The Daily Telegraph from London, Greater London, England • 2

2 THE DAILY TELEGRAPH, THURSDAY, JULY 9, 1987 Ferry victims to get money 'within weeks' By Terence Shaw, Legal Correspondent VICTIMS of the Zeebrugge ferry disaster could start receiving damages for their loss and injury "within weeks" under a proposed multi-million pound compensation scheme agreed between their lawyers and the shipping company Royal Show Cereal crops will break records By Godfrey Brown Agriculture Correspondent RECORD CEREAL harvests in Britain and the whole Common Market were forecast the Royal Show terday, foreshadowing a major budgetary headache for Brussels bureaucrats The record, 171 million metric tons for the EEC harvest, was me forecast by Mr Simon Gourlay, president of the National Farmers' Union. With a harvest of this size in prospect, he said, by November there would be tremendous pressure on the Brussels Commission to introduce direct measures to rationalise European cereals production at the earliest possible opportunity. He did not speculate at Stoneleigh on what form this rationalisation might take, but today he is to have talks in Brussels on the NFU's ideas for a "setaside" scheme to take excess cereal-growing land out of grain production. CATTLE AWARDS: Belted GallowayChampion and reserve: C. Marler, Olney, Bucks.

Welsh Black- -Champion and reserve: Mr and Mrs J. Beynon, Haverfordwest. Highland Champion: H. A. Dawes, Worcestershire.

Reserve: Mr and Mrs J. Baron, Croydon, Surrey. Lincoln Red- Champion: Manby Farms, Grimsby, Lincs. Reserve: F. E.

Read and Son, Horncastle, Lincs. SussexChampion: Chandler and Dunn, Canterbury. Reserve: Creda Farms Partnership, Chichester, Sussex. Blonde d' Aquitaine -Champion: Mssrs Harris, Salisbury, Wilts. Reserve: E.

Telfer and Son, Northumberland. PIG -CHAMPIONS: Large White A and Clements and Son, Bury St Edmunds; Reserve: A Gregory and Son, Selby, Yorks. Berkshire- Flack and Co Bury St Edmunds; Reserve: and Matthews, Glos. British Saddleback--Ann Caudwell, Norwich; Reserve: and Appleton, Ormskirk, Lancs. Glos Old Spot- Styles Ltd, Bewdley, Worcs; Reserve: Robinson and Co, Foston, Derby.

WelshChampion and Reserve: Croxton Park Ltd Thetford, Norfolk. Large BlackChampion and Reserve: Playle, Royston, Picture: PAUL ARMIGER Pea harvesting beginning in Suffolk at dawn yesterday near the villages of Wantisden and Blaxhall. Havers backs reforms By Terence Shaw, Legal Correspondent FAMILY court reform and a restructuring of the system of civil justice would be a high priority in the changes he wanted to see introduced during his time as Lord Chancellor, Lord Havers said yesterday. In his first press conference since taking over as Lord Chancellor from Lord Hailsham, Lord Havers said he was "deeply interested" in family court reform and establishing a "much more sympathetic way" of dealing with cases affecting children. He also made clear his support for proposals, now under consideration 'the Government, that would give the Court of Appeal new powers to increase lenient sentences referred to the court for review by the torney Pointing out that his sister, Mrs Justice Butler-Sloss, sits in the Family Division of the High Court, Lord Havers stressed his particular interest in proposals for family court reform which had been under consideration by Lord Hailsham.

He was "very concerned" about improving the lot of those who had to fight sometimes endless court battles, mostly over the custody of children. "We want sympathy for these Under the scheme announced yesterday, there will be a bereavement payment the nearest relative every fatal case at a set sum which exceeds the current level of £3,500 laid down by Parliament in Unlike normal bereavement payments, they be limited to parents who have lost children under 18. Additional fixed sums will also be paid to every survivor for having been involved in the disaster, to every survivor who suffered the loss of one or more relatives, and in every fatal case for the deceased's presumed suffering prior to death. Claims by a survivor for his own injuries and by dependants claiming for the loss of a winner' will be assessed in the normal way. Company pledge Any dispute over compensation is expected to be referred for arbitration senior barrister to avoid 'the delays and costs of litigation in the courts.

the parent company of Townsend Thorensen whose ship, the Herald of Free Enterprise, capsized outside Zeebrugge harbour on March 6 with the loss of nearly 200 lives, has also undertaken to give sympathetic consideration to further payments in cases of special hardship. The announcement of the compensation scheme to settle the damages claims arising out of the disaster follows 1 lengthy negotiations between and a committee of lawyers representing nearly 300 victims. Last April and its insurers agreed to lift the compensation limits under the Athens Convention which would have restricted damages for death or personal injury to a total of £38,000 for each victim. Mr Michael Napier, a Sheffield solicitor, who is chairman of the Steering Committee, believed the package reflected the company's "keen acceptance of its responsibility that victims should receive fair and proper compensation." Jobs need challenge to Green Belt By Charles Clover Environment Correspondent A CHALLENGE to the Government's Green Belt policy was thrown down last night by councils which want to develop sites near motorways an attempt to regenerate their areas. The proposals from local authorities in the West Midlands, are part of strategic planning advice submitted to Ridley, Environment Secretary.

