The Sunday Times - UK (2022-04-24)

The Sunday Times April 24, 2022 5

NEWS

Britain dragging its heels on law to fit automatic brakes on all new cars

rating for having only a basic

version of AEB. It reacts to

other vehicles but is not

designed to prevent crashes

with pedestrians or cyclists.

Critics have accused Renault,

the brand’s owner, of putting

price before safety.

Avery describes the AEB

technology as a “guardian

angel”, adding: “People never

know it’s there. It intervenes

only when things go wrong.”

After Dev’s death, his

teacher told Naran that her

son had expressed a desire to

become a brain surgeon so he

could help his brother. She

said her campaigning was an

attempt to honour “what he

would have done if he was

still here”.

The Department for

Transport said it was

“considering the vehicle

safety provisions within the

EU’s General Safety

Regulation, which includes

AEB, to determine

requirements that are

appropriate for new vehicles

in Great Britain”.

of cars on the road are fitted

with the technology, which

uses radar and cameras to

detect hazards and acts if a

driver does not respond to an

alarm.

Most new models sold in

the past two years include

AEB as standard, but King

said the AA’s technical

experts were worried that,

unless automatic braking is

mandated, manufacturers

will push less safe cars on to

the UK market to save money.

Awareness is low because

car makers use more than 50

different terms to describe

the braking system, which is

typically a car’s default

setting. They include Ford’s

Active City Stop, Mazda’s

Smart City Brake Support,

Volkswagen’s City Emergency

Braking and Volvo’s City

Safety.

Britain’s cheapest new car,

the Dacia Sandero, was

named 2021 Car of the Year

by What Car? but lost its title

after the safety organisation

Euro NCAP gave it a two-star

side of the corridor, Neel was

fighting for his life, and in a

room on the right-hand side,

Dev was dead. My youngest

son was dead. It breaks you.”

Neel, who has drug-

resistant epilepsy, was

profoundly affected by his

brother’s death. He lost the

power of speech and is now

reliant on a wheelchair.

Naran has since had another

child, Evangeline, now two.

Matthew Avery, director of

research at Thatcham, said

AEB reduces rear-end

collisions by about 40 per

cent, and collisions with

pedestrians by 30-40 per

cent. Even when the braking

system is unable to stop a

crash from happening, it can

reduce speed and thus the

severity of the impact.

Emergency braking has

been mandatory on most

newly registered heavy good

vehicles over 7.5 tonnes since

November 2015, but few vans

have it fitted and a significant

number do not even offer it as

an option. Only 12-15 per cent

lorry crashed into the car.

Her father survived.

She said: “My entire world

collapsed that night when I

was sitting on the floor in the

corridor in a hospital, and in

one room on the left-hand

Meera Naran has become

a road safety campaigner

since eight-year-old Dev

was killed in 2018

senior lecturer in clinical

pharmacy at De Montfort

University, describes herself

as “just a mum from Leicester

asking the government to do

the right thing”.

She said: “I have had to live

every single day with the

excruciating pain of losing my

son. If I can prevent anyone

else from going through that,

I will campaign for it.” She

has previously played a

significant role in persuading

Shapps to pause the

introduction of all-lane-

running “smart” motorways

and helped to secure the

funding of £900 million of

safety measures for the

controversial schemes.

Naran was at Birmingham

Children’s Hospital on May

31, 2018, with Dev’s older

brother, Neel, who was

critically ill. Doctors said he

was unlikely to survive the

night, and Naran wanted Dev

to say goodbye. She asked her

father to drive him to hospital

but he pulled over on the M

for unknown reasons, and a

centre. It will become

compulsory in the EU and

Northern Ireland from July 6,

but there are no plans to

implement it in Great Britain.

Edmund King, president of

the AA, is urging the

government to focus on the

proven benefits of automatic

braking, rather than be

distracted by various eye-

catching proposals for self-

driving vehicles that allow

those behind the wheel to

watch television. In a recent

AA survey of 15,677 drivers,

almost 75 per cent said they

would support making AEB

compulsory.

He said: “The adoption of

Dev’s Law mandating the

fitting of autonomous

emergency braking on all

new vehicles would be a

massive milestone in road

safety akin to major safety

advances such as seat belts,

breathalysers or air bags. It

will be compulsory across

Europe from July, so the UK

shouldn’t be left behind.”

Naran, 38, who works as a

A mother whose eight-year-

old son was killed when a

lorry crashed into his

grandfather’s car is

campaigning with the AA for

all new vehicles to be fitted

with emergency braking.

Meera Naran, whose son

Dev was killed in 2018 on his

way to visit his older brother,

who was critically ill in

hospital, is urging Grant

Shapps, the transport

secretary, to make

autonomous emergency

braking (AEB) compulsory by

adopting legislation that she

is calling Dev’s Law.

