TARGETS for jobs, housing and recycling are among a council's priorities, expected to be set this week.

Cabinet members at Gedling Borough Council will decide whether to rubberstamp its Gedling Plan at a meeting on Thursday.

Gedling hopes to increase the number of apprenticeships at the authority and across the borough over the next three years.

The council currently supplies two itself and wants to see this increase to eight, with the aim of producing 120 apprenticeships in the borough by next year and maintaining that figure until 2017.

Gedling also aims to produce more affordable homes, increasing its 47 over the last year to 92 every 12 months over the next three years.

The authority hopes to turn around planning applications more quickly, and wants to decide on 77 per cent of major proposals within 13 weeks, up from 60 per cent.

Other targets include:

Increasing the amount of waste that is recycled from 38 per cent to 43 per cent by April 2017.

Improving the percentage of council tax collected by signing more people up to the Open Gedling programme. By 2017, the council wants 3,100 people to have set up an online account, up from 2,322 today.

Gedling's cabinet meeting starts at 12.30pm on Thursday at the Civic Centre in Arnot Hill Park, Arnold.

TRAVELLERS may find it more difficult to camp in Gedling in future.

Gedling Borough Council is bringing in tighter security on commonly used sites.

The council also intends to work with the travellers to find a solution and offer basic amenities such as toilet facilities.

Enforcing court orders of traveller sites can take the council up to ten days.

But the new plans are designed to reduce clean-up costs and will be balanced against the rights of residents.

Officers will inspect sites for fire and other hazards and accommodate the travellers at unauthorised sites for a limited period depending on anti-social behaviour issues.

Gedling has seen six unauthorised encampments since 2009.

Last August, 17 caravans were seen on the playing fields off Teal Close, Netherfield, and the council was left with a £25,000 clean-up bill to tackle the mess.

Councillors will vote on the recommendations at a meeting on Thursday, from 12.30pm, at the Civic Centre in Arnot Hill Park, Arnold.

GEORGE Byron was ten years old and studying at Aberdeen Grammar School when he inherited Newstead Abbey in 1798 and became the 6th Lord Byron.

It couldn't have happened at a better time.

Young George, an intelligent lad who bravely bore the handicap of a club foot, was living in humble circumstances with his mother Catherine after they had been abandoned and left virtually penniless by his spendthrift father Captain John Byron.

News of his inheritance quickly spread and at school he was called into the headmaster's study and offered a congratulatory glass of wine and some plum cake.

He had become a person of high importance and was quickly made to realise the responsibilities.

But the lad was thrilled by the prospect of leaving his impoverished life in Aberdeen for the sprawling mansion that was Newstead Abbey.

Together with his mother and a young maid named Mary Gray, he climbed aboard a stagecoach for the long and uncomfortable journey from the north of Scotland to Nottinghamshire.

It was a perilous time for travellers and Mary Gray guarded against highwaymen by hiding a pair of pistols under her skirt, ready to arm George should they be held up.

When they drove through the gates of Newstead Abbey, they were greeted by the site of a broodily romantic house – but a house that was falling down through the neglect of Byron's great-uncle, the 5th Lord Byron, better known as the Wicked Byron, who had allowed the abbey to fall into disrepair.

He was the noble who killed neighbour John Chaworth in a drunken argument and then became ever more eccentric, and wicked, holding lavish parties in a miniature fort he built in the grounds. He also shot his coachman.

The young Byron's mother was shocked by the state of her new home, but her son fell in love with Newstead and immediately planted a young oak in the grounds to mark his arrival.

While Mrs Byron tried to get the house into order, her son lived in a house in St James's Street in Nottingham.

Still troubled by his club foot, he was referred to a quack doctor named Lavender, who forced Byron to endure painful, and fruitless, treatment while referring to the young lad as 'a cripple'.

Byron put up with the twin attacks with quiet bravery until he was sent to school in London, eventually taking a place at Harrow where, despite his handicap, he excelled at cricket and swimming, and became a popular and charismatic figure.

From Harrow he went up to Trinity College, Cambridge. It was another happy period in his young life, a time when for amusement, he kept a bear on a chain.

He also published his first set of poems and began to establish his literary reputation.

In 1808, Byron took full possession of Newstead where he kept a number of dogs, including his favourite, a Newfoundland he named Botswain. When the dog died of rabies, Byron buried him beneath a handsome tomb in the abbey grounds, and wrote a beautiful, melancholy poem in his memory.

Sadly, money worries and scandal were to blight Byron's young adult life, forcing him to sell Newstead and, eventually, to leave the country. He would not see England again. In 1824, while supporting the Greeks in their fight for independence from the Ottoman empire, he caught a violent fever and died.

