Hello and welcome to todays Levy Letter. Its Tuesday and I hope youve had a good start to the week. Coming up on the programme tonight at the usual time of half past six on BBC One, it's a bleak day for the Lincolnshire economy as Northern Foods announces that 700 jobs are under threat at a Grantham factory.
We'll speak to the Cleethorpes mum still living in hope of finding her missing teenaged son, six years on. Find out why traders in Lincoln are up in arms over the Rough Guide's latest description of the city. Well reveal all on Look North. We'll have something of interest to supporters of Hull FC in the Challenge Cup. Plus well look at how the Tigers are preparing for their crunch game with Watford in the play offs. And we'll be finding out about the East Coast caterpillar invasion that could leave you with a nasty rash. Thats at half past six on BBC One, and well have the weather forecast for our region as always. I hope you can join me then. Thank you for the huge response we had on yesterdays programme. We had a story about a mother defending a roadside memorial to her son that prompted many, many messages via email, text, and our hotlines. Thank for all of those, and of course we had a couple of stories yesterday that came directly from calls in to Look North. If youve got anything to say about any of our stories, or if youve got a story of your own you think we should know about then you can always get in touch with us at [EMAIL PROTECTED] We read every message we receive, and if theres something thats important to you, let us know about it. House Prices According to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, 82% of house surveyors saw prices fall in the three months to April. The number of sales being completed has also fallen significantly. It seems that the housing price boom really is stuttering at the moment, and thats after a long time of just reporting rises and rises, as youll know if you read the Levy Letter regularly. Apparently its a combination of house prices reaching unaffordable levels, and the credit crunch. Despite this, house prices are still higher than they were a year ago. Its all rather confusing, isnt it? Is there a housing crash, or isnt there? I think house prices were rising for so long that any sign of change is becoming a big story even if its not the major crash wed believe if we just read the headlines. But there are signs that the previously unstoppable rise in prices could be slowing down or even coming to an end, which is good news for those hoping to buy, but not the best news if youre looking to sell. Funeral Directors If youre thinking of taking up studies, or maybe looking for a qualification to give you that extra cachet in the jobs market, maybe youll be interested in a degree course in funerals. Thats if youre planning to become a funeral director, or maybe just of a very morbid disposition. The University of Bath will offer a foundation course covering all aspects of the profession. That sounds like fun. I wonder how many people will be applying to get on that course, if youre one of them, let me know. Smokers Im sure corner shop owners everywhere will be very interested to read this next story. A Japanese company is developing a cigarette vending machine that detects whether the customer is of legal age to smoke. The legal age for smoking in Japan is 20, and the machine weeds out the underage smokers by counting their wrinkles and skin sags. How lovely. People who fail the age test will be required to provide an ID card to prove their age. The system compares facial characteristics including bone structure, sags and crow's feet against a record of more than 100,000 people, and according to the manufacturer, its correct in nine times out of ten. I would think that youd be rather flattered to get turned down by the machine, and that it must be a rather depressing experience to have your wrinkles and crows feet counted. Its not something you want to be confirmed all the time. But then maybe its a sly reminder of our mortality if you buy cigarettes. Ill be interested to see if those machines ever make it to this country, and how they fare with the public. Would you buy from a machine thats saying you look old? Well thats it from me for today. I hope you can join me tonight for Look North at the usual time of half past six on BBC One. Dont forget to let us know about anything interesting you might know about, and if youve got an unusual picture for us to show on the programme then you can send it along to me at [EMAIL PROTECTED] I look forward to seeing them. Enjoy the rest of your day, and have a very good afternoon. Bye for now Peter And for the latest news and more where you live, go to: http://bbc.co.uk/humber and http://bbc.co.uk/lincolnshire ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the BBC Look North newsletter, go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/england/looknorthhull/newsletter/newsletter_index.shtml, enter your email address in the unsubscribe box. 1.94.4
