A CALL for more foster carers has been made by the county council ahead of Foster Care Fortnight.

Essex County Council needs another 100 foster carers and is appealing especially for carers willing to consider looking after teenagers, children with disabilities and siblings.

Foster Care Fortnight runs from May 13 to May 26 with members of the public being urged to 'Get in the Frame' and consider becoming a foster carer.

There is a particular shortage of carers in west Essex where help is needed for children of all ages, including children seeking asylum.

Anyone can apply to foster but some people are more suited than others.

Potential carers will need the time, commitment and personal qualities to be able to care for a child who has had a difficult start in life.

Unless fostering children under the age of two, potential foster carers will need a spare room to care for a child or children in their home.

All foster carers receive extensive training and are supported by a range of professionals as well as peer to peer support from experienced carers.

Foster carers receive a generous allowance to cover the costs of caring for the child and a fee which is linked to their experience.

Information evenings are being held across the county including on May 25 at 11am at the County Hotel, Rainsford Road, Chelmsford.

There will also be stands at venues across the county including Asda, Chelmer Village, on May 11 and 12 from 10am to 3pm.

For more information call 0800 801 530 or visit www.essex.gov.uk/fostering.

A BRAINTREE man posed as a military policeman at a hotel, handcuffed a customer to a lift, manhandled a male member of staff and offered a female receptionist £50 to take off her knickers.

Miley Byrne, 25, pleaded guilty at Chelmsford Magistrates' Court to two offences of assault while impersonating a police officer and having police items in his possession, and has been given a community order.

Magistrates ruled that Byrne, of Challis Lane, Braintree, must also carry out 200 hours of unpaid work, pay a £60 victim surcharge and £85 legal costs.

The offences were committed by Byrne on February 28 this year at the Travelodge in Chelmsford.

He has a previous conviction for a similar matter dating back to 2009, where he was stopped by police for driving a Citroen Saxo with blue flashing lights.

On searching his car, officers discovered an array of emergency service uniforms and equipment, including handcuffs and an extendable baton.

Chairman of the magistrates, Brian King, told him during sentencing: "You may like to live this way and think it's exciting. Your victims don't think it is."

Byrne went to the hotel claiming to be protecting the 15-year-old daughter of a US ambassador and over the course of six hours fulfilled his fantasy involving staff and customers.

A female receptionist was persuaded to put her hands on the desk while he "used his feet to spread her legs" and told her: "I'll give you £50 if you take off your knickers."

He also placed a male night receptionist on the ground in a "sleeper" hold and handcuffed a customer to the inside of the hotel lift.

When arrested, he had military police and firefighter uniforms in his possession.

Andrew Andrews, mitigating, said: "He accepts living a life through a fantasy. He genuinely believed he was acting as a police officer and going about his business as a police officer."

He said that at the time Byrne was a hotel worker but he has now lost his job.

Mr Andrews added: "It was part of the persona he was following at the time. The offence was a spur of the moment during his fantasy role as a police officer."

Kathy Wilson, prosecuting, said: "He made a booking at the hotel as Mr N (Military Police) and on arrival he was dressed in what staff believed was a military police uniform.

"His T-shirt had written in white 'Military Police / Close Protection' and he wore police trousers, a belt, boots, and an ear piece and had handcuffs and a torch.

"He approached the counter claiming he was a protection officer for a 15-year-old girl who was the daughter of a US ambassador and said she was in room 221, being guarded by bomb disposal experts.

"He told staff not to enter the door of the room because they would get a bullet in the head and suggested that a sniper team had surrounded the building."

Miss Wilson added that Byrne had previously claimed at a hospital to have been guarding someone who had come in from Heathrow Airport.

A CAT shot dead in a rural neighbourhood has sparked fears that other pets could be next.

The short-haired cat, called Rosie, had to be put down after vets discovered 17 fragments of pellet in her body.

The discovery has led to fears that a resident of the small parish of Wickham Bishops is failing to take proper care when firing a shotgun, putting lives at risk.

The cat's owner, who did not want to be named, said: "I'm an animal lover but this isn't really about the cat, it's much more the fact that someone out there is brandishing a shotgun.

"Using a weapon like that out of season is totally irresponsible – what if a child or an elderly person had been walking across?"

The owners first thought their pet had been run over by a car when she dragged herself into their family home.