Byron's body was embalmed and returned to England – some sources say his heart was left behind in the Greek town of Messalonghi – and after Westminster Abbey refused to inter his remains due to his 'questionable morality', he was brought to Hucknall for burial.

In 1969, 145 years after his death, a memorial to him was finally placed in Westminster Abbey.

The story of the poet's early life is told in a five-page leaflet written by local historian Mavis Ellis called The Boy Byron, published 40 years ago on the 150th anniversary of his death. Copies are still available from the parish church of St Mary Magdelene in Hucknall.

PARENTS in Nottinghamshire are split over teachers' plans to go on strike again.

The National Union of Teachers (NUT) has voted to strike in June over pay, pensions and working conditions.

The move has been labelled "outrageous" and "greedy" by some angry parents, many of whom are concerned about their children missing out on school and finding childcare to cover the strike day.

However, others have expressed support for teachers, insisting they are justified in fighting to protect their rights.

The Post questioned 100 people in Nottingham yesterday, with 61% saying they were against the industrial action and 39% in favour of it.

An online poll, conducted at nottinghampost.com suggested the numbers were even closer – with 55% supportive and 45% against.

It will be the third strike in city and county schools this academic year. During the last strike in March more than 100 schools in the area shut.

Peter Hinchley, 44, from Epperstone, said teachers were being hypocritical by walking out.

He said: "We get in trouble if we take our children out of school, we get letters home if they are late and we would get threatened with fines, but it is okay for them to strike?"

Adam Watson, 33, from Clifton, said: "They get paid holiday, six weeks and then all the half terms, and I think asking for more money is just greedy."

And his partner, Jessica Hughes, 25, added: "It messes people's jobs about when they have to find childcare and it costs money, a lot of money too. It is not on."

But Natasha Eaton, a 28-year-old teaching assistant from Bramcote, who also has school-aged children, backed the strikes. She said: "It doesn't happen every week, not even every month... and they're sticking up for their rights.

"I know times are hard, I am a single parent, I have to take unpaid leave too."

David Sells, a 31-year-old teacher from Carlton, said he and his primary school teacher wife worked much longer hours than people realised. "People think we don't do much and we are all about the holidays," he said.

"But I don't finish work until 10pm or 11pm most nights and it is the same for my wife. We don't just swan in at 8.30am and leave at 3pm. We work long hours and weekends."

Graham Johnson, a 37-year-old teacher from West Bridgford, defended the action, saying people needed to think to the future.

"I would hope that parents would see that teachers are being overworked and undervalued, and that the constant government interference in education isn't producing better outcomes for their children," he said.

"So, despite the inconvenience of having to arrange childcare on strike days, I think they should support us and trust us to have the best interests of their children at heart."

The NUT took the strike vote yesterday at its annual conference and said the strikes would happen in the week starting Monday June 23. It also left the door open for further action in the autumn if members' grievances were not resolved.

Christine Blower, general secretary of the NUT, said that despite some changes in policy by Education Secretary Michael Gove, the "intolerable levels of workload" had not changed and teachers were being undermined by pay scales and pension cuts.

A spokesman for the Department for Education said: "Further strike action will only disrupt parents' lives, hold back children's education and damage the reputation of the profession."

What do you think about the teacher's strikes? Let us know at newsdesk@nottinghampost.com.

THE amazing picture in the centre of these pages holds a special place in the heart of a Nottinghamshire family.

It shows the funeral of the Unknown Warrior in London on November 11, 1920.

The funeral casket was borne to Westminster Abbey on a gun carriage drawn, through vast and silent crowds, by six horses. Their riders were men of Eagle Troop, Royal Horse Artillery, and at their head was Private Cyril Leonard Howard, maternal grandfather of Paul Ward, of Hucknall, Peter Ward, of Calverton, and Lisa Taylor-Ward, of Sandiacre.

Retired teacher Paul, 65, had heard about the connection from his mother but it was only when he attended a family funeral and a relative gave him a newspaper cutting that he realised Cyril's true role.

The 1942 report about families from Boston, Lincolnshire, who had served their country confirmed that Cyril was "lead driver" at the funeral.

Lisa, 45, came across the picture for the first time through her connection with Nottinghamshire's Trent to Trenches commemorative campaign.

She is handling publicity for Nottingham Arts Theatre's production of Oh What A Lovely War, to be staged in July. "All the Trent to Trenches groups were sent a package of pictures so that we could use them for publicity and I went through them and realised what that one was and thought 'how amazing – my grandfather must be in that picture somewhere!" Lisa said.

