TWO of Brighton and Hove’s biggest secondary schools have no space for more children for the next two years, concerned parents were told today (Monday 8 March). The parents were told that Varndean School and Dorothy Stringer both lacked the space in their classrooms, corridors, toilets and canteen for a bulge class of 30 pupils each. Instead, parents said that 62 children faced travelling miles every day to and from their new secondary school on starting year 7 in September – a situation likely to be repeated next year. Four parents from the Dorothy Stringer and Varndean catchment asked Brighton and Hove City Council why it would not add extra classes so that children could go to school near their home.
Ryan Ludgate has been jailed for 30 months A BURGLAR who left a family devastated after he ransacked their home and stole irreplaceable mementos has been jailed for 30 months. Ryan Ludgate targeted the family home when he went on a 24-hour burglary spree breaking into properties near where he lived in Darlington. One of his heartbroken victims told Teesside Crown Court the impact his burglary is still having on her family months later. In a poignant victim personal statement, Sarah Harris told Ludgate how the family had been left traumatised after returning home to find clothes and personal belongings strewn around the place and sentimental items, including a watch belonging to her husband’s late father, stolen.
File photo A widow who had no close relatives was found dead at the bottom of the stairs after police forced their way into her home. Pamela Harris, 89, was due to be picked up for an appointment at an eye clinic by South Central Ambulance Service on November 18 last year, but paramedics called Thames Valley Police when they could not get an answer at her door in Widdenton View, Lane End. An inquest into Mrs Harris’s death at Buckinghamshire Coroner’s Court on Wednesday afternoon heard how PC Sophie Wright and her colleague forced entry into her house at around 1.30pm and tragically found her laying at the bottom of the stairs.