News | Page 22

A recent report by Lloyds TSB paints a fairly bleak picture as far as the South West’s private sector economy is concerned. According to the Lloyds TSB South West PMI report, the area recorded a significant decrease last month and jobs were lost in the process.

In this day and age when many of those who still afford a holiday abroad typically opt for Internet-based travel services, it’s really not a surprise that most travel giants are in real trouble, the latest to publicly show its woes being UK travel group Thomas Cook, who has revealed that they’ll have to cut a whopping 2,500 jobs across the UK and close 195 of their stores in the process.

One of Devon’s biggest private employers is to lose the majority of its jobs, it was revealed this week. More than 100 of those jobs are expected to be axed at the Buckfast site of Axminster Carpets.

Forest of Dean engineering company Versarien is set for a massive expansion, as it plans to start trading on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) of the London Stock Exchange in order to get required funding. The company has developed a heat transfer copper for use in cooling systems in computing and power condition equipment, that apparently manages to seriously reduce the dangers of overheating.

Production at a Swindon car plant is being scaled back with staff now working single shifts. The move from double to single day shifts is taking place at Car Plant Two on the site at South Marston.

There are plans to convert the old blue toilet block in central Frome into an art café. The building presently contains a series of glass blocks containing historic local artefacts, known as the Singers Links, which were created by local artist Helga Watkins-Baker.

A Falmouth mum is in danger of being imprisoned after she allegedly failed to make sure her three children were going to school. An arrest warrant has been issued for Claudia Jane Ward, of Meadowbank Road.

A 200m exclusion zone was put in place around a farm in Tavistock due to fears there were acetylene cylinders inside the buildings.

A well-known alleyway in Portishead has been compared to a toilet because of all the rubbish dumped there. Bob Bull said he was upset with dog mess being left in the thoroughfare, which runs between The Deans and West Hill.

The Wiltshire workers who are being made redundant by Honda will leave their posts by the end of April.

A man attempted twice to break into a Coleford pub. He used items including a concrete block to gain access to the building in Market Place early on Wednesday but was ultimately unsuccessful.

BBC Radio Bristol’s 104.6 FM plus other digital radio and television channels in the south-western area have been disrupted by damage to the Bath transmitter. The fire in three sheds at the site in Bathampton resulted in a power cut.