Writing my articles

These are the two articles I am going to include in my newspaper:

Front Page:

Headline: Olly Murs welcomed home by Essex fans

X Factor’s runner up, Witham boy Olly Murs, 25 has been back in Essex performing a string of gigs, much to the delight of his local fans.

The first of these performances was at Mayhem Nightclub in Southend on Christmas Eve where Olly was welcomed by over four hundred screaming fans.

These local gigs have included Chicago Rock Cafe in Basildon and Chelmsford where he sang songs from his favourite perforamances on The X Factor. These included Stevie Wonder’s ‘Superstition’ from his memorable first audition, The Beatles’ ‘Twist and Shout’, Tina Turner’s ‘Fool In Love’ and The Jackson 5 ‘Can You Feel It?’. Olly also sang The Jungle Book’s ‘I Wanna Be Like You’, revealing to the audience that he wanted to sing this on ‘film night’ but Simon Cowell did not want him to!

Your Southend Local caught up with Olly after his Basildon show. Olly said he was “overwhelmed with the support” he has been receiving. He also said “it feels like a dream to be able to play to such big crowds in my home town. I’ve always wanted to be an international superstar, but Essex definately has the best fans around.” Find more pictures from these performances on page 15.

Second Page:

Headline: Coldest winter for 31 years

Hundreds of schools were forced to close, public transport stopped running, power supplies were cut and people were urged not to drive unless it was unavoidable or an emergency.

Essex was one of the areas worst hit, along with Norfolk, Kent and Yorkshire as winds blew snow clouds in across the North Sea from Scandinavia. These cold winds chilled the air ensuring that all snowfall settled immediately. In Essex, usually the heaviest snow falls in January and February, so although Essex sees some bad snow fall each year, this was the earliest heavy snow seen in many years in this part of the country.

By 11pm on Thursday 17 December much of Essex had already been covered in snow, with up to 20cm (8in) of snow falling overnight and temperatures in some areas dropped to -7.5C. By 5am on Friday 18 December police had already been called out to 180 weather related incidents. These included 20 road collisions, 25 fallen power cables and 16 downed trees. At one stage, Essex police were dealing with almost one weather-related call a minute. None of the incidents were said to be serious, but there had been reports of drivers sleeping in their cars and many cases of abandoned vehicles. More snow fell on the Friday evening but it was not as severe as the previous night.

Essex County Council sent out sixty-five winter gritters to cover the 1,870 miles of main roads throughout the county in an attempt to cause as little disruption to drivers’ journeys as possible. However, many Southend and Canvey Island residents felt the gritting of the roads did not happen quickly enough, meaning the roads were extremely hazardous for a few days. While most main routes had been gritted, many side roads appeared not to of been gritted and still remained treacherous and dangerous for pedestrians.

Roads were congested with slow-moving traffic as motorists kept speed to a minimum. This caused long delays on numerous main roads including the A127 and A13. The North of Essex was said to be worst affected by the heavy snow with it causing problems on the A12 commuter route to London.

Various bus services were cancelled causing inconveniences throughout the county. Rail services, on the other hand were subject to delays and cancellations but were mostly unaffected by the weather.

There were at least 320 schools closed across the county due to the snow which caused many members of staff being unable to make it into work. For many children, Christmas had come early as school closures meant they would not be returning to school until January in the new year.