a pulse.
"It was very weak at that point," said the Horsley 20-year-old.
Then his breathing stopped, said Beth.
"I was doing CPR and Laurie was counting and we swapped and kept going until the ambulance arrived," she said.
Former Thomas Keble and Rednock School pupil Laurie said: "The paramedics said the man had had one of the worst heart attacks you can have and if we hadn't have done what we did, he would not have survived." Store staff and customers cleared the car park next to Morrisons to allow an air ambulance to land.
"Medics re-started his heart with a defibrillator and an ambulance took him to hospital.
Laurie and Beth understand he is recovering well. They have been told his family wants to celebrate with a party and they will be guests of honour.
Great Western Ambulance Service spokesman John Oliver said: "The fact that Laurie and Beth were able to do this while professional ambulance clinicians were en route undoubtedly resulted in this patient not just surviving but now continuing to make a good recovery."
Source: www.thisisgloucestershire.co.uk
Accused GP Richard Scott says GMC persecutes Christians - BBC News
A Kent GP has accused medical watchdogs of persecuting Christians after denying trying to convert a patient.
Dr Richard Scott told the General Medical Council (GMC) that "doing God is good for you".
He is before the GMC accused of breaching medical rules by refusing to give a patient medication at his Margate surgery, in August 2010.
Dr Scott denies overstepping the mark but said a doctor could not "just take off" his faith.
The GP claimed the GMC had pursued the case against him with "excessive zeal" and was "singling out Christianity" as part of a "wider trend to marginalise" the faith.
'Not a maverick'Dr Scott has worked with his wife, also a GP, at the "expressly Christian" Bethesda Medical Practice since 2003.
“Start Quote
End Quote Dr Richard ScottI'm offering something that could have changed his life”
He told the council scientific studies, mainly carried out in the United States, showed faith benefited patients.
"Spirituality and faith is now becoming a new angle with medicine," Dr Scott told the hearing.
"It's a new specialism. The fact that Christians are optimistic is very positive for health.
"I'm not just a maverick doctor reaching out to patients.
"You can't just take off your faith when you enter the consultation room, either as a patient or doctor."
'Non-threatening'Under cross-examination by Andrew Hurst, counsel for the GMC, Dr Scott denied telling his 24-year-old patient that he would "suffer eternally" if he did not convert to Christianity.
Dr Scott said the patient was happy to talk about religion, when he had raised the subject in a "gentle, non-threatening" way.
Mr Hurst said "the effect" of what he told the patient was to promote Christianity over the patient's own religion.
"He had walked away from his own religion," Dr Scott said.
"I'm offering something that could have changed his life."
Paul Diamond, counsel for Dr Scott, told the committee his client believed the GMC was singling out Christianity.
"He does believe Christianity has been singled out for adverse treatment and believes this to be a wider trend in our society to marginalise the Christian," he said.
The case continues.
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
Former Kent State baseball greats caught up in pride of trip to College World Series 2012 - Cleveland Plain Dealer
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Kent State's baseball season usually begins the same way -- with a 16-hour bus trip south.
And the in-travel entertainment, at least when future major leaguer Dirk Hayhurst was a Golden Flash, was the highlight reel from the previous year's College World Series.
"That was the goal. That's why we played," said Hayhurst, who pitched for Kent State from 2000-03 and still holds the school's career records in innings pitched and strikeouts.
"This," he said, "is what all the guys I went there with wanted to accomplish."
As anyone who has remotely paid attention to college baseball knows by now, his old team will finally be on that highlight reel. Kent State made school history this week by reaching the College World Series.
The thrill has not been lost on some of the best who ever wore the blue and gold uniform, regardless of age or geography.
"Oh, my God, isn't it awesome?" gushed Rich Rollins.
Rollins, of Bath, starred at Kent State from 1956-60 and became the first Golden Flash to make the majors. He's played in All-Star games and the World Series with Minnesota, but the success of his college team has him bursting.
