Delegates from more than 50 British and Irish councils are meeting together on Friday in Dublin for an anti-nuclear power conference.

The ninth annual UK and Irish Local Authorities Conference on Nuclear Hazards will be jointly hosted by Dublin City Council and South Dublin CC.

The conference has been organised by the Nuclear Free Local Authorities group, and key themes will include the resurgence of the nuclear lobby in Europe, plans for new power stations, and tackling climate change.

‘Critical' time to end poverty Secretary for children, schools and families, Ed Balls, will deliver a speech at a Campaign to End Child Poverty event next week.

A spokesman for the campaign described the next 16 months as ‘critical', if the Government was to halve child poverty by 2010 and eradicate it by 2020.

40% of UK fear ‘lonely old age' Ageing Britons fear moving into care homes, and believe they are not treated with respect.

An opinion poll revealed 40% of Britons feared being lonely in their old age, and two-thirds of the population were ‘frightened' of moving into a care home.

Dame Denise Platt, chair of CSCI said: ‘Local councils should be doing more to encourage a broad range of services, so people who need care can have genuine choice.'