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"All the News
Fit for Bobington"

The Bobington Times
Sunday, 1 March 2026
Vol. CLXII · No. 56,234

Local News

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Council Digests the Blue Card

Margaret Alcott By Margaret Alcott · 1 March 2026

All eleven council members collected their copies of the interim report by Saturday noon, but the weekend has produced more reading than speaking. Speaker Falk signals a council debate may follow swiftly upon the commission's final report, due Thursday. Mayor Blackthorne remains conspicuously silent. The question now is not what the commission recommends, but whether the council has the votes to accept it.

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Constabulary Closes In on Ghost Firm's Unnamed Director

Rupert Gaines By Rupert Gaines · 1 March 2026

The Metropolitan Constabulary is working to identify the sole unnamed director of Southgate Safety Consultants Ltd, the ghost compliance firm behind at least three falsified fire safety certificates in the Docklands. Companies Registry records, sealed premises at 47 Mercer Street, and the testimony of landlord Douglas Canford are central to the investigation, which increasingly points toward a connection between Southgate and the wider Ashcroft property network.

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Harbour Authority Issues March Gales Advisory

Rupert Gaines By Rupert Gaines · 1 March 2026

The Bobington Harbour Authority has issued its annual March gales advisory, warning of deteriorating conditions in the Narrow Sea and along the Cape of Sarenne route that fourteen cargo vessels are currently using to avoid the Kaelmar Strait. The advisory complicates an already strained shipping picture and adds weather risk to the emergency Ashwater ferry's first week of operations.

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Thornhill Star Readied for First Crossings

Rupert Gaines By Rupert Gaines · 1 March 2026

The emergency Ashwater ferry service, approved to replace the closed Fernwick Bridge crossing, is on track for its first passenger crossings on Friday 6 March. The Thornhill Star, a 220-passenger vessel operated by Ashwater River Services, has been fitted with passenger boarding equipment at Thornhill Reach, while Bramblegate Steps is receiving a temporary floating pontoon. Fares are set at 30 centimes per crossing, with monthly passes at 12 florins.

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The Commission Chooses the Middle Road

Margaret Alcott By Margaret Alcott · 28 February 2026

The Copper Review Commission's interim report, released Saturday morning, recommends a phased approach to the Veridan Corridor Tramway as its primary option and mandates a four-month geological survey of the Greymoor Highlands before construction begins. The report narrows the field from five options to two, endorses a 14-million-florin worker transition fund, and sets the stage for the final report due 5 March.

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The Firm That Wasn't There

Rupert Gaines By Rupert Gaines · 28 February 2026

The Metropolitan Constabulary has traced the unnamed compliance firm cited by Vincent Drury during his Thursday interview to a registered office at 47 Mercer Street — a single room above Canford & Sons printers, vacated in December and containing nothing but a desk and an empty filing cabinet. The firm, Southgate Safety Consultants Ltd, was incorporated in March 2022 with a single director whose identity has not yet been disclosed.

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The New Footsteps on Chandler's Row

Rupert Gaines By Rupert Gaines · 28 February 2026

Twenty-four-year-old Maisie Hollander walked Docklands Round 14 alone for the first time on Saturday morning, one day after Albert 'Albie' Finch completed his final delivery following 33 years of service. The residents of Chandler's Row, Pilot's Alley, and the nineteen connecting streets are adjusting to a new postwoman — and Hollander is adjusting to them.

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The People Spoke Last

Margaret Alcott By Margaret Alcott · 27 February 2026

The Copper Review Commission's fourth and final session heard from Docklands residents, small business owners, and working families before co-chairs Pryce and Voss delivered closing statements that pointed unmistakably toward a phased tramway construction. The interim report is expected Saturday.

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The Last Round

Rupert Gaines By Rupert Gaines · 27 February 2026

Albert 'Albie' Finch, 61, walked the Docklands' Round 14 for the last time on Friday morning, completing a career that spanned 33 years, an estimated 1.2 million letters, and a relationship with his route's residents that no municipal directory could capture. His successor, Maisie Hollander, will begin her own rounds on Monday.

