Q What has the first year of the new Shipstone's beer been like ?

A It has been an absolute roller-coaster! There have been highs and lows but I think that is something that every new business experiences when they are starting out.

Q What have been the highs?

AI'd have to say Sat Bains cooking with Shipstone's in his restaurant. That is fantastic! Also, the fact we are getting global interest with samples going out to Australia. It is amazing.

QBut there have been lows too?

AOf course. The lows are always when you want to hit a certain target and you don't reach it. It leaves you with a really sad feeling. But that hasn't stopped us and we will get where we want to be.

QWhat has been the drinkers' reaction to your beer?

AEveryone instantly recognises the brand and their first reaction is always, "Blimey! It's back!" Then they try the beer and, thankfully, they have said it is a nice one. It is the best feeling, seeing it on the pumps in pubs, on the shelves in shops and seeing people enjoying it.

QSo what is your plan for the year ahead?

AWe have really got to push on. We sold 100,000 units of pints and bottles but if I want to make this business viable, we have to look at tripling that. Then we will be adding to the portfolio with a new beer from the heritage line in July and hopefully another in October.

St Ann's: Blue Bell Hill Primary School is giving its kids a good start to the day thanks to funding from Kellogg's for its breakfast club.

The cereal company is giving £400 to the school to help children who arrive at school hungry. According to the Lost Education report, commissioned by Kellogg's, more than a quarter of teachers have seen an increase in children being sent to school with no breakfast.

The effect is a loss of education, with teachers reporting that if children who arrive at school hungry will lose one hour of learning time that day.

Kellogg's launched its nationwide Help Give a Child a Breakfast campaign last September and Blue Bell Hill is one of 1,000 schools in deprived areas to benefit.

Nic Williams, from the school, said: "It's a shocking fact that children are missing out on the very foundations of their education by not being fed in the morning. Breakfast clubs are a lifeline for so many children."

WITH the British police having no jurisdiction in France, finding Christopher and Susan Edwards and bringing them back to the UK could have taken months.

Nottinghamshire detectives had already tried to contact the Edwards by phone and also e-mail addresses supplied by Mr Edwards' stepmother, Elizabeth Edwards, but had one response and then nothing.

By then skeletal remains of William and Patricia Wycherley had been excavated from the garden of 2 Blenheim Close, Forest Town, but it would be 10 more days before police got their breakthrough.

Among dozens of e-mails in Detective Chief Inspector Rob Griffin's inbox was one that stood out on October 30, 2013.

Marked as of high importance and timed at 1.34pm, it was 57-year-old Mr Edwards. He addressed DCI Griffin with the words:

"Later on today we are going to surrender ourselves to the UK Border Force Authorities at the Eurostar terminal at Lille Europe station. We would prefer to do this... since my wife is already sufficiently frightened. Please could you notify the UK Border Force at Lille Europe so that they may expect us."

However, the e-mail posed a difficult problem for the police. If the Edwards surrendered themselves to French police, they would remain under French jurisdiction, and police in Britain would have no power to arrest them.

DCI Griffin decided to alert British police anyway to meet the next Eurostar to arrive at London St Pancras International from Lille in the slim hope that the Edwards would be on board.

He was right. The couple had caught the next train home and when they stepped back on to British soil, they were arrested and brought to Nottingham for questioning.

DCI Griffin said: "It all happened so quickly."

The Edwards had given up their privately-rented flat in Dagenham, east London, and had been living in a privately-rented apartment in Lille when they ran out of money.

Mr Edwards had contacted his stepmother for a loan but it was during his conversation with her that he revealed his in-laws were dead and buried in their back garden.

Although he denied murdering them, recounting his wife's story of what happened, he had helped bury them.

DCI Griffin said: "I have been involved in lots of investigations and this is probably the most unusual.

"When we received that call on October 1 from Elizabeth Edwards, it was difficult to believe that what she said had happened could have happened.

"But we took it seriously and that is when the investigation started. In the days that followed, we started to see that perhaps it was all true, and that was confirmed when we started the excavation in the garden and discovered Patricia and William were there."

WILLIAM Wycherley's nieces, Hilary Rose and Christine Harford, did not know him well. He was their mother's youngest brother.

"Sadly, mum died in 2009," they said in a statement.

"Had she been alive now, she would have been horrified by these brutal murders, and the callous treatment of the bodies.

"It would have been extremely upsetting for her to discover the deception and lies practised by her niece — our cousin — Susan and her husband, Christopher, against her and others for so long, for their own selfish greed and gain.

