May/100
Lottery dream comes true for former mining town
The East Midlands town Newstead celebrated a £400,000 cash injection of lottery money to help revive the area.
Former mining town Newstead has been awarded money through a project called Village SOS. The scheme is ran by the Big Lottery Fund and the BBC.
The money will be put towards a ten year community plan which involves creating a country park on the site of a pit slag heap.
The scheme, titled Future Newstead, headed by Mick Leivers stated “It’s exciting times. As a community we worked our socks off to put ourselves in a good position to get lottery funding,” he added.
“Out of the selection process we were one of the most deprived villages in terms of finance and facilities.”
The nationwide scheme is supporting six projects, awarding money across the UK. Future Newstead will offer a variety of facilities including an eco-friendly resource centre, fishing lakes and music festival.
The development will spread across 220 acres of former colliery spoil heaps purchased in autumn last year that had been backed by an East Midlands Development Agency.
Mick Leivers is particularly positive about the development in fishing that could help in several ways.
“This was a really popular choice amongst local villagers.
“We will be providing training for young people interested in angling so we can perhaps professionalise some of the lakes around Nottinghamshire and provide, through fishing, a means for people to learn about their environment.”
A documentary
The Newstead SOS has been surrounded by much media inetrest. The village will be filmed by BBC cameras and a documentary is due to be screened in April 2011 to show how the scheme has changed the area.
Publicity surrounding the award is reaping benefitsWord of the award is already reaping benefits according the Mr Leivers.
“The number of volunteers we’ve had has been phenomenal. We set up a Facebook site and had 1600 members join within a matter of weeks. It’s obviously going to engage a lot of people.
“It’s all about the local community but also about bringing other people into the community to share our village and realise what a fantastic place Newstead really is.”
The community are backing the development 100% and believe it is a positive step towards Newsteads future. Tracey Sabin a local resident said: “The scheme is going to be a lifeline to the village. It’s going to provide Newstead with some level of pride that was taken away when the pit shut down [in 1987]. It’ll get the community alive and kicking again.”
Head of the East Midlands Region for the Big Lottery Fund, Mick McGrath, echoed the locals enthusiasm saying, “This Village SOS award will kick start a revival in the former mining village of Newstead, helping to secure the future of the community by putting power into the hands of the villagers.
“I hope that their innovative ideas, which will bring tourists to the area as well as teach positive activities to disengaged young people, will inspire others across the UK to reinvigorate their rural communities.”
Nov/094
Miners urged to have the VWF settlements reasssed
Are you one of the estimated 50,000+ claimants who were mis-advised or “short-changed” in relation to a claim for coal health compensation?
Following analysis of the administration of the compensation schemes for vibration white finger, a number of potential areas have been identified where solicitors have not properly advised claimants, or have undersettled claims.
You will probably not know the answers to these.
Let us assess this for you FREE OF CHARGE, you may be entitled to more compensation.
Oct/090
Miners rally for legal action against legal adviser
Hundreds of injured former coal miners are being rallied to sue their legal adviser in the first coordinated legal action for alleged under-settling of government compensation claims, it can be revealed.
Gravitas law are gathering potential claimants to sue their former legal adviser for negligence. It Is alleged that the legal adviser instructed miners not to lodge claims for a potentially lucrative type of damages, meaning that miners received less compensation than they were owed.
It is alleged that thousands of former miners across the UK are collectively owed hundreds of millions of pounds for under-settled claims – far more than they are owed for fees that some legal advisers deducted from compensation awards.
He said: ‘We are talking about reclaiming money that people need in order to live. There could be more group actions following on from this one.’ He is currently looking for a lawyer to take on the case.
Calls arre being amplified to the Department of Energy and Climate Change, which has responsibility for the compensation schemes, to conduct a full investigation into the alleged under-settlement of miners’ claims by solicitors and claims handlers. Earlier this year, David Anderson, Labour MP for Blaydon and chair of the All-Party Coalfield Communities Group, called for an investigation at a meeting with David Kidney, junior minister at the DECC.
Aug/0926
Miner’s Knee claims - New advice on making a claim
The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Yvette Cooper, today said that coal miners suffering from miner’s knee should be able to claim the newly available Industrial Disablement Benefit. As the condition is compounded by repetition of a period of time, the criteria for claiming is that the miner has worked as a miner for 10 or more years.
As of 13th July miners who now have osteoarthritis of the knee can now also claim.
However, unlike with Vibration White Finger (VWF) - a common cause for claim and complaint in the 90’s, the DWP are now recommending that claimants contact Jobcentre Plus website directly to find out if they can claim. Consumer Help has reservations over the effectiveness of going through a Government body to make a claim that will ultimately be coming out of the Government kitty.
Would it be wise to trust another Government body? Will they act on your behalf in the same stubborn way as a solicitor would? Will your claim be settled as quickly and efficiently as with a solicitor? These are all the questions we have been asking ourselves since the story broke earlier this month.
At the same time, we can also appreciate why the DWP are recommending going through the Jobcentre Plus. “In 2008 Jim Beresford and Douglas Smith, of Doncaster-based Beresfords Solicitors, were struck off for taking millions of pounds of compensation payouts given to sick miners.” Source: BBC News
Jul/090
Job Centre Plus Miners Knee
Tell us which solicitor you used dealt with previously for your miners claims and we will contact you right back with details of how you can make a claim for Osteoarthritis (Miners Knee), if your previous miners claim was wrongly undersettled, and anything else you could be entitled to. You do not even need to have made a claim previously to be entitled to receive compensation.
Coal miners in the UK who worked in atrocious conditions in the late 70’s and 80’s should receive more compensation. It was reported earlier this month that coal miners with 10 or more years service can claim Industrial Disablement Benefit if they are one or more of a range of medical conditions affecting their quality of life. Conditions such as: Miners Knee, Osteoarthritis of the knee and Vibration White Finger are all included in the criteria for claiming this new benefit.
Job Centre Plus Miners Knee claims are set to go through the roof - and rightly so. Local experts in mining hotspots from times-gone-by are predicting that news of this new beneifit will spread like wild fire through the mining communities and the criteria for claiming should be met by the vast majority given that mining was a lifetime career for most.
On top of this, compensation for the new medical conditions which are now being linked back to the work conditions should be increased or at least separated from previous claims for VWF or anything else. On top of the basic right to claim, the fact that miners were receiving less compensation for their earlier claims due to fraudulent solicitors taking part of that compensation. Now, the Job Centre Plus are emphasising that all ex miners should use them to ‘apply’ rather than ‘make’ a claim.
 |
 |
