Luton borough council have teamed up with vet charity, PDSA, to offer free health ‘MOT’ checks for dogs this week.

The PetCheck vehicle will be examining the canines from Tuesday till Friday.

It will be at Wardown Park car park on Tuesday, April 22, Farley hill community centre car park on Wednesday, April 23, Freemans green on Thursday, April 24 and Lewsey Park service road on Friday, April 25.

PDSA vet nurse Amy Henson will examine the canines weight, body-shape, teeth, eyes, coat and general fitness.

She said: “It’s clear people here really love their pets and want the best for them, by sharing our advice and support I know we can work together to help improve the well-being of Luton’s pets.”

Dexter Hockley, senior dog warden at the council said: “We think ourselves very fortunate that Luton has been chosen for a PetCheck visit and we would encourage local pet owners to go along, meet the PDSA’s pet experts and learn more about how to keep their pets happy and healthy.”

Bang. Ouch. Bang. Ouch. Bang. Ouch. The therapeutic benefits of banging your head against a brick wall are not supported by medical professionals, I’ll admit, but sometimes it seems the only appropriate course of action. If nothing else, it usually feels better when you stop.

It’s not a brick wall that I’ve been banging my head against, however, but a plate glass window. Or more accurately, a plate glass door.

It was a broken door, as it happens, and in case you think my head-banging antics were to blame I must stress that it was broken when I got there.

The door in question was one of a pair at the entrance to my local supermarket, and even though I probably pass through them two or three times a week I can’t say I have ever paid them much attention.

When the sun shines, they are locked open and you don’t even know they are there.

When it’s a little chillier, there’s a cunning mechanism that opens them up as you approach, just so you can get inside and start spending all the quicker.

But the other day something had obviously gone wrong with the innards, and the one on the right hand side was stuck in the open position.

You’d have been hard pressed to realise that there was any kind of problem but for the sign affixed to the dodgy door.

‘Out of order’ said the first line, which was fair enough – not really necessary, as it wasn’t stopping anyone getting in or getting out, but I’m all for sharing information.

It was the next line that got under my skin, though. ‘We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.’

That’s polite, isn’t it? That’s a corporate organisation showing that it cares, no?

Not a bit of it – there’s nothing quite as irritating as a needless apology, a kneejerk ‘say sorry just in case’ reaction that seems to assume that just because something has gone wrong somebody must be to blame, and ready to own up about it.

There was no inconvenience worth taking about – if we’d all been asked to go round to the back of the store and get in through the delivery doors, that might have merited an apology.

But if the sign hadn’t been there, the vast majority of people wouldn’t have known or cared.

However, the real victim here is the regular, but pedantic, customer.

Now that I have raised the possibility that a small minority of shoppers find this sort of meaningless gesture irksome, I expect to see an extra line on the sign the next time a door plays up: ‘We also apologise for any annoyance caused by this apology, particularly if you have not been put to any inconvenience in the first place.”

And if it is not there, in big bold letters, I will expect a full and frank apology in short order, you mark my words.

Several members of the Royal Family have visited Luton, not least Queen Elizabeth II, who toured the newly opened Central Library in 1962.

The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh were also regular guests at Luton Hoo when their friends Sir Harold and Lady Zia Wernher owned the stately home.

But no one has packed more into their day in town than Prince Charles when he came here nearly 30 years ago.

His helicopter landed at Stockwood Park on July 11, 1985 and he was driven through town centre streets, lined with flag-waving crowds, to Luton Youth House in St Mary’s Road.

From there he went to Vauxhall Motors for a tour of the car factory and then on to Luton Airport to officially open the new terminal before departing by helicopter.

Luton News photographers captured the whole visit and we’ve delved into the archives to bring you this slideshow of the day.

The planned expansion of Luton Airport will be agreed in the “next few weeks”, according to the president of operator Aena.

Speaking at an awards ceremony in London on Thursday, Jose Manuel Vargas said that the government was close to agreeing the plan, whicb would take capacity from 12 milion to 18 million passengers a year.

The expansion will need as much as £98m investment, which will be used to make a raft of improvements.

Vargas confirmed that he is looking at forming a transport link between the airport and the City of London financial district, while “approaches” to the site are also be examined.

Improvements to the terminal building and range of new shops are also planned as part of the expansion.

Vargas admitted that work on Luton Airport is “critical” to match growth in traffic.