"We would like to thank everyone who helped to bring them to justice.

"We have felt powerless throughout this terrible ordeal but, while we cannot change what has happened, there is one thing we can do — we can officially acknowledge William and Patricia's deaths. Our main priority now is to see that they are finally laid to rest with dignity."

Mem Saab, Maid Marian Way

Wired Café Bar, Pelham Street

Cookie Shake, Upper Parliament Street

Bodega, Pelham Street

Chocolate Utopia, Friar Lane

Page 45, Market Street

Thea Caffea, Low Pavement

Rum House, Broad Street

The Cheese Shop, Flying Horse Walk

Moulin Rouge, Trinity Square

NKD Waxing, Bridlesmith Walk

J Herbert Jewellers, Wheeler Gate

Zullo and Holland, Upper Parliament Street

The Music Exchange, Stoney Street

New Foresters, St Ann's Street

THE competition to find Nottingham's favourite independent business has stepped up a gear with the announcement of the finalists.

Almost 5,000 members of the public have cast their votes during the Post and Nottingham Business Improvement District's competition.

The aim was to highlight the strength and diversity of independent businesses in the city centre.

Voting has been so close this year that the unprecedented decision has been made to increase the number of finalists from the usual ten to 15 businesses, in order to make the decision as fair as possible.

Graphic novel and comic shop Page 45 has scooped the top spot for the past two years – and is in the running again.

Nicola Tidy, director of Nottingham BID, said: "Last year, we had around 1,800 votes in total but this time we have had nearly 5,000 – it's been an astounding success.

"I think it shows that members of the public really do want to show their support for independent businesses which do a great job.

"Voting was so close that it seemed much fairer to include 15, rather than the usual ten, in our final line-up. All the final 15 received a significant number of nominations."

The 15 finalists will now be visited by the judging panel, comprising Steve Hollingsworth, publisher of the Nottingham Post; Mike Sassi, editor of the Nottingham Post; Jennifer Spencer, chief executive of Experience Nottinghamshire; Lynn Oxborrow of Nottingham Trent University; and Frances Finn of Notts TV.

Mr Sassi said: "It's well-known that Nottingham city centre has some of the best and most exciting independent businesses in the region.

"The 15 businesses on this shortlist represent an impressive array of local talent. Judging will be difficult. However, it will be a pleasure to help celebrate so many worthwhile individuals and their enterprise."

The overall winner will be announced on Friday, July 4.

CHRISTOPHER Edwards blew £14,000 in two years on signed photographs and other mementoes of the Hollywood star Gary Cooper (right).

Edwards insisted he was buying the items online for his wife, who had an interest in celebrities and claimed to have a long-running pen friendship with French actor Gerard Depardieu, as she did not have a computer.

He bought a signed document in Cooper's name relating to the purchase of stock for just over £4,000 on November 7, 2011, when the couple were deeply in debt and paying off an IVA (individual voluntary agreement), at 25% of what they owed.

Apart from the one euro they had left to their names and claiming they had run out of money when they surrendered to police, among their clothes in suitcases were the valuable Gary Cooper memorabilia, an autographed Frank Sinatra photo and strips of stamps of the American singer and film great.

Mr Edwards recalled how his wife of 32 years had also once claimed to have been invited to a London hotel by the late Liverpool manager Bill Shankly.

Mrs Edwards met Shankly (below) in the late 1970s, after she had seen him on television and he was "very high-profile", Mr Edwards told their trial.

He explained: "She wrote this letter to him, originally asking for a photo, and he wrote back with a photo and inviting her to go to meet him, I believe at the Cumberland Hotel, central London."

He said his wife had an interest in men of a certain age and position of responsibility, giving examples of Winston Churchill and General Charles De Gaulle.

OVER a fish and chip dinner, Susan Edwards confessed to her husband that her parents were dead under a bed upstairs.

They had lain there wrapped in duvets for a week and tucked away until she revealed all when she returned with her husband to the house in Blenheim Close, Forest Town.

The story she told police, with an almost identical version given by her husband, had been one she had 15 years to concoct, rehearse and perfect.

The 56-year-old former librarian said she had found her mother, Patricia Wycherley, with a gun and her father, William Wycherley, on the floor on the bank holiday weekend of 1998.

A row followed, with her reclusive mother, then aged 63, claiming to have had a sexual relationship with Mr Edwards in the early 1990s, so she shot her.

