Category: UK News

Categories
UK News

Removal from work chat viewed as ‘less favourable treatment’ | UK | News UK News

Removing staff from work WhatsApp group chats while they are on maternity leave is discrimination, ruled an employment hearing.

Asha Lad took Lily Head Dental Practice Sales Limited to a tribunal after a male colleague refused her access to the chat.

The firm’s Chris Mayor said he felt there was “no reason” for her to have access.

Ms Law said it made her feel isolated.

Judge Rob Childe said her removal was “viewed as less favourable treatment” for someone on maternity leave.

A hearing to decide her compensation will be held at a later date.

More about this article: Read More
Source: www.express.co.uk
This notice was published: 2024-01-20 10:14:00

Categories
UK News

Former Belgrave House in Sheffield city centre could be converted into flats UK News


An iconic building in Sheffield city centre could be the next one in line to be converted into homes as a planning application is awaiting a decision.

More about this article: Read More
Source: www.thestar.co.uk
This notice was published: 2024-01-20 11:14:59

Categories
UK News

Lily Mills to compete in Australian Open tennis championship UK News

Tennis star Lily Mills was given the cash by Islington Council after qualifying for the grand slam tournament’s ‘Persons with Intellectual Impairments’ championships.

The 23-year-old athlete, who trains at the Islington tennis centre in Holloway, is one of eight contenders in the women’s three-day championships at Melbourne, starting on January 26.

Lily was diagnosed as a baby with meningitis and septicaemia, as well as the rare condition galactosemia, which occurs in just one in 45,000 people.

These early complications left her with cognitive impairments such as learning disabilities, short-term memory loss, poor coordination and a tremor.

But her passion for tennis overcame co-ordination problems, having first picked up a tennis racket when she was just five.

She has since amassed trophies and medals at regional, national and international levels.

So the council decided to support her fundraiser when they heard her story and agreed to help pay for the trip for the Australian championships.

“This has made Lily’s dream a reality,” her mother Tallulah Bayley said. “The opportunity means the world to her. We are overjoyed to be heading to Melbourne and are grateful to the tennis community which has rallied round Lily to make this possible.”

Lily’s dedication is seen by the local authority as sport being used to promote inclusivity in line with its own leisure department’s mission, so it has picked up the tabs to support Lily on her “remarkable journey”.

Cllr Nurullah Turan, executive member for social care on Islington Council, said: “Lily’s journey stands as a symbol of inclusivity in sports.

“We were inspired by her commitment to tennis when we heard her story as we are determined to create a more equal society where everyone can enjoy the mental, physical and social benefits of staying active.”

The ‘All Abilities’ championships recognise those with disabilities such as vision, hearing, mobility, sensory and intellectual to take part in the Australian Open in a secure environment. They share the same hallowed courts with starts like Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Naomi Osaka and Angelique Kerber.

Some 40 players from 14 countries competed at the first event last year alongside the world’s top players in the Australian Open Grand Slam.

More about this article: Read More
Source: www.times-series.co.uk
This notice was published: 2024-01-20 07:00:00

Categories
UK News

Plans for new beach huts and 'retail pods' in South Shields are given the green light UK News


Plans for the new seafront leisure facilities have been given the green light by council development bosses

More about this article: Read More
Source: www.chroniclelive.co.uk
This notice was published: 2024-01-20 06:00:00

Categories
UK News

Man leaves people ‘crying with laughter’ at perfect revenge on noisy neighbour | UK | News UK News

A man has left people in stitches at his genius revenge on his noise neighbours. In a video captioned “getting my lick back. If I can’t sleep y’all can’t”, he can be seen to grab a table with wheels.

He then lifts the four-legged frame over his head and started banging the ceiling with it.

Admittedly with little regard for whether or not he scratched the paintwork, the man proceeded to drag the frame along the ceiling, making a terrible scratching sound.

TikTok users were left in stitches over the man’s novel tactic. One user said that his ploy had her “wheezing”, while another said it had her “hollering”.

A third said: “I wanna do this so bad.”

Recognising the pain that can be inflicted by the upstairs neighbour on those below, another TikTok user said: “I am the upstairs neighbour, so I try to be as quiet as I can because I once was the downstairs neighbour.”

Elsewhere, more neighbour drama unfolded on Reddit with a young couple renovating their new home and garden worried a “grumpy neighbour” may cause trouble after she rowed back on agreeing to them building a new privacy fence.

