Stories for 5 March 2003

The Argus Albion

Fighting talk from Coppell

Albion boss Steve Coppell has challenged his players to send a survival signal to their relegation rivals in tonight's crunch clash at Stoke.   more...

The Argus Business

HSE swoops to cut workplace tragedies

Inspectors from the Health and Safety Executive will be staging a week-long blitz on construction sites in Sussex next month.   more...

Falling growth blow for retail

Retailers suffered a blow today after it emerged sales growth had fallen to its lowest level for four years.   more...

Top firms face £100bn pension crisis

The UK's top companies are collectively facing a pensions black hole of up to £100 billion.   more...

Industry message is blunt

The Government's message to tradesmen not signed up to the Quality Mark scheme is simple: The public probably don't trust you.   more...

Networking pays, says report

Most business leaders believe networking has become more important in recent months as they tout for work against a background of economic uncertainty.   more...

Teens dream of careers

More than two-thirds of teenagers know what career they want to pursue and 36 per cent are confident they will be able to walk into their dream job.   more...

Must-see exhibition

Small businesses seeking information on cost-effective staff training shouldn't miss the Learning Pays! Skills Exhibition.   more...

Business win for students

A team of Sussex students have triumphed in a national business competition.   more...

The Argus Leisure

The Chalk Garden, Theatre Royal, Brighton, until March 8

Enid Bagnold wrote The Chalk Garden while she was living in Rottingdean during the Fifties and set the play in a seaside location very much like her home village.   more...

Dialogue of the Dogs, The Lighthouse, Brighton, until March 14

Two televisions are placed opposite each other. On one, slowed, stop-frame video footage of two dogs, one male and one female, plays.   more...

The Argus News

Mixed verdict on life in Sussex

Property prices, poor schools and a lack of outstanding pubs reduce quality of life in Sussex, according to a survey.   more...

Sticky problem for city cleaner

Brighton and Hove has been named the chewing gum capital of Europe by a man called in to clean up the mess.   more...

Bypass threat to homes

The spectre of homes being compulsorily purchased to make way for a Worthing and Lancing A27 bypass has surfaced again.   more...

Missing girl found in Peru

A schoolgirl who vanished, sparking an international search, has been found safe and well in Peru.   more...

Pair jailed after drugs swoop

Two dealers behind a sophisticated drugs racket have been jailed for a total of almost 20 years following a major police operation.   more...

Fireball death woman named

A woman who was engulfed in flames and burned to death was today named as Emma Gibson of Port Hall Road, Brighton.   more...

Stadium 'would create 600 jobs'

A community football stadium would create hundreds of jobs and help regenerate a deprived area, the Falmer inquiry heard today.   more...

Child porn arrests increase

The number of people arrested in Sussex on suspicion of downloading child pornography has risen.   more...

Whitehawk is next homes hot spot

With the help of a ten-year regeneration scheme, Whitehawk is set to become the next boom area of Brighton as even London buyers show an interest.   more...

Countryside body slams Gatwick expansion

The Council for the Protection of Rural England has joined the airport expansion debate.   more...

Hunt for library site ends

A site has been found for a modern library in Crawley after a search of more than ten years.   more...

Record grain haul to aid research

Botanists collected a record eight-and-a-half million seeds from a clutch of plants growing on a grass verge in Haywards Heath.   more...

Vandals on the rampage

More than 35 vehicles, shops and homes were damaged by vandals in Seaford during a wrecking spree   more...

Village hall is a lotto loser

Members of a West Sussex community were dismayed today after their bid for national lottery cash to renovate their village hall was rejected.   more...

City is gum capital of Europe

Brighton and Hove has been named the chewing gum capital of Europe by a man called in to clean up the mess.   more...

Swoops to reduce worker tragedies

Inspectors will be staging a week-long blitz on construction sites across Sussex next month.   more...

Mosque gun man jailed

A worshipper who tried to fire a gun at a gang who attacked him during a mosque prayer meeting has been jailed for four years.   more...

Finances examined in drug farm case

A man whose farm allegedly doubled as a £20 million drugs factory had twice gone bust in the past, a court heard.   more...

Thank God Blair is restraining Bush

At the 1997 General Election, I had the honour of being the constituency secretary for the Hove Labour Party.  more...

Want a house? Move to Wales

Cash-strapped families struggling to survive in Brighton and Hove are being offered the chance to start new lives - in Wales.   more...