The safety technology —

which automatically slows

down or stops a vehicle if its

driver fails to respond to the

threat of a collision — could

save about 110 lives a year. It

would also prevent a further

12,300 casualties on Britain’s

roads, according to Thatcham

Research, the motor

insurance industry’s research

Nicholas Hellen

Transport Editor

164,

Unfilled posts in hospitality jobs in

Britain, the highest in any industry

Chefs lured with £5,000 sweeteners

cheaper. That is not the case at all, we pay

the same wages. By the time you have

paid the agency fees and the fees to the

Home Office for the sponsorship licences

it works out a lot more expensive to do it

this way,” he said.

Now, he is launching a curry menu

to make the most of the “absolutely

blinding” skills of his new recruits.

Sumit Goswami, 31, from Delhi, relo-

cated with his wife to work there — leav-

ing a five-star hotel job in India behind.

His UK salary equated to a 10 per cent pay

rise but the main attraction was learning

more about British cuisine and to cook

dishes such as Welsh lamb or pork belly.

“Everyone loves to get chef experience in

the UK or Canada and, when I get time

off, I go to the beach or spend time in the

mountains,” he said.

According to data from COREcruit-

ment, an international agency, chef roles

advertised at £45,000 a year would have

been £35,000 two years ago and £28,

in 2015.

Krishnan Doyle, its managing director,

said: “We have offices in Holland and

France and they are actually seeing a

benefit at the moment because chefs

from countries such as Italy who used to

spend six months in the summer in the

UK are now going there. In the UK, lots of

places are offering retention bonuses

if staff stay with them for three months,

12 months, or incentives like holidays.

One of our clients is giving staff a day off

to spend with their new pet.”

Last week a restaurant in south Lon-

don posted an advert online saying it was

looking for a head chef, who would be

paid £85,000 a year, including bonuses.

The candidate should already be a head

chef elsewhere with a “stable CV”, it said,

as well as have a “high presence” on

social media.

Doyle said: “The highest sign-on bonus

we’ve seen for chefs has been £5,000.”

But, elsewhere, perks can be even more

lucrative. “One operations director for a

hotel group who started two months ago

got a salary of £130,000 and a £15,

signing-on bonus,” Doyle said.

Salaries for kitchen staff are so high

that overseas applicants have questioned

whether the UK job offers are a scam.

Staff at COREcruitment had to phone one

chef ’s grandmother to persuade her that

the role was genuine because it was

20 times his salary in Cape Town.

Across the country, waiting staff and

bartenders are in high demand too. Big

Mamma, a group of Italian restaurants in

London, is offering a £1,000 joining

bonus for bartenders and a £1,

referral bonus scheme for friends they

help to recruit. TGI Fridays is handing

£1,000 welcome bonuses for chefs, who

do not need any previous experience, for

roles on Jersey. At Starbucks, £

joining bonuses are being paid in some

cases while Hyatt hotels are offering £

sign-ons to kitchen porters.

In the Cornish fishing village of Gorran

Haven, Craig Holman, who manages the

Llawnroc Hotel, says that the industry is

in peak “transfer season”.

“Other than wages and flexible work-

ing, we are coming up with incentives

such as holidays at another resort for staff

and their families,” Holman, 52, says. “It’s

something that we have to do to be able to

sell the job now. It’s like they’re inter-

viewing you because you need them and

they know that.”

His attempts to lure staff comes against

a backdrop of EU chefs from countries

such as Spain, Italy and France leaving

Britain since Brexit, while others left the

industry when venues shut for months

during multiple lockdowns.

With the summer approaching, there

are fears that job shortages could hit holi-

day plans, with restaurants and hotels

already having to turn away customers.

There are approximately 4.2 vacancies

per 100 employee jobs across the UK.

According to the job website Adzuna —

which the ONS is using to calculate job

vacancy figures — there are more staff

shortages in tourist hotspots. In Dorset

there are 7.3 openings per 100 jobs, with

the figure dropping to 5.9 in Devon.

In the Cairngorms national park, near

Aviemore, the Highlander Hotel has also

hired a chef from India. Normally, up to

35 staff members would be working

there. The figure stands at 13. A lack of

staff has meant that, on occasion,

bookings have been turned down.

“I’ve worked here for 31 years and my

manager has been here for over 45 years

and we have never experienced anything

like this,” Elaine MacRae, the deputy

manager, says.

“The guests are extremely good and

understand the pressure we are under

but we are not always able to give them

the service we would like to because we

can’t always go in and do the rooms every

day,” she adds. Across the UK, more

people are sponsoring staff to come from

abroad. Since January last year European

Union citizens have been unable to travel

to Britain under freedom of movement

and need to be sponsored in the same

way as non-EU nationals.

However, where previously only

highly skilled chefs on at least £30,

could be sponsored, UK businesses can

do this with any type of chef from abroad,

with similar changes happening in other

industries too.

Home Office immigration figures for

last year showed there were 239,

work-related visas granted, 25 per cent

higher than in 2019, the last full year

before the pandemic.

Doyle, the recruiter, described being

able to hire from other markets as a “life-

saver”, with hires coming from South

Africa, Thailand and the Philippines.

