The UK Fire Service College failed to carry out a fire risk assessment on one of its buildings which burnt down last year.

According to reports from the BBC, no current fire risk assessment was in place when a blaze causing more than £1million of damage hit the facility.

More than n 60 firefighters were required to tackle the blaze which engulfed a large garage in May 2009. Eleven fire engines were lost in the blaze, although no one was injured.

It has been a legal requirement to do a “suitable and sufficient” fire risk assessment on almost every type of building in England and Wales since 2006. However, according to reports, no such assessment was made by the college, which trains firefighters from across the country.

Following the blaze, a fire inspector carried out an independent audit of the appliance bay and found a number of shortcomings. These included the absence of an up-to-date fire risk assessment, which have all since been put right.

None of those shortcomings constituted a threat to life and, the college said, “no further enforcement action was considered appropriate”.

The college also insists that it was in the process of completing up to date fire assessments when the blaze occurred.

The Fire Service College uses the slogan “Unrivalled experience. Unequalled expertise” and is the place where fire fighters from England and Wales go for training.

It also welcomes crews from Scotland, Northern Ireland and from all over the globe.

It is an executive agency of the Department for Communities and Local Government and describes itself as performing a “vital role at the heart of the UK Fire and Rescue Service, providing essential support by equipping the Service, and the people who work for it, with the skills required to make a positive difference in the communities they serve, and to save lives.”

Allowing civilian officers to investigate serious criminal cases at one police force has been described as ‘the final nail in the coffin’ for traditional British policing.

Devon and Cornwall Police currently employ 76 civilian investigators to carry out parts of inquiries on cases, including rapes and murders, the BBC reports today.

The force has said the policy allows sworn officers to concentrate on more serious affairs. However, the Police Federation has branded the move as an erosion of officers’ powers.

The number of civilian investigators employed by the force was obtained by the BBC under the Freedom of Information Act.

Civilian staff at the force typically take responsibility for routine procedures such as taking witness statements. But the Federation has said that although many investigators are former police officers, some others do not have the experience required for such work.

“This is the final nail in the coffin of British policing as we know it,” federation spokesman Steve Tovagliari said.

“How many more powers are going to be eroded away.

“Police officers are trained for two years to carry out the role they do - for police staff to carry out this function, I think it’s three or four weeks.”

Despite the fact that civilian officers cost less to train and employ, the chief constable of Devon and Cornwall Police, Stephen Otter said that was not the main reason for their introduction.

He said investigators were not tasked with completing cases, but with assisting officers.

“What the civilian investigator does is a much narrower scope of work,” Mr Otter told BBC News.

“The detective will do the whole breadth of the investigation and then task the investigator to take a statement, to seize evidence, and so on.

“The way they do that is just as well as the detective would.”

He added that their work allowed increased numbers of police officers on the street, something the public was keen to see.

Police forces have been criticised for wasting public money writing blogs aimed at raising the profile of the work of police dogs.

A number of forces – including Cambridgeshire, Tayside and Avon and Somerset – have all launched ‘dog blogs’ on their websites.

Staff say the diary is popular and promotes the work of police dogs.

But the TaxPayers’ Alliance says the blogs are “PR exercises” with no public benefit.

“All the time we hear that police forces overstretched and officers have too much paperwork,” said a spokesman. “Yet someone seems to have enough time to write hundreds of words about the life of a dog?”

Chief executive Matthew Elliott added: “This might be a well-intentioned idea but it is a waste of money.

“Either the dog’s handler or a press officer are evidently devoting their time to writing this blog at taxpayers’ expense and to no real benefit for public safety.
“People pay their taxes for the police to go out and catch criminals, not for cutesy PR exercises.”

Cambridgeshire police said the blog gave the public an ”insight” into the work of police dogs.

”The dog’s blog has proved to be extremely popular with the public and received more than 700 visitors in its first week,” said a spokeswoman.

