15/03/2017 Look East (West)


15/03/2017

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In Look East tonight, over budget and now out of pocket.

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How Corby Cube left the council facing multi-million pound losses.

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And experts suggest radical solutions to the mental health

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And a cloudier forecast expected for tomorrow.

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A ?13 million overspend is bring written off

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by Corby Borough Council, who today admitted that they will not

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Building the Corby Cube cost the tax payer ?48 million pounds in total

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But opposition councillors say the council

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"lost control of the project". Stuart Ratcliffe reports.

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The Cube is now as much a Corby icon as The Steel Man,

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After years of wrangling, the council has now decided

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it has no chance of clawing back the ?13 million overspend.

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The Labour administration managed the Cube project appallingly.

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The Cube board was led entirely by them.

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They lost control of the project and allowed costs to spiral.

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We will now not recover those overspend costs,

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which is an enormous loss to the taxpayers of Corby

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Nearly seven years after the Cube opened, parts of this building have

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The top floor was originally supposed to be a restaurant.

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Then, plans were revealed for it to be turned into

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offices, but no-one has moved in yet.

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Corby Borough Council did not want to speak to the media today.

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In a previous statement, they have said they believe

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there were failings with a number of parties connected

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But they have been advised that there is is insufficient

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evidence to show that the conduct of those parties was the sole

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Not surprisingly, news of the multi-million pound write-off

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They could have spent the money on more housing and helping

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They do not need a big shiny building like that, do they?

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I think there should be a full-scale enquiry into this, as to why.

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They just seem to use people's money in any way they want.

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In 2015, the council admitted miistakes,

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but said that lessons had been learned.

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They had this to say about large-scale building programmes.

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There are not too many major construction projects which come

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in on time and on budget all the time.

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But it is unfortunaste when it does happen.

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And there are plenty of examples to back up that claim.

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The Cambridgeshire guided bus was meant to cost ?116 million,

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and was over ?60 million over budget.

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The Luton-Dunstable guided bus was again late and over

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And Delapre Abbey in Northampton, orginally budgeted for ?6.3 million.

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Now, almost ?1.5 million extra has had to be found.

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And, finally, a solar farm near Peterborough.

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Over ?2 million was spent on preliminary work, but then,

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Back in Corby, most agree that the Cube is the centrepiece

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of the town's regeneration, but it raises the question of whether

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a small council, like Corby, could or should, undertake

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So, why do councils overspend like this?

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I asked an expert in local government, from the London School

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of Economics, Professor Tony Travers.

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Well, of course, big projects do not come around very often,

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so whereas councils will be relaying roads or

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putting up streetlights or mending schools, in some cases,

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quite regularly, they will not be doing that with major theatres

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and equivalent big projects very often and there is just always

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the risk that the skills they need to do that are less present

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Is it also that council offices, or councillors, are also

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not fully qualified to deal with the financial arrangements

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necessary for these large-scale projects?

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I think, in fairness to councils, they often get it right.

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But sometimes they get it wrong. We have seen examples of tramways

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that run over budget or big libraries and so on.

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But central government also gets them wrong at scale, as well,

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So, there is a wider public sector problem here,

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but occasionally, councils do get it wrong and not only

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Is there enough good-quality advice available to councils

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when they have taken on this kind of thing?

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The question of advice is a crucial one, because obviously councils do

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seek advice from various companies who are used to big construction

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The problem may be, of course, that all of the advisory industry,

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at some level, has a vested interest in big projects going ahead.

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So, getting really good advice and keeping the project motoring,

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when, in the end, the taxpayer can always step in,

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is more difficult than, say, you or me getting

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some work done on our house, for example.

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Is it sometimes deliberate, in the case of councils,

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setting a low price mark, to get approval from fellow

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councillors councils and to make it more palatable for the public,

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but you know know it is going to be over that and there will not be

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Certainly, in some big national projects,

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national government projects now, the UK Treasury insists

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on calculating a so-called "optimism bias" -

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that there is a risk in coming up with the figures for a project

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that there is an under-statement of cost.

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The public sector is trying to do something about that now,

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to make sure they do not run over budget.

