Price: 72p (ir 1.

05 eUrO) Tuesday, august 2, 2011

The pride of Northern Ireland

www.newsletter.co.uk

Since 1737

Festival focus on Maiden City history PAGES 16&17

bbC staff back on picket line

Laverty left high and dry

KEEP ER LIT

McGlone in battle to lead SDLP

Staff at bbC Northern ireland went on strike for the second time in less than a month yesterday as thousands of journalists across the UK staged demonstrations in protest over job cuts. The stoppage caused disruption to a number of programmes across the day. Full story page 11
PiCTUre: arthur allison/Pacemaker

Heating oil price pain

HARD-PRESSED Ulster folk are forking out almost twice the going rate for home heating oil because they cannot afford to buy in bulk. Emergency oil drums containing 20 litres and costing on average 19 work out at almost 1 per litre. But those who can pay to fill their tanks with a recommended 900 litres are paying on average 59p a litre. The most expensive emergency drums were found in Belfast, with prices of 22.99, and the cheapest drums in our survey were found in Armoy where they can be bought for 14.50 See page 3

Cheques in post for PMS savers

by SaM McbriDe Political Correspondent
sam.mcbride@newsletter.co.uk

a&e units doctor crisis

LAGAN Valley Hospitals A&E unit has only been able to attract two junior doctors out of the six it needs. It was announced on Monday that Lagan Valleys A&E units opening hours were to be slashed, but last night Lisburn councillors heard how despite casting its net across Europe Lagan Valley could not recruit enough doctors to run its A&E department. See page 10

CHEQUES for Presbyterian Mutual Society savers were posted yesterday and should begin arriving this morning. Arthur Boyd, the administrator in charge of the insolvent societys

affairs, last night confirmed that long-suffering PMS savers cheques totalling 232 million were posted by first class delivery yesterday afternoon. The government rescue money, which has made possible the payments, yesterday cleared the final hurdles and was transferred into the administrators account, which then enabled him to

forward the payments. Royal Mail said that it could not comment on individual customers but that its target is to deliver first class mail the following day. However, there may be a slight delay for some savers, particularly those in more rural areas. Enterprise minister Arlene Foster hailed the developments

as the result of a lengthy effort. I very much recognise these payments have been a long time coming. There has been a lot of work going on behind the scenes for the last two years and 10 months, she said. I am delighted to see a lot of people receiving their cheques. Turn to page 4

CBI calls for export push to fuel growth

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