”We have also had several emails from the public asking Lukas questions about his role and saying how much they like the blog.

”Police dogs play a vital role in protecting the public and officers and the purpose of the blog is to give people an insight into that work.

”The blog costs nothing to produce and is written by the corporate communications team, whose role it is to promote the work of the force.”

A police officer has died following a car crash in Wiltshire.

The officer, who has not been named, died in his police car at the scene of the accident near Bradford-on-Avon.

He was driving along Westwood Road towards Trowbridge, at around 8pm yesterday when he apparently lost control, Wiltshire Police said.

A spokeswoman said: “It appears he lost control on a left-hand bend and left the road. He suffered very serious injuries and died at the scene.”

“Great Western Ambulance Service attended but sadly the officer had sustained very serious injuries and died at the scene.

“An investigation is currently being conducted into the circumstances surrounding the collision.”

“Anyone who witnessed the accident is asked to contact police.”

Islam4UK, the Islamist group that recently caused outrage with plans to stage an anti-war protest in Wootton Bassett, is to be banned under counter terrorism laws, the Home Secretary has announced.

Announcing the move Alan Johnson said: “I have today laid an order which will proscribe al-Muhajiroun, Islam4UK, and a number of the other names the organisation goes by.

“It is already proscribed under two other names - al-Ghurabaa and The Saved Sect.

“Proscription is a tough but necessary power to tackle terrorism and is not a course we take lightly.

“We are clear that an organisation should not be able to circumvent proscription by simply changing its name.”

Under the Terrorism Act 2000, a group can be banned if it “commits or participates in acts of terrorism, prepares for, promotes or encourages terrorism or is otherwise concerned in terrorism”.

Earlier this week Gordon Brown branded the groups plans to stage a march through the market town which has become renowned for honouring Britain’s returning war dead as ‘disgusting’.

The banning order will come into effect on Thursday and make it a criminal offence to be a member, punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

Politicians, police chiefs and Muslim groups yesterday added their voices to the controversy surrounding the threat by a group of Islamic extremists to march through Wootton Bassett, the market town where locals line the streets to show their respects for Britain’s returning war dead.

Islam4UK, the Muslim extremist group, are planning to march down the same streets which are travelled by hearses carrying soldiers who have died in conflict, carrying empty coffins to symbolise those “mercilessly murdered” in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The proposed march has caused outrage and the Home Secretary, Alan Johnson, has said he will back any application made my police or the local council to ban the protest through the town.
Prime Minister Gordon also declared he was “completely disgusted” at the “abhorrent” protest.

But Sir Hugh Orde, president of the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo), said he would be “surprised” if senior officers in Wiltshire seek to block the protest because any group has a right to march even if their views are “unpleasant and offensive”.

He said: “Our view is we will have to deal with it, people have a right to march. People might not like it but that is the law.

“It can be the case that if you ban something it becomes more popular to turn up to. You then have a mass unlawful protest. It will be one that requires pretty clear thinking, but it is far too early really because all we have is the threat of a march.”

So far more than 400,000 members have backed a campaign opposing the march on the social networking website Facebook in just a few days.

However a ban can only be enforced in law once the protesters have lodged formally their request for the protest.

The Wiltshire Islamic Cultural Centre has asked the police not to allow the march to go ahead and said in a statement it “unreservedly condemned” it.

Sky News reported that Islam4UK said it would call off the march if Gordon Brown agreed to a televised debate on Afghanistan.

Four people, including a 16 year old boy, have been arrested in Poole, Dorset under the Terrorism Act.

Dorset Police and the UK Border Agency initially arrested five men in their 20s and 30s and a 16-year-old boy on suspicion of illegal entry into the UK in Ashley Road in Parkstone, Poole, on December 9.

Following an investigation, four of those, including the youth, were later arrested under section 40 (1)(b) of the Terrorism Act 2000 dealing with the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism.