"It's like a happening," he said.
For Rollins, the team's success is also a generational thing. His son, Patrick, also played there, and one of his son's teammates was current Kent State coach Scott Stricklin.
"I don't think I've ever pulled for a team more than I have for this situation right here," said Rollins, who starred at Parma High and the Cleveland sandlot leagues in the 1950"s. "It would be awesome for the whole area. Just awesome."
When Rollins played second base, former Benedictine star and Major League draftee Nobby Lewandowski was on the mound, and Gene Michael, a former star at Akron East and a 10-year major leaguer, was at short.
In fact, Kent State played on Gene Michael Field for 39 seasons before a new one was built in 2005. The old field's namesake is now a New York Yankees scout who is appreciating his former team's achievements from afar.
"I'm tickled to death," said Michael, who hadn't been following the Flashes until Monday's thrilling, last-of-the ninth win over Oregon that sent Kent to Omaha.
Although most of Kent State's competitors in the series are from big conferences with baseball-school reputations, Michael believes Kent's chances are good.
"Anybody can win that," said Michael, who also played basketball at Kent before he was drafted by Pittsburgh in 1959. "Get a couple hot pitchers and you can win that thing."
Steve Stone knows about pitching. When he was Kent State's ace until he graduated in 1970, his catcher and roommate on the road was the late Thurman Munson.
Now a broadcaster for the Chicago White Sox, the Brush High graduate was in the air traveling to his next game when he heard his alma mater had earned a trip to the series for the first time.
"It's nice. It's nice to see," Stone said, "and this, of course, is one of the real exciting things to anyone who was associated at all with Kent State University. I'm very excited for the boys and for coach Stricklin."
Stone has followed the team all season because he's friends with Indians voice Tom Hamilton, whose son, Nick, plays infield for the Golden Flashes. But beyond the personal connection, Stone said he's drawn to this edition of Kent State baseball for its chemistry.
"It truly is a team," said Stone, who won 107 games in 11 major-league seasons, including a remarkable 25-7 record with Baltimore in 1980.
"It reminds me a little bit of the Baltimore teams I played on," he said, "because if you broke out the rosters man for man, we weren't as good as some, but we played as a team."
That togetherness carried Kent State past Big Ten champion Purdue, Southeastern Conference power Kentucky and Oregon, the No. 5 team in the country -- and is stirring pride in some of yesterday's heroes.
Source: www.cleveland.com
Kent State referred to as, oops, 'Kentucky St.' on mockup for College World Series 2012 T-shirts - Cleveland Plain Dealer
Should a Kent State Golden Flashes baseball player need any more reason, though, to apply all of his attention and concentration to the next pitch, he might want to remember this funny and unintended gaffe by the company that makes College World Series T-shirts for the NCAA.
The NCAA is selling T-shirts recognizing all of the teams that will play in the College World Series which begins this weekend in Omaha, Neb. Kent (46-18), making its first-ever World Series appearance, will begin tournament play Saturday against Arkansas (44-20).
Charles Apple writes for copydesk.org about the blunder. He refers to a photo, carried on the copydesk.org website, of the T-shirt backs, and writes:
Rhett Umphress, on his Twitter account, has tracked the NCAA's diss of the Golden Flashes.Check out the second one from the bottom: “Kentucky St.” In fact, that should be Kent State. The Golden Flashes are from Kent, Ohio, a few miles southeast of Cleveland.Kentucky State — home of the the green and gold “Thorobreds” — is in Frankfort, Ky. And, no: They are not playing in the College World Series.
Thanks to Rhett Umphress of ESPN The Magazine for tweeting this one today.
The mistake was quickly corrected, and KSU sources today told The Plain Dealer's Elton Alexander that the error was caught in the mock-up stage and no T-shirts with the wrong name were printed.
Nonetheless, the Golden Flashes have even more incentive to make Ohio proud.
Updated 5:04 p.m. EDT to reflect that error was made by T-shirt company and was caught before any shirts were printed.
