GEORGE TAVERN’ CAMPAIGN SCENTS VICTORY...NEGATIVE EQUITY COULD HIT POST-2012 HOPES...GUN WARF PROTESTERS FIRE SALVO AT PLANS...RECYCLE’ SAFETY HAZARD, WARNS FIRE CHIEF...SHOPKEEPER HANDS IN KNIVES STOCK TO COPS

'GEORGE TAVERN' CAMPAIGN SCENTS VICTORY

A CAMPAIGN backed by showbiz celebrities Kate Moss, Amy Winehouse and Sir Ian McKellen to preserve the future of the listed George Tavern in the Commercial-road looks set for victory. Town planning officers are urging Tower Hamlets councillors to reject an application tomorrow night (Wed) by Swan Housing to demolish Stepney's nightclub next door to build a block of flats. The application is being heard at 7.30pm.

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NEGATIVE EQUITY COULD HIT POST-2012 HOPES

VAST tracts of the London Olympic site could be trapped in 'negative equity' and left as a grim ghost town for years after the 2012 Games, London Development Agency's Olympic Legacy director Tom Russell has conceded. Taxpayers may have bought much of the Stratford site at the top of the property market. But now plummeting land values brought on by the international credit crunch have triggered fears that massive regeneration plans may have to be put 'on hold.'

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GUN WARF PROTESTERS FIRE SALVO AT PLANS

FAMILIES and businesses at the historic Gun Wharf by East London's Victoria Park are furious over proposals for a housing development on the site of a First World War arms factory. Developers want to throw up 150 new homes on land between the Hertford Union Canal and Old Ford Road in Bow, where 20 small businesses would be turfed out.

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'RECYCLE' SAFETY HAZARD, WARNS FIRE CHIEF

A FIRE chief is calling for tightening up of the practice of leaving paper outside flats in tower blocks because of a fire safety hazard. It follows a blaze when paper was set alight by vandals at the eight-storey Lister House in Whitechapel at 1.45am last Friday. Watch manager Richard Welch says tenants are putting themselves at risk leaving paper on their doorsteps.

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SHOPKEEPER HANDS IN KNIVES STOCK TO COPS

A SHOPKEEPER handed in his entire stock of 300 lock-knives to police in a personal stand against knife crime. Nadeem Nasir approached officers on patrol in Barking-road, East Ham, and asked them to take away his entire stock. Police are urging other shopkeepers to follow Nadeem's stand.

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CREWS RESCUE UNCONSCIOUS MAN IN BLAZE

A MAN lying unconscious in his home was rescued by fire crews battling their way through his blazing maisonette to reach him. A neighbour three floors above raised the alarm as smoke began filling the corridors of Kingsham House in Bethnal Green at 6.30am last Friday.

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HOSPITAL BOOKINGS STAFF ARE DISCIPLINED

STAFF in charge of booking patients' appointments at the Royal London Hospital have been disciplined for recording incorrect information on computers to meet Government targets. An investigation found 573 patients over two years had to wait eight weeks longer for operations than the 26-week NHS target set by the Government.

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