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So, yes, there is a risk that, in an attempt to get

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a particular project started, that councils may understate

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Should local authorities with a lower council tax take

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lower their expectations and not take on these big projects?

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The difficulty is that councils, who have the

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for ensuring it is attractive to look at, has good facilities and has

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things that makes people want to go there, to invest in business and to

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live there, do have to undertake these projects from time to time.

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We would not have town centres, if this had not

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The difficulty is that they are infrequent,

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these big projects, and, therefore, often, the expertise is lacking,

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not only in the council, but even sometimes in some

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of the big companies that advise councils,

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because this particular project, in the one place, may be

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Northampton Town Football Club says a "big step" has been taken

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towards resuming work on the club's East Stand.

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The stand was to be redeveloped, using a multi-million pound loan

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from Northampton Borough Council, but little work was done

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and the project is being investigated by

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Tonight, the club said a legal deal has been reached over a parcel

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of land at Sixfields, between the company

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that owns it, which went into liquidation in 2015,

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and administrators and those owed money by this company.

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A human rights committee heard evidence today on how best

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to manage mental health problems within our prisons.

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Last year, a record number of people killed themselves

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in jails across England and Wales and Woodhill Prison

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in Milton Keynes had the highest suicide rate of them all,

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Diagnosed with schizophrenia and dead before the age of 30.

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Kevin Scarlett was on remand when he took

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his own life at Woodhill Prison - a victim of the services inability

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The jail was criticised for failing to assess him properly.

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was, at the time, echoed by his family.

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Nobody actually believes that he wanted to kill himself.

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The prison guards should have found him,

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should have treated him medically and, then,

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The Milton Keynes prison has the highest suicide rate

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Today, those statistics were pored over by

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a cross-party committee looking into why prisons are failing

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Anyone with mental health issues is going to become a lot more

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ill by being in prison, because of the nature of prison

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Even those people who enter prison without mental health

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issues, I think you're looking at the large amount of time kept

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You only need to talk to people about how that can

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One solution proposed is to introduce

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more heaslthcare workers into the prison system.

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In a visit to the region earlier, the Justice Secretary announced an

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extra ?100 million to employ more staff. But that does not go far

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enough, according to one of the witnesses today.

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People who have reoffended because of their mental

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health issues may have to be in a more secure environment.

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We might be better dedicating a prison for these individuals

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and have people trained to deal specifically with them,

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rather than have the situation now where they are part

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Campaigners want urgent action, but the government says that solving the

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mental health crisis within the prison service could take many

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years. Passenger numbers at Luton Airport

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grew by 19% last month, compared to the same period last

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year, marking nearly three years Over one million people used

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the airport in February. Plans have now been submitted

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for a new light rail link that will connect the airport terminal

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with the rail station, which the airport predicts

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will increase annual passenger We can catch up with the latest

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weather outlook now, Temperatures hit 18 Celsius in some

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parts of the region today. It will be cooler tomorrow,

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with more cloud. At the moment, we have clear

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sky and it is expected to turn quite misty

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as we go through the night. Some cloud coming through

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from the west later. These are the sort of values

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we can expect overnight. Around 6-7 Celsius, with a light,

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south-westerly wind. Tomorrow, things should get

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off to a bright start, We have got this weather front

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coming in from the north-west and that will turn things cloudier

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as the day progresses. It could also bring

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us some patchy rain. But early brightness

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and sunshine to start with. But more cloud piling

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in from the west and, Temperatures for tomorrow,

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around 10-11 Celsius for most of us and more of a noticeable breeze

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coming from the south-west. The national forecast is coming up,

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but here is the outlook. A cold night, Thursday

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night into Friday. A lot more cloud around

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during the day on Friday. Rain arriving later

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and an unsettled weekend. it stays dry I will be surprised.

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Here is Nick with the national headlines.

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For large parts of Wales and England there was blue sky and warmth.

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Warmest day of the year, a clumsy way of saying the UK had the highest

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temperature of the year so far. There have been big contrasts. Some

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of that misty, murky weather to the south-west is advancing across other

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parts of England and Wales through the night. Ahead of that, where we

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have clear spells, central and eastern England there could be fog

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patches developing, outbreaks of rain

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