Other News In Brief

Power NI Helps Cut Costs

Having powered farms for over 80 years Power NI, Northern Ireland’s leading electricity supplier, is well aware of the challenges in the farm industry here. John McCay, Power NI's Farm Manager, explains how the local electricity company can give the sector a helping hand to cut costs.

"Power NI is the only supplier here to offer a dedicated farm energy service to its customers and has established itself as the natural choice for farmers when it comes to choosing a supplier. Over 600 farms and businesses have switched back to Power NI in the last year, seeking real value for money and savings that last from a supplier they know and trust."

Dairy farmer John Drummond from Bangor said: "When I opened a new dairy unit, Power NI was on hand to help and got everything sorted in no time – including setting me up on the best value tariff. John was my first port of call as he is so well known in the farm community. Being a farmer himself John knew exactly what we needed and it’s definitely reassuring to know that he’s always there to help."

Hats Off To Top Trainee Chefs

Competitors from across Northern Ireland have taken part in the bi-annual ChefSkills competition held during IFEX at the Kings Hall, Belfast 
~ Friday, 27 April 2012

ChefSkills, which is sponsored by the Department for Employment and Learning, is a three day competition where participants compete for a number of titles including the coveted Chef of the Year Award. A number of students from the Republic of Ireland, and some from France and as far away as Kenya, also came to savour the experience.

The competitions formed part of IFEX – Northern Ireland’s largest international food, drink, retail and hospitality event which attracted over 4,000 visitors over the three day period.

Causeseway A&E Removal Would Significantly Increase Ambulance Times

The Health Minister has disclosed to North Antrim Sinn Féin MLA Daithí McKay the average ambulance travel times from North Antrim villages and towns to Causeway and Antrim Area hospitals respectively. Mr McKay sought the figures for communities that would primarily go to Causeway Accident and Emergency unit.

Mr McKay said: "The figures show that there would obviously be an increase in travel times to Antrim Accident and Emergnecy. For example an ambulance from Ballycastle would take 40 minutes, 13 minutes longer than the time taken to travel to Causeway A&E at present.

"For other areas to travel to Antrim hospital: Ballymoney would take an extra 20 minutes (34minutes total), Rasharkin 10 minutes(36 minutes total) and Dunloy 5 minutes (26 minutes total). Figures were not available for Loughgiel, Armoy, Carey and Ballintoy.

"These ambulance travel times are significantly higher in Ballymoney and Ballycastle and I think in itself demonstrates the need for an A&E to remain to cover the huge rural area between Antrim and Altnagelvin; in particular those who reside in Ballymoney and Moyle districts as Ballymena district by and large would gravitate towards Antrim A&E which is closer."

(CD)