An analysis of the North East Worker Registration Scheme Data: A briefing paper for the Regional Migrant Worker Steering Group

It has recently been stated that the opening up of the UK labour market to the new accession countries (A8s) has initiated the largest ever in-migration to these shores . Whilst there are no accurate figures of the precise number of migrants involved in this, there are a number of statistical sources that provide data on it. One of these is the Worker Registration Scheme , which whilst carrying a number of ‘health warnings’ as to accuracy of flows is useful for labour market data. For the North East, though, the publicly available accession reports include Yorkshire and Humber in their overall totals. However, the author has obtained, through freedom of information, the full North East data set . What follows are the key regional headlines and then three more in-depth sections on (1) the nationality of North East A8 workers (2) their age and gender and (3) their occupation. The key regional headlines are: Between May 2004 and September 2006, 4,934 A8 workers registered to the Scheme in the North East. This is by far the lowest number of registered A8 workers of any UK region; Sixty-six per cent of these workers were Polish. This is slightly higher than the overall UK proportion of sixty-three per cent. With the only other notable group regionally being Lithuanians (13%) again slightly higher than the UK proportion (11%);The male:female ratio of registered workers was 64:36. This is a higher male proportion than at a national level where the ratio was 57:43. Seventy-four per cent of registered workers were aged 18-34. This, though, is lower than the UK proportion of eighty-two per cent; The most frequent occupation of A8 registered workers was factory process operative (1,660). A third of all regional registered workers were classified as undertaking this occupation

Collective action and community resilience: specific, general and transformative capacity

Communities are taking action to address different types of change and shape their own future to enable a desirable state. Yet a critical understanding of the relationship between collective action and community resilience is not fully elaborated. This thesis enriches community resilience research by examining attributes of community and how the attributes interact with collective action to promote three constituent components of community resilience: that is specific resilience, general resilience, and transformative capacity, defined here as ability to envisage and plan for the future. This study undertakes research in Wadebridge, north Cornwall, UK, and Sedgefield, western Cape, South Africa. These coastal towns represent emerging complexities of change, both with a history of collective action and communities fragmented by identity and demographic divisions. Focus groups, semi-structured key informant interviews and participatory scenario planning are used to elicit different resident perspectives on community and ability to promote specific and general resilience and transformative capacity. The results suggest four key attributes of community: resident identity, trust, interests around collective action and differential ability and power to affect change. Incomers, who are a particular type of lifestyle migrant, act as catalysts promoting collective action for specific resilience, which builds capacity for incomers to address known hazards. But there is significant difference between incomers and other resident groupings that reinforces social divisions. Collective action that enables general resilience reconfigures to bring distinct residents together to share resources and build trust, allowing more residents to positively address different shocks and disturbances and provide an entry point to negotiate the future. Residents understand transformative capacity also requires fundamentally changing social structures, power relations and identity-related roles. The implications of the results are that incorporating the influence of lifestyle mobility into community resilience research increases explanation of the way in which communities are being reshaped and the role of individuals in promoting collective action for different constituent components of community resilience. Collective action conferring general resilience is shaped by individual capacity and networks, rather than collective capacity, with individuals interlinking responses to specific and general resilience together

A New Classification Of UK Local Authorities Using 2001 Census Key Statistics

The 2001 Census has been successfully administered and the Census Organisations are currently engaged in processing the returns. A very large and rich dataset will be produced for the 58,789,194 people of the UK. The Census Area Statistics, for example, delivers 190 tables containing about 6 thousand unique counts relating to the characteristics of the UK population, for output areas and all higher geographies. This paper represents the first results of a project that aims to develop, in collaboration with the Office for National Statistics, a set of general purpose classifications at different geographic scales, including households, neighbourhoods, wards, local authorities and to link the classifications at different levels together. The paper reports on the methods used and results of a classification of the UK’s 434 Local Authorities, using the Key Statistics released in February 2003. This initial classification and description of methods will feed into the ONS/GROS/NISRA project to classify Local Authorities for the whole UK. Further data or digital versions of the classification system are available on request

Arsenic in Soils and Forages from Poultry Litter-Amended Pastures

In regions of concentrated poultry production, poultry litter (PL) that contains significant quantities of trace elements is commonly surface-applied to pastures at high levels over multiple years. This study examined the effect of long-term applications of PL on soil concentrations of arsenic (As), copper (Cu), Zinc (Zn), and the uptake of these elements by bermuda grass grown on Cecil (well-drained) and Sedgefield (somewhat poorly-drained) soils. The results showed that concentrations of As, Cu, and Zn in soils that had received surface-applied PL over a 14-year period were significantly greater than untreated soil at 0–2.5 and 2.5–7.5 cm depths. However, the levels were well below the USEPA loading limits established for municipal biosolids. Arsenic fractionation showed that concentrations of all As fractions were significantly greater in PL-amended soils compared to untreated soils at 0–2.5 and 2.5–7.5 cm depths. The residual fraction was the predominant form of As in all soils. The water-soluble and NaHCO3-associated As were only 2% of the total As. Significant differences were found in concentrations of these trace elements and phosphorus (P) in forage from PL-amended soils compared to that in untreated plots. The concentrations of Cu, Zn, As, and P were significantly greater in forage from Sedgefield amended soil compared to Cecil soil, but were in all cases below levels of environmental concern

