Messy resident fined

AN UNTIDY resident of Gravesend was ordered to pay more than £4,000 after she failed to comply with an order to clean-up her house.

The notice served to Helen Jayarai - ordering her to improve at her home in Wrotham Road - was in fact the second served to her by Gravesham Council.

Among the instructions included in the order were remove rubbish and weeds from the property, fix windows and doors and repair or demolish outbuildings.

Murder investigation started - then called off - after body is found

MURDER squad detectives were called to an incinerator in Sidcup after a woman's body was found by staff.

The body, believed to be headless, was found by staff at the privately owned SRCL (formerly the White Rose) incinerator, on the Queen Mary's Hospital site in Frognal Place.

The incinerator disposes of clinical and non-clinical waste from Queen Mary's and a variety of other sources.

Following a post-mortem examination the Met police said the womans death was not suspicious and there would be no further police investigation.

But who the woman was and how she got there remains a mystery.

Incidentally the body is third to be found at waste plants in Bexley this year.

Rumours of the discovery of another body - following a fire in a scrapyard in Landau Way, Erith on Tuesday night, were scotched by Bexley police.

Councillor criticised for six month holiday

A COUNCILLOR who went on holiday to Australia for six months was slammed by a colleague on Greenwich council.

Labour councillor Daniel Thorpe had not been to a council meeting since March 27 because he had been backpacking Australia.

Councillors who don't attend a council meeting for six months are automatically disqualified.

But the councillor for Shooters Hill ward returned for a last-minute meeting on September 16 - just in time to keep his place on the council.

The next full council meeting is not scheduled until November, sparking one Tory councillor to claim the meeting was called just to allow the Labour councillor to attend and to avoid a by-election.

Councillor Spencer Drury said: "There's no doubt in my mind that Labour would lose a by-election if it was called and the meeting was the only thing that would keep him on the council.

"How can he represent the people who live in the ward if he is in Australia?"

He added that after the meeting, he believes Cllr Thorpe flew back to Australia to continue his holiday.

Mystery noise making couple's life a misery

A DESPERATE couple are looking for clues to track down the source of a vibration which is making their lives a misery.

The pulsating noise has kept Irene and Edward Funnell from a good night's sleep for 286 days and, despite attempts by a variety of authorities to find the cause, no-one knows where it is coming from.

Mrs Funnell, 62, of Lovel Avenue, Welling, said: "Some people think we are mad, but we are just normal people."

Bexley Council's environmental health officers have not been able to find the source of the noise, despite switching off a nearby relay mast which they thought might be causing the problem.

They have also carried out underground tests, but did not find the source.