So who pays for clogging up London when roads and public areas are closed to the public to allow sponsoring companies to promote themselves by putting their names to events held there? Who pays for all the lost business due to missed appointments? Who compensates for all the cancelled journeys? Who compensates rate-paying Londoners who can’t access parks and squares in their own city because of transport problems and closures? And who would be responsible for tragedy when ambulances can’t get through to hospitals? Continue reading
Author Archives: The Team
PERFECT FOR A SAFE CORPORATE EVENT?
An 18 year old male passenger was killed and seven people were injured when the 17 year old Fire Ball ride at the Ohio State Fair shed one of its carriages, on the opening day (July 26) hurling people to the ground. The “aggressive thrill” experience features carriages that swing backwards and forwards like a pendulum, carrying thrill-seekers up to 40 feet in the air and rotating at 13 revolutions per minute. Continue reading
CASH COWS AND STRIKE FODDER
London’s commuters by train are currently getting a very poor deal from our railway system, it seems.
Firstly the cost is a serious rip-off, with prices far higher than those in some cities in mainland Europe. A 36 mile journey from Luckenwalde, Germany to Berlin costs £99.80 (112 euro), per month whereas the 35 mile journey from Maidstone to Cannon Street costs £402.50 per month, more than 400 per cent more. Before the collapse in the value of sterling the differential was 500 per cent more. In Italy a 48 mile trip from Orte to Rome costs £116 (130 euro) per month whereas a similar journey from Milton Keynes to Euston costs £482.70 per month, or 242 per cent more. Continue reading
WEDDING SCAM IN SCOTLAND
Craig Williamson, 42, the wedding planner at Guthrie Castle, Angus, has appeared in court charged with fraud.
Reportedly he double or triple booked weddings and had deposits of more than £140,000 paid into his own bank account. Continue reading
ONE IN NORFOLK
Southgreen Park is a modern non-residential events centre set in the village of Mattishall, in the heart of rural Norfolk and close to East Dereham.
Offered are a room for 120, divisible into three, a room for 60, and four rooms for 14/22/22/25. In addition there are two training rooms for 20 and 16 and a computer training room with 10 workstations. Continue reading
EXTRAS AT THE MARRIOTT
Well-heeled guests using the twelve premier suites at the London Marriott County Hall hotel are offered a Silver Lining package for £300.
This is designed to help them make the most of their stay in the capital and its changeable weather and provides the services of an in-house meteorologist to provide rainy and sunny day itineraries, The service also supplies a hair stylist for when it is windy, coats and wellies for when it rains and skincare for sunny days.
DIARY DATES
27-28 September 2017
Festival and Outdoor Event Show. Sandown Park
Web: festivalandoutdoorshow.co.uk
11 October 2017
Academic Venue Showcase Emirates Stadium
Web: venuemasters.co.uk
DESTINY
Is love stronger than death? This is a question explored in Destiny, the 1921 silent expressionist and allegorical film from director Fritz Lang, his first notable success released five years before his futuristic science fiction classic Metropolis and ten years before his crime film noir M.. Destiny – Der mude Tod (“The weary Death”) – has been overlooked in favour of the better-known yet it was cited by English and American director Alfred Hitchcock and Spanish director Luis Bunuel as being influential to their own films. Continue reading
CRACKDOWN BITES IN COURT
A crackdown by the travel industry against fake food poisoning claims for compensation from British holidaymakers has started to find its way through to our courts.
A family of three appeared at Liverpool magistrates court last week charged with six counts of fraud after alleging they were ill with food poisoning on holidays to Majorca and demanding £52,000 in compensation from Thomas Cook. Deborah Briton, 53, her partner Paul Briton, 43 and a daughter Charlene Briton, all pleaded not guilty and face up to six years imprisonment if the case against them is proved. Their claim was handled by David Norman Solicitors of Nelson, Lancashire. Continue reading
EUROPCAR RIP OFF ACCUSATIONS
International car hire firm Europcar has been accused of ripping off its customers over the last 10 years with grossly inflated repair bills when cars suffer damage.
The overcharging of as much as 300% is being investigated by Trading Standards officers in Leicester where Europcar is based and may breach the Fraud Act and the Consumer Rights Act. There have been claims that the garages carrying out the repairs were secretly told to inflate the costs by Europcar, to include a large share for itself and the company have admitted that the mess could cost it £30 million to clean up, a figure that could be optimistic given that around £38 million was wiped off the company’s value when the allegations emerged.
Suspecting that the rip of could be an industry wide practice not just confined to Europcar the Daily Mail has advised car hire customers billed for damage to insist on seeing a copy of the bill for the work the car hire company say had to be carried out, and to pass the details to the newspaper for investigation of possible fraud.