Harriet Mansell owns two restaurants

in Lyme Regis, Dorset, but does not have

enough chefs and is having to open for

fewer hours than she would like. “Our

focus is quality over quantity — we’re not

just going to open with a half-hearted

offering,” she says.

Affordable housing is also a problem.

“Holiday lets have pushed the prices up.

I’m having to live with my parents in

Sidmouth... If I can’t live here, I’ve got

no hope of attracting other people to the

area — there’s just no property available,”

Mansell adds.

According to Adzuna salaries have

risen by 20 per cent for baristas in the

past year, 19 per cent for hotel reception-

ists and 17 per cent for waiters.

@louise_eccles

Restaurants and hotels in tourist resorts

are paying thousands of pounds in golden

handshakes to attract chefs from India and

South Africa at a time of staff shortages.

Job perks in some places include

£85,000 salaries, £5,000 sign-on

bonuses, family holidays and even puppy

“settle-in” days, after Brexit and Covid-

left the sector with record vacancies.

At its peak in December, there were 7.

positions open per 100 hospitality jobs,

according to the Office for National Statis-

tics — the highest level on record. This

fell slightly to 7.5 per cent in March but

hospitality vacancies are still higher than

any other industry, with an estimated

164,000 posts unfilled.

At Vale Holiday Parks in Aberystwyth,

Thomas Scarrott, the owner, has hired

five chefs from India this year — after

struggling to find staff. For each overseas

chef, it costs him £5,000 to £7,000 in

visas, travel and recruitment fees but

Scarrott, 40, says he was left with no

choice. At a recent local recruitment day

two people showed up, despite 100

expressing an interest.

“People believe that we’re trying to

bring people from overseas because it’s

Louise Eccles and Tom Calver

Hotels and restaurants

are offering huge sign-on

bonuses and salaries to

entice foreign workers as

staff shortages persist

Sumit Goswami got a 10 per cent rise

moving from Delhi to Aberystwyth

CHRIS FAIRWEATHER/HUW EVANS AGENCY

A visitor enjoys a

vibrant display of azaleas

and rhododendrons in

Richmond Park,

southwest London. Most

places will be dry with

patchy cloud and sunny

spells today, although

there may be showers

in southwest England

and south Wales

Weather, page 29

TOTALLY

BUSHED

TOBY MELVILLE/REUTERS

Bestselling crime writer Don Winslow puts down his pen to pick a fight with Trump

to lose one — if not both —

houses of Congress in the

mid-term elections.

Best known for his trilogy

on Mexican drug cartels,

Winslow’s next novel, City on

Fire, will be published in the

coming days. He has already

written its sequels, which will

be released next year and in

2024, but an upcoming book

tour will be his last.

Winslow has also made a

series of videos seeking to

expose Trump and other

Republican leaders, which

have been viewed 250 million

social media post, he claimed

that Trump’s followers

wanted a world where

women were “stripped of

their rights”, the rule of law is

“shredded” and “schools,

teachers and books will be

under constant threat”.

“Don’t underestimate this

all-out attack on our

democracy,” he added.

The Democrats are

struggling to push Joe Biden’s

agenda through Capitol Hill

as the president battles low

approval ratings.

The party is also expected

Twitter yesterday, the

68-year-old said: “I do not

make this decision lightly, but

I’m going to pick a fight. I

want to see real

consequences for Trump, his

family, and the enablers who

share his cynical, soulless,

corrupt and sub-literate

world view. I want to see real

consequences for the

architects of January 6 [the

US Capitol riots] and not just

the foot soldiers.”

Since the 2020 election,

Winslow has championed

liberal causes. In his lengthy

The American author Don

Winslow has pledged to

devote himself to fighting the

“cancer” of Trumpism as he

retires from writing novels.

Winslow, a prolific writer

of crime fiction, said that

despite the defeat of Donald

Trump in 2020, he believes “a

more dangerous form” of the

ex-president’s politics will

emerge after the US midterm

elections in November.

In a statement posted on

Rosamund Urwin

Media Editor

profile agent Shane Salerno,

co-creating the NBC series

UC: Undercover.

In 2005 he published the

first in a trilogy, The Power of

the Dog, about a drug

enforcement agent trying to

stop a cartel.

A decade later came The

Cartel before the final

instalment in 2019, The

Border. All three novels were

met with critical acclaim and

filming on a TV adaptation is

due to begin late this year.

Vanishing Veep, page 13

times. He said his new aim

would be to reach a billion

views, adding that he hoped

they would “hit hard” and

“create change”.

Signing off the letter to

fans, Winslow said: “I hope

you will join my digital army

and help me fight this war.”

Winslow moved from

Rhode Island to New York to

become a writer but at first

struggled to find success,

working as a cinema manager

and a private investigator. He

later branched into television

with his friend, the high-

Don Winslow

fears “a more

dangerous

form” of

Trumpism will

emerge after

the midterm

elections