Because she was bleeding extensively from numerous puncture wounds, they rushed her to the vets, where an X-ray revealed the scattered pieces of shot.

The decision to put Rosie down was taken by vet Koot Kruger, of Medivets in Danbury.

"I've been working at the surgery for around ten years and I haven't seen anything like this before," he said.

"We removed 13 pieces of shot, but there were still four bits remaining that we couldn't get to. As a result she suffered multiple wounds and fractures.

"The X-ray also appeared to show the cat could have been shot in a previous incident."

The family have notified both the police and the RSPCA but are now keen to warn others to be aware of the danger.

"Rosie had shot left in from a previous incident, an injury we just thought had resulted from a fight with another cat perhaps," they said.

"We now suspect our other cat with an old wound has been shot and we believe both incidents were malicious.

"I understand people have to undergo a series of checks to get a gun licence but how are the police monitoring this? Someone is using their gun irresponsibly."

A police spokesman said: "Police were contacted on April 23 after a woman reported that a cat had been shot with a shotgun that day.

"Officers carried out a search of the area but could find no evidence of a shooting. The woman was advised to contact the RSPCA."

After a retirement of just four and a half hours the eight man four woman jury returned to court to convict Groves, who bludgeoned Mr Martindale to death at a remote farm after a row over drugs.

Groves will receive a mandatory life sentence but the judge has yet to set a tariff of the number of years he must remain behind bars before he is even considered for parole.

He will also impose a separate sentence on Groves who was also convicted of inflicting grievous bodily harm on another man, Paul Meeking, during the incident. He had denied but was also convicted of that offence.
  
During just over a week of evidence and submissions by lawyers and the summing up by High Court judge, Mr Justice Sweeney the court was told of the fatal confrontation between the two men at Mr Martindale's smallholding, Meadow View Farm, Mill Lane, High Ongar, on 7 September last year.

The two men who were said at one stage to have been friends had fallen out over a drug dispute it was claimed..
 
The jury was told that Groves and Mr Martindale fell out over a drug dispute.

He claimed in court that he thought Mr Martindale was armed with a shotgun or machete and was going to shoot him and that he acted in self defence.

He told the jury he panicked and struck Mr Martindale with the pick-axe handle and then left, believing Mr Martindale was unconscious.

Groves claimed Mr Martindale had been threatening him telling him he had to grow cannabis crop for him (Martindale) because he had ruined one before and it had left him (Martindale) £2,500 out of pocket.

Groves said he had repeatedly refused to do it but eventually he decided to go to the farm to talk about it.

He told the jury he had gone to see Mr Martindale after he phoned him threatening to stab his (Groves') father.

Although told the jury he believed Mr Martindale was a "bully, gangster and a criminal", he said he went to see him to "tell him to calm down" to "chill out."

But he claimed that when he got there Mr Martindale was at a table with and he had thought it was a gun or a machete.

He told the jury : "I panicked and thought it was a shotgun. He had shown me a shotgun in the past and was always bragging about guns and things and quite passionate about them and it just looked like the butt of a shotgun.

"I panicked and punched him. I thought he was going to shoot me."

He claimed he was then attacked by Mr Meeking with a pick-axe handle, wrested it from Mr Meeking and hit him with it. He said he had then hit Mr Martindale twice and had left thinking that he was unconscious.

In his final summing up on Wednesday the judge warned the jury not to let themselves be influenced by speculation, emotion or media reporting.

He told them: "What is required of you is a cool, calm, careful and dispassionate consideration of the evidence together with the courage to return true verdicts based on that evidence whatever the consequences may be."

He left behind his partner, 35-year-old Tina Joseph and their three children, 17-year-old Reece, 14-year-old Lewis and six-year-old Lilly.

He and Ms Joseph had been partners for 17 years. They lived in Chigwell for the first five of these years before moving to Ongar where Mr Martindale became a car dealer.

He had aspirations of becoming a big-name actor and did feature in the movie, Big Fat Gypsy Gangster, but like most of his interests, such as motorcycling, he soon became bored and later took up boxing and fishing.

The police statement says he developed a liking for nature and bought the smallholding where he kept poultry and pigs, primarily for his children to learn about nature.

After the verdict, Tina Joseph, said: "These past few months have been quiet and we have certainly felt the loss of Billy. Our lives are empty without him as he brought character to our day.

