February 2012 Archives

Improvements to Kensington Central Library will be starting in late March, when the local studies area and central part of the reference library will be closed.

The rest of the reference library and the remainder of the building, including the lending and children's library, will be unaffected and open at the usual times, but staff will be on hand to help with any queries.

A 32 year-old man could be brain damaged and partially blind following a freak accident outside his Notting Hill home.

The man was in his top-floor flat in Pembridge Villas in the early hours of the morning, when he dropped his keys out of the window and leaned out to catch them.

As he did so, he fell from the three-storey building, landing impaled on a spike below.

By Lucy Jordan

Pupils at a Chelsea school were treated to an exclusive gymnastics lesson from Team England captain Danny Lawrence.

Children at GEMS Hampshire School in Manresa Road took part in a fun-based PE class, and raised money for sporting equipment for charity Action for Children.

The visit was part of Sports for Schools '2012 Inspirational Campaign,' where they aim to inspire 2,012 children to enrol in sports clubs throughout the UK in the build up to this summer's London Olympics.

Nine people have been arrested following police swoops on unlicensed activity across Kensington and Chelsea.

In a two-day operation at the weekend, officers visited 152 premises as part of a Met-wide crackdown on licensing issues.

When you think of a choir, most people would think of hymns being sung inside a church every Sunday.

But at West London Community Choir, things are a little different. They may rehearse in a church, but that has no reflection on how and what they perform, as EMMA HESELTINE found out.

Two men have been jailed for a total of six years for a number of violent robberies, including one of a £30,000 Cartier watch.

Algerians Morene Zouauoi, 29, and Samy Derras, 23, both of Artillery Place, Westminster, admitted the robbery in Sloane Street last September which saw a 26 year-old woman have her £30,000 watch ripped from her wrist.

Derras also admitted two further robberies, the first on July 28 outside Harrods, when he stole a £3,000 watch from a 28 year-old woman, and the second on September 11, when he took a Cartier watch of the same value from a 26 year-old woman.

Education secretary Michael Gove made a visit to North Kensington to look at how the tri-borough children's services will work.

Mr Gove dropped into the Isaac Newton Centre in Lancaster Road on Thursday (23) where he discussed forthcoming reforms to the adoption system nationally.

He also paid tribute to the work of the tri-borough executive director of children's services Andrew Christie while he was visiting.

The National Army Museum in Chelsea is one of 20 around the country to have been long-listed for the Family Friendly Museums Award 2012.

This year there was a record number of nominations and the museum in Royal Hospital Road is one of just four London-based museums to have been nominated.

Young sportsmen and women who live or go to school in Kensington and Chelsea are being asked to represent it at this year's London Youth Games.

There are more than 40 different sports being contested at the games in Crystal Palace on June 30 and July 1, and the council wants as many young people as possible to attend training sessions and trials.

An unlicensed cab driver has been jailed following sexual assaults on two women, one of them in Chelsea in 2010.

Amir Bhatti, 33, of Cranford Lane, Hounslow, admitted two counts of sexual assault, and one count of theft in October 2011.

He was sentenced to four years imprisonment for public protection at Isleworth Crown Court on Friday (24).