THE first film to be shown at Derby's new drive-in movie will be Grease – after winning a public vote.

About 900 people suggested the 1970s film was the one that they wanted to be screened on the top floor of Intu Derby's car park.

The shopping centre put an appeal on its Facebook page for people to choose from Dirty Dancing, Grease, Mamma Mia, Skyfall or Top Gun. Film fans will now be able to see the movie on Friday, August 1.

Andrea Swift, marketing communications manager at Intu Derby, said: "It has been madness! We were not expecting such a massive uplift.

"We had almost 900 Facebook comments around choosing a film.

"It really is something different for Derby."

Voting for the choice of film – conducted entirely though the shopping centre's Facebook page – closed yesterday .

Grease had 308 votes, while Top Gun was a close second with 279 votes.

Andrea added: "There have been so many Facebook comments.

"Because the chosen film is Grease, we are more than happy for people to come dressed up and have a good sing-along too!

"It's something unusual for the city. There have been outdoor movies shown at other shopping centres and they have been a big success.

"But it has never been done in Derby, especially on top of a car park. Quad, which is providing the screen, does a lot of films outdoors and stately homes but this is a new opportunity."

Tickets cost £10 per car, with a maximum of four people per vehicle.

Intu Derby said tickets would go on sale next week from the customer service desk but could not confirm exactly when. The time has not been announced, although the shopping centre did say it would be screened in the evening.

Andrea added: "People wanting to go to the film should make sure they keep their eyes on our Facebook page and website.

"Tickets will be limited and the money will be going to charity but we have not yet confirmed which one."

A WOMAN in a care home died after having an altercation with another pensioner because he did not shut a toilet door.

Former teacher Joy Holden, 85, put her hands up to the man at the Manorfields Care Home, Derby, but lost her balance and fell.

An inquest heard that Mrs Holden suffered from heart disease and a hormone condition, but the fall, in which she suffered internal bleeding, was significant in contributing to her death.

Both Mrs Holden and the resident involved in the altercation had Alzheimer's.

Assistant coroner Louise Pinder ruled that Mrs Holden's death was an accident.

She died at the Royal Derby Hospital on April 26 last year, two days after the fall.

Julie Penn, manager at the home on Farley Road, told the hearing: "Joyce shouted at another resident to shut the door.

"The gentleman told her to mind her own business.

"He then he came out of the toilet and he was flapping his hands. Joyce put her hand up to him and lost balance.

"They were two metres away, and there was no physical contact. Joyce fell outside the entrance.

"She was known to voice her opinion but was easy to calm.

"She was irritated the man had not shut the door and they had no previous difficulties. Everybody loved her."

Mrs Holden taught at St James' School and Bradley School, both in Derby.

She was also a supply teacher and did a lot of travelling.

Mrs Holden had to live with a goitre, an abnormal enlargement of the thyroid gland on her neck.

Her daughter, Lynnee Lumley, told the coroner: "The goitre was enormous. She had it in her 40s and had managed it. When she was compos-mentis and OK she said the care home was fantastic.

"In the afternoons she could get very anxious and make cups of coffee and sit in the office looking at apostrophes which were in the wrong place."

Mrs Penn said: "I have looked at the risk assessment and I'm quite happy."

She said the incident was "one of those things".

"It could have happened at any time.

"She was quite independent and did her own thing and could walk independently," added Mrs Penn.

PEOPLE out shopping in a Derby suburb next week could find themselves on the receiving end of a number of random acts of kindness.

Pupils from Brackensdale Junior School are planning to surprise strangers at the parade of shops in Prince Charles Avenue, Mackworth, offering to hold doors or carry bags.

The school, which is celebrating its 60th anniversary, took part in a project called Brilliant Derby in 2013.

It was devised by local children's author Andy Cope, who believes that positive messages and actions help improve school performance.

Rather than allow the project to lapse after a series of workshops last year, staff at the Mackworth junior school wanted to continue and set up Brilliant Bracko.

Deputy head teacher Benjamin Radbourne said it was important for the school to continue with the project.

He said: "During the training phase last year, there was a great buzz from the children thinking they could make a positive difference in their class or home.

"We tried to really promote the need for positiveness.We also had an extraordinary amount of children who wanted to share their examples of random acts of kindness from both in their homes, the local area and school."

Most of the children who took part in last year's events have now moved on to secondary school.