"He had a bubbly personality and I am so angry that his dispute with Paul Groves got out of hand and left my children fatherless. I am even more angry that Billy was assaulted in front of his children and Paul Groves should be ashamed of himself for allowing this to happen. It infuriates me.

"My children and I would like to thank other members of the family, friends and neighbours who have supported or offered support throughout the past eight months.

"They have been invaluable. We miss Billy dearly and life isn't the same without him. After this verdict and Paul Groves' sentencing, we can hopefully rebuild our lives and plan for the future. We must not dwell on the past."

Senior Investigating Officer, DI Marina Ericson, said: "We are delighted with today's verdict. The evidence heard throughout the trial demonstrated the level of violence used by Paul Groves when he brutally attacked both Billy Martindale and Paul Meeking.

"Paul Groves is a violent man whose intention to cause serious harm to both Mr Martindale and Mr Meeking has been proven.

"Our thoughts continue to go out to Billy's family and friends at this time. We hope this verdict will provide them with some comfort and allow them to move on with their lives, following what has been a very distressing period for them."

A DECAYING bridge could be replaced by a £15 million crossing by 2015.

The A138 Chelmer Viaduct was back in business this week after a temporary closure for vital maintenance work.

Repairs had been postponed from March due to the freezing temperatures, however instead of concentrating on the framework of the bridge, engineers focused on resurfacing the road.

Work carried out by the Highways Agency began overnight on Tuesday and continued until this morning and included resurfacing and renewal of road markings and road studs.

The current bridge, built in 1932, carried the first Chelmsford A12 bypass and was opened by Edward, Prince of Wales, who later became King Edward VIII.

A new £15 million bridge, crossing the flood plain between the Army & Navy and Chelmer Village retail park, was discussed in 2009 and scheduled to be built in 2011, but has yet to come to fruition.

However a spokesman for the Highways Agency indicated that a new bridge was still on the cards.

According to details published by the Highways Agency online, they are currently in the process of recommissioning a scheme consultant and will need to revisit some of the previously obtained agreements and approvals as some may be expired before works can commence.

The implication is that works cannot begin until late this year at the earliest, though it is more likely it will be delayed until Spring 2014 to avoid ground work in areas prone to flooding during winter months.

The Highways Agency said the most optimistic timescale for completion of the new viaduct is by the end of 2015.

A spokesman said: "We are currently carrying out maintenance to keep journeys on the viaduct safe and smooth.

"Work includes resurfacing and renewal of white lines and road studs.

"The Chelmer viaduct is in a safe and serviceable condition.

"We continue to monitor the condition of the structure, which is an important part of the road network, and carry out maintenance work when required.

"It remains our plan to replace the existing A138 Chelmer Viaduct and River Bridge with a new structure.

"Further details will be announced in due course."

Fire crews fought a blaze at a cottage in Wethersfield for nearly two hours this afternoon (Thursday May 9). 

Firefighters from Braintree, Halstead and Clacton wearing breathing apparatus used two hose reels and one main jet to bring the inferno under control.

The incident was reported at 10:42am, as the cottage, measuring 30m x 10m, was 100 per cent alight. 

Three walls and the roof collapsed and there was an unsafe chimney that was in danger of collapsing. 

Steady progress was made as crews continued to battle the blaze, and by 12:37pm firefighters reported the fire had ben extinguished.

Electricity to the site had to be isolated to prevent further damage and no casualties were reported. 

 
Three members of a family accused of mortgage fraud have been formally found not guilty of the charges.

Carli Savill, 34, and her partner Andrew Zacharias, 32, of Bennetts Avenue, Rettendon Common, Chelmsford, and his mother Anne Zacharias, 57, formerly of Well Lane, Stock, but now of Sutton, Surrey, had between them denied six allegations of fraud.

After the trial at Chelmsford Crown Court had been opened and some witness evidence given, prosecutor Jamie Sawyer today told the judge that the Crown Prosecution Service now wished to offer no evidence in relation to those offences.

The judge, Recorder JP Cooper formally directed the jury to return  not guilty verdicts.

Savill was acquitted of obtaining a money transfer of £325,000 by deception in 2005, and two offences of fraud relating to mortgage applications in 2007 and 2008.

Andrew Zacharias was acquitted of one similar offence of fraud in 2007 and his mother of two offences of fraud in 2007 and 2008.