The idea of a Tomb of the Unknown Warrior came from a British army chaplain while serving in France.

He came across a grave marked only by a wooden cross on which was written in pencil "An Unknown British Soldier" and suggested that an unidentified British soldier be buried "amongst the kings" at Westminster Abbey to represent the hundreds of thousands of people of the British Empire who had died in the war.

The coffin was transported with great ceremony from France and the funeral cortege passed through vast and silent crowds in London, followed by King George V, other members of the Royal Family and ministers of state.

It was carried into Westminster Abbey flanked by a guard of 100 recipients of the Victoria Cross and the guests of honour were 100 women who had each had lost their husband and all their sons in the war.

The coffin was interred in the West Nave in soil brought from the main battlefields and as members of the Armed Force stood guard, tens of thou sands of mourners filed past.

Born in Boston in 1900, Cyril Howard must have lied about his age – like many boys at the time – to volunteer for the Army. He could only have been 15 or 16 when he joined the Royal Horse Artillery because when war ended, he had served for three years in Egypt.

A year after that famous funeral, he took part in the Royal Tournament at London's Olympia with Eagle Troop.

And, having seen battle once, he relished the challenge again when the Second World War broke, volunteering to join the RAF and becoming a balloon operator and finally a military policeman. He was discharged with tuberculosis and died of the disease in 1949.

"HEROES" might not be the first word that springs to mind when the task of laying railway lines is mentioned.

But it was vital – and highly dangerous – work in the Great War and it earned the Ward siblings' paternal grandfather the Military Medal.

Born in 1890, Albert Edwin Ward was part of a labour battalion of the Cheshire Regiment.

The War Office had sanctioned the raising of such units for service abroad and at home and, as the official war diary of the 58th Labour Regiment records: "The men were drawn from all units in the Western Command, and included cotton spinners and factory hands from the Midlands, farmers from the country towns, and miners from South Wales.

"For two short weeks we were trained during every moment that could be spared from inoculation, vaccination, etc, and the seemingly interminable process of fitting out for service overseas, until we were able to at least present an appearance of a battalion on parade."

Just how "in at the deep end" these men were is illustrated by another diary entry by their captain as they set sail from Southampton in May 1916: "Arms and ammunition were issued…Few of our men had ever handled a rifle in their lives and it was with the greatest difficulty that some were found who professed knowledge; but I tremble to think what would have happened if they had been called upon to use their arms."

They reached the Somme and soon began the task of laying railway lines and taking trains loaded with supplies to and from the front.

It was gruelling work, often done in biting cold and under constant bombardment from enemy shells. Much of their efforts were blasted to pieces within minutes of being completed.

The captain writes: "Can my readers imagine the following scene:- A small party of from six to a dozen men working alone, busy repairing breaks in the line, amid that awful waste, with, as a rule, not another living soul in sight.

"Suddenly comes a shriek of a shell, perhaps a salvo of four, pitching close to the party. There is no need for a word of command, every man knows that when shells fall near there are only two classes, "the quick and the dead," and like one man they drop instantly to the ground, taking what cover they can.

"If they are lucky and the first shells fall clear, as soon as the salvo is finished and the pieces cease flying, they are up and off, running at right angles to the direction the shell travelled, and taking refuge in any convenient trench or dugout. Here they remain till the Huns' firing has subsided, feeling the thud, thud as the shells strike the ground and watching the muck and splinters fly through the air."

Sergeant Albert Ward was officially recognised a hero for his actions during two episodes.

One diary entry reads: "Sergeant Ward recommended for M.M. for bringing seven wounded of another labour company out of the "Brick Spur" under fire. After being shelled out himself, he saw others in difficulties, brought out the slightly wounded, returned and assisted the walking wounded. Brought up his tractor and despatched the badly wounded to hospital, and then removed those who had been killed."

And when a new line from Abeele to near Reninghelst, in Belgium, was being constructed, the Germans were heavily shelling the area and were reported to be planning a big push.

"A large quantity of valuable joists and rails lay beyond Ouderdom at Zevecoten dump," the diary reads. "Sergeant Ward took a party of fifteen men every day from July 14th to the 18th, to salve these and prevent them falling into enemy hands.

"All the way the train was heavily shelled…At times the driver had to wait till a salvo had fallen and then dash through at express speed. Seven and eight times a day the track would be blown up and the trains stopped while new lengths were put in..

"The dump itself was under direct observation, and one morning fourteen Bosche balloons could be seen in line close in front.

"In spite of the shelling which the party were subjected to every time their train arrived, ten trains of six wagons each were loaded and brought out safely….

