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A report written on behalf of a council recommends that, for increased security and benefits to the disabled, taxi drivers should pay for the costs of CCTV cameras in new cabs. The document was written for Brighton and Hove City Council by the GMB union and the Brighton and Hove Federation of Disabled People. The council needs to act in order to meet new legislation set to come into law. Other councils, like Crawley and Eastbourne, have encouraged the adoption of CCTV by offering grant schemes or part funding for the installation. Tensor and its partners CCTV Surveillance supply and maintain a big range of digital CCTV camera systems tailored to a customer’s wishes. Our software enables footage to be viewed remotely from any or all connected CCTV cameras as events happen. It also allows you to retain evidence quality CCTV footage whilst reducing the amount of memory required for each video clip. Built-in MPEG-4 support provides simultaneous viewing of both JPEG and MPEG-4 video streams, allowing the user to optimize bandwidth usage on constrained networks.  

Writers have joined community leaders in expressing concern at plans to reduce library services, a trend which is expected across the UK as public service budgets are trimmed. North Yorkshire author GP Taylor and Will Self have protested at North Yorkshire County Council announcing a consultation on reducing its library provision. More than half of the 42 libraries in North Yorkshire could be at risk, making a potential saving approaching £2m. Among the proposals are to replace full and part-time staff with volunteers. A Tensor Time and Attendance system is the top way to manage your organisation’s staffing and payroll budget set-up. All user activity within the system is recorded for audit purposes, with time and date transactions of information both before and after changes. Logs also maintain records of system events for fault finding and trouble shooting. Language is not a barrier with our software packages as they are both multi lingual and linked to the regional settings of your PC. In this way ‘local’ formats are used when displaying currency, dates and times.  

Scottish Labour's finance spokesman Andy Kerr accused the ruling Scottish National Party of putting their political interest before that of the country by bringing forward a one-year rather than a three-year budget. He said: "It is outrageous that our local authorities, health service, our universities, further education colleges, police and fire services are being denied the ability to plan effectively.” Mr Kerr was reacting to the budget which has cut resources to housing, prisons and universities, resulting in union officials warning about job losses. Tensor is the leader in the field of hours and wages calculation, which helps a firm’s managers plan its budgets properly. A major requirement of any Time and Attendance system is the ability to export information to the payroll system. Tensor has worked with all of the major payroll packages such as Sage. Our time and attendance software has a wide range of options that extract payroll information in exactly the correct format. It can share or receive information from third party applications by using readily available interface modules. Data transfers can occur either on demand or more usually as an automated process.

Leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats Kirsty Williams described the draft budget for Wales as a missed opportunity to root out waste in the NHS. Cash for large infrastructure projects like building roads, hospitals and schools are likely to be cut drastically over the coming years, as many planned schemes will be delayed or cancelled. Overall the budget is next year due to fall by £860m and by £1.8bn by 2014-15. The biggest losers are economy and transport and environment, down by more than 21 per cent over three years. Financial planning by your organisation’s accounts department will be made simpler with clocking technology from Tensor. The WinTA Lite.NET system is designed for smaller companies and takes care of Time & Attendance, Working Time Directive, multiple shifts, flexi time and job costing issues. WinTA Lite operates a single time clock, the versatile T32xx Clocking Station, and can record employee details for up to 250 people. WinTA Lite stores information on up to 1000 production or department jobs. Employees use proximity read smart card or fobs to book time against these jobs.

Northumbria Police this week revealed it was shedding 450 civilian jobs to meet financial targets, given that central government funding will be reduced. The force said this measure will not affect police officers, although a recruitment freeze is underway there. It added in a statement: "Police staff have also been invited to take advantage of other flexible working arrangements to generate further savings. This includes options such as part time or reduced hours working, job share, term time working, flexible retirement or possibly early retirement." If employees are asked to undertake different shifts or working patterns, maybe because the firm is struggling, then Tensor’s range of Windows™ based smart card time and attendance products take this in their stride. Our two time and attendance systems are WinTA Lite (for smaller companies) and WinTA Enterprise (for larger companies) which deal with all clocking matters, from simple collection of employees' clocking data, through to job costing and extensive labour hours analysis. Many working patterns – flexi-time, night shifts and overtime – are easily created with the software.  

A fraud investigation is taking place at a ‘noted’ brand of printers after allegations of false documents being produced. The world's largest banknote printer De La Rue, whose clients include the Bank of England and dozens of other nations, claims its volumes are likely to drop by a fifth this year after this production crisis. The Serious Fraud Office is currently investigating the matter of false test certificates after the company finished its own inquiry. Factories working in security-sensitive areas can ease their worries with a combined first class integrated Access Control and Time & Attendance system. Tensor has designed WinTAnet in conjunction with a new range of colourful, .NET and wireless enabled smart card and biometric clocking and access control equipment for 20 to 10,000-plus people. Current customers can upgrade without having to change their T32xx or T25xx clocking stations. Unexpected door usage ‘early warning’ email alerts are included. It combines the requirements of visitor control, identification, rostering and job costing; while the personnel software handles all major hours calculation methods.  