Mr Radbourne said: "We employed a teacher who had been involved with Brilliant Derby last year and along with former mayor Lisa Higginbottom's passion for Mackworth, we decided to remind the children of the basic principles and created Brilliant Bracko.

"We did four assemblies based on the initial training from Andy Cope and got a buzz going again. The idea is that it will become part of our ethos of our school and hopefully have a wider effect upon the local area as well."

As well as next Monday's trip to the shops from 1pm, the school is hoping to present the principles of Brilliant Derby to other schools who did not attend the training last year, and even include businesses or building sites.

Mr Radbourne added: "Our new teacher had previously done something similar with construction company Skanska, who built the Royal Derby Hospital.

Head teacher David Hall said: "Brilliant Derby was a world-first initiative in raising positivity in children across Derby schools.

"Andy and Lisa have built on the huge success of the Brilliant Derby project and created a community interest company called Brilliant Communities to continue to spread the word that happiness and positivity are infectious and beneficial.

"The children recognise this and are spreading the message with their random acts of kindness."

A SIX-YEAR-OLD Derbyshire boy has been selected to join Britain's newest children's pop group.

Kai Newman, from Ambergate, was nominated by his mum to join the Wacky Warehouse's Little Singers.

He will join seven other tiny talents in recording the first official Wacky song.

The tune, which is due for release in September, will be heard by thousands of kids up and down the country when they visit any of the 77 play centres.

Kai's mum, Carly Newman, said: ''Kai is a happy little boy and you always know when he's at his happiest when he's singing.

"I love to hear him practising when he thinks no one is listening. He can sing a lot better than his mum and dad, and can hold a note.''

Darren Lines, general manager of one of Derbyshire's Wacky Warehouses, said "We're really pleased that a Little Singer has been found in Derbyshire.''

A FASHION retailer which has its flagship store in Ashbourne has been shortlisted for three national awards.

Young Ideas, which has a store at The Green Man on John Street, Ashbourne, and a concession in Bennett's on Iron Gate in Derby, has been shortlisted in the Premium Fashion Independent of the Year, Best Independent Multichannel Operator and Best Store Design in the Drapers' Independents Awards.

The Derby store opened in March 2011 with a new "destination" flagship store opening in October 2013 in the historic Green Man building at Ashbourne.

Young Ideas offers a bespoke service which includes out-of-hours appointments, tailored alterations, experienced staff, coffee, champagne and personal stylists as standard.

The award winners will be announced at a lunchtime ceremony at The Brewery in London on Wednesday, September 17.

Last year, Young Ideas won both Womenswear Independent of the Year and Independent Retailer of the Year categories.

A MAN had his Range Rover confiscated after using it to steal a £2,000 horse box.

Christopher Spence, 28, of Sturston Road, Ashbourne, was given a 16-week prison term, suspended for a year, ordered to do 150 hours' unpaid work and banned from driving for a year by Derby magistrates. He admitted theft, damage to a wheel clamp and using a vehicle with defective tyres. He must pay £100 compensation and £165 costs.

THE Royal School for the Deaf in Derby has been highly commended for its entry to the national Total Green School Awards.

Their project, Life at the Poles, was entered in the Totally Clued Up Award category for five-to-11-year-olds.

The work involved finding out about living at the Poles, including learning about penguins and polar bears and planning their own polar expeditions and working out how animals adapt to the conditions in extreme temperatures.

The school has been presented with a certificate and a cheque for £250 to recognise their achievements.

A plan for the future of the National Forest over the next decade, which looks to increase the number of trees and habitats, was launched at Calke Abbey. Pictured from left are Sophie Churchill, chief executive of the National Forest Company; Tom Surrey, from Defra; Catherine Graham-Harrison, chairman of the National Forest Company; and Adrian Phillips, National Forest ambassador.

A DERBYSHIRE man who has just been elected President of the World Council of the YMCA has said the need for the association is "greater than ever before".

Peter Posner OBE was elected head of the highest decision-making body in the association this month.

Mr Posner, who has been part of the YMCA for 34 years and is currently the chairman of YMCA Derbyshire's Board of Trustees, will guide the movement over the next four years of his term.

The 61-year-old said: "We are ambassadors of youth empowerment across the globe.

"And I see the association as more relevant than ever before due to the economic situation that we are currently in.

"It is young people that are taking a greater hit than anyone else in society.

"We are there to stand up for them.

"On a world level, my role will be to promote the strategy that was voted in at the World Conference, which is called empowering young people."

