These houses were refurbished only 20 years ago and everything in them is very sound

These houses were refurbished only 20 years ago and everything in them is very sound."A local church worker, Andrew Dorton, wrote to the housing minister, David Curry, in December expressing concerns at the way the community was being broken up by the scheme and said the council was "intimidatory" for starting demolition of houses next to owner occupied homes like Mrs Hopper's which are still the subject of a planning inquiry decision.Chris Jarvis, a Labour councillor who has lost the party whip after opposing the scheme, is seeing the district auditor next week about his concerns about the plan: "I can't understand why a Labour council wants to demolish 600 perfectly good homes to provide mostly owner occupied housing and as part of the deal also ties up all its housing land well into the next decade and which also will be used to build housing for sale." The scheme is also attracting opposition around the city. Last month three councillors in the Orchard Park ward who expressed concern in a committee meeting over the proposed redevelopment of a shopping centre by Keepmoat were threatened with losing the party whip if they continued with their opposition because "it was against party policy".Tony Fee, one of the three said: "All I wanted was for the site to be put out to tender and for the profits to be spent locally rather than on Gipsyville. I have been a councillor since 1970 and never experienced anything like this."But the council stresses that the scheme has the approval of the Government and has been supported by a ballot of local tenants. Patrick Doyle, the city council leader, said: "The Government is putting in pounds 11.7m of grant through its single regeneration budget. This is very carefully scrutinised at every stage and if they were worried about it, they would not put in any money."Although 30 houses on Gipsyville have been demolished the scheme is currently being delayed because of a planning inquiry into a compulsory purchase order of a dozen homes which have been bought by former tenants.If the CPO order is not granted, the financial viability of the whole Gipsyville scheme will be put into question.The highly charged nature of the decision is thought to have caused the delay since the inquiry in November..

The lives of 250,000 women who die in childbirth around the world each year could be saved by a treatment being developed at a London teaching hospital. A report published today suggests that all mothers could be given a pill to reduce blood loss after childbirth, instead of the injection that they currently receive. The research has huge implications for the Third World, where most of the maternal deaths occur. The new pill, which uses an old drug originally developed to treat peptic ulcers, is just as effective as the injection at reducing bleeding, but can be more easily stored in hot climates and does not carry an infection risk from dirty needles.The pill could also improve childbirth in the UK because it appears to cause fewer side effects than the injection which can cause nausea, vomiting and raised blood pressure."In this pill, we seem to have an easy to administer, easy to store and safe to take precaution against haemorrhage following childbirth. It could save the lives of hundreds of thousands of women across the world," said Dr Hazim el Refaey, a senior registrar in obstetrics and gynaecology at University College London Hospitals, who conducted the research, published today in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.Following Dr Refaey's study of 250 expectant women in London the World Health Organisation is to run a trial comparing the two drugs on 20,000 women in eight countries, including China, Vietnam, Egypt, Ireland, South Africa and the UK. It is expected to start in September and last 12-18 months.Janet Gilbert, 38, from Highbury, north London, who took part in the research at University College London Hospitals, found the pill "infinitely preferable" to the injection "The tablet was much better Not having to cope with being physically sick was wonderful Emotionally it was much easier to deal with," she said.. Gun owners are being offered a legal way to side-step the new anti-firearms laws and keep their favourite weapons - provoking outrage from Dunblane campaigners.

A company is offering to deactivate firearms for pounds 35 and beat the government ban. Gill Marshall-Andrews, chairwoman of the Gun Control Network, set up after the Dunblane massacre, said: "Deactivated weapons can induce fear in just the same way as a working gun."Anti-firearm groups are angry that a company called Worldwide Arms has placed a number of full-page advertisements, including one in this month's Gun Mart magazine, offering to deactivate guns It says: "The Government has banned it. Do you want to keep yours? Then let us deactivate it." It adds: "They are legal and licence free."Police chiefs have expressed growing concern about the rise in the number of deactivated weapons and argue many are being reactivated and used by criminals in a thriving black market.A deactivated gun must have a number of alterations carried out, including the removal of the firing pin It is then checked by government inspectors. But Roy Penrose, the national co-ordinator of the Regional Crime Squad, said: "There's only one place to deactivate [the guns], and that's in the smelter."Sir Paul Condon, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, also expressed concern about the growing trade in "deactivated" firearms from Eastern Europe. The guns, including Uzi machine guns and Kalashnikov assault rifles, are imported as ornaments and reactivated by gunsmiths and criminals in Britain.Under the Firearms Bill that comes into force later this year, all guns above .22 calibre must be either destroyed, sold abroad or deactivated.An employee at Worldwide Arms, based in Stafford, said strict procedures are followed to deactivate guns. But he refused to comment on complaints that they could still be dangerous.A Home Office spokesman said that the regulations on deactivation had been tightened up before the Dunblane killings and were now "considerable".. John Major personally intervened to help secure a pounds 500,000 donation for the Conservative Party from an overseas businessman, according to a book by the former Tory treasurer Lord McAlpine.

He says that in 1991 the Prime Minister told him party funds were in a "desperate" state and asked him to extract a large donation from the "very generous" benefactor. Although he is not named in the book, Once a Jolly Bagman, it was reported in the Times that donor was the Greek shipping magnate John Latsis. The revelation, this close to the election, that Mr Major was so intimately involved with fund-raising, especially from an overseas source, is likely to embarrass the Tory high command. The prime minister is normally assumed to keep a distance from such matters.More embarrassment will be caused today by claims in a book by the former lobbyist Ian Greer that many MPs, mostly Tory, behaved "shamelessly" in seeking perks such as free flights on British Airways. Mr Greer, whose business collapsed after the cash-for-questions scandal, related how he complained to Tory whips on behalf of his client, BA, but was told nothing could be done without naming names.Lord McAlpine, who also accuses Mr Major of being at the heart of a 1990 conspiracy to bring down Margaret Thatcher, tells how he met Mr Major at the latter's Commons office in 1991 "The party's funds were in a desperate state A large donation would be most helpful. Would I see if I could persuade this man to make such a donation?"He met the man next day and was "generously" given what turned out to be a bearer's bond for pounds 500,000, which was handed to Conservative Central Office.In another extract from the book, to be published this month, Baroness Thatcher's confidant said: "What we realise now, but didn't realise at the time of the leadership election, is that John Major was involved with people who had made plans for him to be leader of the Conservative Party. John Major was often at Chequers ...pretending to be a pair of curtains. He made no impact on anyone there, he was just a figure in a crowd.

`Why,' I was asked, `was John Major the man that Margaret Thatcher wished to succeed her?' The answer I gave was simple: she was merely trying to humiliate Geoffrey Howe, who was impatient for his turn."But he suggested Sir Geoffrey was not the only cabinet member to harbour such ambition. "The mathematics of it all were so easy: if she had won a fourth election, it would have been at least another seven years before any of them had a turn at being prime minister."Lord McAlpine, who has since switched to the Referendum Party, told of efforts by Thatcher allies to rally support after the first-round leadership ballot, in which she fell two votes short of the required majority. "It was a nasty moment for John Major when Margaret Thatcher put his hand to the fire by asking him to second her on the second ballot. His hesitation of a few moments on the telephone when asked .. speaks more than a thousand words.".