Docks peace deal saves 42 jobs

MANAGEMENT and workers at Falmouth Docks have reached a peace formula which, they say, will put the business on "a firm basis for the future".

The agreement means 42 jobs will be saved from the original redundancy programme and casuals will be paid on the same basis as permanent staff.

The deal ends a period of strife at the Docks which threatened its future and cost the business millions in lost contracts.

In a joint press release, management and unions thanked the mayor, Geoffrey Evans, MP Seb Coe and Falmouth Town Council for their assistance in helping to resolve the situation.

Town set to get new casualty

By Helen Thomas

FALMOUTH could have a casualty service back in operation within three months if the health authority accepts proposals submitted by a local GP practice.

The health authority has announced that it is to make funds available for a nurse-run casualty service in Falmouth, but a local doctor claims that is not good enough.

The GP practice based at the health centre in Trevaylor Road have offered to run the service and provide a doctor whose primary responsibility would be for the casualty department, but the health authority has turned them down.

In a letter to Falmouth Town Council, the health authority's chief executive, Ron Spencer, said: "The health authority recognised that substantial numbers of people living in Falmouth and Penryn regard the provision of a casualty service as an important local service.

"The authority have therefore agreed to make funds available for the reestablishment of a service at Falmouth hospital from 9am to 5pm on either a five or seven day a week basis. "

He added: "The health authority wish to see a GP casualty service available so people living in the Flamouth and Penryn area can enjoy the same benefits as exists in the other 11 places in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly where GP casualty services operate.

Odds-on for a double - Bookie dad says twins are cert for success

By Jonathan Carter

A FALMOUTH bookie is so confident his twin daughters will repeat their uncanny run of academic success he's willing to lay odds on it.

Proud Mike Slater is set to offer local tipsters a flutter after 17-year-olds Emma and Amy both notched up marks of 92 per cent in an end-of-year exam at Cornwall College last week.

Mike, who runs the popular Kernow Racing bookies on The Moor, said: "They have overcome terrific odds and I'll now be doing my sums to work out a bet for their next exam."

The talented identical twins - who clinched exactly the same grades in their nine GCSE passes - are studying the same course and plant to go on to the same university to study for the same degree.

Amy, and hour-and-a-half younger than Emma, said: "We're very, very close. Even when we were seven and I fell off some scaffolding in a park, Amy felt something was wrong and rushed from home to thje park to help.

"And when one of us feels unwell, so does the other - it's just one of those funny things."

The twins, from Budock Terrace, have duped boyfriends and dumb-founded diners at a top hotel in a series of double takes over the years.

For Amy and Emma once pulled off an hilarious prank when they dated each other's boyfriends for the evening.And guests at the Green Lawns have been left guessing when the twins don their aprons for an evening of waitressing.

Amy said: "I know instinctively what Emma is thinking and although we have friends we just feel so happy that we have each other."

The twins, who complete their BTEC national diploma in business, finance and European studies at Cornwall College next summer, plan to work as air hostesses for a year before undertaking a degree in international marketing.

Tricia Noble, the course manager, said: "Amy and Emma are so extrovert, dynamic and full of fun - they always have a smile on their face."