The YMCA, which stands for the Young Men's Christian Association, was created 170 years ago by George Williams in London.

Mr Williams was concerned about the lack of healthy activities for young men to take part in and began a bible study group.

Soon after, the YMCA began to address other concerns of young men and held public lectures and education classes.

Remarkably, just seven years after it began, a YMCA was formed in Boston.

Since then, YMCAs have spread across the globe with associations in 119 different countries with 11,000 YMCAs helping about 58 million people.

And it is that reach that Mr Posner believes makes the association so relevant today.

He said: "The problems that young people face in the UK are the same that young people face the world over.

"From employment to health, we make sure that young people have a voice."

Mr Posner began his voluntary work with the YMCA while working for a bank in Leicester.

He said: "I became a treasurer there because of my job and was only really going to do it for a short period.

"When I finished my time there, though, I realised that we were making a major difference to young people's lives."

From those humble beginnings, Mr Posner went on to become President of the European Alliance of YMCAs and was awarded an OBE last year for services to the movement.

But the latest appointment is something that Mr Posner, who took early retirement from his job at HSBC, is still trying to come to terms with.

He said: "It is an incredible honour to have been elected to the position.

"I was recently giving a lecture and I found myself staring at the picture of one of the former presidents, John R Mott.

"He had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work with the YMCA and I find it incredible that I am part of that history now.

"It has yet to really sink but I am looking forward to it and I cannot wait to see what the next four years bring."

To learn how you can volunteer for the YMCA, visit www.ymcaderbyshire.org.uk

This mother and daughter team have already raised more than £6,000 ahead of their trek through Peru in aid of Breast Cancer Care. Jude Weston and mum Gwen Hayward are holding a final event, a summer gala at the 3aaa County Ground, on Friday. For more information and to book a ticket, visit http://www.justgiving.com/Jude-Weston. To buy a copy of this image, go to www.derbytelegraph.co.uk and click 'photos'.

PARENTS were told they came close to being jailed for letting their children dodge school in Derby.

They were put on probation for a year and each fined £50 with £110 costs when they appeared before Southern Derbyshire Magistrates' Court.

The pair admitted failing to ensure the regular school attendance of three primary school children between the Christmas holidays and Easter. Each adult had been in court twice before for similar offences.

District Judge Morris Cooper said: "If you continue, you will find yourself back here again being sentenced to prison. But because there has been a positive attendance since, I will deal with the offences in a more lenient way."

Penny Scothern, for Derby City Council, said the children attended between 56% and 77% of the time.

Four messages were left at the parents' home but they failed to respond to any of them. However since Easter, attendance had improved.

Mark Salt, in mitigation, said they had welcomed earlier action by magistrates, who imposed an order to help them become better parents.

But they were "a little disappointed because there was not a great deal of involvement" by the authorities.

DERBY County have turned down a bid from Sheffield United for defender Kieron Freeman.

Freeman made 12 appearances for the Blades during a loan spell last season and former Rams boss Nigel Clough has now attempted to land the full-back on a permanent basis.

The Wales under-21 international was brought to Derby from Nottingham Forest by Clough but he has not featured under current head coach Steve McClaren.

McClaren recently added a right-back to his squad – signing Cyrus Christie from Coventry City.

Leeds United, Blackpool, Peterborough United and Doncaster Rovers are also reported to be interested in Freeman.

Clough yesterday signed another right-back, former Peterborough United defender Craig Alcock.

"He can play anywhere across the back four and that is hugely beneficial," said the manager.

Burnley have completed the signing of striker Lukas Jutkiewicz from Middlesbrough.

The 25-year-old front man, who was a target for the Rams, has joined the Premier League new boys for a reported fee of £1.5m.

Jutkiewicz was also wanted by Wigan Athletic and Bolton Wanderers.

Midfielder George Thorne, a Rams summer target after finishing last season on loan from West Bromwich Albion, went on as a second-half substitute in the Baggies' pre-season friendly at Shrewsbury Town last night.

The Rams have had two bids rejected for the midfielder this summer, while Thorne has had two transfer requests turned down.

Meanwhile, the Rams have been linked with a loan move for Everton defender Shane Duffy and are also reported to be keen on Brighton winger Kazenga LuaLua.

Derby's home match against Wolverhampton Wanderers will be televised live on Sky Sports.

As a result, the Championship encounter on Saturday, November 8, has been moved forward to a 12.15pm kick-off.