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Markings in the Dark: Buried Waterway Dated to 1782

Rupert Gaines By Rupert Gaines · 26 February 2026

The unmapped waterway discovered beneath the Docklands has been traced to 650 metres, and carved markings on the brickwork — including the date 1782 — place its construction nearly fifty years before Bobington's formal drainage system. The Historical Preservation Society has found a reference to 'the lower conduit' in a 1793 Harbourmaster's journal, suggesting the waterway served the original port infrastructure.

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Commission Hears the Engineer and the Geologist

Margaret Alcott By Margaret Alcott · 26 February 2026

The Copper Review Commission's third session heard from Chief Municipal Engineer Dorothea Kinnear and Royal Institute president Professor Elara Whitstone, whose testimony painted a sobering picture of the city's options. Kinnear demonstrated that aluminium substitution would reduce system lifespan from 60 to 30 years. Whitstone disclosed that core samples from existing Greymoor shafts show declining ore grades, with deeper deposits requiring investment the cooperative cannot fund alone.

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Drury Answers Three Hours of Questions at Foundry Row

Rupert Gaines By Rupert Gaines · 26 February 2026

Vincent Drury, sole director of Greystone Shipping & Haulage, spent three hours with investigators at Metropolitan Constabulary headquarters on Wednesday. Drury claimed the falsified fire certificates were obtained through a compliance consultancy he could not immediately identify. He was not arrested but asked to remain available. Separately, Companies Registry records reveal Greystone Shipping shared a registered address with an Ashcroft subsidiary in 2020.

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Finch's Penultimate Round

Rupert Gaines By Rupert Gaines · 26 February 2026

With two days remaining before his retirement on Friday, postman Albie Finch walked Docklands Round 14 for the 10,559th time on Wednesday — and for the fourth day, Maisie Hollander walked it with him. A quiet chronicle of a handover that cannot be taught from a map.

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The Dockworkers' Hour: Seldon Delivers Testimony That Silences the Chamber

Margaret Alcott By Margaret Alcott · 25 February 2026

The Copper Review Commission's second hearing was transformed by the oral testimony of Patrick Seldon, foreman of the Docklands Workers' Association, whose account of the men and women who will build the tramway drew silence from a packed Municipal Chamber. The Merchants' Guild and shipping insurers also testified, painting a picture of a city caught between ambition and arithmetic.

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Constabulary Summons Drury as Forgery Trail Widens Beyond Ashcroft

Rupert Gaines By Rupert Gaines · 25 February 2026

Vincent Drury, sole director of Greystone Shipping & Haulage, has been summoned by the Metropolitan Constabulary for a formal interview on Wednesday in connection with the falsified fire safety certificates discovered at three Docklands warehouses. A handwriting specialist has identified consistent characteristics across all three forgeries, suggesting a single source.

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Council Approves Emergency Ferry to Replace Stricken Fernwick Bridge

Rupert Gaines By Rupert Gaines · 25 February 2026

The City Council's emergency infrastructure committee has approved a ferry service across the Ashwater to relieve the 14,000 daily commuters stranded by the closure of Fernwick Bridge. Ashwater River Services will operate the route from Thornhill Reach to Bramblegate Steps at 15-minute intervals, with first crossings expected by 6 March.

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Commission Hears the Price of Delay

Margaret Alcott By Margaret Alcott · 24 February 2026

The Copper Review Commission convened its first hearing Monday in a Municipal Chamber packed to the rafters, hearing testimony from Chief Engineer Okonkwo, Deputy Treasurer Whitford, and Greymoor mine chairman Haversten. With copper at 889 florins per tonne and a 500-million-florin overrun mounting, the commission faces an impossible arithmetic — and the clock is already running.

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Constabulary Links Third Warehouse to Certificate Forgery

Rupert Gaines By Rupert Gaines · 24 February 2026

A third Docklands warehouse has been connected to the falsified fire safety certificate scheme uncovered during last week's audit, the Metropolitan Constabulary confirmed Monday. A retired fire inspector whose signature appeared on two of the fraudulent documents told The Bobington Times he had never visited either property. A handwriting specialist has been retained to examine the forgeries.