They are intended to update current local plans in the absence of the West Midlands County Council, which was abolished last year. Mr Fred Chapman, chairman of Birmingham City Council's planning committee said: "There is a case to be made for development on Green Belt sites for specialist hi-tech and computer industries, for example around the National Exhibition Centre and along the M5 and M6. Birmingham needed some developments on the periphery to added. "It's not like the old days of urban going to be small 3600 ATi TURBO INTERCOOLING 1900 LEYLAND 0933 YMV LEYLAND Minister attacks State mentality' in arts By Quentin Cowdry, Political Staff THE GOVERNMENT yesterday expanded its crusade against State 'dependency' by launching a radical campaign to increase the arts over the next five Arts Minister Mr Richard Luce said his aim was to destroy the "Welfare State mentality" afflicting many arts administrators and to find new ways of paying for artistic activity. The main financial innovation, he said, would be a system of "incentive funding," under which taxpayers' money would be used as a "lever" to attract private funds.

"There are still too many in the arts world who have yet to weaned away from the Welfare State mentality--the attitude that the owes them a living," he said. Central thrust Mr Luce told the Council of Regional Arts Associations that the arts could not be insulated from the central thrust of Government policy--the reduction in State control and the expansion of "private initiative, choice and While many concerns, such as the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Leadmill Centre in Sheffield, had adjusted to the new climate, too many were still not willing to accept "plural" funding sources. "They give the impression of thinking that all other sources of funds are either tainted or too difficult to get. They not to have grasped happene collectivist mentality of the 60s and 70s is out of date," he said. Mr Mark Fisher, Shadow Arts' Minister, told the Council the Government's latest plans threatened the arts in Britiain and would be seen "insult" by many artists and administrators.

The Government's logic was a case of the cart going before the horse and failed to recognise the huge private sums already being ploughed into the arts. Sellafield plan British Nuclear Fuels is to spend £200 million on a new waste-treatment plant at Sellafield, Cumbria, following pressure to cut discharge of radioactive effluent into the sea. But Copeland Council, the planning authority, has banned operation until there is national policy on -waste storage. private sector funding of years. Kinnock attack on 'Plantagenet poll tax' By John Richards Labour Correspondent people going through this awful business where a child ends up in the middle of fight," he said.

On lenient sentencing, Lord Havers said he had' been impressed with the degree of public concern that had been expressed to him during the General Election. He disclosed that further consideration was being given to a relaxation of the Kilmuir rules which in general prevent serving judges from giving interviews or appearing in radio or television programmes. He also indicated that he supported Lord Hailsham's strong stand against any further extension of rights of audience in the higher courts for solicitors. Leonard Parkin to quit ITN Leonard Parkin, the newsreader is to quit Independent Television News later this month. His departure will coinwith the start of a major shake- for ITV's main bulletins.

Parkin will retire on July 20, when "News at One" is forced into a new slot, 30 minutes earlier, as part of an initial push for more viewers. He is likely to be replaced by Alastair Stewart. TWO NAMES. ONE The joining of two strong names, sharing a common £150 million investment, over the next five years, into new philosophy, has formed one far stronger, market-leading product development and production techniques. company.

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A range that will continually improve through a A COMMITMENT TO THE FUTURE. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION TELEPHONE: MARL.OW (06284) 6955 LEYLAND (0772) 421400 FREIGHT ROVER VANS ENQUIRIES: VANLINE 0800 400 407 Coal 'should be privatised next year' By Roland Gribben, Business Editor PRIVATISATION of British Coal and the introduction of competition in the industry was' urged yesterday in a controversial paper from the Centre for Policy Studies. The paper says the Government should immediately start planning for de-nationalisation next year and give a higher priority to coal privatisation than the flotation of electricity, now being pushed by Mr Parkinson, Energy Secretary. Improve efficiency But another 75,000 jobs would have to go over a five-year period to improve efficiency and make the industry, internationally competitive, adds the paper from the Centre, which has the Prime Minister as one of its founders. Even without privatisation the paper estimates that British Coal needs to reduce manpower by a further 10,000 a year over the next five years to achieve planned productivity increases of eight per cent to 10 per cent a year.

(Privatise Coal, Centre for Policy Studies, Wilfred St, SW1, DAF THE GOVERNMENT'S plan to introduce a community charge to replace rates was derided yesterday as "Plantagenet politics" by the Labour leader, Mr Kinnock. Tory policies, he told the 1 Transport and General Workers' Union conference in Scarborough, were not policies for tomorrow. They were policies from the tomb. With one of its central policies, a government of "grave-robbers" had surpassed itself and gone in for archaeology, Mr Kinnock claimed. "To find the poll tax, it has gone back 600 years to the year 1380 and Richard II.

"It isn't Victorian values this time. It's Plantagenet politics." In a 58-minute speech, Mr Kinnock launched a widespread attack on the programme of Mrs Thatcher's new administration. Press blamed Much of it harped back to Labour's accusations on the election platforms that the Conservatives were uncaring and motivated solely to serve the rich at the expense of the poor and under-privileged. Mr Kinnock blamed the newspapers for failing to put this message across during the campaign. "Whatever the reason, they reported us as looking back to the past when we were addressing the present and the he said.

"And they reported the Tories as looking to the future, when they had an agenda composed entirely of policies pulled from the past." 350 CHARGECOOLED 0458 EJA.