Health bosses are being exceptionally mean to community nurses working on New Year's Eve.

The six nurses will miss their

millennium bonus by a matter of minutes because their shift ends at 11pm.

As the Argus revealed on Saturday, South Downs Health NHS Trust will pay the full bonus to the next shift coming on at 11pm.

But it won't pay this unhappy half dozen, who will still miss nearly all the millennium fun even if they manage to make it home by

midnight.

We're only talking about a total of £750 here for six devoted nurses working unsocial hours on what most people hope will be a night to remember.

This penny-pinching attitude by the trust has angered the nurses and done a great deal of harm to public relations.

It's as if the spirit of Scrooge is lingering past Christmas until the end of the year.

The nurses are working until late on New Year's Eve. Come on South Downs Health.

Agree to pay them the bonus now.

Cruel nature

A paper boy of 13 who stole a Poppy Appeal collection tin must rank as the meanest thief of the year.

He took it from the lounge of sheltered housing for old people at The Brow, Burgess Hill.

It's all very well for his solicitor to say he didn't appreciate the

significance of the crime.

But the boy, who admitted 85 other offences, is obviously a serial thief who must have known the cruel nature of what he was doing.

Degree of success

John Thynne from Southwick has the world's biggest collection of thermometers in his garage at Manor Hall Road.

It may yet end up in the

Guinness Book of Records and the devotion he shows to his hobby is anything but mercurial.

John knows you can't suddenly get a thermometer collection like his. You have to build it up by degrees.

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