Motorists Filling up Their Cars with Wrong Fuel Costs Britain 150M

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Motorists filling up their cars with wrong fuel costs Britain £150m

MAIL ON SUNDAY, 21 October 2012

Putting the wrong type of fuel in the car costs British motorists at least £150 million a year.

Somebody puts diesel in a petrol tank or vice versa every one minute and 45 seconds, meaning 300,000 vehicles a year need to be repaired.

It costs between £500 and £3,000 to fix a car and only half of owners can claim the cost back on their insurance.

Industry experts believe the rising number of people switching to more economical diesel cars is to blame for the increasingly common gaffe.

Rory Carlin from Halfords Autocentres, which compiled the figures, said: ‘We saw a noticeable increase in mis-fuelling during March and September – the peak months for new-car purchase – which could be attributed to new owners.

‘If you put the wrong fuel in the car, do not attempt to drive off as this will circulate it and could cause more unnecessary damage.’

In May a bungling tanker driver left dozens of motorists stranded and caused thousands of pounds worth of damage to their cars after accidentally putting diesel into an unleaded storage tank.

Cars regularly conk out after bungling drivers muddle up which fuel to fill their tank with

The driver caused around £14,000 worth of damage after the mix-up at a Sainsbury's petrol station forecourt in Salford, Manchester.

A total of 44 cars were affected - and owners faced bills of hundreds of pounds to get their engines fixed.

Bosses at the Regent Road store in Salford closed the pumps when they discovered the mix-up. By then, reports were coming in of cars conking-out on the streets.

Sainsbury's apologised and agreed to cover the cost of repairs to the vehicles.

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Hundreds of thousands of rail passengers face chaos heading home for Christmas

· Worst affected will be those travelling on West Coast main line

· Journeys will take up to two hours longer than usual

· Cause will be track and signalling project at Bletchley

ByMAIL ON SUNDAY REPORTER PUBLISHED:00:23, 21 October 2012

Hundreds of thousands of train passengers face chaos in the run-up to Christmas because of engineering works across the country. The worst-affected will be the 100,000 passengers expected to travel on the West Coast main line to and from Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Glasgow during the festive getaway – the route’s busiest time of the year.

Their journeys will take up to two hours longer than usual and involve several changes, including a bus replacement service.

The cause of their misery will be a £123 million track and signalling project at Bletchley, near Milton Keynes, that Network Rail will start late on Saturday, December 22.

Train journeys in many other parts of the country will also be affected by engineering works for the four days of the getaway starting on Friday, December 21.

Last night, there was anger over the decision to carry out engineering works at a time when so many were travelling by train.

Graham Stringer, Labour MP for Blackley and Broughton in Manchester, said it was ‘an insult to passengers’. He went on: ‘It’s bound to be chaos. The trains are always packed just before Christmas and this disruption will make it many times worse.’

Chris Dale, chairman of TravelWatch North West, said: ‘Carrying out major works just before Christmas is absolute madness.’

Network Rail said that it sympathised with passengers, but the timing of the Bletchley works had been agreed with the train companies and would increase speed and capacity in the area.

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Compensation disaster as teacher hurt by pasta £6.7m barmy school payouts- The Sun 21/10

An investigation by The Sun has uncovered a series of bizarre claims costing taxpayers the equivalent of 304 new teachers’ annual salaries.

Among the handouts over five years was £515 given to a female teacher who tripped on a wire and spilled hot pasta she was cooking on her hands and wrists.

Nearly £20,000 went to a pupil who ran into a playground wall and £730 to a lad who hit himself with a tennis racket.

A teacher was also given £50,000 for slipping on some fruit. Another, from Forest Gate, East London, was handed £800 for being hurt by a football in the yard.

Robert Oxley, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “Schools have a duty of care but some of these payouts are beyond ridiculous.” The compensation awards were revealed after Freedom of Information Act requests

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Eurozone unemployment at fresh high- http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19784062

Now - 18.2 million in August, the EU statistics agency has said.

The number out of work rose by 34,000, but after the July data was revised up, it meant the unemployment rate remained stable at a record high of 11.4%.

The highest unemployment rate was recorded in Spain, where 25.1% of the workforce is out of a job, and the lowest of 4.5% was recorded in Austria.

The unemployment rate in Germany was 5.5%, Eurostat said.

'Lost generation'

Last week, the European Commission warned of the existence of "a real social emergency crisis" due to the fall in household income and growing household poverty. Youth unemployment remains a particular concern, with the rate among under-25s hitting 22.8% across the eurozone, and 52.9% in Spain. The commission repeated its call to governments and businesses to act to try to avoid the "disaster" of "a lost generation".

In Greece, the most recent figures recorded in June show that more than 50% of the young workforce has no job.

August unemployment rates

· Spain: 25.1% Portugal: 15.9% Ireland: 15% Italy: 10.7% France: 10.6% Germany: 5.5%

· Eurozone: 11.4% US: 8.1%Japan: 4.1% Source: Eurostat

Child poverty fears

Child poverty was also becoming an issue for an increasing number of households, particularly in countries where child benefits are inadequate. Almost a fifth of families are at risk of poverty in Spain, Greece, Italy and Portugal, the review said.

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