PLAN REFUSED .sx Club may appeal over big new sports complex .sx ROLAND WATSON .sx COVENTRY and North Warwickshire sports club may appeal against the decision to refuse it planning permission for massive development in the green belt .sx The top city club wanted to build a major sporting complex on farmland near Stoneleigh .sx It wants to leave its Binley Road HQ , where sport has been played for 80 years , because upkeep costs are outstripping income .sx The aim of the move would be to increase membership , improve facilities and strengthen finances .sx But councillors in Warwick have dashed the club's hopes .sx They unanimously threw out the scheme saying it was far too large for the proposed site .sx The huge complex would have covered 42 acres of land at New Era Farm , Kings Hill Lane , Stoneleigh .sx The plans showed eight squash courts , snooker tables , bars and restaurants and changing rooms .sx The outside facilities would have included two rugby pitches , two hockey pitches , two cricket squares , 14 tennis courts and parking space for 317 cars and seven coaches .sx But they were too large for Warwick District Council to agree to .sx But club officials have expressed disappointment at the dismissal .sx Chairman David Blundell said he was amazed at the council's decision .sx He said :sx " It's disappointing .sx Some of the comments on why the application has been turned down are laughable .sx " .sx And he added :sx " It amazes me that people could object to such a worthwhile scheme .sx I don't think people have fully investigated the application .sx " .sx Mr Blundell said :sx " It's certainly not the end of the matter .sx " We have the option to appeal and we will have to consider our position carefully .sx " .sx Inspectors go private .sx Schools given cash to buy in new teams .sx JULIE CHAMBERLAIN .sx STATE SCHOOLS are to be given pounds75 million a year from local education authority budgets to 'buy in' teams of inspectors .sx They will be eligible for cash grants of up to pounds2,500 under the Citizen's Charter , education secretary Kenneth Clarke announced .sx The radical shake-up will allow private firms to compete for work to check school standards .sx Inspection teams must include non-educationalists - most local authority and HMI inspectors are former teachers .sx Independent schools will be expected to pay for their own inspection .sx Incredible The announcement was greeted with scepticism by teachers' union leaders in Coventry and Warwickshire .sx Charles Holbrook , spokesman for Warwickshire National Union of Teachers , said he found the suggestion that anyone could inspect schools incredible and predicted the move would not inspire confidence among parents .sx The inspectors will produce jargon-free reports for all parents every three or four years , and they will also be sent league tables of the performance of all schools in their area , which will be published in local newspapers .sx They will include state , private and grant-maintained schools and City Technology Colleges .sx Resources Mr Holbrook said :sx " I find it quite extraordinary and I think teachers will be completely dismayed by the suggestion .sx " .sx Cllr Bob Holland , vice-chairman of Coventry's education committee , said :sx " What parents would like , on the whole , is better resources in their schools and local authorities left to continue to help teachers to adapt to the national curriculum and to continue to raise standards .sx " .sx Alan Oglesby , president of the Coventry branch of the Assistant Masters and Mistresses Association , described the idea of inspectorates where there would be no members of the teaching profession as " absolutely ridiculous .sx " .sx Secret chemical weapons found .sx BAGHDAD - United Nations inspectors have discovered about 46,000 pieces of chemical munitions in Iraq , - about four times the 11,000 to 12,000 that Baghdad originally declared .sx Rolf Ekeus , head of a UN special arms commission , said the weapons included bombs , rockets , grenades , artillery shells and missile warheads .sx Iraq also had some 3,000 tonnes of 'precursors' - chemicals used to manufacture chemical weapons - although it had declared only about 650 tonnes .sx Ekeus and Hans Blix , the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency ( IAEA ) , held a news conference after briefing Security Council members privately on progress made in identifying and scrapping Iraq's weapons of mass destruction .sx UN inspectors last month paid an exploratory visit to a sprawling site near Samarra , north-west of Baghdad , where Iraqi chemical weapons are stored , often under hazardous conditions .sx Ekeus said about 70 inspectors would be sent back in mid-August and would spend about six weeks combing the area .sx Nerve gas .sx He said a large number of the chemical weapons were filled with comparatively harmless tear gas - but in such a way as to make them usable for military rather than crowd-control purposes .sx A number of missile warheads were filled with sarin , a nerve gas .sx The first UN mission searching for biological weapons is due to enter Iraq later this week .sx Iraq has said it had no biological weapons programme but Ekeus said :sx " We will now investigate if that statement is true .sx " .sx square The Prime Minister is expected to reply strongly today to Labour claims of a deepening scandal over alleged breaches of the arms embargo on Iraq .sx Allan Rogers , Labour's defence procurement spokesman , claimed in a letter to Mr Major that Parliament had been misled about the alleged export of arms and military material to Iraq .sx FINANCIAL CRISIS .sx Police may be called in to college probe .sx ROLAND WATSON .sx POLICE could be called in to help unravel the financial scandal at Coventry Technical College , Labour councillors have been told .sx City council leader Jim Cunningham has written to all members of the Labour group on the city council warning them of the possibility .sx Cllr Cunningham's letter also reveals that external auditors have been called in .sx It says a number of college officials will not be allowed to leave until investigations into the college's finances have finished .sx It also raises the possibility that the council may be poll tax capped as a result of the massive deficit .sx Four top officers have resigned from the