He said: “The contracting of the work will begin as soon as the necessary permits are acquired, after a long and complex process that we hope will come to a positive conclusion in the coming weeks.”

Aena, which owns 46 airports in Spain, bought the airport from Abertis for £394m in August.

Vargas’ announcement came after easyJet revealed its intention to more than double its operation at the airport, should the expansion be agreed.

The airline says this 10 year deal will create 2,500 new jobs and take its own operation from four million to nine million passengers a year.

The airport expansion was agreed by Luton Borough Council in December, but still needs sign off from Communities Secretary Eric Pickles.

Love Luton are holding a Remembrance Ride from Luton to Belgium in August.

The event marks the 100th anniversary of the start of the First World War.

To sign up visit www.loveluton.org.uk/remembrance

A lucky resident has won £1446 by switching to Luton Borough Council’s ebilling, in a prize draw.

Susan Garden won the equivalent of a year’s band D council tax payment, she was entered into the draw when she switched to ebilling at the end of last year.

Susan was ‘surprised and delighted’ to win the money.

The council will be running a £100 monthly draw from June till next March, anyone who signs up to ebilling will be entered into the draw. To switch visit www.luton.gov.uk/counciltaxservices.

I caught THE RAILWAY MAN (15: Lionsgate) at my local cinema back in January, just before it was shunted into the sidelines to make way for yet another superhero movie.

Really looking forward to seeing this biographical drama, I came away a tad disappointed.

While it’s a polished production and the performances of the leading players are fine, the flashback structure gives the film a disjointed feel.

The casting of Nicole Kidman alongside Colin Firth is also a strange one and it’s also rather deceptive, suggesting a love story that never quite materialises. The story begins in 1983 when train-spotter Eric Lomax (Firth) meets future wife Patti (Kidman) en route to Scotland. They marry and Patti discovers that the nerdy former soldier has horrific nightmares.

As she investigates, more is revealed about Eric’s past as a prisoner-of-war who was captured by the Japanese in 1942 and forced to work on the notorious Thai-Burma railway.

Unable to talk to his wife about his time in captivity, Eric learns that the cruel Japanese officer who tortured him is still alive, prompting him to travel east for a confrontation.

Here, the narrative changes tack once again, only to build to an unexpected and powerful conclusion.

> Fourteen years after The Best Man was released, the ensemble of that American comedy have largely realised their ambitions in the sequel, THE BEST MAN HOLIDAY (15: Universal).

Lance (Morris Chestnut) is a football star, Jordan (Nia Long) a TV news producer and Quentin (Terrence Howard) a marketing consultant who gets paid to tell white people what black people want.

Meanwhile, Harper (Taye Diggs) is struggling to equal the success of his first novel, and his wife, Robin (Sanaa Lathan) is soon to give birth after a series of miscarriages.

A Christmas reunion of old college friends brings everybody together with their personal crises and the cross currents of their many relationships are managed more artfully than in the first film.

The script’s silliness makes every plot turn questionable, yet it’s goofiness is near-impossible to resist.

> A documentary about what went wrong with the making of REASONABLE DOUBT (15: High Fliers) would no doubt be more involving than the movie itself.

This legal ‘thriller’ is so lame it should be put on trial for mediocrity. When District Attorney Mitch Brockton (Dominic Cooper) is involved in a fatal hit-and-run, he seizes the opportunity to flee the scene and save his reputation.

After Clinton Davis (Samuel L. Jackson) is found with the body and charged with murder, Brockton uses his position to prove his innocence, all the time making sure not to reveal his own guilt.

> Israeli film BIG BAD WOLVES (18: Metrodome) is a dark comic thriller that succeeds in reeling you in.

This grisly tale of murder, abduction and revenge sees a cop suspended after footage of him intimidating a murder suspect goes viral. He still vows to bring the timid teacher to book when the headless corpse of a missing girl is discovered in the woods, but the grieving father takes the law into his own hands.

Even the hardiest torture porn aficionado will flinch at what happens in the soundproofed basement of a rented house.

Two teens were hit by a man with a metal pole in an unprovoked attack in Brantwood Park on Monday.

The incident occurred at approximately 1pm when three 14-year-old friends were in the park.

Without warning one of the friends was hit over the head by a man armed with a metal pole, causing bruising.

Another of the group tried to help his friend but was also hit causing a small cut to his head.

The offender is described as a black man, approximately 35 years old, with a silver tooth and short black hair which was greying. He wore a grey tracksuit.