DERBY County striker Chris Martin says the Rams' fitness levels were a key factor in the team's success last season – and will be crucial again in the new campaign.

The Rams finished third in the Championship last term but were denied promotion to the Premier League when they lost the play-off final to Queens Park Rangers at Wembley.

Derby's players are currently building their fitness levels back up ahead of the start of the 2014-15 season as they look to go one step further than last time – and yesterday announced the appointment of Brazilian Alessandro Schoenmaker as head of sports science at the club.

Scotland international Martin, who scored 25 goals in 2013-14, said: "We will be working very hard to make sure we are in the right frame of mind and also in the right physical condition for the season ahead.

"Part of our success last season was how fit we were as a team.

"If you look at the stats, I don't think many teams, if any, ran further and worked harder than what we did as a team.

"That was part of our make-up and ethic, and we need to carry that into the new season.

"Promoted teams have one thing in common – they all work very hard."

New recruit Schoenmaker will work alongside strength and conditioning coach Steve Haines, overseeing the fitness of the squad.

He has previously worked under head coach Steve McClaren at FC Twente in Holland, Wolfsburg in Germany and Nottingham Forest.

"We're very pleased to have Alessandro on board with us," said McClaren.

"I've worked with him in the past and he is very good at what he does.

"The sports science side of the game is hugely important and Alessandro will be working a lot on individual programmes for players, alongside Steve Haines, whom he already has a good working relationship with."

Schoenmaker added: "I want to come here and help develop the department by passing on my experience and background.

"Hopefully, we can follow up what was achieved last season."

Martin, meanwhile, is confident the Rams have the management team and players to challenge for promotion again this season.

"We cannot sit back and rest and say 'we had a really good season last season'. That has gone, that's forgotten about now," said the former Norwich City target man.

"Obviously, it was a massive disappointment but we have assessed it, said what needed to be said, and now we prepare for the season coming up.

"We don't want to look back too much. We want to take things from last season with us but not dwell on it too much.

"It is about delivering again and I think we have got the right group management-wise and the playing staff to be able to do that."

THE UK's most successful wheelchair athlete has singled out Derby County for high praise in providing spaces for disabled fans.

Tanni Grey-Thompson called the Rams' allocation "brilliant" but criticised a number of Premier League football clubs.

Speaking on a national radio phone-in, Baroness Grey-Thompson called on all but four of England's 92 league clubs to enable more wheelchair and disabled fans to cheer on their team.

She told Nicky Campbell's 5Live phone in show: "Derby County – brilliant, they have done loads of stuff, they completely meet the minimum requirement for accessibility but I think there are only four clubs in the league that do that – Derby, along with Southampton, Swansea and Cardiff.

"But on the whole it is just a bit rubbish."

Dame Grey-Thompson, who was born with spina-bifida, won 11 Paralympic gold medals, held over 30 world records and won the London Marathon six times between 1992 and 2002.

She singled out Manchester United for criticism, saying they fell short of the number of spaces that should be allocated to disabled fans. 

She said: "I only criticised them because in the House of Lords we had a question about accessibility and they are just one of a number of clubs who do not have great access.

"They do have 108 wheelchair places but they have a shortfall of 182 on the minimal accessibility guidelines.

"I could have picked Chelsea which only has 51% of the seats it should have, and there is a whole pile of Premiership clubs who do not have the right amount of accessible seats."

"I think the Premiership clubs have enough money to put in extra seats, I don't think that's a problem."

Guidelines on catering for disabled spectators have been in place since the 2003 Accessible Stadia Guide.

At the iPro Stadium, Derby County provides support including pitch level wheelchair and assistant seating; elevated wheelchair and assistant seating; hearing looped equipped seating and match day commentary is also available.

A club spokesman said: "The club is proud of its facilities for the disabled and that this has been recognised with the award that we have won and now the comments by Tanni Grey Thompson. The club's policy is of inclusion to our supporters with disabilities."

Baroness Grey-Thompson said: "It is quite interesting at the number of lower league clubs, lots of people got in touch with me last week saying there is some really good practice out there, but there are just some really odd policies around giving away seats to disabled people.

"Disabled people should have the right to get decent seating and be able to sit with their friends and family, not having them sit 10 rows in front of them."

"WILL you be going on the Mickleover water slide? There are people here who would pay to see you do it. And it would make a great cartoon."

That was the e-mail that pinged into my computer from Telegraph Towers last week.