They said they had just moved into their first house two weeks ago and that most of the people in adjacent properties were older and retired.

The new homeowner explained they had plans to build a sauna in the garden and wanted a higher fence as they have a pet. They added that the previous owner had been “a hell of a gardener” and those living nearby had said they enjoyed looking at the well-kept backyard.

However, after getting started on their new fence and having some friends over at the weekend during the day to help, the person said conflict reared its ugly head, writing: “Now that it (the fence) is in, one of the neighbors freaked out via text – ‘actually, no one with property touching yours or in view of your yard is happy about this fence’.

“She said she’s more upset about us ‘building a hot tub’ and that loud music, loud voices, and partying will make spending time in her yard not enjoyable.”

Taking issue with their neighbours assessment and grasp of the facts, the Reddit poster added: “Dear reader, there is no hot tub being built, and we have not thrown any parties, we have have lived here for two weeks.

“I can think of some days when we have had a couple friends over to help with yardwork/painting/other DIY stuff, but each time it was on a weekend, during the day, and we weren’t playing any music, yelling, or anything like that.”

More about this article: Read More
Source: www.express.co.uk
This notice was published: 2024-01-20 05:30:00

Categories
UK News

DPD customer service chatbot swears and calls company ‘worst delivery firm’ | Science & Tech News

DPD has disabled its artificial intelligence (AI) online chatbot after a customer was able to make the bot swear and write a poem criticising the parcel delivery company.

Ashley Beauchamp, 30, was trying to track down a missing parcel when he said he was going “round and round in circles” trying to get any sort of information from the company’s chatbot.

“It couldn’t give me any information about the parcel, it couldn’t pass me on to a human, and it couldn’t give me the number of their call centre. It didn’t seem to be able to do anything useful,” Mr Beauchamp, from London, told Sky News.

“I was getting so frustrated at all the things it couldn’t do that I tried to find out what it actually could do – and that’s when the chaos started.”

The classical musician first asked the bot to tell him a joke, and soon, with minimal prompts, it was happily writing poems about DPD’s “unreliable” service.

CHATDPD. Pic: Ashley Beauchamp
Image:
It didn’t take much for the bot to swear while helping a customer. Pic: Ashley Beauchamp

“After a few more prompts it was happy to swear, too,” Mr Beauchamp said.

Sharing the wacky conversation on X, Mr Beauchamp said the bot replies to one message saying: “F*** yeah! I’ll do my best to be as helpful as possible, even if it means swearing.”

In another part of the exchange, the bot calls itself a “useless chatbot that can’t help you”.

CHATDPD. Pic: Ashley Beauchamp
Image:
Pic: Ashley Beauchamp

The online post quickly went viral, gaining more than 15,000 likes and one million views in 24 hours.

DPD told Sky News that the customer service chatbot had suffered from an “error” after a system update and it has now been disabled.

“We are aware of this and can confirm that it is from a customer service chatbot. In addition to human customer service, we have operated an AI element within the chat successfully for a number of years,” the company said in a statement.

“An error occurred after a system update…

More information about this article Read More
Source: news.sky.com
This notice was published: 2024-01-20 00:00:00

Categories
UK News

UK rail tickets to see discounts in Great British Rail Sale UK News

The Department for Transport has announced that rail ticket prices will be slashed on many routes over six weeks in a week-long sale.

Passengers will have from January 23 to 29 to claim up to 50% off selected Advance and Off-Peak rail tickets, through the Great British Rail Sale.

“The return of the Great British Rail Sale is good news for passengers, following the success of the previous sale which saw passengers benefit from around £7m in savings on their travel costs,” Transport Secretary Mark Harper said.

Times Series: The Great British Rail Sale begins January 23. ( Lauren Hurley/PA)The Great British Rail Sale begins January 23. ( Lauren Hurley/PA) (Image: Lauren Hurley/PA)

He added: “With discounts on more than a million tickets, there’ll be plenty of opportunity to connect with friends and family and explore great destinations across the country – I hope passengers make the most of this sale and choose to travel by rail.”

Journeys on thousands of popular routes in England and Wales will be included in the sale, the Department for Transport has confirmed.

There will also be discounted tickets for cross-border trips into Scotland, for journeys taking place between January 30 and March 15 too. 