Source: www.cleveland.com
Kent State baseball team both lucky and good as it prepares for first College World Series - Akron Beacon Journal
Few, if anyone, could have seen this coming.
Kent State in the College World Series? Especially a year after losing four players to the Major League Baseball Draft, including top pitcher Andrew Chafin, the 44th overall player taken by the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Even Golden Flashes coach Scott Stricklin didn’t expect it. But despite being a predominantly young team without a superstar player, the Golden Flashes have won a program-best 46 games, including a 21-game winning streak, and are poised to play on college baseball’s biggest stage.
“I’d like to say I did, but we lost so much talent,” Stricklin said by phone Tuesday, less than 24 hours after the Flashes beat host Oregon 3-2 in the deciding Game 3 in Eugene, Ore. “I felt confident we’d compete for the [Mid-American Conference] title. But no, I can’t say I saw this coming.”
There’s an old adage in baseball that sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good. The Flashes, now ranked eighth, proved to be pretty good this season, but luck has certainly played a big part in the postseason run that has them playing Arkansas (44-20) at 5 p.m. Saturday in the opening round of the CWS.
Big and little bounces have gone the Flashes’ way. First there was Evan Campbell’s controversial home run that might or might not have cleared the proper marking that sent KSU past Kentucky in the regional. Then there was Jimmy Rider’s game-winning bloop double that was lost in the setting sun in Monday’s super regional clincher against the Ducks.
“To win 21 straight like that, it feels like we’ve had a lot of luck involved,” Rider, the MAC’s all-time hits leader, said by phone. “We’ve certainly had a lot of things go our way. It kind of went against us Sunday night (in a 3-2 loss to Oregon), but besides that, so many of the breaks have gone our way.”
Stricklin, a former KSU catcher (1992-95), knows the part a little luck can play in team’s season of dreams.
“We said that in the dugout Saturday,” he said. “We got a call in the crazy game we won 7-6 [over Oregon] and I looked at Derek Toadvine and said, ‘You know what, Derek? Somebody wants us to go to Omaha.’ ”
Perhaps even more surprising is that the Flashes have managed to advance this far without a bona fide superstar, instead utilizing a collective team effort.
“I don’t think we have any superstars on our team,” Stricklin said. “I was asked about that in regional play. They said, ‘you guys aren’t star-studded.’ I said ‘No, but we have a bunch of good baseball players.’ And that’s what we are; a group of 34 really good players who play the game hard and play the game right. Also, we’re all from Ohio and Western Pennsylvania. We’re all hometown kids and that’s what this team is: hard-working, blue-collar guys that represent Northeast Ohio.”
Despite losing top-notch talent from last year’s team, the remaining group’s desire to atone for last year’s inability to get out of regional play remained strong from the start of the season.
“I think it’s been building with this team for the last year,” Stricklin said. “When we lost to Texas in regional play, it was really tough to handle. The kids really wanted to get back and have another crack at it.”
Still, getting this far was unexpected, even if the idea of finally reaching Omaha has always been treated as the main goal during Stricklin’s tenure at KSU.
“We all talk about Omaha,” he said. “Every single college baseball coach, at some point in his speech, Omaha comes up. The city of Omaha is the mecca of college baseball. So, we’ve talked about it as a team and our players have dreamed about it. But to actually be here, it just hasn’t settled in quite yet.”
But it will. After everything the Flashes have been through this season, it’s hard to imagine any stage being too big for these underdogs.
“[TD Ameritrade Park] is a $200 million dollar stadium,” Stricklin said of the home of the CWS. “It’s one of the nicest baseball stadiums in the world. I think that’s when it’ll all start to settle in, when the guys just go ‘oh my gosh, what have we done?’ [Today] when we first practice there, that’s when it’ll really hit us.”
Stephanie Storm can be reached at sstorm@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Kent State blog at http://www.ohio.com/flashes. Follow her on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/SStormABJ .