The three defendants who are each also accused of money laundering are due to face a re-trial on those charges at a later stage.

 
Two sisters, one from Maldon and the other from Ipswich, who behaved "outrageously" during a late-night fight in Chelmsford city centre were today ordered to carry out unpaid work and pay compensation to their victims.

Iva Rowland, 46, of Washington Road, Maldon, and Audrey Gilkes, 38, of Ravenswood Avenue, Ipswich, assaulted two young women outside the Fancy Fry take-away in Baddow Road at 3.00 am on 6 January this year.

Today at Chelmsford Magistrates Court both women pleaded guilty to assault.

Unemployed Rowland admitted assaulting Marie Beeton and Gilkes, a mother of three, to assaulting Hannah Joslin.

They were each made the subject of 12-month community orders and must carry out 60 hours unpaid work. They were also each ordered to pay their respective victim £150 compensation each.

Gilkes, who works in Colchester, was additionally ordered to pay £260 costs.

Chairman of the bench Anne Everitt told them: "This was in a public place where other people can be upset and frightened by violent activity. It was outrageous behaviour in the middle of the night."

She added: "They were nasty assaults and regardless of whatever provocation, verbal argument is not an excuse to start physically assaulting somebody."

The court heard that an incident started in Fancy Fry and didn't at first involve the sisters. A group of boys were abusive to other girls and Miss Joslin went to their rescue. Someone threw a plate of chips and sauce over her and staff tried to get her to leave.

Rowland and Gilkes intervened saying "Just leave" and then the altercation spilled outside.

CCTV footage played to the court showed Miss Beeton push Rowland who then grabbed her by her hair and pulled her to the floor.

The footage also showed the other two women fighting.

Mitigating, Sean Minnihan, told the : "It was a scuffle that got out of hand. The ladies had nothing to do with each other that night. It was only this altercation which started in Fancy Fry. There was an element of provocation which led up to this."

The court was told that after the incident Miss Joslin suffered pain to her head and ribs and had a small graze to an arm. Miss Beeton had a cut to her upper lip and cheek.

Both defendants also had superficial injuries.

A DAMNING report says an award-winning Essex hospital is failing to protect its patients' welfare. The Care Quality Commission also said Broomfield Hospital was failing to manage medicines.

Hospital chiefs already promised they would right their wrongs by January after the CQC visited in July 2012 – yet inspectors said they remained "non-compliant" after staging a surprise visit in February.

The CQC report highlighted two areas where action was required:

Patients were not always given an accurate assessment of their actual or potential risk of malnutrition and dehydration.

Medicine cabinets were not being locked securely, noting this meant unauthorised people could tamper with them.

But inspectors did find the hospital was "meeting nutritional needs" of its patients.

Andrea Gordon, a deputy director of operations for CQC, said: "The failings at Broomfield Hospital are a real concern.

"The CQC has been working to ensure the safety and wellbeing of people receiving this service and we have told the trust changes need to be made.

"We have been working with our partner agencies with regard to the trust and we will be closely monitoring its progress.

"Our inspectors will return in the near future and if we find the required progress is not made we won't hesitate to take further action where necessary."

The hospital had to present an action plan to the CQC by last Thursday and its management claims to be making amends.

A CQC spokesperson said: "Inspectors looked at nursing records for 15 patients and found a large number of the records contained inaccurate information.

"This meant that clinical decisions could be made in relation to information that was not correct."

She added: "There were not always effective arrangements in place for the storage, security and safe administration of some medicines."

Mid Essex Hospital Services NHS Trust serves the population of 380,000 and boast various awards as "the best hospital in the region".

Patients praised the food across the hospital, while one patient on the stroke ward commended the housekeeping.

A trust spokesman said: "It speaks volumes that we are the top performing hospital in the region but this is disappointing – the CQC are like the Ofsted of hospital inspectors.

"We have plans in place to get it sorted. The chief nurse is working with the CQC to put the plans in place."

BEING arrested was "the best day of my life", a man convicted of downloading indecent images of children.

Andrew Leigh, 23, returned to his family's Great Baddow home after a two-night hotel stay following his conviction on Friday last week.

Leigh was spared jail with a two-year suspended sentence after admitting to downloading indecent images of children.

His conviction followed a police raid on his Goshawk Drive home where 1,223 extreme pornographic images and films were found on a computer and seized.

