9am Briefing: Man trapped in car after embankment plunge

A MAN was trapped in his car after it fell around ten feet down an embankment in Bathgate.

The car crashed at around 6.30am yesterday on Starlaw Road in the town. One man was injured and was taken to hospital by ambulance.

A spokeswoman for Lothian and Borders Fire and Rescue Service said: "We were called to a road traffic crash at Starlaw Road in Bathgate.

"A car left the road. There was one person trapped and he was attended to by two ambulance personnel. The car fell about 10ft down an embankment and was lying on its side. There was one male casualty."

A Scottish Ambulance Service spokesman said: "We received a call about 6.41am from the fire brigade. One person was injured and was taken to St John's Hospital in Livingston."

• ROYAL Bank of Scotland chairman Sir Philip Hampton has admitted "several enormous mistakes" were made in the run-up to the banking crisis.

According to WikiLeaks, he told US politicians that RBS directors had failed in their "fiduciary responsibilities" and had not carried out proper due diligence before the ill-fated purchase of Dutch bank ABN Amro.

He is said to have made the remarks in September last year at a meeting, nine months after his appointment.

Meanwhile, Labour's former City minister Lord Myners who was instrumental in securing Lloyds' takeover of HBOS has called for the big banks to be broken up.

He said: "The future lies in less monolithic institutions.

"The banking commission must give proper consideration to splitting one or both of Lloyds Banking Group and the RBS."

• EDINBURGH and Glasgow will get 375 plug-in charging points for electric cars as part of a "green revolution", UK Transport Secretary Philip Hammond was due to announce today.

Scotland is one of five areas which has won cash for the project.

Motorists will also be able to get government grants of up to 5000 to buy the first of a new generation of electrical vehicles.

The first three named electric eligible for the 25 per cent grants are the Mitsubishi iMiEV, the Mercedes-Benz smart fortwo ED and the Peugeot iON. Six other cars will also qualify as they become part of the scheme over the next few months.