I do not believe the company is fit to hold a franchise to run a

“I do not believe the company is fit to hold a franchise to run a public service,” he said. “It’s not just because of employee relations, it’s about the conduct of the company and the deception of the company. Aslef drivers are due to walk out next Tuesday and then on 2, 10, 18, 21 and 29 February in an attempt to win a 35-hour week and to ensure that all their pay is pensionable.Mr Rix said the company’s treatment of both employees and passengers meant its licence should not be renewed. Connex, the company operating some of Britain’s busiest rail routes, is not fit to run a public service, the leader ofthe train drivers’ union saidyesterday. Connex, the company operating some of Britain’s busiest rail routes, is not fit to run a public service, the leader ofthe train drivers’ union saidyesterday.
Mick Rix, general secretary of Aslef, said that Connex, which yesterday launched a campaign to renew one of its new franchises in southern England, should be stripped of its business. She now trains nurses, care staff and psychologists on how to help people who have learning difficulties become more independent..

Her twin died but her learning difficulties were not diagnosed until she was in her twenties. “People at school just thought I was backward because I couldn’t even go to the shop on my own,” she said. “I was in the remedial class where we learnt nothing at all.”When she was 29 she passed a National Vocational Qualification in business administration and worked for disability charities. “I know it will be hard work but I am doing it not only for me but for all the other people with learning difficulties,” she said.

She has been working on disabled rights for three years, and is involved in several disability rights groups.Ms Rank-Petruzzietto, who is on her second marriage, was starved of oxygen at birth. This is not true.”The 14-member commission will give disabled people a body of equal status to the Equal Opportunities Commission, and will be chaired by Bert Massie, a wheelchair user and former director of Radar, a disability charity.Ms Rank-Petruzzietto, from Peterborough, who taught herself to read and write when she was 21, was delighted with her post. “With the commission, we are trying to get representation from a range of disabilities. It had been thought that people with learning difficulties cannot make a proper contribution. But he added that lower interest rates meant mortgages were now more affordable than 10 years ago.

Recent house prices rises were partly due to the slump in values in the early 1990s.. Evelyne Rank-Petruzzietto, 32, has become the first person with learning difficulties to be appointed to a Government commission on disability rights. Evelyne Rank-Petruzzietto, 32, has become the first person with learning difficulties to be appointed to a Government commission on disability rights.
The move was strongly supported by Margaret Hodge, the Minister for Disabled People, who said someone with learning difficulties was on the commission to stem the marginal- isation of “mentally handicapped” people.”It’s a breakthrough,” she said, yesterday. “But the price of housing is governed by the purchasing power of people who come from outside with much higher incomes.”The Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions insisted that ministers were “acutely aware” of the housing problems facing South-east England. A spokesman said £1bn was being spent between 1997 and 2001 on council housing, and the department had increased resources for the Housing Corporation, including £335m on house-building next year.He said the housing green paper, due later this year, would include further initiatives to tackle the problem. “Our underlying concern is that we don’t think that housing gets the political profile that it needs.”The Government, he said, had to tackle a £20bn backlog in home repairs to modernise all Britain’s housing stock, as part of a wider urban regeneration strategy.