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Displaying a somewhat careworn appearance with it's Lodekka badge missing as it passes along Luton's 1970's ring road Stuart Street towards it's terminus at Luton Bus Station is Bristol FS Lodekka / ECW KBD 717D having arrived from Leighton Buzzard during 1980. The KBD-D batch of FS's outlived newer vehicles in the fleet to survive until the final withdrawal of halfcabs in July 1981. Many of the KBD batch have also managed to survive due to their use as driver trainers for several years until acquisition by the Stagecoach group. KBD 717D now resides in Switzerland according to internet sources.
Scanned from an acquired, un-copyrighted negative.
The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County by Mark Twain is an excellent short story. Here are two websites that have copies.
New to United Counties in January 1953, Bristol KSW / ECW HBD 644 is seen here standing at Station Road, Luton in the mid-1960's with part of Bute Street Station behind. The vehicle is blinded up for a journey towards Sundon Park via Leagrave.
Scanned from an acquired print, copyright R.G.H.Simpson.
Three men and a woman have been sentenced after being rumbled by our detectives in Tameside investigating a drugs line that profited around £80k from the criminal exploitation of teenage boys.
Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court heard today (18 November 2021) how Ryan Wall, 24, Claire Daniels, 36, Christopher Thornton, 20, and Leigh Sleddon, 38, were involved in an organised crime group that trafficked class A drugs as well as vulnerable young people from Tameside to Blackpool.
Wall, of Lakenheath Road, Liverpool and Thornton, of Barlow Road, Dukinfield, were sentenced to a total of 17 years after admitting arranging or facilitating the travel of another person with a view to exploitation under the Modern Slavery Act - becoming GMP's first county lines offenders guilty of this offence.
Despite not being charged with the same offence, the court also accepted that Daniels - herself a mother - of Fitzroy Street, Ashton-under-Lyne, was aware and complicit in the movement of the teenagers in order for them to deal drugs and she was given a one year and two month suspended sentence.
Sleddon, of Claremont Court, Blackpool, admitted that the children had stayed at his address in return for him being supplied with drugs. He was given a two year suspended sentence.
The verdicts conclude an eighteen-month investigation into the transportation of drugs and children - aged between 13 and 16 - led by detectives in GMP Tameside's Complex Safeguarding Team.
Investigators began the operation - codenamed 'Fairview' - following the report of a boy missing from the Hyde area. After close work with Lancashire Police, it was identified that he had been moved to Blackpool and that he was being used by the gang to supply class 'A' drugs on the streets.
Enquiries confirmed that two other teenage boys who had been missing from the nearby Ashton area had been in contact with a number associated with Ryan Wall - who was jailed for nine years today.
Already a picture was starting to develop of a group conspiring to supply class A drugs - namely heroin and crack cocaine - and also transporting the young boys to Blackpool to deal these drugs on the streets, often leaving them to fend for themselves for days.
While it is not thought the two boys - and a third boy also found to be exploited - were ever injured, detectives believe by leaving the boys alone to be involved in illicit enterprises in towns miles away from home was exposing them to a real and significant danger.
Officers ensured the boys were immediately referred to relevant specialist agencies and safeguarded away from further harm, and have pursued with a victimless prosecution to ensure that the gang are still held to account for their crimes.
A strike day was executed at the start of October 2020 where eight people - aged 16 to 67 - were arrested, before Wall, Thornton and Daniels were charged and eventually admitted two counts of conspiracy to supply a controlled drug. The detectives were also able to prove to the court that Thornton, who was jailed for eight years today, was also controlling a 'drug line' local to the Tameside area supplying heroin, cocaine and cannabis. He had also entered guilty pleas for these matters.
Wall and Thornton pleaded guilty of four modern slavery offences between them while Sleddon pleaded guilty to participating in the activities of an organised crime group.
While similar charges have been secured in other complex safeguarding teams in Greater Manchester for offences relating to Child Sexual Exploitation, the unit in Tameside is the first to land a conviction under the Modern Slavery Act in relation to Child Criminal Exploitation 'county lines' gangs - with support from the Crown Prosecution Service.
Comprising of specially-trained detectives, safeguarding officers, and partners from Tameside Council; the Complex Safeguarding Team currently has nine ongoing investigations and a number of suspects have been arrested. Children who have been identified as needing to be safeguarded have in some cases been re-homed.
Detective Constable Matthew Elliot, from Operation Fairview, said: "Today, this group has been jailed for their roles in a county line gang - wrecking lives along the way through the dissemination of illegal drugs.
"But what we've been able to prove to the court during this investigation, is that Wall and Thornton - in particular - were not just trafficking drugs but also trafficking people.
"They were running their drugs line to Blackpool by deliberately targeting teenage boys, and exploiting them for their own illicit gains.