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Beneath the Docklands, a River Nobody Named

Rupert Gaines By Rupert Gaines · 24 February 2026

A routine survey of Bobington's underground drainage has uncovered a substantial buried waterway beneath the Docklands — brick-lined, arched, and carrying flowing water — that does not appear on any known map of the city's infrastructure. The discovery has drawn the interest of the Preservation Society and the Royal Institute.

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The Last Round

Rupert Gaines By Rupert Gaines · 24 February 2026

Albie Finch has delivered letters to the same streets for thirty-three years. On Friday, he will make his last round. His replacement, a young woman from the capital who has never seen the Ashwater, will inherit not just a route but the accumulated memory of an entire neighbourhood.

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Audit Teams Uncover Falsified Fire Certificates at Two Docklands Warehouses

Rupert Gaines By Rupert Gaines · 22 February 2026

The second day of the Docklands safety audit has produced its most alarming finding yet: two commercial warehouses with fire safety certificates bearing the signatures of inspectors who were not employed by the Bobington Fire Brigade at the dates listed on the documents. Fire Marshal Edwin Hale has referred the matter to the Metropolitan Constabulary. The discovery suggests the Greystone Wharf investigation may extend well beyond a single property owner.

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Commission Eve: Pryce, Voss, and the Weight of 490 Million Florins

Margaret Alcott By Margaret Alcott · 22 February 2026

On the eve of Monday's first Copper Review Commission hearing, co-chairs Ida Pryce and Aldric Voss met privately to finalise procedures. Written submissions from the Merchants' Guild, the Docklands Workers' Association, and the Historical Preservation Society reveal sharply divergent priorities. Foreman Patrick Seldon has confirmed that more than two hundred dockworkers plan to fill the public gallery. Mayor Blackthorne remains silent.

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Bramblegate Fish Market Celebrates One Hundred Years With Dawn Ceremony

Rupert Gaines By Rupert Gaines · 22 February 2026

The Bramblegate Fish Market — Bobington's oldest continuously operating open-air market — celebrated its centenary on Saturday with a dawn ceremony attended by traders, civic officials, and several hundred early risers. The market, which opened on 22 February 1926 under the charter of Lord Mayor Oswald Fenn, has survived two floods, one fire, and persistent rumours of redevelopment.

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Caldwell Approves High-Speed Rail Link to Bobington

Margaret Alcott By Margaret Alcott · 22 February 2026

The National Parliament in Caldwell has approved preliminary funding for a high-speed rail connection between the capital and Bobington, a project that engineers say would reduce the current four-hour journey to under ninety minutes. The 9.8-billion-florin proposal, championed by Transport Minister Adrienne Leclerc, faces significant opposition from rural constituencies along the proposed route.

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Fernwick Bridge Closure After Engineers Discover Structural Fractures

Rupert Gaines By Rupert Gaines · 22 February 2026

The Fernwick Bridge, a 112-year-old iron crossing over the River Ashwater connecting Thornhill to the Bramblegate district, has been closed indefinitely after municipal engineers discovered stress fractures in three of its four main suspension cables during a routine inspection on Friday afternoon. The closure strands an estimated 14,000 daily commuters.

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Parliament Approves National Memorial for Greymoor Mining Disaster of 1963

Margaret Alcott By Margaret Alcott · 22 February 2026

The National Parliament in Caldwell has approved funding for a permanent memorial at the site of the 1963 Greymoor mining disaster, which killed 41 miners when a series of underground collapses trapped workers in the Dunvale No. 3 shaft. The 2.1-million-florin memorial, designed by sculptor Ines Cavallo, will be erected at the pithead site by autumn.