Speaking to the Chronicle this week, Leigh urged other sex offenders to "fess up".

He said: "I now just want to move on and let my family move on so we can get on with our lives.

"I don't want any more hassle for them – they have been 100 per cent supportive but it's nothing to do with them, they have done nothing wrong."

Obviously shaken and emotional, but still clear in his words, Leigh added: "I've had to go to a hotel for two nights to get away from it all and to make sure my family were safe and not near me.

"I am doing everything I can, and getting help where I need it, to make sure I won't do it again.

"I won't begin to try and explain what I did but seeing those horrible things on the screen, it's awful, but it's like a drug – and it is this awful curiosity.

"I should have got help as soon as I could – and you should fess up as soon as you see these images.

"The day I was arrested was the best day of my life."

Essex Police, who launched a Paedophile Online Investigation Team in 2008, work with the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP), other forces and its own hi-tech crime unit to identify offenders.

Detective sergeant John Woodley said: "With this investment, we can continue to provide a quality response to the increasing amount of intelligence we receive and also take a more proactive stance in our investigations.

"The unit will make it far more difficult for those that use the internet to share or download pornographic images of children and will allow us to bring them to face justice."

While it is a criminal offence, helpline services to counsel people with an online addiction have been set-up.

Britain's first 24-hour counselling service for online pornography addiction was launched in 2011.

One of the site's experts from helpaddictions.org – Dr Chris Forester – says if not dealt with head-on, it can seriously affect people's lives for years to come.

The doctor, who blames the internet for the rapid spread in pornography, says that tame internet searches usually lead to looking at more extreme sexual photographs or videos.

JUDGE Anthony Goldstaub QC told Chelmsford Crown Court he was tempted to send Andrew Leigh to jail.

Sentencing on Friday, the judge told Leigh: "You have admitted some disgusting offences of child pornography of the worst kind and I'm tempted to send you immediately to prison."

The judge had been told that as well as child porn, the pornography found at Leigh's home included material showing sex acts with animals.

However, instead of an immediate jail term, the judge imposed a two-year sentence but suspended it for two years.

The court was told that when police raided Leigh's home in Goshawk Drive, Great Baddow, they seized 1,223 extreme pornographic films and images.

Leigh pleaded guilty to eight offences of possessing "extreme" images, two of distributing images and four of downloading indecent images of children.

As he passed sentence Judge Goldstaub said : "There was no physical contact, you became hooked on this type of pornography in a way that you couldn't control or manage."

In addition to the suspended sentence he also fined Leigh £485 with a £15 victim surcharge, ordered him to pay £500 costs and attend the internet sex offenders' programme.

He made an indefinite sex offenders' prevention order and placed Leigh on the sex offenders' register for ten years.

Leigh's counsel, Anne Pereira, told the court : "He co-operated with the police saying 'it's me' and handed over all the equipment involved. He was relieved, having been frightened and concerned about what to do. He was caught in a fantasy world."

She added that since his arrest messages had appeared on Facebook and the family felt threatened and had moved out of their home for a time.

GREEN-FINGERED Essex Cares customers have been working overtime to grow an assortment of produce ahead of their annual plant and craft sale at Roundwood Garden Centre and Cafe.

This event is open to all members of the public and there will be a BBQ.

The centre is used by Essex Cares customers with learning disabilities to develop skills including horticulture and landscape maintenance as well as catering and hospitality.

It aims to give them the work based training they need to develop skills and independence to progress into voluntary or paid employment.

Sue Turner, Essex Cares community support administrator, said: "Our customers have worked extremely hard tending to the plants in our greenhouse and allotments and we are extremely proud of what they have achieved."

The sale is on Saturday and Sunday from 11am to 3pm. For more information visit www.essexcares.org or call 0800 035 9770.

JOSIE Stephenson, an exceptional journalist whose career spanned more than 50 years, including two decades with the Brentwood Gazette, has died aged 73, writes Anne Fitzgerald.

From the moment she broke into journalism, aged 17, on the Express and Independent in Leytonstone, through to the peak of her skills as features editor and award-winning columnist, Josie was in her element, only retiring with reluctance at 68.

She loved the Brentwood Gazette with a passion and relished working on her column, Stephenson's Rocket, which was incisive, sometimes funny, often explosive and, given her pro-European views, prompted plenty of controversy.