After single-handedly moving their dead bodies under the bed and returning to her husband in London, she mentioned nothing about their horrific end until she returned to the house the following weekend.

Mr Edwards believed his wife's version of events and, rather than going to police and, in his words, "throwing her to the wolves", she persuaded him to bury the bodies.

More bizarrely, after making such an incredible revelation and the bodies lying cold upstairs, the couple still found time to watch the Eurovision song contest on TV.

The night had been warm as they began the macabre process of carrying the Wycherleys, one by one, downstairs.

As daylight came, Mr Edwards began digging a hole for them.

Former neighbour James Hobson remembered it was 7am when he heard a scraping sound coming from the garden next door.

"I remember seeing the man I remember as the son-in-law in the rear garden. He was stood approximately two metres away from the rear doorstep.

"He appeared to be either digging a hole or filling a hole with earth, using a spade.

"I recall saying to Corina [his partner] in a joking way 'He's burying them in the garden' and we both laughed at that." Prosecutors disputed Mrs Edwards version of events – that the couple had lain dead for a week – or that Mr Edwards had been in London at the time of the killings.

They believed that in all likelihood it was experienced former gun club member Mr Edwards who pulled the trigger with a .38 revolver, shooting the Wycherleys twice each, and then helping his wife cover up the killings for the next 15 years by lying, forging signatures, sending Christmas cards to relatives, and collecting benefit and pension money owed to the Wycherleys.

Credit controller Mr Edwards told how they decided to sell the Wycherleys' home in 2005 after he was "shocked" to discover his wife had run up a considerable level of debt.

They created documents purportedly signed by the Wycherleys and the money from the sale, £66,938.09, was paid into a joint account which was opened after the couple had been killed.

Davis Howker QC asked Mr Edwards: "Was Susan living in the real world, do you think, Mr Edwards?"

He replied: "Probably not, no."

Mr Howker asked: "Did you agree to go along with the sale of the house."

Mr Edwards replied: "I wasn't happy to do it because we were no longer in control of the grave site."

The sale only reduced their debts of some £160,000.

Over the years, the prosecution said, the total diverted into the joint account opened after the death of the Wycherleys amounted to £245,705.49.

All of the cash was withdrawn from the account, either by presenting a passbook and signing to withdraw sums in cash or cheques, or by transferring funds to other accounts.

After the killings over the May bank holiday of 1998, the only people seen at the house were the defendants – there regularly maintaining the garden but not the house.

Mr Edwards pretended to be the Wycherleys' nephew. He told neighbours they had retired and gone to live in Morecambe. To others he said they had gone travelling or to Blackpool due to ill health.

In 2005, a vehicle crashed through the fence to the house and damaged the rear lawn. In panic, the Edwards, perhaps worried that their secret in the garden would be uncovered, carried out the repairs immediately themselves.

Mr Edwards told neighbours subsequently that, as a result, he had been contacted by the owners in Blackpool and told to sell the house as quickly as possible because "it created too much aggro".

Then, last year, their web of lies began to unravel. A letter arrived from the centenarian department at the Department for Work and Pensions, asking for a face-to-face meeting with Mr Wycherley, who would have been approaching his 100th birthday. The Edwards knew their time was running out and fled to France.

JUST two matches into the main tournament and England have been knocked out of the World Cup.

Following 2-1 defeats by Italy last Saturday and Uruguay on Thursday, England's hopes of progressing were down to Italy winning their next two matches.

But the dreams were dashed last night when Costa Rica's Bryan Ruiz scored a goal just before half-time – leaving Italy deflated and England out of the competition.

It is England's worst result in the tournament since 1958.

Dave Smith, 63, of Cotgrave, said: "I think we played better in the first match.

"The second match got off to a slow start but the second half was better.

"I am gutted about the result – I thought they would have at least got out of the group stages.

"I think Italy will be out next. My money is on Holland to beat Brazil in the final."

Vic Mercer, 64, of St Ann's said Uruguay's Luis Suarez – who scored two goals in Thursday's match – was too good for the England players.

He said: "We are a load of rubbish – we don't have a man who can score goals.

"To be quite honest, I knew they would be out of it because they haven't got any passion."

He added that he thought England may have stood a better chance if manager Roy Hodgson had picked different players.

He said: "They should have played some of the old players like John Terry, Ashley Cole and Frank Lampard."

England will still play Costa Rica next Tuesday but will have to wait another four years for a chance to win the World Cup.

Razvan Pop, 30, of the city centre, was watching the Italy vs Costa Rica match in The Bank pub, in Beastmarket Hill.