They are now being questioned at a police station outside the county.

A police spokesman said: “As a result of inquiries by Dorset Police, four of those people - including the male youth - were later arrested by Dorset Police under the Terrorism Act 2000, Section 40 (1)(b).

“While the investigation is continuing there is currently no identified threat of any risk or harm to the people of Dorset or the United Kingdom.”

An NHS hospital has banned clinically obese women from giving birth in its maternity ward.

Mothers-to-be who have a body mass index (BMI) of over 34, the equivalent of an average woman of 5ft 6ins weighing 15 stone, will be turned away from Weston General Hospital, Weston-super-Mare, Somerset.

Instead patients will have to travel 20 miles to the nearest full-facilitated maternity unit at St Michael’s Hospital, Bristol.

Weston Area Health Trust said women were aware of the policy from the start of their pregnancies.

A spokeswoman for the trust said: “Our foremost concern is for the safety of mothers who deliver here and their babies.

“Mothers with a high BMI are at increased risk in labour of bleeding, needing an instrumental delivery, or complications such as the baby’s shoulder becoming trapped behind the pubic bone.

“For these reasons of safety only, we advise women with a BMI of more than 34 that they will need to deliver at the full obstetric unit at St Michael’s in Bristol.

“Similarly, women who have gained more than 44lb (20kg) in 36 weeks of pregnancy are also told they will need to deliver in Bristol.

“Our aim is to protect our mothers and babies and to make sure they deliver in the most appropriate place to meet their needs.”

Figures from the Department of Health state that obesity cost primary care trusts £4.2 billion last year.

Two years ago staff at Ealing Hospital, west London, were warned not to send obese patients to its first floor waiting room amid fears the building could not take their weight.

Patients who weighed 30 stone or more were instead fast-tracked to ground floor wards because management was worried that they were too heavy for the admissions ward upstairs

A prostitute who posed as an undercover police officer to deceive vulnerable men to hand over money has been sent to jail for three years.

Hayley Cosgrave, 29, of Cumberland Street, south west London, was found guilty of three counts of deception and one of burglary, following an earlier trial.

Swindon Crown Court heard she conned a number of men out of a total of £800 after posing as an undercover officer.

She told them that if they did not pay her “fines” they would face the courts.
The court heard there had been a series of incidents.

Cosgrave’s last deception, which she pleaded guilty to, involved her jumping into a man’s car in Swindon’s Manchester Road and threatening him with a trip to the police station or an on-the-spot “fine”.

After convincing the man she was a “genuine” officer he was taken to a cash dispenser to hand over £200.

Sentencing her on Tuesday, Judge Douglas Field referred to another case where she targeted another man over a number of months.

He said: “You must have known he was vulnerable and that’s why you went back. This makes the offence particularly serious.

“It’s with great regret you cannot pay compensation to your victims,” Judge Field added.

More than 25 miles of the M5 near Bristol have been closed after a car left the road and struck a pole carrying 11,000V electric cables.

The motorway is closed between junctions 22 and 16 after the crash brought down power cables at around 4.20am on Friday.

The Highways Agency said the closure was expected to remain in place for some time. Diversions have been set up and motorists are being urged to avoid the area.

It is believed the car rolled several times before hitting the pole and Great Western Ambulance Service said three people were in the car at the time.

All three were taken to hospital for hospital, but it is not believed any are seriously injured.

Emergency repairs are due to be carried out by electricity company Southern Power.

A spokesman for Avon and Somerset Police said: “At this stage the danger from the power cable is such that it is not safe for other motorists to use the motorway.

“This is expected to cause considerable disruption to the roads in the area and drivers are advised to avoid the area if possible.

“Decisions to close the motorway are never taken lightly as police officers are aware of the impact this has on local people who are trying to get to work, drop children off at school and go about their daily business.

“However, the power cable presents a hazard to any motorists and in the interests of public safety the decision was taken to close the road.”