16/4/11 (Page 2.) – ‘We Will Boycott The School Bus’
5/5/11 (Page 17.) – Old School Building In Line For New Lease Of Life
6/5/11 (Page 4.) – Church Sale
6/5/11 (Page 9.) – A Picnic In The Park
7/5/11 (Page 3.) – Man In Court On Child Sex Charges
9/5/11 (Page 9.) – Boot Up For Charity With Stars
11/5/11 (Page 11.) – Exhibition For Amateur Artists
11/5/11 (Page 15.) – Are You Sitting Comfortably?
11/5/11 (Page 19.) – City’s WW1 Fighter Plane To Take To Skies Again

NOTE: I did not check every day, or very thoroughly, so there may be more and I know there currently are more waiting to be published. Also, I’ve been asked to do a follow-up on some of these stories in the future.
Also, I did a lot of interviews/notes for stories that other reporters were working on, as a means of them testing my interview skills.

There are quite a few others, I can’t find (I didn’t take note of them when they were first published) including a large feature on a handicapped little girl who organised a sponsored charity walk at Bablake Jr School (It’s quite a big piece with pictures in there somewhere, but I can’t find which issue it was in)

I’ve lost the papers they were in unfortunately, but I’m sure you get the gist of what I did there.

I went into this with low expectations, not really expecting to get a place anywhere (because of how competitive the area is and because everyone else was looking for placements at the same time). My back up plan was to write a series of 500 word articles each day, for freelance experience. Even if I did find a placement, I only expected to be watching other journalists and making tea.

I was very surprised. I managed to get a placement at The Coventry Evening Telegraph, spending the first week as a political reporter and spending the remainder of my time as a more general news reporter.

I was shocked to find myself immediately thrown in at the deep end. I was immediately set onto the trail of a series of stories across Warwickshire and treated as if I had been working there for years.

A big obstacle I found was the fact that I don’t yet have a driving license. Many of the stories I pursued during my time there involved travelling a distance, meaning I would often have to team up with a photographer, or another reporter just to get around for interviews.

The concept of having to travel for stories was somewhat new to me, having worked largely on University-based articles, resulting in a maximum travelling distance of “just down the road”. It was novel to be travelling places such as Warwick, Rugby, or even people’s own homes, to interview people, or sit in on official Government meetings, or court trials. With this in mind, my driving test is only a couple of weeks away, so I imagine travelling won’t be a persistent problem.

I learned a great deal about the profession from this, that I imagine lecturers wouldn’t think to tell you. I noticed that reporters would often pool their experiences, whether that be helping out with a story, or sharing contacts. I expected reporters in general to be slightly more competitive and self-serving, but was glad to find out that is generally just a negative stereotype.

I gained experience in a variety of new career-relevant technologies. I was told to use Adobe InCopy software to write my articles. Having never come across it before, I learnt that it is used to shape articles into preset templates to be fitted into a finished publication. It was simple enough to use, but I found it quite awkward to fit articles into the templates, having had to greatly improve my editing skills.

Similarly, I had to use Content Watch, another piece of software that was used for reporters to place their finished articles onto a public domain, where other reporters and editors had access to them. From this list, available on all computers in the local network, editors would choose which content would be used on any given publication date. Those that were not used were left on the list to possibly be used on a later date, should they still be relevant then.

Another new software device introduced to me was the MIDAS archive. They used this to search existing publications for stories, to check if something had already been covered. As undoubtedly useful as it is, I wasn’t impressed with this archive, as on my first day I wrote a story about local council officials cutting back on school bus staff, which I was told would be given the front page. Unfortunately, the editor didn’t expect me to finish it the same day, so left room for it in the next issue, but another publication covered it in that time so it ended up on page 2. But then again, I was just happy to be published.

Many other little things I had not heard about before were implemented in the news room, such as the morning meetings, where reporters would gather every morning to discuss what stories they would follow that day, to avoid clashing and to get the editor’s approval (in terms of its’ newsworthiness).

My skills in many relevant areas have had to step up to cope with this environment, notably my research skills. I used various news wires to find new stories and would often be forwarded emails from news agencies. I made a lot of new contacts in a plethora of areas because of this, from local reverends, to head-teachers, to furniture salesmen. Never before had I had to research stories so deeply, having to call long lists of people, for interviews, or just for general information. My shorthand benefited greatly too.