Source: www.ohio.com
Inquest into ex-Kent police chief David Ainsworth - Kent Online
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A high-ranking former Kent police chief at the centre
of an investigation into allegations he sexually harassed female
colleagues took his own life, a coroner has ruled.
David Ainsworth, who rose to the rank of assistant chief constable at Kent after 22 years in the force, had relocated to Wiltshire at the time of the investigation.
He was facing up to 24 allegations from women across the two forces.
The then Deputy Chief Constable with Wiltshire police was found hanged while under investigation for making sexist remarks to female colleagues.
Brian Moore, the former chief constable of Wiltshire Police, said the force had offered support to David Ainsworth in the weeks before his death.
The inquest heard Mr Ainsworth felt the force was "gunning for him" and feared he would "lose everything" as a result of the investigations.
But his former boss Mr Moore - now head of the troubled UK Border Force - said Mr Ainsworth's welfare was taken seriously.
Trowbridge Coroner's Court in Wiltshire was told investigations into alleged sexist behaviour covered DCC Ainsworth’s two years with Wiltshire Police AND his 22 years at Kent.
The high-flying officer - who earned £110,00 a year and was nicknamed ‘The Brain’ due to his intelligence - was accused of telling one female ‘nice buttons’, while looking at her top, in one of the claims.
Coroner David Ridley heard the allegations relating to Mr Ainsworth's time in Kent surrounded two text messages - but the court was not told the exact nature of the claims.
But the inquest was told yesterday Mr Ainsworth had been researching suicide methods on the internet up to one month before he died.
The information was revealed through examinations of the officer's personal computer.
They included viewing websites on hanging and started on February 25 - shortly after he received statements of those making allegations against him.
The last search was made on March 21 - one day before he died.
DCC Ainsworth’s partner Joanna Howes previously told the inquest how she found her boyfriend hanging in the garage of their cottage on March 22.
Mr Ainsworth, 49, was removed from regular duties last September as South Wales Police conducted an external inquiry. He joined Kent Police in 1986, before leaving to work in Wiltshire.
While in Kent, he took on a number of roles, including head of the force inspectorate, area commander at north Kent and head of the force communications centre.
David Ridley, coroner for Wiltshire and Swindon, recorded a verdict Mr Ainsworth had taken his own life.
Wednesday, June 13 2012
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Source: www.kentonline.co.uk
Cristiano Ronaldo 'can be Nick Powell's inspiration at Man Utd' - BBC News
Nick Powell can use Cristiano Ronaldo as an inspiration to succeed at Manchester United, according to Crewe director of football Dario Gradi.
"It's a big step from our league to the Premier League, but Sir Alex Ferguson told him to accept the challenge," Gradi told BBC North West Tonight.
"He threw the challenge down to Ronaldo when he came as a kid, and Ronaldo rose to it, so why not [Powell]?"
Powell, 18, completed his transfer to Old Trafford on Tuesday.
BBC Radio Stoke reports an initial fee of £3m will be paid for the England Under-18 international, with the deal potentially rising to £6m depending on his success and appearances.
Portugal captain Ronaldo was also 18 when he joined United from Sporting Lisbon in 2003, and had six successful years at Old Trafford before his world-record £80m transfer to Real Madrid three summers ago.
Powell's wonder goal wows Wembley
And former Crewe boss Gradi, who gave a 16-year-old Powell his senior debut in August 2010, believes the teenager can take further heart from the progression of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.
The Arsenal youngster started for England in their opening group match of Euro 2012 against France on Monday, less than a year after helping Southampton win promotion from League One.
"[Oxlade-Chamberlain] is only a year or so older and probably not any more gifted, but obviously has shown that he can play in the Premier League, which Nick hasn't," said the 70-year-old, who was succeeded by Steve Davis as Alex manager in November.
Crewe-born teenager Powell scored 16 goals for the Alex last season, including a stunning 25-yard volley in the League Two play-off final victory over Cheltenham at Wembley last month.
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