Water bills set to rise

Water bills will go up across Sussex to pay for improvements to Southern Water's service.   more...

Rocker who proved hecklers wrong

Top rock drummer Pete Thomas will have the last laugh on the hostile Newhaven dockers who tried to jeer his first band off stage.   more...

Actor is soap's biggest baddie

Coronation Street serial killer Richard Hillman, played by Brighton actor Brian Capron, has been voted the top soap baddie of all time.   more...

Top Tory's call for clean-up

Conservative councillor Brian Oxley is calling for a clean up in Brighton and Hove.   more...

MPs to fight post office closures

Labour MP David Lepper is making a last-minute effort to stop three post offices from being closed.   more...

School needs £4,000 to hit jackpot

A school which has been fund-raising for more than a year is in a race against time to find £4,000 - or lose half a million.   more...

Family values

Hove MP Ivor Caplin is my MP but does not represent me in that he voted with the Government on the two divisions over Iraq.  more...

New deal on rent benefits

Brighton and Hove Council has accepted an offer to pilot a radical shake-up of housing benefit.   more...

The leaving question

Homes are in short supply in Brighton and Hove.   more...

Machine helps paralysis victims

Science fiction is becoming reality thanks to a pioneering mind machine which helps paralysed people communicate.   more...

Unbending

It was good of Richard W Symonds to reply (Letters, February 24) to my letter of appreciation of the help we received from the US during the Second World War.  more...

Brave bobbies

It was a freezing February day with the sea so cold many people would have become unconscious after only a few minutes in it.   more...

Nth crusade

The Government's association with the extremist Christian fundamentalists in the White House is causing the Labour Party enormous damage.  more...

You said it!

Nicholas Soames, the larger-than-life Conservative MP for Mid Sussex, is in trouble again.   more...

New fulcrum

Why war with Iraq? The influence the US government had with Saudi Arabia has long gone so the alternative is to turn its attention towards Saddam Hussein and Iraq with threats of war.  more...

Know well

The US is bullying, threatening, cajoling and bribing the weaker nations into accepting its political view of the world.  more...

Let's be frank

All this fuss and discord over a war with Iraq when there is a simple solution. We should declare war on and invade France.  more...

Long tradition

Police say they are "saddened" that Sussex Action For Peace did not negotiate with them about the protest in Brighton on Saturday.  more...

Tired of all these ...

Dirty streets, graffiti everywhere, drug-ridden, high-rise building plans, King Alfred fiasco, Medina House high-rise hell, West Pier, new stadium for the Seagulls fiasco, hotels turned into half-way houses, threat of violence everywhere, Black Rock, homophobia, no police on our streets, Saltdean Lido and so on and on and on.  more...

Loner knifed mum to death

An East Sussex man stabbed his elderly mother to death with a kitchen knife before gassing himself in her car in remote woodland.   more...

Lethal poison goes missing

Police today urged people to be on their guard after a large quantity of a deadly chemical was stolen from a cemetery in Eastbourne.   more...

Burner 'working by 2009'

An incinerator in Newhaven to burn rubbish from Brighton, Hove and East Sussex is expected to become operational in six years.   more...

Hunt for wine store knifeman

Police are hunting two men who stormed into the Thresher off-licence in Terminus Road, Eastbourne, and threatened staff with a knife.   more...

Bypass threat to homes

The spectre of homes being compulsorily purchased to make way for a Worthing and Lancing A27 bypass has surfaced again.   more...

Brave heroes' day of praise

A trio of policeman and a pier worker who rescued a mother and daughter from the sea in Bognor have been awarded for their bravery.   more...

£300 bill for road lines bungle

Bungling West Sussex highways bosses today apologised for spending £300 painting lines on a road - then digging it up.   more...

Protests at pubs' late opening bids

Dozens of people have protested at late licence bids by two Worthing town centre pubs.   more...

Woman's story in trial of father

A woman who says she was conceived when her mother was raped has given evidence in the trial of her father.   more...

Mosque gun man jailed

A worshipper who tried to fire a gun at a gang who attacked him during a mosque prayer meeting has been jailed for four years.   more...

Tory turns Commons air blue

Colourful MP Nicholas Soames made Parliamentary history when he interrupted an opponent with the word "b******s".   more...

Greece owes plane spotter £9,000

Plane spotter Christopher Wilson has still not received his £9,000 bail money back, three months after he was acquitted of spying-related charges.   more...

