The Formby Times was foiled in its bid to use the Freedom of Information Act to find out about phone mast planning applications.
The paper was told that the request for details regarding current mast sites in Formby, as well as planning applications which had not been passed, did not fall within the terms of the act, as the information was already in the public domain. Officials pointed out that a little-known mast register already existed.

A newspaper worker has recalled the moment she spoke to the infamous “Wearside Jack”, in the news again at the heart of the Yorkshire Ripper hoax calls case.
Detectives are ready to question a suspect on perverting the course of justice, but Lancashire Evening Post receptionist remembers taking a call from a man who said, “I’m Jack”, the same as the famous hoax call, and started to boast of his crimes.
She said: “When I heard the Wearside Jack tape played on the news I remembered it was the same voice. Police came to interview me after I took the call to ask me about it.”

West Briton sports writer Richard Youle has taken the plunge and got himself some thermo-therapy. For an hour-and-a-half his chakra points were covered in hot and cold stones, his energy channels cleared and his circulation retuned.
He told readers: “As the minutes passed I relaxed more and more. After about an hour, my foot, which Therese was massaging, disappeared, or at least seemed to. It felt like it was floating about 15 feet rather than six feet away. The rest of my body was happily numb.”

A chronically ill Moldovan teenager has thanked readers of the Express & Echo for helping her to get life-saving medical treatment in Exeter.
Sixteen-year-old Nadia Vladica needed £2,232 for her trip to treat a serious blood disorder. The Echo’s coverage also helped speed her visa application through.