Features written by Josie shed light on every facet of life, from the tragic to quirky, but all had the benefit of her colourful and descriptive style.

Throughout her life she was driven by an insatiable curiosity and love of people. These attributes, coupled with a feisty and determined character, which she said came from a suffragette great-grandmother, made Josie a first-class reporter who covered regional, national and international news.

During her career she reported on subjects ranging from the Peter Rachman scandal involving exploitation of tenants in rented housing in London and the Christine Keeler case, which rocked the Macmillan government, through to topics from her travels in America, a Papal visit to England, the European parliament, the effect on families in the UK who lost loved ones in the Falklands war and how vital aid from Essex reached war-torn Yugoslavia.

Josie was a striking figure who travelled extensively throughout the world and, true to her earliest formative years during the Blitz in the East End of London, she overcame the difficulties in her way.

She built up trust with "copper-bottomed contacts", obtaining many scoops and she encountered the famous and notorious including Frank Sinatra, Charlie Chaplin, Mamie Eisenhower, Sammy Davis Junior, Michael Jackson, Winston Churchill, sculptor Jacob Epstein and gangster Ronnie Kray.

Josie combined her career with marriage and motherhood, finding an equal and supportive partner in Kerry, her Australian husband, also a journalist.

Their family life was based in Brentwood and they had a daughter, Jane and son Michael. The family was later expanded, to Josie's delight and pride, by six grandchildren.

Born in Dagenham in 1939, Josie went to the local primary and secondary schools. She seemed destined, like many of her working-class contemporaries, to leave school at 15 and go into a factory job. But an innovative scheme run by the Essex education authority, came to her rescue.

She was one of a group of bright children picked out for two extra years of grammar school-style education and, under the tuition of an inspirational teacher, Miss Dorothy Inch, who became a life-long friend, Josie flourished.

On leaving school Josie was determined to become a journalist, unusual and challenging at the time for a young woman.

She began working in a typing pool, but kept her ambition alive and, on hearing about the chance of a job on a local paper, was on the phone to the editor when the vacancy was less than an hour old.

That was the start of what Josie described as "a fantastic life" in journalism, encompassing enough rich variety to fill a book, which Josie set about writing when she and Kerry retired.

They left their beloved Brentwood behind, but took to their new home, Sudbury in Suffolk, like ducks to water.

Their idyllic life there was cruelly interrupted in 2010 when what Josie thought was jetlag, following a flight to New Zealand to see son Michael, was diagnosed as advanced ovarian cancer.

Josie faced a dire prognosis and gruelling treatment with her usual fortitude. Her journalistic curiosity made her want to know everything about the disease. She also rallied family, friends and supporters to raise thousands of pounds for research into "the silent killer."

During her illness, Josie, who was an entertaining public speaker on topics including 50 years in journalism, continued giving her talks and added a new one about living with cancer.

Her sense of humour never deserted her, even when planning her own funeral which she promised, in her own inimitable style, would not be sombre but would contain colour, variety and smiles as well as some surprises, just like her own life.

Josie's funeral will take place at Three Counties Crematorium, in Halstead Road, High Garrett, Braintree at 3pm tomorrow (Thursday). It will be followed by a wake at West Street Vineyard, in West Street, Coggeshall, at 4.30pm.

More tributes to Josie – Letters, pages 18-20.

ALEX Dowsett (Movistar Pro Cycling) was more than happy with his start to one of cycling's Grand Tours -but the Great Baddow rider knows that there is still a long way to go in a series that will see his talents stretched to the limit.

Dowsett's debut last weekend in the Giro d'Italia has seen him help the team sprinter Fran Ventoso to sixth place in Saturday's opening stage and then play a key role in Sunday's 17.4km team time trial that saw the Essex rider come away with the White jersey for the best Young Rider.

But before the racing got underway, Dowsett had to cope with the inevitable razzmatazz that surrounds such a huge event.

"The Giro is big to cyclists, but to the Italians, it's simply huge. And for all the economic problems Italy is facing, an event as big as the Giro will be a massive boost for the economy. Very few of us had ever heard of the island of Ischia (where the team time trial took place) but it's such a beautiful place." said Dowsett.

"The team presentation was much more grand than I'd ever imagined it could be and that alone highlighted the enormous appeal the race has, especially to the home fans."

Saturday's opening stage was effectively a 130km criterium in and around Naples.