"These were boys who were identified by the group as vulnerable, and groomed into travelling between counties - left to fend for themselves and exposed to danger - to do the dirty work on the ground that these offenders didn’t wish to do themselves.
"The act of exploiting children and peddling them for such selfish and criminal ways is an abhorrent crime - but one that is complex and wide-ranging which makes today's outcome all the more of a success.
"And it isn’t just putting offenders behind bars that makes this operation a great result. The fact we have been able to work with partners and ensure victims have been safeguarded and away from harm is just as - if not more - significant.
"I would like to thank our partners at Tameside Council, Lancashire Police, and the Crown Prosecution Service, for the extensive support they have offered to this investigation and helping us ensure these historic convictions for GMP.
"This has been a tireless eighteen-month investigation by our Complex Safeguarding Team in Tameside, and hopefully the first good result of many.
"We have demonstrated how by working with local police forces, local authority, and other relevant supporting agencies, that we are able to target and dismantle those involved in this truly despicable criminal activity - while identifying and protecting victims in the process.
"If you feel you are being criminally exploited, or know someone who is, then please come forward to the police or Crimestoppers, knowing information will be treat with the strictest confidence."
Tameside Council Executive Member for Children and Families, Councillor Bill Fairfoull, said: “Superb partnership working has resulted in this first conviction of Modern Day Slavery in Greater Manchester. We have removed these drug dealers from our streets and stopped them from exploiting our children. Our Children’s Services staff have worked tirelessly with the police to secure this result and I’d like to thank everyone involved for their hard work.
“All of the children involved are being supported by our Tameside Complex Safeguarding Team and Tameside Youth Justice Service. I’m also pleased that the learning from this successful operation with be shared across Greater Manchester Complex Safeguarding Teams as a model of best practice.”
Greenville, Texas, the county seat, located about 45 miles east of Dallas, Texas on Interstate 30 and U.S. 380. The county is named for Memucan Hunt, Jr., the first Republic of Texas Minister to United States from 1837 to 1838 and the third Texas Secretary of the Navy from 1838 to 1839.
Greenville was named for Thomas J. Green, a general in the Texas Army during the war for independence from Mexico.
Tourism draws include the Audie Murphy/American Cotton Museum, Collin Street Bakery and the historic downtown area which includes wineries, antique malls, public gardens, boutique shopping, and regular events at the 1,700 seat Greenville Municipal Auditorium. The vintage Texan Theater is slated for a grand re-opening in 2014. The Rally 'Round Greenville festival is held the third weekend each September and includes the Cotton Patch Challenge Bicycle Ride, an Art Show, Barbecue and Chili Cook-Off, Texas Music Weekend, Kids Alley, and more. Backstreet Bash is held in March to celebrate the revitalization of the historic Main Street Area.
Nearby Kingston, just north of Greenville, is the birthplace of Audie Murphy, know most for his acting in westerns, but most notable for being the highest decorated soldier of WW II, receiving every medal awarded by the U.S. Army for bravery in combat, and most notably, the Congressional Medal Of Honor. Audie Leon Murphy (20 June 1925 – 28 May 1971), was killed in a plane crash in 1971, and is entombed in Arlington National Cemetery. The date of birth on his headstone says 1924, because his sister provided an affidavit falsifying his birth date by a year so he could join the Army. He was originally rejected because he was under weight and underage.
A true American patriot.
Rockingham County Public Schools
Bus 219 - 2002 International Amtran CE
Bus 216 - 2002 International Amtran CE
United Counties Leyland Leopard / Duple NNH 189Y is seen here parked up in Luton's Castle Street Depot yard circa 1985, displaying the 'venetian blind' livery applied to vehicles used on express services in the later NBC days. The vehicle later worked for Luton and District and subsequently Kelvin Central Buses along with several of it's sisters.
Scanned from an acquired print.
Montgomery County Maryland Police Department Ford Crown Victoria. This unit was parked at Capitol Hill during Police Week 2018
United Counties purchased a number of second hand Bristol vehicles in the early 1970's to alleviate a vehicle shortage caused by several factors - the purchase of the operations of Luton Corporation in January 1970 had bought a large number of non-standard vehicles into the fleet. Coupled with the fact that many of United Counties own Bristol vehicles were fitted with the less than reliable Bristol engines this caused a significant shortage of serviceable vehicles. Some vehicles purchased were actually older than the United Counties stock they replaced but were purchased by virtue of their reliable Gardner engines. This ex-Lincolnshire Bristol LD / ECW still sports the original long radiator that was a characteristic of the early years of these vehicles and is seen here at United Counties Bedford Road, Northampton premises in April 1973 when it was 18 years old!
Scanned from an acquired, un-copyrighted slide.