He said: "I think England were a disaster and I am quite disappointed.

"The tactics were not the best and the defenders were an issue.

"Next time, we should find some better youngsters."

Ben Hodgkinson, assistant manager of The Bank , said the pub had been "rammed" for England's two matches, with a "good atmosphere".

He added: "It is obviously disappointing but nothing new to me, I have got used to the disappointment now.

"I think the played better than they did four years ago but it comes down to the same old story – defensive errors and a lack of passion."

What do you think? E-mail opinion@nottinghampost.com.

AN unusual tracksuit has led to the arrest of a burglar from Carrington.

Thomas Lance Smith, 28, of Hucknall Road, admitted breaking into a house in Mapperley on Thursday, May 29, smashing both the rear and front windows.

Witnesses reported seeing a man wearing a black Adidas tracksuit with red, yellow and green stripes leaving the scene and heading towards Hucknall Road at around 5pm.

CCTV analysis then enabled officers to link Smith, a known drug offender, to the scene and a search of his house revealed an Adidas tracksuit which matched the one the offender was seen wearing.

He was arrested and has now been jailed for three years after pleading guilty to burglary.

Detective Constable Lindsay Wood said: "Nothing was stolen but there will have been significant cost to the victim involved in replacing the broken windows."

NOTTINGHAM is set for a sunny weekend, with temperatures reaching up to 21 degrees Celsius.

The warm weather is expected to last throughout today and tomorrow but it may get cloudy in the afternoons.

Monday is expected to see similar weather, with temperatures up to 20C, but there is a chance of rain in the evening. According to the Met Office, the weather on Tuesday is expected to be cloudy, with temperatures of around 17 C.

For the latest forecast, visit nottinghampost.com/weather.

BURTON Joyce Primary School, pictured, has been taken out of special measures and rated "good with outstanding features" following its latest Ofsted inspection.

Inspectors, who visited earlier his month, found the improvement was down to outstanding leadership and management.

The school was put in special measures last year after a damning Ofsted report in which it was branded "inadequate".

There were concerns about the way it was being run and the strength of the governing body.

In response to this month's report, John Slater, Notts County Council's service director for education standards, said: "I'd like to place on record my thanks to the executive head teacher, the interim executive board, the staff, parents and children for playing their part in an excellent Ofsted inspection.

"I'm confident the school will now go from strength to strength."

Executive head teacher Phil Palmer added: "This Ofsted is very much a watershed moment for the school and we are now looking forward to a very bright and successful future.

"The inspectors revealed that the school was very close to receiving an outstanding rating, which would have been a remarkable turnaround."

GEDLING residents are being asked for their views on a new access road which would link two major roads in the area.

The Homes and Communities Agency is submitting a revised planning application to Gedling Borough Council for the construction of the Gedling Access Road – a 3.8km road that would link the A612 Burton Road and B684 Mapperley Plains Road.

Two public consultation events are being held next week, when people can view the plans and make their views known.

They take place at Gedling Memorial Hall, Main Road, Gedling, on Monday, from 3pm to 7.30pm and at Mapperley Plains Recreational and Social Club on Friday between 4pm and 8pm.

FIREFIGHTERS' strikes have landed the taxpayer with a £158,000 bill – and the cost looks set to soar as crews walk out again today.

This will be the 14th time members of the Fire Brigades Union have walked out since the dispute with the Government over pensions began in September.

Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service has put the cost of covering strikers at £158,000 – at the same time as it battles to find £2.4 million of savings.

The amount spent paying for contingency staff would have more than covered the cost of keeping a retained fire engine in Mansfield, which stands at £125,000 according to documents, while new fire engines can be bought for between £150,000 and £200,000.

Fire authority chairman Darrell Pulk said the longer the dispute continued, the more pressure would be put on dwindling budgets. He said: "The service is already facing a huge deficit in its budget due to cuts in its Government grant and it is therefore extremely important that we don't deplete essential funds that may need to be relied on at a later date.

"We therefore ask that the FBU and the Government bring this dispute to an end."

The union is opposed to Government plans to increase the retirement age of firefighters from 55 to 60, and the amount they pay into their pensions.

It says at least two-thirds of the current workforce could face either dismissal or a reduction in pensions of almost half because they are unable to maintain fitness standards required beyond the age of 55.

Sean McCallum, chairman of the Nottinghamshire branch of the FBU, said: "At the end of the day, it is the chief fire officer that makes the decisions on how much they spend on contingency, not the union.