The officer in charge of this investigating, Detective Constable Phil Raikes, is keen to trace anyone who witnessed the incident or anyone who can help identify the offender.

DC Raikes said: “It is unclear what motivated the offender to behave in this way as he did not shout any warnings towards the youngsters nor did he make any threats.

“Luckily the victims were not seriously injured and I would urge anyone who can help piece together exactly why this incident happened to contact the police, in confidence.”

Anyone with information relating to this crime can contact DC Raikes, in confidence, at Luton Police Station on 01582 394338, or Bedfordshire Police on 101, or text information to 07786 200011.

Alternatively you can contact the independent crime fighting charity Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.

A Luton man had his bike stolen from him after being approached by a group of young men.

Detectives have released a picture of a bicycle which was taken during a robbery that happened on April 14 in Blenheim Crescent in Luton.

The distinctive bike was taken from the 26-year-old victim between 6pm and 7pm after he was approached by a group of young men.

One of the group grabbed the handle bars of the bike and repeatedly asked to borrow it.

After being detained by the group for approximately 30 minutes the victim tried to leave the scene but was pushed from the bike.

The bike was taken by a man with an Asian appearance, between 18 to 20 years old with a slim build, short black hair and unshaven.

Detective Constable Matthew Shepherd, investigating, is keen to trace anyone who has seen this bike being ridden in the Luton area since the offence.

Anyone with information relating to this crime can contact DC Shepherd, in confidence, at Luton Police Station on 01582 394448, or Bedfordshire Police on 101, or text information to 07786 200011.

Alternatively you can contact the independent crime fighting charity Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.

“Once online, a sentient machine will quickly overcome the limits of biology. In a short time, its analytic power will become greater than the collective intelligence of every person born in the history of the world. Some scientists refer to this as the Singularity. I call it Transcendence.”

I used to be fully human – until I met Dr. Will Caster (Johnny Depp), the world’s foremost researcher in the field of artificial intelligence.

Caster’s genius allowed us to create a fully sentient machine which combined the collective intelligence of everything ever known with the full range of human emotions, fused using his own consciousness.

This highly controversial experiment (his own ‘transcendence’) was ironically only brought about by Caster’s wife Evelyn (Rebecca Hall) and best friend Max Waters (Paul Bettany) when a radical anti-technology group shot him.

The only way to ‘save’ his mind was to upload it but once online he began to create an army and reproduce his entity, and there may be no way to stop him.

I was a badly injured film reviewer who Caster was able to heal using his incredible reconstructive technology.

My body was rebuilt stronger, faster and with more capacity, but as part of the process he ‘networked’ my brain.

Now I serve him. He just instructed me to inform you that Transcendence is a great sci-fi thriller… wait, something isn’t right… That doesn’t compute…

It’s directed by Wally Pfister, who was cinematographer for the incredible Chris Nolan on such classics as Inception and The Dark Knight.

My initial hopes were high but alas Pfister’s first directorial release is a badly judged and overall fairly lame effort. Might he have been ‘networked’ by a dull Xbox intelligence?

Depp looks bored throughout which is oddly a reflection of how most of the audience I saw this with also looked. I was distracted enough to notice that several people left muttering that it wasn’t worth their time, and when having a look around the cinema I spotted two more who had nodded off.

Transcendence is still a good looking film but the script is laboured, the plot fails to engage and the climax just dull. This should be filed as a good idea that deserved a better realisation.

One for tech nuts with very high boredom thresholds only.

A man pleaded guilty on Friday to the murder of his sister-in-law six weeks after she had married his brother David.

John Evans, 56, appeared at Luton crown court, via a video link from Bedford jail

He pleaded guilty to the murder of 70 years old Mary Evans on November 18 last year.

She died from stab wounds received as she was sitting behind the wheel of her car in Trent Road, Luton.

Mary, known as May was on her way to collect her grandson from school when she was attacked.

Evans of Thames Court, Trent Road in Luton, was told his case was being adjourned and he will be sentenced next month.

Judge Michael Kay QC said he will receive a life sentence and the only question to be decided is the minimum term he will have to serve.

In the run-up to, and during the four years of the First World War, we will be looking at how the Luton News covered the momentous events, week by week.

It was a busy week for the territorial scheme in South Beds with a recruiting week planned for June.

Under a scheme run by the Home Office, Luton, Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard will be the main areas in the south west of the county, with the aim to recruit up to 250 men.