Woman pushed from moving car

A woman was assaulted and then pushed out of a moving car by her boyfriend.   more...

Villagers' lorry victory

Villagers have won their battle against plans to increase the volume of lorries using land earmarked for a Mid Sussex landfill site.   more...

Want a house? Move to Wales

Cash-strapped families struggling to survive in Brighton and Hove are being offered the chance to start new lives - in Wales.   more...

A history of public swearing

Nicholas Soames' outburst may be a first for Parliament but swearing in public and the media has become more common over the years.   more...

Lou Reed on Brighton festival bill

Rock legend Lou Reed, writer Alan Bennett, comedian Meera Syal and punk icon Patti Smith will headline Brighton Festival 2003, it was announced today.   more...

Loner knifed mum to death

A Sussex man stabbed his elderly mother to death with a kitchen knife before gassing himself in her car in remote woodland.   more...

Outlet scam gang spared jail

Trading standards officers are furious after a gang who fleeced gullible shoppers out of thousands walked free from court.   more...

Between You And Me, by Vanora Leigh

I had a lovely time at the weekend playing with my new toys. As soon as I'd taken them out of their boxes I got them working. Whirrrr ... Buzzzz ... Oh, it was exciting!   more...

Appeal hears of 'well-run' club

A judge has visited the site of a proposed seafront £1.5 million night club and heard how a similar venture runs without problems for residents.   more...

Quiet competition

After the news of the West Pier being given a lifeline, which I am glad has happened, perhaps David Biesterfield, director of the Noble Organisation, will keep quiet.  more...

Age of radio

Tony Aldridge is out of order ending Ambrose Harcourt's contract. Is Southern FM bothered only about dance music?  more...

Against the odds

What do you ladies and gentlemen who enjoy a little flutter think about the on-course bookies being priced off the racecourse?  more...

Warm welcome

Guests to my house are shown a notice in the hall.  more...

Do the continental? Not in the provinces

Brighton is supposed to be a trendy, open, happy, anything-goes and vibrant place. It was probably like this in the Sixties but one doubts it now.  more...

Global hunt for missing girl

Relatives on three continents are hunting for missing 15-year-old Micaela Page, who disappeared on Monday with her passport, red suitcase and £350.   more...

Wearing thin

As one of the promoters of the club night Endorphine Visions, I was fascinated to see that a woman was going to attend a Brighton nightclub wearing nothing but UV reactive paint as a protest against the imminent Gulf War II.  more...

Adult panto's fraught start

Organisers of an adult panto say their first night was ruined by heavy-handed theatre bosses who banned them from filming the performance.   more...

Safe to moan

Once again, a certain Portslade resident is allowed to use The Argus letters page to express his own jaundiced personal opinion of Sussex Police for his own personal agenda, whatever that is.  more...

Cheap trick

Some national newspapers have recently tried to claim refugees bring deadly diseases into the UK and the rise in HIV, Aids and TB cases is caused by immigrants.  more...

Ad infinitum

We have never batted an eyelid at the endless coachloads of tourists who come to Saltdean.  more...

Backing for MP's name-change bid

City council bosses are backing an MP's bid to get the name of his constituency changed.   more...

End of side one

I was very sorry to see that Mr Melody, Reg Leopold, has died aged 95 (February 28).  more...

Dog's last chance

A dog owner whose pet bit a member of the public has been told if it happens again the animal will be put down.   more...

The water babies of Worthing

Mums in the Amazon have known for centuries about the benefits of introducing babies to swimming. Now Worthing women are catching on too.   more...

Good news over Amber Alert

I am thrilled to hear the Amber Alert (Child Rescue Alert) scheme implemented by Sussex police is being seriously considered by two other forces, with a strong possibility of the scheme going regional within four months and national within six months.  more...

Why is pigeon lady special?

What is so special about the lady censured for feeding the pigeons that she should warrant a front-page article (March 1)?  more...

Inset days are important

"Inset" days (Keith Salvage, Letters, February 27) are taken out of teachers' holidays so children do not lose out on any schooling.  more...

A spell of campaigning

I notice the Brighton Lib Dems have selected a white witch to stand for them in the May elections (February 28).  more...

My night at 'worst hotel'

Just how bad could it be at a Brighton hotel just voted the worst in Britain? I checked in to find out.   more...

Greece owes plane spotter £9,000

Plane spotter Christopher Wilson has still not received his £9,000 bail money back, three months after he was acquitted of spying-related charges.   more...