Jacqueline Starr, Chief Executive of the Rail Delivery Group said: “Train travel is the greenest way to explore our towns and cities as well as connect with your family and friends because nothing beats being there in person for those special moments.

She continued: “Following the success of the Great British Rail Sale in 2022, we are really excited that it’s coming back, and customers will be able to once again purchase over a million Advance ticket fares starting on 23rd January 2024 and enjoy what rail has to offer.”

Popular journeys passengers could claim savings on tickets for include:

  • Portsmouth to Penzance – was £43 now* £21
  • Birmingham to Bristol – was £30.60 now £15.30
  • Manchester to Leeds – was £8.60 now £4.30
  • Leicester to Sheffield – was £7.30 now £3.60

Sale tickets will start to become available from midnight on Tuesday, January 23.

The Rail Delivery Group will host a central webpage helping customers find the best deals, and tickets can also be found on all ticket retailer websites, for journeys taking place between January 30 and March 15.

It is important to note that there is only a limited number of tickets are available, and no further sale tickets will go on offer once they are sold out.

Recommended reading

Additionally, operators are not offering sale tickets on days where their services might be impacted by the strikes announced by ASLEF on 15 and 18 January 2024.

The first Great British Rail Sale in 2022 saw passengers save around £7m on rail tickets and encouraged around 70,000 adults who hadn’t travelled by train since the pandemic to take a trip, the Great British Railways Transition Team (GBRTT) estimated.

The Government and industry are therefore launching a second Great British Rail Sale to save passengers money and get more people using the UK’s railways.

More about this article: Read More
Source: www.times-series.co.uk
This notice was published: 2024-01-20 00:01:00

Categories
UK News

Energy experts settle whether you should leave your heating on all day or use it sparingly UK News


Is it better for your wallet to be frugal with your gas and electricity, or to keep it running constantly?

More about this article: Read More
Source: www.chroniclelive.co.uk
This notice was published: 2024-01-19 20:47:52

Categories
UK News

Post Office scandal: Political insider demands ‘more prisons built’ to house senior bosses | UK | News UK News

Kelvin MacKenzie, a former newspaper editor and conservative columnist, laid into the latest revelations in the Post Office scandal.

Taking to X, formerly known as Twitter, Mr MacKenzie said that Britain would “have to build more prisons to house all the Fujitsu and Post Office senior staff”.

This comes after Paul Patterson, a senior executive of Fujitsu, admitted that staff at the Japanese company knew of bugs in the Horizon software.

Between 1999 and 2015, the Post Office privately prosecuted hundreds of sub-postmasters and post-mistresses based on Fujitsu’s faulty Horizon computer software.

More than 900 were prosecuted over claims they were stealing from the Post Office – but the missing money was actually due to errors in the Horizon software.

The hard-hitting columnist also urged authorities to speed up compensation to the hundreds of innocent victims.

He said: “This is incredible. Paul Patterson, the European boss of Fujitsu has just told the judge led inquiry that the tech giant knew from 1999 – and passed on to the Post Office – the fact that there were multiple glitches in the Horizon software.

“And he said the fact that the bugs were not included in the witness statements during the multiple court cases against the sub-postmasters was ‘shameful’.

“We are going to have to build more prisons to house all the Fujitsu and Post Office senior staff who will be going to jail before this scandal ends.

“Notice that even the Fujitsu bosses have washed their hands of their old colleagues.

“And can we please, please speed up the compensation payments to the innocent. It’s the least that can be done.”

Giving evidence in person for the first time to the Post Office Horizon IT inquiry, Mr Patterson said staff knew about bugs and glitches in the software as far back as 1999.

The director of the Japanese firm’s Europe arm said the firm had “clearly let society down, and the sub-postmasters down”.

Earlier this week, he said he was “truly sorry” for Fujitsu’s role in what he described as an “appalling miscarriage of justice”.

Fujitsu has said it plans to compensate those wronged in the Post Office scandal.

The scandal was brought back into focus following the release of the ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office.

The Government has also announced a new law to exonerate victims.

However, only 93 wrongful convictions have been overturned.

Thousands are still waiting for compensation settlements more than 20 years on.

The global chief executive of Fujitsu, Takahito Tokita, also apologised for the firm’s part in the scandal earlier this week.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Mr Tokita said: “This is a big issue, which Fujitsu takes very seriously.”

More about this article: Read More
Source: www.express.co.uk
This notice was published: 2024-01-19 20:50:00