Bus service has been extended to the Cedar Hill, Warwick area on a trial basis, Transport Minister Dr. Ewart Brown announced yesterday.

“Currently the bus service along Cedar Hill finishes at 6.30 p.m., but as of Thursday, December 5, we will be providing full bus service along the Cedar Hill route until 11.30 p.m.,” Dr. Brown said.

The decision to add the service was made in consultation with area residents and after much discussion with the Public Transport Board management, bus drivers and union reps, the Minister added.

“I must point out, however, that this initiative will be in an experimental basis until January 31, 2003. And success of this experimental service is very contingent on the clear flow of traffic along Cedar Hill between the hours of 6.30 p.m. (and) 11.30 p.m.”

Dr. Brown urged area residents to be mindful of their parking to avoid interrupting the service, adding: “Cars, if they have to, should park on one side of the road to facilitate the passage of buses.”

Permanent Health Secretary Dr. Derrick Binns said yesterday there was no indication Health Minister Nelson Bascome would block a new formula put forward by doctors and health insurers to end their billing row.

The two sides have agreed on a new fee schedule which could end the long row which has seen some patients being billed directly for operations. Dr. Binns said Mr. Bascome will be back on the Island on Thursday and an announcement would follow.

He said: “Certainly it's welcome news that the two parties are coming together.”

He said under new legislation currently going through the Senate Mr. Bascome would be entitled to set the fees himself. Dr. Binns said: “He has to decide whether to pursue it under the new legislation or the old legislation. I don't think it makes a major difference.”

A Pembroke man was dealt a double blow of bad luck on Monday. Within an hour of reporting one housebreaking, his apartment was broken into again.

According to Police, the complainant reported that while he was off the Island from November 27 to December 2, someone broke into his Langton Lane home and stole sodas, wine and Black Rum.

And, Police said, an hour after the man reported the incident to them, he called again to say that his television had been removed after he left his home for a short time.

A thief with a taste for expensive taste for wine stole around $15,000 worth of wine from a Hamilton parish sometime on Monday night.

The male complainant told Police a thief gained entry via the basement of the North Shore Road residence between 8.15 a.m. and 7.00 p.m. and made away with ten cases of Rothshild red and rose wine. Inquiries into this incident are underway.

And a thief broke into a garage and stole several items from a car in the process of being repaired at the weekend.

The complainant told Police that when he arrived at Crockwell's Garage in Warwick just after 12.20 p.m. on Sunday, he discovered the tires, rims, nuts and bolts of a car being worked on, had been stolen.