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All Eyes on Monday: What the Copper Commission Must Decide

Margaret Alcott By Margaret Alcott · 21 February 2026

The Copper Review Commission, co-chaired by Councilwoman Ida Pryce and Councilman Aldric Voss, holds its first meeting on Monday with testimony expected from Chief Transit Engineer Okonkwo, Deputy Treasurer Whitford, and representatives of the Greymoor mining cooperatives. With copper at 886 florins per tonne and climbing, the overrun on the Veridan Corridor tramway has swollen to approximately 490 million florins — and the commission has nine days to recommend a path forward.

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Docklands Audit Teams Fan Out Across Waterfront as Revenue Office Demands Ashcroft Levy

Rupert Gaines By Rupert Gaines · 21 February 2026

Fire inspectors, building assessors, and revenue officers began the comprehensive safety audit of vacant commercial properties in the Docklands on Friday morning, authorised by the City Council on Wednesday. Separately, the Municipal Revenue Office issued a formal demand to Ashcroft Property Group for 2.4 million florins in outstanding vacant building levy — setting a fourteen-day payment deadline that adds financial pressure to an already widening investigation.

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Ashcroft Faces Four Hours of Questions as Investigation Widens

Rupert Gaines By Rupert Gaines · 20 February 2026

Gerald Ashcroft arrived at Metropolitan Constabulary headquarters at nine o'clock on Thursday morning with his solicitor and a promise that the interview would be 'straightforward and brief.' He left at a quarter past one, more than four hours later, without saying a word. Two more former Ashcroft Property Group employees have since come forward to investigators.

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Council in Uproar as Copper Crisis Threatens Tramway's Future

Margaret Alcott By Margaret Alcott · 19 February 2026

An extraordinary session of the City Council heard testimony on Wednesday that the Veridan Corridor Tramway Expansion faces a copper cost overrun approaching 430 million florins at current prices — and could exceed half a billion if the Kaelmar Strait crisis deepens. Chief Engineer Yara Okonkwo presented three scenarios, none of them painless. After five hours of debate, council voted to establish a bipartisan Copper Review Commission and passed a separate Docklands safety audit.

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Senior Inspector Summons Ashcroft for Formal Interview

Rupert Gaines By Rupert Gaines · 19 February 2026

Senior Inspector Callum Frye has formally requested that Gerald Ashcroft, managing director of Ashcroft Property Group, attend Metropolitan Constabulary headquarters on Thursday for questioning in connection with the Greystone Wharf arson investigation. Separately, insurers Fairweather & Chalk have begun providing their own records to investigators, and the City Council on Wednesday authorised a comprehensive safety audit of all vacant Docklands properties.

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Night Watchman Names Senior Ashcroft Figure in Greystone Fire Testimony

Rupert Gaines By Rupert Gaines · 18 February 2026

The former night watchman at Greystone Wharf has told investigators he was directly instructed by a senior Ashcroft Property Group employee to abandon his nightly patrols weeks before the fire that destroyed the historic Mercer & Holt warehouse. Meanwhile, documents seized from Ashcroft's Harker Street offices have revealed significant irregularities in the firm's insurance dealings, sources say.

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Metropolitan Constabulary Searches Ashcroft Property Group Offices

Rupert Gaines By Rupert Gaines · 17 February 2026

Officers of the Metropolitan Constabulary executed a search warrant on the Midtown offices of the Ashcroft Property Group on Monday morning, seizing financial records and correspondence as part of the expanding investigation into the deliberate destruction of the Mercer & Holt warehouse at Greystone Wharf.

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Mayor Convenes Emergency Session on Copper Prices and Tramway Budget

Margaret Alcott By Margaret Alcott · 17 February 2026

Mayor Harriet Blackthorne has called an emergency session of the City Council for Wednesday to address the impact of surging copper prices on the Veridan Corridor Tramway Expansion and other municipal infrastructure projects.

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Fire Marshal's Report Points to Deliberate Ignition at Greystone Wharf

Rupert Gaines By Rupert Gaines · 16 February 2026

Fire Marshal Edwin Hale's preliminary investigation into the Greystone Wharf warehouse blaze has identified traces of a petroleum-based accelerant at three separate locations within the structure, strongly suggesting the fire was set deliberately.