My writing and editing skills have noticeably improved too. Having to write to much stricter templates, squeezing as much information as possible into as few words as I can, I found my writing became much, much more breviloquent. I would often write up to 10 small “filler” articles a day, of only 50-200 words each, with the larger pieces not given that much more room.

Originally, I never realistically expected a career in journalism, because of the saturated job market, but this has shown me that I can actually do it and it’s not completely out of reach. It’s definitely a career path I’ll now consider, though I did notice that a lot of the reporters had crap cars, so I doubt the pay is up to much. Before this, I was aiming to get a job in PR, or something similar, utilizing the skills I’ve gained from my course, but in a much more achievable job market.

Overall, I couldn’t have expected the project to go as well as it did. I found myself being printed every day after I started and then for days after I left. Though most of the stories were so small they didn’t have a name on, I had the satisfaction of knowing they were mine. Editor-in-chief, Steve Chilton seemed impressed with my work, consistently publishing it. He even offered to have me back whenever I wanted (though he mentioned he couldn’t offer me a job at the moment because of over-staffing and to be honest, I’d rather finish my course anyway).

The Gallery has brought in over 200 artefacts from some of the most exclusive Egyptian collections across the country, including: a colossus statue borrowed from the British Museum; the head of Queen Nefertiti from the Ashmolean; crocodile mummies and a golden pectoral pendant from the Manchester Museum, which was found on the corpse of an ancient thief who became trapped. Whilst fleeing the tomb he had just desecrated, it collapsed upon him, leaving him to perish until years later excavators found his corpse and retrieved the historical relic he lost his life for.

The exhibition also boasts many treasures borrowed from the Birmingham Museum’s collection that have never before been seen by the public. Sally Johnson of the Herbert Gallery Press Department claims: “It’s a spectacular exhibit, these things have never been seen all in one place and many have never been seen at all.”

“This exhibition really is something special for Coventry and the Herbert, as it just shows that not everything is in London anymore”

The exhibit focuses on answering common questions and dispelling popular myths such as “who built the pyramids?” and “what is the mummy’s curse?” as well as a recreated ancient burial tomb, which explores the Egyptian obsession with death and the afterlife. This tomb contains a genuine chapel as well as the ancient mummified remains of a woman known only as Perenbast.

Parties are encouraged to explore the temporary exhibit, available until June 2011, with group tours and educational school days arrangable by contacting learning@theherbert.org.

The Herbert Gallery is currently running a volunteer scheme for the Secret Egypt displays. Sally Johnson explained that: “We like to add the people’s experience of the exhibit by taking on volunteers to answer any questions the public may have”. If you are interested in this exhibition and wish to volunteer to help run and maintain it, you can ask for details or apply at the gallery’s website: http://www.theherbert.org/index.php/home/referer:secret-egypt-volunteers/admin/login. “We don’t expect volunteers to have existing knowledge. We’re perfectly willing to train and educate anyone to the standard we expect from our staff”.

By Ryan Brailsford

38 year old Victor Iosif admitted in court to paying someone to dump large quantities of waste at the former City College site in Earlsdon in April 2010.

His confession came after he was arrested for failing to appear at court several times since last year, following his prosecution by Coventry City Council’s Environmental Crime unit.

Coventry Councillor Philip Townsend, Cabinet Member for Corporate and Neighbourhood Services announced a zero-tolerance policy for fly-tipping, warning that: “If you employ some who you don’t know and they don’t give you any details it is highly likely that your waste will be fly tipped and you could be held responsible.”

“We each have a duty of care to make sure that any waste we dispose of goes to a licensed waste site… If you pay for someone to remove waste you should always check whether they hold a waste carriers licence and ask for a waste transfer note to confirm they have taken it.” You can confirm whether a company owns a waste carriers licence by contacting the Environment Agency on 08708 506 506 or by visiting their websitehttp://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/.

Lifelong Coventry resident, Robert Jones shared his view that: “The City Council have finally gotten the right idea. If it wasn’t for all the money being wasted on constantly cleaning up after these idle criminals, Coventry would be a better place.“

“The city doesn’t have a great reputation for cleanliness and is in need of modernisation, but there’s only so much that can be done whilst the odd few are going around messing it up all the time… it’s not like there’s a shortage of registered waste sites”.

By Ryan Brailsford

Cov students James Kennedy, Alex Mellor and Jason Cuddy brought back victories over Portsmouth, Leeds Met, Warwick and Liverpool John Moores Universities last month.