"It was undoubtedly owing to skilful leading that the casualties were so slight, and for his resource and courage, Sergeant Ward was deservedly awarded the Military Medal."

But away from the fighting, there was great fun and camaraderie.

"Football was undoubtedly the chief sport," the diary records. "Cricket was rendered difficult owing to the absence of turf, and the outfield being always full of shell holes."

Albert's team won 28 out of 38 matches, scoring 174 goals and conceding only 13, and he was noted for his "fast sprints down the right wing and clever centres".

He returned to his native Lincolnshire after the war and worked on the railways. Grandson Paul remembers him well. "In the summer holidays, we used to go and stay with grandma and grandad," he says. "But he never mentioned the war to me."

DRIVERS have been assured that new tram lines and road improvements will help ease congestion – as figures reveal Nottinghamshire is the fourth- worst place in the UK for traffic jams.

A survey by driver services provider Inrix revealed that county drivers spent an average of 39 hours stuck in traffic last year.

Only motorists in London, Greater Manchester and Merseyside were worse off.

Regular tailbacks have been caused by work on the tram extensions to Clifton and Chilwell.

Meanwhile, the A453 is being widened and Nottingham's ring road is having work done to it.

But Councillor Jane Urquhart, portfolio holder for transport on Nottingham City Council, said the delays would be worth it in the long run.

She said: "There is over £750 million currently being invested in measures to tackle congestion – such as the tram extension, better bus services and improvements to the train station – to encourage even more people to use public transport.

"Undoubtedly, some journeys will be slower while these improvements are developed. But soon the disruption will be over and Nottingham will continue to benefit from some of the best public transport in the country and, according to our figures, lower congestion levels than most major UK cities."

The survey showed that the 39 hours drivers wasted in traffic in South Nottinghamshire was four hours more than in 2012.

Inrix's records define South Nottinghamshire as stretching from Sutton-in-Ashfield to East Leake, going as far west as Erewash and as far east as Bottesford. The South Nottinghamshire rate was well above the national average of 30 hours.

The figures were released ahead of national Catch the Bus Week which begins on Monday.

Ms Urquhart said Nottingham had one of the best public transport systems and urged more people to make the most of it. "In Nottingham and the wider conurbation, we have seen a 12 per cent increase in bus and tram use over the past decade, with around 75 million public transport journeys made last year alone."

Tony Humphreys, transport manager for haulage firm Hardstaff, in Kingston-on-Soar, said the firm was affected by jams, which meant lost business.

He said: "It is always a concern when our drivers get stuck in traffic. If they got stuck for half an hour to an hour, then it affects how quick we can get deliveries to customers.

"We often find parts of the M1 to be among the worst. That can get congested towards junction 24a, which is the exit that we use a lot."

George Cowcher, chief executive of the chamber of commerce for Nottinghamshire, said: "Congestion is not just an inconvenience but also a heavy burden on business and these figures highlight how much of a problem it is proving to be for businesses in Nottingham.

"That said, there are very specific reasons why the city and its surrounding areas feature so highly on this list, given the ongoing long-term infrastructure projects, including the tram and station works and the widening of the A453.

"Once completed, these projects should go a long way to boosting both speed and capacity on the region's road networks and alleviating congestion problems in and around the city centre in particular."

What do you think to the state of the county's roads? E-mail newsdesk@nottinghampost.com.

THE issue of congestion in Notts is hotly debated.

It seems that for every survey which shows that roads in the county are among the busiest, another suggests otherwise.

The report by Inrix comes just over a month since it was revealed that the A52 Brian Clough Way was top in the ten worst roads for congestion.

Yet a few months earlier, another report suggested that Nottingham was one of the country's least congested cities.

That study, measuring traffic jams in the UK's 17 largest urban areas, ranked Nottingham 14th.

Now we are told the county is fourth-worst when it comes to the average time spent in traffic.

It has become hard to tell where Nottinghamshire stands when it comes to congestion.

IT'S not every day that a six-bedroom home, complete with an attic cinema room and games room with a neon-blue darts oche, comes on the market.

But what also makes a family home for sale in Caythorpe Road, Caythorpe, extra special is that former Nottinghamshire and England cricketer Graeme Swann currently lives there.

He and wife Sarah have made the decision to move out of their home – aptly called The Cygnets – which they built from scratch.

West Bridgford-based estate agent Alexanders has been enlisted to find a buyer.

The company's managing director, James Kirk, who is a friend of the couple, said: "I've known Graeme a while now and I previously acted for him when they were selling a property in Lady Bay.