"You had to be so aware of what was going on. I got caught up in two separate accidents. Fortunately, I didn't actually hit the ground myself, but my bike was wrecked in the first of those two crashes.

"But then with the peloton moving at 50kph at least, it takes a long time to get back onto the wheels and I really had to know when to make a move to get back to where I was supposed to be. I had to use the occasional lull in the racing to move from one group to another.

"My legs started to really come round with about 30kms to go, I started to feel like me and capable of the job I had to do for Fran" (Ventoso, the team's sprinter). "He then jumped onto another train, missed the crash in the last kilometre, and sprinted into sixth place.

And with Giovanni Visconti picking up the Mountains jersey as well, it was a good opening stage all round for the Movistar Pro Cycling team.

Sunday's 17.4km team time trial saw the whole Giro circus transfer to Ischia.

Movistar went into the team time trial with high expectations as they've built up a bit of a reputation in the past (they won the team time trial in last year's Vuelta a Espana) and for Dowsett and the team to be beaten by Team Sky was a bit gut wrenching considering they lost out by just nine seconds.

Dowsett said: "It was my job to do very long turns on the two flat sections and that's exactly what I did. I went well on the first two climbs but when it came to the last climb and we were down to just five riders, I had to pull everything out. The other four guys are climbers so I was really suffering just to hang on. That has to have been the hardest 17kms I've ever ridden."

But for his efforts Dowsett moved up to ninth place overall and was more than pleased with that. Before the race Dowsett had thought that if everything went well he might slip on the Young Riders jersey, and to know that he'll now be doing so, makes his efforts so far even more rewarding.

Dowsett is now 138th in the standings after four stages, 27 minutes behind the lead.

And he said: "I'm definitely going to take it day by day. In the next week I know that a few of the stages start with flat or rolling sections before the climbs start and that'll suit me. I can do my job for the team's GC riders and then sit in with the bunch as we take the climbs at the end, hanging on as much as we can!"

"SAVE our bridge" was the message from parish councillors amid fears that reckless drivers are chipping away at a 16th-century crossing between two villages.

Buttsbury Bridge in Stock Lane has straddled the River Wid between Ingatestone and Stock since the Spanish Armada sailed for England.

Yet with the Grade II listed bridge being hit at least six times in the past five years at a cost to taxpayers of £76,000, Ingatestone and Fryerning Parish Council has united with its Stock counterpart to call for a "convincing solution".

Vice-chairman of Ingatestone and Fryerning Parish Council David Abrey was among a contingent who met Essex County Council Highways Department, which is responsible for the road, at the end of April.

He said to lose the bridge would be "criminal", adding that it was "historic and beautiful".

"It's been struck on numerous occasions and after the last incident a fairly major repair was done, causing a month of delays," he said.

"We've got to be talking about considerable costs. You can't just use any old material, you need to be sympathetic to the original bridge – it's a tricky job.

"At the moment there's no speed limit at that particular part of the road and the speed that they do can cause problems.

"We've suggested they put bollards further back so they are properly lined up before they go over the bridge."

Traffic-calming measures cannot be installed until a lower speed limit is enforced on what is currently a 60mph stretch.

Road markings have been widened and a fence on the approach to one side of the bridge has been painted white in an effort to protect the crossing, which is believed to have been built by an ancestor of Lord Petre.

Stock Parish Council chairman Nick Fairman, who uses the road daily, told the Gazette that more needs to be done.

"It's a key link between Stock and Ingatestone," he said. "The whole issue has been very frustrating.

"It's an important road and it's costing a lot of money to keep maintaining it but they are limited by what they can do at the moment.

"Everybody feels there needs to be a long-term solution in place.

"It was only repaired recently and yet you can see it's been hit once again.

"If the speed limit can be reduced to 40mph or less then Essex Highways can introduce more traffic-calming measures, which should hopefully reduce the likelihood of the bridge being hit."

Essex County Council said that some of the costs of repairing the bridge can be recouped when perpetrators are identified.

A spokesman said: "Traffic flows over the bridge have recently been monitored including speed, volume and type of vehicle.

"A number of changes have now been agreed to improve safety on the bridge, including new white lining to improve the alignment of vehicles through the bridge and additional 'reduce speed now' signs.

"The approach fencing will also be painted white to further highlight the approach to the bridge."