tech , which took control of its finances a year ago , since its pounds3 .sx 2 million deficit became apparent in April .sx Earlier this month , the Evening Telegraph revealed a confidential council report which highlighted high-spending on hospitality , including alcohol and trips abroad .sx Cllr Cunningham , a governor at the tech , said in the letter that regular meetings were being held to see that " matters were proceeding properly .sx " .sx It says that apart from the four officers who have already quit " several other persons have been identified and investigations are still on-going and those people will not be allowed severance terms before investigations are complete .sx " .sx It says the review has already identified information to justify calling in external auditors .sx It adds that his information " may result in action against named individuals and may also result in the involvement of the police .sx " .sx Freed !sx John McCarthy released after 1,943 days in Beirut hell .sx FINLAY MARSHALL .sx BRITISH hostage John McCarthy felt the sun on his face for the first time in more than five years today .sx Islamic Jihad in Beirut released him from the nightmare that had kept him in chains and blindfolds for nearly 2,000 days and nights .sx At noon , British ambassador Andrew Green was summoned to the Syrian embassy to take delivery of the 34-year-old hostage .sx First reports said he looked thin and strained , with a heavy growth of beard .sx Whitehall sources said no statement would be issued by the Foreign Office until Mr McCarthy was in British hands .sx But church bells rang out in London within moments of news .sx In St Bride's , the journalists' church in Fleet Street , there were tears of joy .sx Isabel Souder , the wife of one of the chaplains at the church , wept as she placed a fresh arrangement of pink and white summer flowers next to McCarthy's picture .sx " It's just great , I'm so happy .sx " .sx His girlfriend Jill Morrell , who for four years didn't know whether he was alive or dead , said :sx " I think I screamed .sx .. just a little bit .sx " It's a mixture of emotions , I just feel ecstatic and it's difficult to take in or think about the implication of it all .sx " There is no time , there's so many emotions coming out all at once .sx " We are still waiting to see what he looks like , how he is , what his mental health is .sx " We know nothing about him .sx Still .sx ..what we know he has just been set free .sx sic !sx " .sx The news was sent around the world after Islamic Jihad group issued a statement with a black-and-white photograph to an international news agency .sx BBC reporter Michael MacMillan in Damascus said in a mid-morning newscast :sx " All that we know is that John McCarthy was released within the past 15 minutes .sx " The handover took place in west Beirut - McCarthy was freed into the hands of UN envoy Giandomenico Picco .sx .sx McCarthy is expected to be flown directly to RAF Lyneham in Wiltshire .sx A specialist aero-medical team may fly out to Damascus to accompany him home aboard an RAF aircraft .sx Light of Freedom ends five years of terror .sx Hostage John McCarthy emerges from the horror of blindfolds and chains in the dank basements of Beirut .sx BEIRUT - Hostage John McCarthy's release marks the end of five years of terror , chains and blindfolds in the basements of Beirut .sx Since his kidnap in 1986 , the TV reporter has spent most of his life blindfolded and chained .sx He has had no contact with the outside world and would not have even known he was being released until minutes before he was handed over by his captors .sx But hostages who met John while he was held prisoner say he coped with the experience well .sx Cellmate Brian Keenan , released in August last year , paid the finest tribute to John .sx He said :sx " As a man , I have watched him grow and deepen .sx " How can I forget him , his humour , his abundant love of life , which at so many times seemed to diminish to almost extinction those grinding moments of hopelessness ?sx " .sx McCarthy , at 34 the youngest of the Beirut hostages , had spent only five weeks in Lebanon before his disappearance .sx Standing in for the bureau chief of Worldwide Television News was his first foreign assignment .sx Security When American F1-11s bombed Libya from bases in Britain , he was ordered home for his safety .sx It was typical that he should have insisted on a warm farewell to Lebanese friends , his drivers and staff at the Commodore Hotel , but in doing so he broke one of the foremost security rules .sx His two-car convoy had been travelling only minutes on the way to the airport when his car was intercepted .sx Someone who had witnessed McCarthy's preparations to leave had tipped off the kidnappers .sx Girlfriend Jill Morrell had taken the day off from her job at WTN offices in London and was planning to meet him at Heathrow Airport .sx Her life since then has been dominated by the campaign for McCarthy's release .sx The couple had been going out three years and were hoping to buy a flat together .sx Miss Morrell took her campaign to Damascus to urge the Syrians to use their influence in Lebanon ; to Tunis to talk to Yasser Arafat , the Palestinian leader ; to Paris to meet freed French hostages ; and to Strasbourg to meet members of the European Parliament .sx Her unstinting efforts kept McCarthy in the public eye , though it was to be more than four years before the first news that he was alive and well .sx That came from American Frank Reed , whose release in May 1990 revealed the awful existence of the British hostages in tiny , mosquito-infested cells , never allowed to see daylight and unchained for only about an hour a day for exercise .sx Reed , McCarthy and Keenan developed a remarkable bond during their months together .sx They kept each other's spirits up and their humour intact .sx They played poker and dominoes for up to 17 hours and read voraciously whatever the guards brought them , from pulp novels to the K to Z sections of an American encyclopaedia .sx For a few months in 1988 , they had a radio and followed the news on the BBC World Service - the speculation of possible hostage releases and the dashed hopes .sx One day , the radio was taken from them without explanation and their last link with the outside world was severed .sx