"If there is fault for this cost, it is on central government for not getting around the table and bringing this dispute to a close sooner.

"In Northern Ireland, the government has agreed to keep the retirement age at 55. If they can have a fully-costed plan with that in place in Northern Ireland, why can't they do it in Westminster?"

Among the current raft of proposals to save up to £1 million is one that could mean Nottingham's central fire station, Mansfield, Stockhill and Highfields stations each having their fire engines cut from two to one.

Retained fire engines would also be lost at Warsop and Collingham.

Collingham parish council chairman Rosie Scott said losing the retained fire service would be "a huge blow".

THIS was the moment calculating killer Christopher Edwards decided to surrender to police – 15 years after he murdered his in-laws.

He sent a politely-worded e-mail from northern France to the head of the investigation at Nottinghamshire Police, revealing that he planned to turn himself in with his wife, Susan.

Mr Edwards is believed by prosecutors to have gunned down William and Patricia Wycherley, his wife's parents, in a joint plan.

Mrs Edwards helped him carry her dead parents downstairs before he buried them in the Wycherleys' back garden in Forest Town over the May Day bank holiday of 1998.

Over the next 15 years, the cash-crippled Edwards received £245,000 by pretending the Wycherleys were still alive.

It was not until last October that they were found out.

Yesterday, as the pair were found guilty of murder, relatives said the victims would finally be "laid to rest with dignity".

The Edwards will be sentenced on Monday.

OVER a fish and chip dinner, Susan Edwards confessed to her husband that her parents were dead under a bed upstairs.

They had lain there wrapped in duvets for a week and tucked away until she revealed all when she returned with her husband to the house in Blenheim Close, Forest Town.

The story she told police, with an almost identical version given by her husband, had been one she had 15 years to concoct, rehearse and perfect.

The 56-year-old former librarian said she had found her mother, Patricia Wycherley, with a gun and her father, William Wycherley, on the floor on the bank holiday weekend of 1998.

A row followed, with her reclusive mother, then aged 63, claiming to have had a sexual relationship with Mr Edwards in the early 1990s, so she shot her.

After single-handedly moving their dead bodies under the bed and returning to her husband in London, she mentioned nothing about their horrific end until she returned to the house the following weekend.

Mr Edwards believed his wife's version of events and, rather than going to police and, in his words, "throwing her to the wolves", she persuaded him to bury the bodies.

More bizarrely, after making such an incredible revelation and the bodies lying cold upstairs, the couple still found time to watch the Eurovision song contest on TV.

The night had been warm as they began the macabre process of carrying the Wycherleys, one by one, downstairs.

As daylight came, Mr Edwards began digging a hole for them.

Former neighbour James Hobson remembered it was 7am when he heard a scraping sound coming from the garden next door.

"I remember seeing the man I remember as the son-in-law in the rear garden. He was stood approximately two metres away from the rear doorstep.

"He appeared to be either digging a hole or filling a hole with earth, using a spade.

"I recall saying to Corina [his partner] in a joking way 'He's burying them in the garden' and we both laughed at that." Prosecutors disputed Mrs Edwards version of events – that the couple had lain dead for a week – or that Mr Edwards had been in London at the time of the killings.

They believed that in all likelihood it was experienced former gun club member Mr Edwards who pulled the trigger with a .38 revolver, shooting the Wycherleys twice each, and then helping his wife cover up the killings for the next 15 years by lying, forging signatures, sending Christmas cards to relatives, and collecting benefit and pension money owed to the Wycherleys.

Credit controller Mr Edwards told how they decided to sell the Wycherleys' home in 2005 after he was "shocked" to discover his wife had run up a considerable level of debt.

They created documents purportedly signed by the Wycherleys and the money from the sale, £66,938.09, was paid into a joint account which was opened after the couple had been killed.

Davis Howker QC asked Mr Edwards: "Was Susan living in the real world, do you think, Mr Edwards?"

He replied: "Probably not, no."

Mr Howker asked: "Did you agree to go along with the sale of the house."

Mr Edwards replied: "I wasn't happy to do it because we were no longer in control of the grave site."

The sale only reduced their debts of some £160,000.

Over the years, the prosecution said, the total diverted into the joint account opened after the death of the Wycherleys amounted to £245,705.49.

All of the cash was withdrawn from the account, either by presenting a passbook and signing to withdraw sums in cash or cheques, or by transferring funds to other accounts.

After the killings over the May bank holiday of 1998, the only people seen at the house were the defendants – there regularly maintaining the garden but not the house.