Mr H R Waterston, general secretary of the South African Labour party, who had been deported from South Africa, addressed the Labour group in Luton.

He received three cheers after his speech.

Bricklayer’s labourer Walter Pinsey received compensation after a hand saw fell on his head and he received a “grievous industrial injury,” while working for builder Abraham Turner in Luton.

Luton County Court heard Mr Pinsey’s evesight had been affected and he received £30 compensation.

The Luton painters’ strike was called off after a week’s action when the men received an extra half penny to return to work next week. The result of the strike is the men will get the full penny a day extra they have been agitating for since last year. On Thursday the strikers held a meeting outside the Corn Exchange.

An appeal has gone out for a missing 16-year-old from Luton who is the subject of a Forced Marriage Protection Order.

Maria Nicolescu, sometimes spelt Niculescu, has not been at school since early April and was officially declared missing on April 22.

She is the subject of the court order that was made in December 2013.

Permission to appeal for information on her whereabouts had to be sought from a Judge by Bedfordshire police to make the appeal.

It is thought she may have left the area with her family, which is prohibited under the Protection Order.

Maria was born in Dublin and is of Romania descent and often wears traditional Romanian clothes.

Anyone who has information about Maria or knows where she is asked to contact the Missing Persons Unit in confidence on 01234 275136, Bedfordshire Police on 101 or text information to 07786 200011.

Alternatively you can contact the independent charity Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.

Sameer Babar, 35, from Carnegie Gardens in Luton has pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of his 67 year old neighbour Leonard Flower on the grounds of diminished responsibility at Luton Crown Court today (April 28).

Mr Flower, a retired computer analyst, was found in his garage by a woman delivering leaflets, on October 22. He died shortly after police and ambulance crews arrived. His wife of 47 years was in the house, unaware of the attack.

Babar was arrested the same day at a petrol station on the A45 in Kenilworth by officers from Warwickshire Police after he asked a member of the public to call for ambulance. Babar appeared at a plea and case management hearing at Luton Crown Court today and the manslaughter plea due to diminished responsibility was accepted after psychiatric reports were prepared by all parties. He is now the subject of a Hospital Order under section 37 of the MHA 1983 (as amended 2007) and also subject to a Restriction Order under section 41 of the same act without limit of time.

Senior Investigating Officer, Detective Inspector Liz Mead, of the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire Major Crime Unit, said:

“The Flower family find themselves in tragic circumstances. They now have to cope without Len who should be enjoying his retirement with his wife. Len was killed in his own garage, where he should have been safe but on that October afternoon Sameer Babar carried out a violent attack which has now changed the course of so many innocent lives.

“The medical experts have agreed that at the time of Mr Flower’s death Sameer Babar was suffering from a mental illness and continues to receive the appropriate medical attention for his condition.

Today sees some closure for the Flower family but nothing that has happened in this court room will fill the void that Len’s death has left.”

Speaking after today’s hearing, Mrs Lynn Flower, Len’s wife, said: “I’m heartbroken and devastated at the way my husband’s life was taken.

“Len was a kind, generous and caring husband for 47 years – still fit and able. He helped anyone who asked for a favour.

“As a computer analyst he was an intelligent man, described as such by all who knew him and also very practical. I am lost without him as I am housebound and he was my full time carer. We did everything together.

“The fact that a good, decent man died in such a way hurts me too much. We have lost a good husband, father, grandfather and a kind man who was liked and respected by everyone who met him.”

At first sight, the teenage sports star and the six-year-old cancer survivor don’t appear to have much in common.

But they’re from the same background and both are ambassadors for Rhys’ Rangers, the charity that supports CLIC Sargent for children with cancer.

Luton Sixth Form College student Elliott Browne of Limbury is already an athletics star, while little Rhys Kiernan – a pupil at The Meads Primary, where Elliott started – will never be able to play contact sports. He was diagnosed with a brain tumour two years ago.

But they’re learning a lot from each other, just as their mothers hoped they would. And they’re destined to be a double act at future fundraisers.

Rhys’ mum Keely and Elliott’s mum Amanda have been friends since their schooldays at Lea Manor.

Keely, of Ventnor Gardens, said: “In my eyes Elliott’s a superstar. He’s been Luton Young Sportsman of the Year three times in a row and represented Great Britain at the European championships in Portugal.

“Yet he’s such a modest boy not many people know what he’s achieved.

