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Hull Daily Mail
June 21, 2006 Wednesday
HEADLINE: Free guide makes public transport easy
East Riding: People are being encouraged to jump on a bus or train with the help of a new guide launched this week.
All 145,000 households in the East Riding are being sent a copy of the public transport guide. The East Riding Council booklet lists every bus, train and community transport service that serves towns and villages.
The 170-page guide includes contact details for nearly 100 taxi operators, numbers for transport information phone lines and organisations such as the Yorkshire Coast Community Rail Partnership.
Councillor Jonathan Owen, the authority's portfolio holder for public transport, said: "The success of the guide will depend on it being updated regularly, which will be done and paid for mainly through advertising.
"I also welcome the inclusion of details of the community bus services so valued and necessary in our rural areas."
David Boden, the council's passenger services manager, said: "If more people are to use public transport, they need to have easy access to information on the services available.
"In urban areas where buses are frequent, finding out information is not difficult. However, in rural areas such as the East Riding accurate details of service times are essential." The council plans to send out a new edition twice a year, with the next one hitting doormats in November.
Anyone who has not received their transport guide can get a copy by calling (01482) 395525 or e-mailing public.transport @eastriding.gov.uk
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21, 2006 Wednesday
HEADLINE: Driving home drink message
BYLINE: Sarah Harker
DATELINE: Warrington.
AS football fever gathers momentum, Warrington residents should soon be able to spot the town's very own World Cup taxi navigating its way through the streets.
The taxi is covered in messages promoting safe drinking throughout the World Cup season.
Warrington's Primary Care Trust, the borough council and Cheshire Police have joined forces to pass on the message that if you are going to drink, enjoy it but don't overdo it!
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This is Worcestershire
June 21, 2006 Wednesday
HEADLINE: Drug tests for drivers
DATELINE: Redditch
ALL Redditch taxi drivers will now have to take mandatory drug tests if they want to secure their licences and jobs.
Last Wednesday, Redd-itch Council's executive committee also agreed to make compulsory medical examinations for taxi drivers more stringent.
Previously, drivers could go to any medical practitioner to be checked but now they must go to one of two town GPs chosen by the council. The two earmarked for the job are from Studley and Smallwood health centres.
Any applicant or driver who fails the medical examination due to traces of banned or illegal substances will be refused a licence and will then not be able to reapply for a licence for at least six months.
If the driver fails the examination due to a medical condition he will be refused a licence until he can demonstrate to the medical practitioner that he has recovered or is no longer suffering from the condition. After the initial examination, drivers must get a full examination every five years.
Councillor Bill Hartnett, who sits on the executive committee, said: "This will go a long way to reassuring the travelling public they will be safe when using Redditch taxis.
"I was so pleased to hear Redditch Taxi Association was also in favour of this new policy."
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Yorkshire Evening Post
June 21, 2006
HEADLINE: Man mountain: Meet Leeds's tallest man...at 7ft 3in!
SOURCE: Yorkshire Evening Post
By Alison Bellamy
He is the Leeds teenager who puts giant England striker Peter Crouch in the shade.
Chris Lister, known as Stretch to his friends, has an appropriate nickname, as the 7 FEET 3 INCH teenager is one of the tallest men in Britain - and only 6 inches behind the world's tallest man.
Student Chris, 18, from Armley, says that being extra tall does have its perks especially when it comes to getting chatted up: Whenever I go out, I get swamped by people. They always ask me the same old questions; how tall are you? What is your shoe size; how old are you; is it hard to get clothes and is your dad tall?
I cannot get on public transport and I can't fit in a normal car. I haven't been on a plane for years, the last time was when I was 11, and they put me in an exit seat even then. He takes a size 18 shoe and cannot find clothes to fit him. All the doors in his house have been altered so he does not hit his head and he has an extra long bed, which is specially made.
At his birth doctors were alerted to a problem as he was two feet long. For years through childhood they carried out tests to determine what the condition might be. As a toddler he looked like a five-year-old and when his mum pushed him, people used to stop and ask her what he was still doing in a pram.
Once, at the doctors, he was 18 months old and the doctor asked him How are you feeling, what is wrong? she thought he was about five years old, said mum Anita. Chris said: I am registered disabled, but the doctors are not sure what my disability is caused by. It is a mix between giantism and something else. When I fill out forms and they ask for my disability, I just write extra tall. Chris is desperate to pass his driving test but cannot find anyone who will give him lessons as he won't fit in a standard car.
He loves tinkering with engines and motorbikes in his spare time. He longs to be a mechanic but found that lying under cars would not be good for him. Now he studies computers at college but has trouble sitting for a long time on a desk chair.
Mum Anita, 44, said: No matter how big he gets, he will always be my baby. He is my only child and copes very well with it all, and although we all have a laugh about his height, it is difficult to live with. We have just had all the doors in our house altered and he has to have an extra long bed, which is 7 and a half feet long, it costs up to £ 1,000 for his bed, but I imagine he will soon be growing out of that.
I am 5ft 4ins and his dad is 6ft 2ins tall. He is very popular, his phone never stops ringing. The girls love him. She said he has a hearty appetite and could eat a loaf of bread while waiting for his tea. He also needs lots of sleep and cannot stand for long periods of time, as the weight on his legs is too much.
Chris doesn't have a girlfriend at the moment, but is always looking out for the right person: Being smaller than me isn't really a problem. I don't go out to pubs and clubs much as I just get so much attention, it's impossible to get a drink. If I go into Leeds shopping I have to get a big taxi for my long legs.
At 16, Chris was 6ft 7ins tall and he is still growing. Men grow until they are at least 21. At the age of four, he took a size four shoe, and has gone up a size every year since.
When he started at West Leeds High School, they thought he was a sixth former. He struggles with everyday items such as the kitchen sink and fridge, and can hardly fit into the bath, but an extra-high shower has been fitted.
Buying trousers is difficult. Chris goes to Freeport Centre at Castleford, the only place he can buy shoes to fit him and they also have extra-long trousers. He finds the internet useful in tracking down clothes.
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