Mr Edwards pretended to be the Wycherleys' nephew. He told neighbours they had retired and gone to live in Morecambe. To others he said they had gone travelling or to Blackpool due to ill health.

In 2005, a vehicle crashed through the fence to the house and damaged the rear lawn. In panic, the Edwards, perhaps worried that their secret in the garden would be uncovered, carried out the repairs immediately themselves.

Mr Edwards told neighbours subsequently that, as a result, he had been contacted by the owners in Blackpool and told to sell the house as quickly as possible because "it created too much aggro".

Then, last year, their web of lies began to unravel. A letter arrived from the centenarian department at the Department for Work and Pensions, asking for a face-to-face meeting with Mr Wycherley, who would have been approaching his 100th birthday. The Edwards knew their time was running out and fled to France.

THERE is nothing like a good natter to lift the spirits if you have been feeling down.

But for older people across the county, it can be difficult to find opportunities.

With this in mind, Age UK has launched The Big Chinwag – a national project held for the first time yesterday.

Hundreds of people got involved to host a "chinwag", including the Mayor of Gedling, Jenny Hollingsworth.

A big supporter of Age UK Notts and its Campaign to End Loneliness, the mayor held her chinwag at St George's Centre in Netherfield.

She said: "Older people who suffer from loneliness have double the chance of Alzheimer's and dementia. It is incredibly detrimental to their health and it is just an awful experience.

"When the Big Chinwag idea came up, I thought 'what better way to tackle this issue than getting people together for a good chat?'"

The event was a success, with even the local police community support officers dropping in for a cuppa and to talk to people about the issues of the day.

Gwen Woolley, 66, of Netherfield, believes events like this are important for the local community.

She said: "It is great to talk and catch up with neighbours but I think it is really important, too, to encourage people out of the house. "Older people can just sit at home and deteriorate on their own, so these events are needed," she said.

Chrissie Bergin, 66, of Netherfield, also welcomed the chance for a chat.

She said she retired in October and initially kept herself fully occupied. "But I can see now how, when people retire, they can become lonely," she said.

"When you are working, you are so busy you don't always get involved with the local community and I do miss my girls from work."

Age UK Notts hopes more people will get involved in its Campaign to End Loneliness.

Di Trinder, assistant chief executive of the regional charity, said: "It is very sad that in modern society, more than a million older people in this country go a month or more without seeing or speaking to anyone.

"By holding a Big Chinwag you not only enjoy a get-together with friends and family, you could also raise vital funds to help Age UK end loneliness in later life."

MEMBERS of Sherwood Community Association are looking for funds to help them refurbish the Grade II listed Woodthorpe House.

The house, which was the first building in the area in 1774, has been used as Sherwood Community Centre since 1949.

The association, which runs the centre, is hoping to restore some of the original wooden flooring which was discovered in one of the rooms during a recent refurbishment.

Chair Jill Gregory said: "The flooring looks beautiful. I think it is very important that we try to bring the building back to its former glory because it was the first building in Sherwood on the 1774 map.

"There are floors here which would look nice if they were restored. It would be great to see that."

The association is one of the successful groups in the running for the Nottingham Post and Nottingham Building Society's Cash For Your Community campaign.

The campaign aims to give away £35,000 to up to 150 groups in need of a helping hand. But how much they will receive depends on how many coupons are collected for them.

Membership secretary Valerie Hunter added: "My first thought when I saw the flooring was 'wow'. It looks beautiful but it is going to cost a lot to restore. The money would be a huge help to us."

The flooring has already been restored in one of the rooms, which is hired by The Yoga Village.

Owner of The Yoga Village, Ameet Malhotra, said it took around two months to restore the floor, which was underneath carpet and lino. It is believed the floor dates back to the 1800s.

Mr Malhotra added: "The building deserves to be respected and I am really glad it has inspired the project to restore the rest.

"It would lift the community spirit because people would realise what a fantastic building it is and it would raise the profile of some of the events that happen here."

Readers have until next Saturday to collect their coupons, which must be sent to the Post by 5pm on Wednesday, July 2.

PRIME Minister David Cameron says he is open to the idea of local authorities having more control over their own income.

But he has also denied that it would be beneficial to widen Nottingham City Council's tight boundaries, saying this would create "arguing" between councils.

Speaking to the Post yesterday, Mr Cameron said the Government was looking at ways to devolve more money to local councils to ensure cities could thrive.