Well, it's a thought.

But, first of all, I believe that one has to win a lottery – and when you measure the number of people already wanting to do this against the number that can be accommodated, then the odds against my name coming out of the hat are stacked pretty high.

I rarely have luck with raffles and suchlike. When I do draw a winner, the prize is usually duff.

Take when my ticket came out at a reunion lunch in London last year. At the time I was using a walking stick because I was suffering from gout – I may have mentioned this from time to time – and asked Mrs R if she would go up to choose my prize. I could see a table covered in bottles of various sizes and colours.

So I was less than delighted when she returned with a gardening calendar. My protest was met with a fairly predictable: "Well next time, go and get your own prize."

At a Derby County former players' function, I won a caravan holiday. At least I thought I had. It turned out that, first, I needed to already own a caravan.

Then, the other week, my number came out at another little do, but again I came up short. This time the scheme of things was that a prize was drawn and then a ticket was drawn.

The person before me won a DVD player, the person after me took away (with some help) a 55-inch LED television. In between I collected a set of chopsticks. "Never mind," said Mrs R. "It's all in a good cause." She really doesn't get it.

Anyway, apart from the chance being extraordinarily remote that I would come up trumps for a slide down Kipling Drive, I was suspicious of the motive behind the suggestion.

Not that I take myself at all seriously – I've tried that and it's always ended in disappointment – but I had already been told (with some glee) that there are people in Derby who recognise me from Dave Hitchcock's wonderful cartoons rather than from the photograph that accompanies this column. I have become a caricature of myself.

So I probably won't enter my name. Not that I'm scared. After all, it isn't a parachute jump, or an abseil down Mam Tor from the Grim Wall – I leave that sort of thing to my friend and intrepid mountaineer, Nigel Vardy.

It's just that, in the autumn of his years, a chap has to maintain some dignity.

I might, though, be found outside the Hippodrome this Sunday when, at 2.30pm, members of Derby Hippodrome Restoration Trust, led by its president, Derby-born actress Gwen Taylor, will release 100 balloons to mark the centenary of the theatre's opening on the eve of the Great War.

It will also be a tribute to Chris Harris, a lovely man with a whimsical sense of humour, and a stalwart of the DHRT, who died earlier this month. He will be greatly missed.

THERE will be a lot of dry eyes in school staff rooms over the news that Michael Gove has been eased out of the position of Education Secretary.

As our education correspondent, Zena Hawley, points out in her analysis of his performance and his legacy, he is certainly not the only encumbent of that job to be in sustained conflict with teachers.

Nor will the policies he introduced over four years be undone at a stroke.

So we are either stuck with them or poised to derive full benefit from them, depending on your point of view.

What we can only hope is that now education becomes less of a battlefield.

Despite the bruised egos of politicians and union leaders and the frustrated aspirations of rank-and-file teachers, the greatest casualties in such a scenario are always the pupils.

Mr Gove made few friends in Derbyshire – not least because, in his criticism of the performance of our schools, he was very selective in which set of statistics he would use to try to illustrate his point and his often-fierce criticism.

A calmer, less combative approach to the education of our children ought to be the order of the day now.

A LEADING Derbyshire doctor has criticised the "tsunami of demand" patients put on the NHS.

Dr Peter Holden said some patients turning up to the Royal Derby Hospital's A&E department should be seen by an alternative service but others should not be dealt with by the NHS at all.

And he said people needed to remember that "GPs were not an emergency service" either – with the funding not in place to establish seven-day-a-week working to stop people using A&E instead.

Dr Holden, Matlock GP and chairman of the East Midlands board of the British Medical Association, said: "The health service was never designed to deal with every scratch or sore throat.

"But, today, people do not seem to be able to live with any uncertainty about their health for more than five minutes.

"And, very often, it's not about not being able to get an appointment with their GP or anywhere else, it's about not being able to get one at a time which is convenient for them.

"Most doctors will do everything they can for their patients – be it GPs or A&E – but the public are expecting too much from the health service now and it is not resourced or funded for that level of demand.

"And, even if it could be, people would not be prepared to pay for it."

The NHS says people should generally visit A&E or call 999 for life-threatening emergencies, such as: loss of consciousness; persistent, severe chest pain; fits which are not stopping; breathing difficulties; and severe bleeding which cannot be stopped.

If it is not an immediate emergency, patients should call their GP or the non-emergency NHS number 111.