There were red faces all round at the Bath Chronicle during last week’s firefighters’ strike, when in a bid to beat the rivals the paper dispatched the aptly-named reporter Clare Byrnes (pronounced Burns) to follow a Green Goddess the first time it was called into action.
When the call came the intrepid Clare jumped into the newsroom’s pool car and set off in hot pursuit. Unfortunately nobody had filled up the petrol tank – and 100 yards up the road the car ran out of fuel.

Sentinel staff helped raise more than £1,200 for the Trust with a sponsored 24-hour pool marathon.
Head of news Martin Tideswell, who organised the event, said: “We had a great time and visits from family, friends and colleagues helped to keep our morale high.”

The former wife of Adscene newspaper chain founder Harry Lambert has been granted one of the largest divorce settlements in British legal history, when her £7.5m award was increased to £10m at the Court of Appeal.
Shan Lambert told the court that she made an equal contribution to her former husband’s business and was entitled to half its £20m valuation. Its decision was revealed last week.

One of the Evening Chronicle’s most successful promotions has ended – after three million Toon Heroes cards, outlining facts and figures of Newcastle United players past and present were given to readers with the paper for four weeks.
Supporters were also given a glossy wallchart on which to mount all 40 cards – 5,000 were printed but due to demand the Chronicle was forced to reprint a further 4,000.
More than 2,000 readers called a hotline or sent an text message requesting more cards to complete their collection and around 800 readers attended a Swap Shop at St. James’ Park.

Readers of the Bristol Evening Post have voted firmly against the firefighters’ dispute.
Of the 1,220 people who called the telephone poll on Friday, 847 readers said the crews should stay at work while their pay claim was decided, with 347 backing the industrial action.

Yorkshire’s ‘food champions’ are set to be honoured by the York Evening Press, which wants to highlight producers’ work against the odds in recent years.
It is joining forces with the Yorkshire Agricultural Society to spearhead Eat Local, to explain to people all about the best produce the region has to offer.

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