The Argus Sentinel

Hart Beat, with Ian Hart

There are a group of youngsters in Worthing hell-bent on smashing the place up, regardless of whether the schools are on holiday or not.   more...

A wry look at Worthing

Sentinel attended the opening of the £4 million Angmering bypass and thought he was in for a soaking but the heavens fortunately failed to deliver.   more...

Bus pass change

More people are now eligible for bus passes after the Government lowered the age limit for men.   more...

Cattery plan set for approval

Plans to extend a cattery and replace a mobile home with a three-bedroom house look set to be approved, despite objections.   more...

Street drinking crackdown nears

A crackdown on anti-social street drinking in Worthing comes into force on April 9.   more...

Waste site warning

Part of Worthing that has been described as a dumping ground could soon be the location for a waste collection site.   more...

Walker hurt in unprovoked attack

A 22-year-old man suffered bruises to his face and torn ankle ligaments when he was assaulted in Rustington on Sunday March 2.   more...

Junior doctors' hours cut

The hours worked by junior doctors at Worthing Hospital are being cut.   more...

Breast care boost

The West Sussex Breast Care unit at Worthing Hospital is expanding its service.   more...

Council addresses minority needs

The needs of people from black and ethnic minority backgrounds are being addressed by Worthing Borough Council.   more...

Cars damaged in jealous outburst

A jealous ex-boyfriend caused damage costing hundreds of pounds when he took his frustration out on a row of parked cars.   more...

Museum to get revamp

A new restaurant and conference facility is taking shape at a countryside museum.   more...

Director' takes the chair

A film director will be quizzed on his work by movie lovers at a special event.   more...

Estate gets green light

A mini-housing estate can be constructed near a police custody centre used to process villains, planners have ruled.   more...

Snared by DNA

Police were able to catch a man using DNA evidence from blood left at two scenes of crime.   more...

Church in limbo

A church where the vicar quit in mysterious circumstances last summer still does not know whether it will get a replacement.   more...

Pre-school plan sparks protest

A shortage of pre-school places in Worthing has been brought sharply into focus.   more...

Hotel toasts bed victory

The Chatsworth Hotel has finally succeeded in a bid to convert a building nearby into staff accommodation.   more...

Drunk in victory

A football fan who got over-excited when his team won a cup has been bound over to keep the peace.   more...

Be a good sport

Worthing schoolchildren are needed to represent the town at the Sussex Youth Games this summer.   more...

Art studio go-ahead

A controversial art and design studio has been given the green light to open behind one of Worthing's most historic areas.   more...

The Argus Sport

Youth Athletics: Harris misses out on nationals

Scott Harris scored a shock victory in the Sussex Cross Country League at Bexhill, but missed out on a national place.   more...

Fighting talk from Coppell

Albion boss Steve Coppell has challenged his players to send a survival signal to their relegation rivals in tonight's crunch clash at Stoke.   more...

Comment: Ian Hart

Former Albion boss Barry Lloyd must drag on his cigarette and hanker for the good old days at the Goldstone when 10,000 people would scream for his dismissal!   more...

Dr Martens: Bagnall strike seals final spot

Crawley boss Francis Vines is confident he can mark his first season in charge with some silverware after Reds reached the League Cup Final last night.   more...

Dr Martens: Hastings' run ends

Hastings United's four-match unbeaten run in the premier division came to an end as they went down 1-0 at Bath City last night.   more...

Dr Martens: Priceless finish for Borough

A goal on the stroke of half time from John Price gave Eastbourne Borough another three points at Dartford in the eastern division.   more...

Ryman: Davies nets on Rocks debut

Bognor returned to winning ways with a 2-0 victory at Chertsey in division one south.   more...

Ryman: Rooks misery run continues

The misery goes on for Lewes as a 3-2 defeat at promotion rivals Bromley stretched their winless run to eight games.   more...

Matthew Clark: Hillians hit four

Just one game survived the weather in the County League last night and it was a cracker for Hillians.   more...

Youth Squash: Sussex pair are national champs

Rachel Willmott clinched her fifth British crown and Tom Pashley became a national champion for the first time at Manchester.   more...

Youth Football: Sussex dominate regional semis

Sussex schools are through to four south east regional semi-finals for the first time in the same year.   more...

Youth Swimming: Danny proves best in county

Danny Sivers proved he is the quickest breaststroker in Sussex at the second County Championship meet at Crawley.   more...

  
Restrict search to 5 March 2003