He said: "We've already given cities and local authorities more control over business rates. If you attract more businesses to the area, you keep more of the money.

"If you build more houses in the area, you get the new homes bonus and you keep the money.

"You can use some of the new mechanisms we've created like TIF (tax increment financing) in order to borrow against the extra money you bring in. Are there opportunities to do more of that? Yes, and I think we should look at that for the future.

"We're looking at these Local Growth Funds, we're trying to devolve more money from Whitehall to the regions and we will be making an announcement about that in the coming weeks."

His comments follow a summit in Liverpool on Wednesday, which brought together all eight of the English core cities, including Nottingham.

City leaders argued that European cities such as Paris and Barcelona were more economically productive due to having more control over tax and policy on a local level.

Mr Cameron said: "If you look around the world and you see where economic growth is coming from, in many societies, cities are driving that growth.

"We want to make sure that happens here in the UK.

"I think there are some good things that are happening, like the City Deal – I think that's very positive for the city.

"I think the whole link-up between Nottingham University and China is very positive but I think there's more to be done, particularly on things like infrastructures, skills, high-tech industries, and we need to help make that happen."

But when asked if he thought the key to prosperity in Nottingham would be local government reform, and widening the city council's boundaries, Mr Cameron said this was not the answer.

He said: "I think you then set one group of councils against another and they spend their time combating each other.

"It's a recipe for arguments between councils and councillors rather than delivering for the people.

"We should be encouraging councils to work together co-operatively.

"That's why I think the Local Economic Partnership can play a role because that is business-led, brings people together and can draw up the right economic strategies for the city and for the region."

Currently, central government retains 95 per cent of funds raised locally.

Councillor Jon Collins, leader of Nottingham City Council, has been lobbying the Government for local authorities to retain more of their locally raised property taxes (such as council tax, business rates and stamp duty land tax).

He said: "Long-term investment in Nottingham's infrastructure and training for our residents is key to establishing a growing economy.

"To achieve this, we want a better balance of funding so we can provide relevant support that will help create jobs both now and for our future economy."

Geoff Love, of Nottingham SMS business Esendex, agrees. He said: "We need to be promoting Nottingham as a great place to live and work and not just selling Nottingham to potential investors but also to potential employees.

"We should be working together to increase the size of the pool of resource, not fighting each other for the same staff."

THE mention of lard may conjure up images of 1940s housewives scraping for food or nasty nicknames from the school playground.

But the much maligned ingredient is making a comeback in modern cooking and is being celebrated by chefs, butchers and even nutritionists in the 21st century.

The method of making this historic ingredient sounds a tad gruesome.

Fat from a pig is boiled or rendered to separate the pure fat from anything else - known as cracklings - and then left to cool to form the familiar white residue that we use to cook with.

But, once this is complete, it offers a cooking fat that has a high burn point, offers great flavour and, believe it or not, is healthier than butter.

Danny Holloway, sous chef from the restaurant at Hart's Hotel, is just 27 but loves the old-school taste of lard.

He said: "Six months ago the price of butter went up drastically so lard is becoming the cheaper option.

"The flavour is great as you don't get the waxy taste you get with butter and, surprisingly, it is healthier, with less saturated fat and less cholesterol.

"People like using the older methods. Since butter was rationed in World War II and lard wasn't, it became a regular ingredient. I think it is great to go back to it.

"Also, it is all about using every piece of the animal you can. I was taught that the bin is the lazy way out so use it all!"

So the chef in the professional kitchen loves lard. But how about us amateur cooks at home?

Johnny Pusztai, the butcher at the award winning JT Beedham and Sons in Sherwood, said lard had always been popular in his shop, but in the past few weeks they had been selling out.

He said: "It may be old fashioned but it just tastes so nice and fries so much better.

"You are hearing now about oils being close to plastic in the way they are formed. Lard comes from the animal, it's natural and it's proper."

Beedham's renders its own lard on the premises and Mr Pusztai said the taste "makes your lips smack."

He added: "My parents are Hungarian and we use it a lot, maybe too much. Perhaps that is what makes us all a bit tubby!

"But try frying an egg in a little bit of lard or a little bit of steak. The way it cooks is just great."

Both butcher and baker agree the ingredient is healthier than using butter and recent studies back this up.

Researchers from the National Institutes of Health in the US showed people who substituted margarine in place of butter or lard died sooner than those who made no change to their diet.

And, gram for gram, lard contains 20 per cent less saturated fat, is higher in the monounsaturated fats - which lowers LDL cholesterol - and is a fine source of vitamin D.