"I was at his and Sarah's wedding and Graeme said to me he wanted to find a site to project manage and build their dream house, and I had another client who owned three plots of land up there in Caythorpe.

"The remit for their home was to design an eco-friendly, extremely high-spec property. For Graeme and Sarah, it was their dream and they worked on it right down to the toilet- holder and the front door material."

The house, which is on the market with a guide price of £1.2m, was built and completed in 2012 with the help of Notts architect Valeria Passetti.

Behind its gleaming white exterior is an array of pristine rooms, fitted out to the highest specifications.

It is believed the Swanns are selling up in order to move back to West Bridgford to be closer to their friends.

Swann himself told a national newspaper that the pair planned to ultimately begin another renovation project, saying: "We've got the bug now. Seeing something transformed before your eyes is addictive."

Mr Kirk said The Cygnets had already attracted considerable interest, including from some of the city's footballers.

He said: "We have had a couple of Nottingham Forest players interested.

"We've had a surgeon look around and a couple of groups from Leicestershire and Derbyshire."

He added: "Houses like this really do show what money is out there.

"I'm excited at not only representing a high-profile, well- thought-of cricketer, but also a young couple who embarked on their dream."

As for whoever buys it, Mr Kirk said: "They are going to get a hell of a deal."

The emergence of the Swanns' home on the local housing market comes as Experian revealed there had been a rise in the number of houses over £500,000 available for sale in and around Notts.

The Nottingham-based credit company's latest Property Index showed that the first three months of the year saw the highest year-on-year increase in the number of properties worth more than £500,000 appearing for sale in the Midlands since the end of 2012.

It is also up 19.6 per cent compared with the same period in 2013.

According to the Land Registry, the average price of a house in Nottinghamshire has also risen over the past two years.

In February 2012, it stood at £117,000, but it had risen to £118,000 a year later. By February this year, the average price had gone up to £122,000.

CONMAN John Cooney has been jailed for ripping off vulnerable pensioners in Notts.

Nottingham Crown Court was told how the 39-year-old "preyed upon the most vulnerable in society" as he sold mobility aids that were either useless or never delivered.

Ten pensioners from across the country fell victim to the father- of-four from Radcliffe-on-Trent.

Cooney admitted ten cases of fraud worth £10,791 in total and was locked up for three-and-a- half years yesterday.

Judge Michael Stokes QC told him: "There are thieves and fraudsters and then there are people like you. People like you are the lowest of the low.

"The amount of money does not signify the pain and distress you have caused to the victims and their families."

Cooney's business, Simplify Leicester Limited, was started in December 2010 and his victims' losses ranged from £171 to £2,400.

Victim Audrey Hoblyn, 82, of Cwmbran, Wales, was conned out of £450 and died in December 2011 – before Cooney could be brought to justice.

Her son Robert Hoblyn, of Pontypool, in Wales, made the 150-mile drive to Nottingham yesterday to see Cooney jailed.

He said: "She had bladder cancer and desperately wanted to have a bath.

"Cooney cold-called her and apparently showed her pictures of his children and persuaded her into buying a bath belt (used to help lower people into the bath).

"She wrote a £450 cheque, which was cashed within 24 hours, but she never received anything.

"It wasn't the amount of money that really upset her, it was that she got sucked in by him."

Cooney's other victims included an elderly woman with Alzheimer's, who paid £485 for a "memory" foam mattress which was suspected to be a homemade piece of two-inch foam, the court was told.

Prosecutor Christopher Geeson said: "The complainants are all between the ages of 66 and 99. In some occasions, nothing was ever delivered and on other occasions, items were just not suitable."

The court heard how Cooney, of Water Lane, also worked under the guise of UK Mobility Plus – where he learnt how to rip people off from convicted fraudster Carl Mould .

Mould was jailed in June last year for 15 counts of fraud and one count of attempted theft – in total worth £70,000.

In mitigation, barrister Tustian Lody said: "Mr Cooney fell under the influence of Mr Mould while they were working together.

"He pleaded guilty at the first opportunity and answered the questions put to him when he could have kept quiet."

The East Midlands Scambusters Team worked alongside Trading Standards officers from Notts County Council to catch Cooney and, in an interview, he admitted his company had a £482,000 turnover.

Cooney was previously jailed for six months in November 2012 for breaching a court order under the Enterprise Act by continuing to miss-sell mobility aids. He was released in February 2013.

Cooney was yesterday ordered to pay £7,776 in compensation to victims or their beneficiaries as well as £3,800 in costs.

He was banned from being a director of a company for 10 years.

Trading Standards manager Mark Hughes, said: "This is a good result and sends out a clear indication of how these matters are dealt with."