The influence of climate change on the value of coastal residential properties in South Africa

Abstract : In March 2007, the KwaZulu-Natal coast was hit by storm swells which severely damaged coastal properties. The economic loss was estimated to be more than R1 billion. Risk associated with the changing climate is on the increase and if the number of studies (nationally and globally) regarding this phenomenon are considered, there is a need to quantify this risk. This raises questions regarding property valuers’ knowledge, behaviour and attitudes regarding climate change and their impact on the well-established property valuation processes and procedures in South Africa. In national and global studies, a variety of concepts, unrelated to market value or a manipulated form of market value, are used to quantify economic loss. However, financial decisions regarding property, plant and equipment are made based on the concept of market value. This presents the question this study attempts to answer: How does the predicted rise in sea level and its ensuing risk affect property valuers’ behaviour in the coastal residential real estate market in Sedgefield, South Africa and how can property valuers quantify the climate risk? This study aimed to identify the knowledge, behaviour and attitudes of property valuers in a particular property market, on the southern Cape coast of South Africa, regarding the predicted rise in sea level. A mixed methods research approach by way of a two-stage sequential exploratory design, beginning with an initial phase of qualitative data collection and analysis, followed by a phase of quantitative data collection and analysis was followed. This provided the researcher with an opportunity to collect, analyse and incorporate qualitative and quantitative data in one study. The results was used to develop a model property valuers can use to determine a risk factor when they develop an opinion of the value of coastal residential properties. In this study a mixed methods approach was pursued. The southern Cape coast was chosen as two separate studies conducted in 1993 and 2010 identified it as the stretch of coastline along the South African coast most vulnerable to a rise in sea level.D.Phil. (Finance

Late cenozoic landforms, stratigraphy and history of sea level oscillations of southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina

A depositional model accounting for the stratigraphic sequences which accumulate during a marine transgression across a dissected coastal plain aids in understanding the geologic history of southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina. Application of this model to the Shirley Formation (middle Pleistocene) and the Sedgefield and Lynnhaven members of the Tabb Formation (late Pleistocene) allows delineation of (1) the facies within, (2) the areal extent of, and (3) the landforms associated with these lithostratigraphic units. Facies within each lithostratigraphic unit consist of (1) a vertical succession from local, basal, channel-fill deposits and coarse, basal, lag deposits which grade upward into finer-grained deposits of estuaries or protected embayments or into medium to coarse sands of former barriers and (2) a lateral succession seaward from estuarine deposits to sediments of protected embayments and barriers. Sediment textures, sedimentary bedding-structures, fossils and plant detritus aid in interpreting paleoenvironments within each lithostratigraphic unit. Each lithostratigraphic unit corresponds to a separate marine transgression. Valleys formed during low stands of sea level subsequently widened and filled during the succeeding marine transgression. Coarse sediments accumulated along the shoreline as the sea advanced landward, forming a discontinuous sheet of basal lag deposits. Finer-grained deposits accumulated in estuaries or protected embayments and intertongue with or are covered by landward-migrating barrier deposits along the seaward margin of each lithostratigraphic unit. Three middle and late Pleistocene sea level oscillations are thus recorded in deposits of southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina

Obligation and choice : aspects of family and kinship in seventeenth century County Durham

The thesis seeks to explore alleged differences in kinship and family relations within County Durham, an area of wide geographical, social and economic diversity. A study of recognition that reveals that kinship ties were narrow and fell into a distinctly English pattern, a pattern which appears independent of considerations of wealth. Only the life cycle appears to have influenced patterns of recognition. Wider kin also appear to have been of limited importance as a source of support, with individuals preferring to rely upon the aid of neighbours and members of the nuclear family. This relatively narrow 9attern of recognition and support stands in sharp contrast to the strong ties formed within and through the nuclear family. The detailed study of inheritance, marriage and conflict not only reinforces the earlier findings concerning the limited importance of wider kin but also suggests that strong and specific ties of obligation and expectation governed relationships formed within the nuclear family. Such findings suggest the need to revise the assumption which regard English society as being highly 'individualistic'