Category Archives: Derbyshire

‘Profiteering off children’: care firms in England accused of squeezing cash from councils

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A local authority leader claims private equity groups are exploiting vulnerable youngsters in care homes in the pursuit of profit

Care companies are insisting on unnecessary and expensive support packages for vulnerable children to boost their profits, a council leader has claimed.

Barry Lewis, the Tory leader of Derbyshire county council, said that former family-run businesses acquired by private equity groups were trying to get “as much cash as possible” out of local authorities.

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Stalking victims face ‘postcode lottery’, says coroner after Gracie Spinks killing

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Concerns raised over ‘consistency and availability’ of stalking advocates in UK police forces to support victims

Stalking victims face a “postcode lottery” of support due to a lack of advocates in police forces across the UK, a coroner has said following the death of Gracie Spinks.

The 23-year-old was killed in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, by a work colleague, Michael Sellers, who had become “obsessed” with her after previously harassing a number of other women. On 18 June 2021 he followed Spinks to the field where she kept her horse before fatally stabbing her and taking his own life soon after.

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MPs call for review of Environment Agency flood failings in England

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Derbyshire and South Yorkshire MPs say agency ‘not up to the task’ after people received warnings too late

MPs in areas of England worst hit by Storm Babet have called for a review of Environment Agency (EA) failings after reporting that some residents received flood alerts only after their homes were flooded.

Toby Perkins, the Labour MP for Chesterfield, said some people at Tapton Terrace in the Derbyshire town, where 83-year-old Maureen Gilbert was found dead in flood water, only received a phone call from the early warning system after their houses had been deluged.

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Son tells of anger after finding mother dead in flooded Chesterfield home

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Paul Gilbert says people in flood-prone areas are forgotten, after death of Maureen Gilbert, 83, in Storm Babet

A man who found his mother’s lifeless body floating in flood water triggered by Storm Babet inher Chesterfield home has spoken of his anger that people in flood-prone areas are being “forgotten”.

It is thought that Maureen Gilbert, 83, drowned after she was unable to escape the rapidly rising water inside her terrace home owing to mobility problems.

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