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Quiet day in the office? In need of some inspiration to fill that slot on the features page? Check out our story ideas here and see if you can take news developments from around the UK and localise them for your patch.

If you would like to share a story idea with our readers, you can email us at [email protected] and we will upload it to the site.

Green graves could be the future

Recycling has been the buzz word for years but the City of London Cemetery and Crematorium is taking things to the next level. A typical grave can hold up to six bodies so the cemetery is contacting certain families to

Helping to tackle the demons

A week doesn’t go by without a new study coming out telling us what is and isn’t good for us to eat and drink or which activities will or won’t harm us. But what are the realities for people battle

Possibly preventing something premature

Premature births are on the up in Scotland by 16pc since 1980, according to new research. Much of the increase has been linked to obesity-related diabetes, say scientists from Edinburgh University. Is this a geographical problem affecting certain regions? What’s

Teaching primary about the bottom line

Would-be pitchers to the Dragons’ Den should be getting much younger. One of the stars of the hit BBC show Peter Jones told the launch of a national enterprise scheme that primary school children should be taught how to run

Giving drugs to cut crime

Using the public purse to prescribe drugs to drug addicts as a means of cutting crime may cause some to scoff. But a pilot project at a London hospital appears to have shown dramatic results in its area in terms

Voter apathy taken to extremes

Voter apathy rather than bad weather is often cited as reasons for a poor turn out on election day. But how about Harrow Council’s attempts to canvass the opinions of locals as an example of people simply not giving a

Being a butcher for all seasons

Small, independent businesses are often the first to suffer in a recession. And some reports now suggest that traditional butchers are closing at a rate of 23 per month during 2009. By contrast, there has been an upsurge in classes

Sweetie shop stop-off en route to school

Almost a quarter of seven to 14-year-olds are chomping their way through junk food on their way to school. A new survey by cereal maker Kellogg’s also suggests that around £646m is being spent per year on biscuits, crisps and

Bored but are they boozing?

The devil will find work for idle hands to do – and one alcohol charity is worried that bored teenagers will hit the bottle over the summer holidays. Drinkaware has created ‘The Ultimate Day’ – a competition which challenges teenagers

There's warning signs to be spotted

Ignorance is bliss so the saying goes but perhaps not when it comes to matters of personal health. A worrying new survey from Cancer Research UK suggests that one in seven people cannot name a single symptom of the disease.

Tackling the rise of the tasers

Deployment of tasers by police increased by 25pc in the first quarter of 2009 compared with the final three months of 2008. New figures show they were actually discharged 62 times during the period – a rise of 56pc. The

Helping out with hand-me-downs

New research from Save the Children and Family Action suggests that families across the UK are struggling to buy school uniforms and essential educational items for their children. Around a quarter of those surveyed, earning £30,000 or less, said they

Losing weight – there's an app for that

Love them or loath them, Apple iPhones are very popular and generally everywhere you turn. The marketing and technology companies have had a field day with some 65,000 applications being created since the phone first hit shelves. Around 1,500 of

Pub, pint, peanuts, parcel, parting

The plight of the postal service, and particularly small post offices, has been well-documented in recent years. Meanwhile, the local pub is also struggling during the recession as people stay in or flock to cheap drinks promotions in town centre

Take inspiration from this failure

A world record attempt to photograph the highest number of bikini-clad women in one place proved a miserable failure. The bid on an Essex beach attracted just 42 women – a figure somewhat shy of the current record which stands

Taking Memory Lane to court

Nostalgia features and Memory Lane slots have been a staple of the local paper for decades. But now they can take a darker and more sinister twist. Website Ancestry.co.uk has published details of more than a million court trials from