This followed on from the confusion and dissapointment that came at Christmas, after the annual pre-qualifying tournament, the English University Boxing Championship was cancelled because of heavy snow. Scheduled to have been hosted at Coventry University, this acts as a qualifying tournament, to decide which teams will compete in last month’s BUBC.

Coventry University has earned a reputation for its success in boxing over the years, with triumphs over Belgium last year in the international Harrowgate Cup.

BUCS, the governing body for British Universites and College Sports, who regulate and organise higher education sports events commented on the cancellation and the effects it had on the recent championships:

Sarah Ganton, who is responsible for co-ordinating the championships at BUCS said that: “The English University Boxing Championships won’t be rescheduled in time for the BUBC so this year we had to make it an open tournament. Anyone can enter as long as they meet the criteria of having had at least 2 bouts and of course, being a student”.

Martin Ford, ex-boxer and head coach of Coventry’s boxers claimed that: “We’ve done very well. We’ve got some good boxers here at Coventry”. Talking about the cancelled English championships, he continued: “it was a set-back, but it wasn’t the end of the world… the right decision was made in terms of safety and it gave us more time to prepare”.

Naturally, there were concerns that too many universities would apply for the BUBC’s, but event organiser Sarah Ganton seemed undetterred saying that: “we’d rather have too many applicants, it means the more experienced fighters will have more of a challenge, as opposed to the usual much easier fight in the first round.”

Article and photo by Ryan Brailsford

People are encouraged to organise their own celebrations and can apply for free temporary road closures in the area for larger events.

Councillor Julie Jackson said that “The last thing we wanted to do was put people off with costs so this should make it easy for people to host their own parties to mark the big day”.

Application forms are downloadable from the council website (www.nuneatonandbedworth.gov.uk) as well as information on how to apply for temporary drinks licenses.

Be reminded that you will need to pay for drinks or entertainment licences if you intend to charge your guests money for alcohol or entrance, as your event will still classify as a commercial function as opposed to a private one.

March 18th is the last day to apply for a free road closure, as cost restrictions will be returning to the normal rate.

This is in stark contrast to Coventry City Council, who originally banned street parties, fearful that it would cause too much disruption, in terms of raucous music and traffic congestion.

However, they soon agreed to change their ideas at a recent council meeting, deciding to support and encourage celebrations

Coventry City Councillor Phillip Townsend commented that: “we decided that it could only serve as a good way of bringing neighbourhoods together, as well as showing Coventry’s support of the Royal Wedding.”

Should you wish to organise a Royal Wedding street party in the Coventry area, you can request a form by emailing: streetparties@coventry.gov.uk, though keep in mind that this will incur charges.

By Ryan Brailsford

With a new Tesco at the heart of the £27 million renovations, plans were put into motion in March, to improve the general quality and accessibility of the town’s facilities.

Nuneaton and Bedworth Councillor Julie Jackson, portfolio holder for Resources and Support said: “we decided it was time to make a major investment in Bedworth’s town centre, to help residents and visitors alike to make the most of what the town has to offer. Improvements are being made in terms of accessibility, retail facilities and the environment to provide for the growth in footfall the new Tesco store is expected to attract.”

As it stands, construction has begun to install new ramps and steps in addition to extra pedestrian crossings. Today saw the start of various improvements to Congreve Walk and the properties situated there. Also in the pipeline are plans to recondition and utilize currently vacant council-owned shop buildings as well as new planting, street furniture and surface treatments for Newtown Road.

As good as this may seem for Bedworth, it pales in comparison to the grand renovation of the Leicester Street Tesco store. Set to open this Christmas, it promises to create 150 new jobs, as well as protecting those of the existing 340 Tesco staff. For the duration of the construction, existing Tesco staff have been dispersed across nearby stores, as well as attending to the small temporary pharmacy that remains open on site.

Corporate affairs manager for Tesco, Tony Fletcher claimed that: “When it’s finished, I think the new store will provide a good focus for Bedworth bringing existing customers back, as well as new ones, not just to Tesco, but to the town centre. Hopefully everyone will benefit from this investment.”

Concerns have been raised about the scrapping of a series of Bedworth’s car parks, in light of the renovations. With the loss of the pay and display car park in George Street, Mill Street and the existing Tesco car park, people are left wondering where they, along with the new visitors, are supposed to go. To compensate, the new Tesco site will be accompanied by a 518-capacity pay and display parking area that is free for stays under 2 hours.

By Ryan Brailsford