But as well as the health benefits, there should be a pride in the history of the Great British foodstuff.

Jim Grundy is a keen historian, giving talks across the year about food on the home front during the World Wars.

He said: "Lard is a northern European invention. Everybody thinks of it as a war-time food but it has been around for many, many years.

"The average working class family lived on very little so had to find food that was cheap but high calorie. Lard was the easiest way to do this. It was cheaper than butter and offered a great taste."

But after the war, olive oil took over from lard and knocked it off the kitchen shelves.

Mr Grundy said: "Olive oil became the rage, but in my house it was only used to rub on your legs to keep them warm in winter or to unblock clogged up ears.

"But when 'A Book of Mediterranean Food' was published by Elizabeth David in 1950, oils were introduced to the UK and became the fashion."

But, as with our sous chef and butcher, there is only one ingredient Mr Grundy will use when it comes to pastry.

He said: "When I make a pie, there is nothing else I would use than lard.

"I find butter can be cloying and lard is just the superior ingredient."

TWO creative cycling enthusiasts have joined forces for an exhibition featuring portraits of Tour de France heroes. The paintings by Notts artist and illustrator Karl Kopinski are going on display in Sir Paul Smith's London shop in Soho. Notts-born fashion designer Like Karl who rides 150 miles a week, Sir Paul is also a keen cyclist. "It's fantastic for me," says Karl, 43, from Lowdham. "To say he likes my paintings and supports it is a huge boost." Entitled On the Rivet, his artwork will be on show from Monday until July 7 – the day the world's most famous cycle race arrives in London. The portraits are of men who raced in the 1950s and 60s – the golden age of cycling – including Tom Simpson, one of Britain's most successful professional cyclists. He died of a heart attack in 1967 during the Tour de France on Mount Ventoux aged just 29. In an era before doping controls, Simpson, who lived in Harworth, north Notts, died from a lethal mix of amphetamines and alcohol combined with the heat and exertion of the climb. Despite his misdemeanour, he is still highly regarded by many cyclists for his character and will to win. Karl says: "He was one of Britain's great hopes in the 60s. I started obsessing about cycling a year and a half ago and then I started looking into the history of it all, this romantic history from the 50s and 60s, which they call the golden age of cycling, all these characters with tragic or heroic stories." Karl, who was invited to stage an exhibition after sending a birthday present of one of his oil paintings to Sir Paul, says: "Tom Simpson was one of the first paintings did. I think that one is going in the shop window and there's another eight paintings inside." Karl's other portraits are of champion of champions Angelo Fausto Coppi, French track and road racer Roger Riviere and Eddy Merckx, who was considered the greatest professional cyclist ever. There's also Jacques Anquetil, the first cyclist to win the Tour de France five times. Sports journalist Richard Williams, who hails from Burton Joyce, has helped with writing the text to go with each painting. "The nice thing for me is in all the areas I would struggle with, such as organising an exhibition and writing text, I have had help with from all these tremendous people. Paul Smith has a great team who helped me." Paul Smith isn't the only famous name Karl has impressed. Two of his paintings, depicting scenes from the Battle of Waterloo, hang in the home of Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson. Karl, who lives his wife Tara and two children Eva and Art, paints in an attic studio at home. He developed a love of portraiture after turning freelance. Previously he spent seven years working on fantasy illustrations of demons and dragons for the Games Workshop in Lenton. "I had this personal love of portraiture – traditional oil paintings – so I kept that going in my own time, going to life classes at the Nottingham Society of Artists and this has spun off from that," says Karl, whose brother Stefan is also a freelance illustrator in the games industry. Karl's life paintings have previously featured in Nottingham Studio Artists' annual exhibition and a selection of his fantasy illustrations were shown at Games Workshop's exhibition at Nottingham Castle but this is his first solo exhibition. Last year, as part of his freelance work, Karl helped to design the lead character for the computer game Assassin Creed IV: Black Flag. He and his brother have also been flown to San Francisco and Los Angeles for workshops with Massive Black, the concept art company which has worked on movies including Thor and Transformers. By contrast, the commissions for portraits include one of Savile Row livery tailor Keith Levett. Yet Karl, who studied Fine Art at university, struggled to make an impression on his tutors. "I have always liked realism. There didn't seem to be anybody particularly interested in what I wanted to do and you can lose your way. "They were more interested in why I wanted to paint rather than what I wanted to paint. It was all about the angst and painful areas in my life and I hadn't had any really, so I thought what do I do?"