So far a third of the 150 education authorities have been inspected and

So far a third of the 150 education authorities have been inspected and four - Leicester, Liverpool and the London boroughs of Islington and Hackney - have brought in outside consultants. "I spoke to the press before I had any idea this would go to court I thought that was the only way to get this noticed.". MORE FAILING local education authorities will face privatisation of their services in the next two years, Estelle Morris, the Schools minister, said yesterday. Ministers are likely to intervene in up to 15 more councils after bad inspection reports, she told chief education officers in Warwick. The future of local authorities is still under discussion in Whitehall and ministers are understood to be watching closely to see how many education authorities fail inspections by Ofsted, the standards watchdog. I've changed."Mrs Brown, 34, said she had gone public to make it clear she stood by the allegations made against Glitter. "It's been a heavy burden what I've been through, but people know about me so I don't mind standing up and telling the truth ...

After I heard the jury's decision I'd lost all faith in humanity, but when I heard he'd lost the computer porn case I thought `Well, people will believe me now'."Mrs Brown also explained why she had chosen to make her allegations to a newspaper rather than going to the police. I'm not the person that Gary knew," said Mrs Brown, who has two children aged under five "Once you are a victim you stay a victim until you change I'm not a victim any more. Hours later, Glitter admitted 54 charges of making indecent photographs of children, under the age of 16 and was jailed for four months. Complainants in sex assault cases are legally entitled to anonymity but yesterday, Mrs Brown, flanked by her publicist, Max Clifford, went on Talk Radio to explain herself "I just want to get on with being a mother. Details of payments made to Allison Brown by the News of the World emerged last week during the trial at Bristol Crown Court where Glitter, real name Paul Francis Gadd, was cleared of eight charges of sexual assault against Mrs Brown, which were alleged to have taken place when she was 14. THE WOMAN who re-ignited the row over chequebook journalism by giving evidence in a sex abuse case against the pop singer Gary Glitter in return for pounds 25,000 waived her right to anonymity yesterday to explain why she sold her story. Instead of the twin towers being replaced by four giant masts, they will now be replaced by a steel arch, 140 metres high.. If the council stalls on planning permission and it has not been granted by next July, when Fifa, football's world governing body, decides on the venue of the 2006 World Cup, England's bid to stage the tournament might be jeopardised.It was also revealed yesterday that the stadium has changed in shape - just four months after the design was originally unveiled.

Brent Council said in April that it specifically wanted a warm-up track to be part of the new complex, but no such track appears in the plans. UK Athletics and the British Olympic Association, the governing bodies that oversee such events, would not be able to afford the cost, and would have to rely on funding from a future government - something that cannot be guaranteed.The cost and difficulty of converting the new venue for athletics was not the only contentious issue to arise yesterday as the stadium's architects formally unveiled their latest designs. We have to put our faith in the hands of the independent reports that the new proposals meet our requirements for an Olympic bid."I'm absolutely determined this will not compromise any future bid for the Olympics in any way. Even the Sports minister is starting to ask whether this new stadium really is a national stadium or whether it's just a football stadium."Yesterday's developments will diminish the chances of an athletics World Championships (perhaps in 2005) or an Olympic Games (in 2012 or beyond) being staged at the new Wembley unless the organisers of such events find the finance for the transformation costs.Even though WNSL has an agreement that allows the stadium to be used for those two events, should they come to England, the cost may prove prohibitive. Questions are also being asked about who would compensate WNSL for up to six months' lost revenue if the stadium needs to be converted for athletics use.Ms Hoey has asked Sport England (formerly the Sports Council) to commission independent technical reports of WNSL's proposals for increasing the capacity for an Olympic Games, but the reports are not expected until Friday.Simon Clegg, chief executive of the British Olympic Association, said yesterday: "I've heard about [the new proposals] second hand, because we weren't invited to today's [Wembley] press conference.

This - according to the stadium's architect, Lord Foster of Thames Bank - would be reduced to 68,000 for athletics meetings, because a temporary track, on a concrete base laid six metres above ground level, would have to be built.It was pointed out almost immediately after the original launch that Olympic stadiums need a capacity of at least 80,000, and that the new Wembley was being touted as the potential centrepiece of any future British bid for the Olympic Games even though it would not be big enough.By yesterday, when Lord Foster unveiled his latest designs and submitted them to Brent Council in north-west London for planning permission, he said it would be possible to convert the new Wembley into an 80,000-seat athletics arena, but the cost would be pounds 20m and the conversion time around six months.Because WNSL will not meet these costs, and because the latest designs have not yet been seen by the British Olympic Association - which would organise an Olympic Games in this country - there is concern about how feasible it will be to use the stadium for other sports. But yesterday's disclosure is still likely to dismay those people, including the Sports minister, Kate Hoey, who had hoped the stadium might be used more easily as venue for a wide spectrum of activities, including the Olympic Games.When the original plans for the stadium - construction of which is due to start next year and finish in 2003 - were unveiled in July, it was announced that the crowd capacity for football and rugby matches would be 90,000. Although the stadium is being planned by Wembley National Stadium Limited (WNSL) - a wholly owned subsidiary company of the Football Association - and will be used mostly for football, the venture has received pounds 120m of National Lottery money towards the pounds 475m building costs and has been marketed as a venue for a variety of national sporting events. The Football Association paid pounds 103m to buy Wembley from its previous owners, and WNSL will find the funds to complete the development through City institutions. DOUBT WAS cast on the prospect of staging sporting events, other than football and rugby, at the new Wembley stadium when it was revealed yesterday that it would cost pounds 20m and take six months to make temporary changes to the structure to enable an athletics event to be held there.

George Gill, the leader of Gateshead Council, said: "We have been needing something like this for the last 30 years; now we are going to have a site second to none in the country and possibly in Europe."This will be one of the finest buildings in the world for all kinds of music as well as a breathtaking new landmark for the North-east. We have worked hard to change the image of Gateshead over the past 10 years ... and the council is now looking forward to creating one of the finest centres for music and the arts in Europe." The centre will include a concert hall designed to seat 1,650 and the project's backers expect that 500,000 people a year will visit.It is the latest in a number of projects, including the statue The Angel of the North, which towers over the A1, the MetroCentre, a vast shopping precinct, and the Gateshead International Stadium, which have all been designed to transform the image of the town.The council hopes the projects will help Gateshead in its joint bid with Newcastle to be chosen as the European Capital of Culture in 2008.. Liverpool city centre was given pounds 3.7m for a new multimedia centre.Chris Smith, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, said: "There is an enormous amount of evidence that where you have really vibrant arts projects you can get a real sense of self-confidence within a community and this is the starting-point for social and economic regeneration."The Gateshead Music Centre, which costs a total of pounds 62m, is scheduled to open in 2002.Situated on the south bank of the River Tyne next to the famous bridge, the land has been derelict for several years and the site is part of a redevelopment project. The curved, glass-fronted building in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, will house a concert hall and a music school and be a base for the Northern Sinfonia Orchestra. It is the second-biggest award to be handed out since the grants began - the largest so far is pounds 78.5m to the Royal Opera House.The music centre was one of four projects to share the bulk of the money being distributed by the Arts Council yesterday, with the north and south of the country benefiting.Other projects that were awarded grants were the Laban Centre in Deptford, east London, a dance and music centre, which received pounds 12m for a project that will include a 300-seat theatre.Hampstead Theatre in north London was awarded pounds 9.8m to replace the existing theatre, which was built as a temporary structure 37 years ago.