The Nifty 250: News of the day in so many words

PEOPLE living next to a the Hope Street Hotel are objecting to plans to allow guests to use balconies overlooking their homes.

The hotel has applied to Liverpool City Council for permission to allow the use of balconies on the 5th and 6th floors of its £5.5m extension.

Despite objections from residents that it will create a noise nuisance and invade their privacy, city planners are recommending the scheme is approved for a one year trial when councillors meet on Tuesday.

THE NORTH NEEDS TO “DIVERSIFY” if it is to successfully end its reliance on the state, according to the Chancellor. Alistair Darling said the North's economy was changing, because "the heavy industry is going, although it has got a large public sector", adding, “the North has got to look at encouraging more private sector involvement.”

RENTAL OF CITY CENTRE FLATS ARE enjoying a boom. Estate agents said last month they experienced “mania” with one firm letting 83 units, an increase of 47 per cent, compared with September 2008, with some tenants taking apartments without even seeing them. The boom, agents say, is partly down to students wanting to live in the centre and the new schemes available.

A NINE-YEAR-OLD WAS ATTACKED as she made her way to school in Childwall. A man grabbed the girl's hair and pulled her to the ground as she walked with her younger brother in Craighurst Road on Wednesday. A passer-by came to the girl's aid and the attacker ran off, with the girl left “extremely shaken” but not seriously injured.