“I thought it would be fantastic for him to come to fundraising events with his medals – and Rhys thinks he’s awesome!”

Amanda, 44, facilities manager at Salto Gymnastics Club in Sundon Park, agreed. “It’s a wonderful idea, especially if Elliott can make a few children smile or put a few more pounds in the collecting bucket.
“And it’ll be good for him to understand, while he’s still young, that there are children so much less able than him.”

The youngster, who trains at Harlequin School of Gymnastics in Leighton Buzzard, is still on a high after winning bronze for tumbling in Portugal. And he admitted that before meeting Rhys he couldn’t imagine a life without sport: “I have two older brothers who play football to a high level so learning about children with cancer makes me very grateful I’m OK.”

Rhys is currently in remission but Keely confessed she can never relax.

“My nerves are shot to pieces,” she said. “Every time he has a behaviour change I think ‘Is he just being naughty or is there something wrong?’ My friends all say ‘Look away, Keely – he’s just doing little boy things.’

“But it’s always there, knowing your life can change in an instant. I don’t know what we would have done without CLIC Sargent. They even gave us a grant for petrol when Rhy was in Addenbrooke’s Hospital.

“He’s such a happy child, he just loves life. And he’s bursting with excitement about Elliott joining him as a CLIC Sargent ambassador.”

A huge archive of local, regional and national newspapers covering more than 300 years of history is now being made available to the public at the British Library.

New secretary of state for Culture Media and Sport Sajid Javid unveiled the £33m revamp of the library’s collection, which features a state-of-the art reading room, 750m pages of journals and 4.8m archived websites.

The oldest surviving newspaper is the Stamford Mercury, from May 22, 1718 – although earlier editions are available in facsimile form. The paper was first published in 1713.

The oldest English-language newspaper title was published in Amsterdam in 1620 and covered news from Italy, Germany and Bohemia.

In conjunction with a new robotic storage centre in Boston Spa, West Yorkshire, the collection at St Pancras, London, replaces the Colindale newspaper library in north London.

During Second World War blitz bombing raids on London, a direct hit on the library at Colindale resulted in the loss of 9,000 volumes and today, during the ongoing programme to digitise work, some still turn up containing lumps of shrapnel.

British Library chief executive Roly Keating said: “Newspapers are often described as the first draft of history – in fact, in many cases they are the raw material of history and very often the only record that exists of an event or an individual that otherwise would have been forgotten.

“The British Library’s newspaper collection is a vital part of the memory of the nation – recording every aspect of local, regional and national life, and continuing to grow at a rate of more than seven metres every week.

“The opening of the Newsroom means that news and newspapers are no longer the Cinderella of the library’s collections, but are now at the very heart of the British Library’s offering to researchers”

There are 40 digital microfilm viewers, 7.8m scanned pages of historic newspapers and more than 40,000 TV and radio news programmes, increasing at a rate of 60 hours every day across 22 news channels.

The fragile print collection’s new West Yorkshire home is both temperature-controlled and humidity-controlled so that the 60 million copies of newspapers stand a chance of lasting well into the future.

The facility, which is also a low-oxygen environment to cut the risk of fire, is off limits to people to help maintain the atmosphere.

{http://www.bl.uk/subjects/news-media?ns_campaign=brand&ns_mchannel=ppc&ns_source=google&ns_linkname=%2Bbritish%20%2Blibrary%20%2Bnewspapers&ns_fee=0|You can find out more about what’s available by clicking this link}

Luton Borough Council are giving away free compost, at the Household Waste Recycling Centres on Eaton road and Progress way on May 10 and 11, as part of International Compost Awareness week.

Residents will need a bag and shovel to collect their compost, on a first-come, first served basis and is limited to one bag per household, the recycling centres are open from 9am till 8pm.

Shaun Askins, the council’s strategic waste manager, said: “Many people don’t realise that more than 30 per cent of an average household bin can be composted, and although many households already compost at home we want others to get involved.”

As I think I’ve established to the satisfaction of a working majority, I am a being of the male persuasion.

As such, my reaction to the prospect of a trip to a well-known Swedish furniture warehouse is roughly akin to that of a four-legged friend who gets early warning of a trip to the vets to get his tackle trimmed.

A certain understandable reluctance and a grim feeling of foreboding, to be sure – it’s not just the experience itself, it’s the flatpack assembly horror that could well follow. All best avoided, if you ask me.