The National Health Service workforce is to be slashed across Sussex. About 20 per cent of posts at NHS East Sussex will be lost following a consultation into how to make savings; NHS Brighton and Hove announced it will also implement job losses next year; while NHS West Sussex will take the total county redundancies past three figures before April. Meanwhile, the Government wants GPs to form consortiums to take over responsibility for commissioning local hospital, GP, dental and community services. Tensor’s leading Time & Attendance PC software gives your organisation total control over hours, wages and shifts. In our systems like WinTA Start, ‘Groups’ are used to define sequences of shift patterns. Rolling Groups repeat a block of shift patterns. The block can contain any number of days or weeks. AutoSelect Groups have multiple shift patterns available per day. Here, WinTA Start will select the most appropriate shift depending on when an employee starts work. So if you move an employee's shift, WinTA Start will automatically assign the correct shift to the employee.  

A council has instituted a pay freeze because it needs to save a total of £40m over four years. Senior management and councillors at Oxford City Council have agreed to a pay freeze and staff will not receive any annual pay rises, as part of the draft budget. About 60% of the budget gap (which is about £6m) will be met by efficiency savings, while about 25% will be addressed through increased council fees and charges. Free swimming for children could also be affected. All frequently used methods of hours calculation, wage structure and shift patterns (including overtime and flexitime) are handled by the WinTA Net Time & Attendance and integrated security management system from Tensor. Available in Lite, Small Business and Enterprise versions, the system is cost-effective for those employing from 10 to 10,000-plus staff. The system allows you to create a series of shift premium rules that enable employees to earn bonus payments under special circumstances. The bonus is calculated either as extra hours or monetary amounts and can be included in the export to payroll.

Aware that there are still more than 5,000 surplus places in schools countywide, education officials in Carmarthenshire are finding it tough identifying which schools to shut down. Under the latest update to its Modernising Education Programme, the Welsh council says there are 10 schools not thought to be viable in the long term. The report listed another 31 to be considered but members of the council's education scrutiny committee called for the list to be removed in case it appeared their future had already been decided. Tensor supply a range of time and attendance systems which deal with all methods of job rostering, budgeting and costing, plus calculation of payroll, wages and hours. PC Clock's analysis module consists of a scaled-down version of Tensor's acclaimed WinTA Lite time and attendance software and suits a school or college. Pupils (or employees) are simply presented with an input screen on their PC allowing them to clock in and out. It is a cost-effective method of ensuring that your organisation remains compliant with any regional and national legislation.

Record low crime figures have been recorded in Hartlepool, thanks to a recent campaign. A total of 492 crimes were registered in the latest monthly figures, a drop of nearly 30 per cent compared to the same period last year. The figures follow rates being slashed in half during recent years. Officers are putting the decline down to the Respect Hartlepool campaign, which has been thwarting shoplifting and other offences. The campaign asks people who live, work and socialise in the town to 'Respect Yourself, Respect Others, Respect Hartlepool'. Time & Attendance North East have designed WinTAnet, a complete Time and Attendance and integrated security system for 20 to 10,000-plus people, in conjunction with a new range of colourful, .NET and wireless enabled smart card and biometric clocking and access control equipment. Current customers can upgrade without having to change their T32xx or T25xx clocking stations. As well as access control it deals with all major hours calculation methods; plus job rostering, absence planning and entitlement management, and absenteeism and lateness reporting.  

Another local authority is seeking to take a large slice off its total workforce following the Government’s deficit-busting Spending Review. Lancashire County Council needs to trim £180 million from its budget over the next three years. The GMB union said it is very hard to see where new jobs were to come from to replace the potential 6,000 job losses. It added: “It is also very difficult to see that there will be enough volunteers prepared to leave their jobs in the absence of alternative employment." Featuring comprehensive user-definable working patterns, rosters and shifts, Tensor offers a complete smart card Time and Attendance system. WinTAStart.NET includes a T32xx Smart Card clocking station, 25 Smart Cards, software including all the features to manage time and attendance recording for up to 50 people. Clocking station features include: 1MB on-board memory; a 6 line x 21 character / graphics display; a control output which can operate an electronic lock or shift change siren; and an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) in case of mains failure.  

A man appeared before magistrates over a case of ‘cowboy clamping’ following an incident when a doctor paid £120 after his car was clamped and reported suspicions about the matter to police. London resident Joseph Ty Hedley Fox was accused of engaging in conduct when not licensed by the private security industry legislation which governs car clamping. He was cleared after a trial because it was uncertain the money paid by the doctor was to remove the clamp or was simply a parking fee. The Tensor range of automatic car park barriers is the number one solution for controlling vehicle access to your site's car park and road entry points. Immediately able to recognise and allow or deny access to personnel, Tensor's parking barriers cater for all sizes of premises and are highly adaptable. Their features include: an extruded aluminium barrier arm, high visibility red reflective striping, arm lengths of up to six metres; and require no routine maintenance. The barriers are also capable of operating alongside any installed control or ticketing systems.