We have a sufficient stock of tealights to see us through a month-long blackout, I have no use for a pocket full of miniature pencils and the meatballs are, to put it bluntly, a manky mouthful I’m happy to avoid.

But I’m a live and let live sort of guy, and as far as I am concerned if they stay out of my way I’m happy to return the courtesy.

The purveyors of Billy bookcases and Skanka saucepans have been foisting upon us their daft product names and circle of hell store layouts for 25 years and more, and we’ve put up with it.

But at least they never tried to pick us up on our pronunciation – until now.

When Ikea arrived on our shores, we all looked at the name and came to a consensus – that’s Eye-key-ah, that is, and that’s what we’ll call it.

None of the sneaky Swedish sorts who were insidiously infiltrating their blue and yellow sheds onto these shores was minded to pick us up on it – they were just interested in getting a foothold and marching on.

Now they reckon they’re a national institution, and apparently it’s all changed.

According to the firm’s latest TV campaign, we’ve been getting it wrong for a quarter of a century and now they’re going to put us right.

Not in a direct way, of course, that’s not their style – but just by saying it how they say it back home in Stockholm. Again, and again, and again, until we learn.

When the new way to say the name caused my ears to prick up, I checked it out – and apparently if you’re in Gothenburg or Malmo it’s not Eye-key-ah but Icky-er. And they seem to be suggesting that it’s time for us all to fall in line.

Really? I realise this type of global branding realignment is commonplace – Marathon became Snickers, Jif became Cif, Oil Of Ulay turned into Oil Of Olay for reasons I still don’t understand.

But a change of name can make economic sense for a global brand – a change of pronunciation serves no purpose, particularly when it’s a backward step.

Don’t they realise that if something is icky it’s not very nice, and naturally if it’s ickier it’s even worse?

But as far as those meatballs are concerned, they’ve got it spot on, as any sensible snacker will agree.

The Mayor of Luton swapped Easter eggs for cakes to help raise money for Alzheimer’s Society in the town centre recently.

Sheila Roden stopped off at the stall of Alzheimer’s Society volunteers Angela Scarlett-Marshall and Madit Grant in Luton indoor market to sample their tasty treats which were created as part of the charity’s Baking Memories event.

In the run up to Easter, budding bakers were encouraged to don their pinnys and bake cakes to sell and raise money for Alzheimer’s Society.

Angela and Madit were among many people to take up the challenge and held two cake sales, raising £350.

Angela said: “I love baking so this fundraiser was a real treat for me and I’m delighted with how our cake sales went. We plan to organise a series of events in Luton in support of the Society in their fight against Dementia.

“The Memory Bake Sale was the first of these and will be followed in June by a sponsored Memory Walk.

“In doing so, we hope to champion the charitable organisation which provides practical support and care within our local community for people with dementia and their carers.

“It also allows me to honour the memory of my mother Leila Scarlett who recently passed away.”

Tori Bray-Whitworth Community Fundraiser for Alzheimer’s Society, said: “I want to say a huge thank you to Angela and Madit who hosted the cake sales along with all the support from the town Mayor and the local community who assisted them by purchasing all of their stock, resulting in a sell out on both stalls.

“Through my experience as a fundraiser it’s great to see that the traditional methods of fundraising are still some of the most successful, people will always buy homemade cakes.

“Baking Memories was a great campaign to get behind as anyone could take part in it.”

If you are interested in finding out more about the local activities to help Alzheimer’s Society please contact Angela and Madit on 07908 759004.

Luton Borough Council has recently signed up to the Dementia Action Alliance to improve facilities for patients and carers.

A free get-together for families with autistic children is proving a lifeline for many parents.

The monthly meetings are organised by the council’s autism spectrum team and give parents and carers an opportunity to share their experiences.

Teachers, early years advisors and support workers are on hand to offer advice and explain what is available in the town.

Mum Morfydd Price – whose son has been diagnosed with higher functioning autism/Aspergers – said: “I’ve met friends who know and understand how hard it can be to live with a child affected by autism. We laugh and cry together or offer suggestions for alternative coping strategies.

“The team answer questions and give feedback about your child privately if you ask them. They have informative speakers who help us navigate minefields like social services, filling in forms for support or updating us about services and what they can offer.”

> The Families in Lutom Autism Group (FLAG) is meeting this morning (April 30) from 10am to 11.30am at Limbury Fields Community and Children’s Centre in Icknield Way. For details call 01582 548151.