Singer songwriter and Rich Girl Gwen Stefani is attending mediation with her former husband Gavin Rossdale in respect of care and contact over the couple’s children.

They previously attended mediation in order to reach a settlement following their divorce and with that particular dispute managed to Wind It Up a couple of years ago, without to much Misery or allegations of U Started It.

They know therefore that The Only Way Out, is not court and that every dispute from the Little Things in a family disagreement to the most important, the children, are best being resolved through mediation.

In this case the disagreement is over the raising and residence of the three sons of the family. Bush (for whom Gavin is lead singer and rhythm guitarist) have recently finished touring, and as with many parents we talk to and work with, when circumstances change they look to try and change the arrangements for care and residence of children.

Gavin would like more time with the children now he has more time to spare, Gwen says she has the more stable home environment and the continuation of the status quo is in the children’s best interest. As a result Gwen says Kingston, Zuma and Apollo should live with her for the majority of the time, Gavin disagrees.

As children grow we often find that parents who had in place arrangements for some years feel the need to change arrangements, if that can be done by agreement without involving third parties that is the ideal scenario. However, many parents feel that the involvement of a mediator from Northwest Mediation helps them reach a greater understanding of their former partner’s position and reach agreement through mediation most of the time.

There is a suggestion that the two have a different approach to how the children are brought up and that can also be tricky, whether it’s a question of attendance at religious faith schools or places of worship or a particular diet Northwest mediation has helped couples find a way which is mutually agreeable and allows the parents to get on with caring for their children, which always remains at the heart of a family’s concerns.

Mediators get called all sorts of names (he good, the bad and the ugly) from talking therapists, to deal makers, to peacekeepers, and now to the long list of titles we can add “wetland restoration brokers”.

The researchers at the FIU School of Environment, Arts and Society who are trying to improve and save the Florida Everglades have said that what is needed is a group of independent mediators to act as wetland restoration brokers.

There is political and environmental pressure as well as economic needs to be waded through by any mediator trying to help solve the disputes by interested parties into the sometimes dangerous (although rapidly depleting – 50% of what it was in 1945) waters of the Everglades. There has been previous action by the US Congress to encourage freshwater flow to the Glades, but the population growth has delayed the expected completion time for the many projects involved by 30 years to approximately 2060.

Luca Marazzi and his team looked at the potential restoration process for the Everglades as well as analyzing work done on the Murray-Darling Basin in Australia to find the best way forward.

In his recent report Marazi said said "Wetland restoration needs to benefit people and nature in a balanced way…To effectively restore wetlands, conflicts between stakeholder interests need to be solved and the Everglades' environmental complexity needs to be managed."

Work needs to be done to see what the conditions were like prior to human impact, projecting the future impact of climate and social changes whilst garnering input from social and environmental research scientists to ensure that a plan is developed that protects the interest of people (including the 33 percent of Florida residents who are supplied with water from the Everglades) and the environment itself, including rare plant and flora species. From the water to the woodlands but staying in Florida, in Monticello at the Jefferson County Summer Camp the failure of the rather disturbingly named “Camp Warrior” to repay parents has led to complaints and ultimately to a referral to mediation.

Summer camp is one of those US rituals which has never caught on over this side of the pond save in the limited daily camps operated by various faith and sports societies (including the very fine Stockport Georgians Cricket Club).

Camp Warrior is accused of taking payments and then when the camp closed without warning, failed to pay back anything to disappointed parents. The Camp said that flooding from Tropical Storm Alberto had prevented them being able to run the summer camp. There was a good deal of healthy skepticism from parents who felt the camp could not have been so badly affected, but worse than that was the failure to repay the fees by the owners, Derek Hart and Costa Vathis.

The Florida Attorney General's Office took up the parents’ cases and is now proceeding to mediation with Jefferson county Summer Camp. The owner’s of the camp have had their assets frozen whilst the case and mediation take place with a trial listed for January next year.

An update finally now on the mediation taken place between Ryanair and their crews. Six of the company’s aircraft destined for transfer in November to have been put back into the Dublin airport fleet.

All the protective notices have been pulled (listing who was up for the sack) so the 300 cabin crew and pilots at risk are no longer facing dismissal.

You may recall that we blogged previously about Kieran Mulvey’s efforts as mediator and Ryanair have specifically cited his work as the reason for the resolution of the dispute.

Eddie Wilson, chief People Office (?!) of Ryanair said “The board of Ryanair today thanked independent mediator, Kieran Mulvey for his contribution in finalising an agreement between Ryanair and just 25% of our Irish pilots. We regret that mediation became necessary after five days of unsuccessful strikes which, despite causing minimal damage to Ryanair’s schedules, did damage our forward fares and yields to/from Ireland because of the perception of possible disruptions.

“The board and management of Ryanair are committed to union recognition, and working constructively with our people and their unions to address their reasonable concerns, as long as this does not alter Ryanair’s low cost model or our ability to offer low fares to our customers.”

Mediation is cheaper, quicker and less stressful than running any case to court, it can help with any dispute whether it's an employment issue or the sale at an under value of a property, a fight with a neighbour, family issues, commercial disputes or inheritance arguments contact Northwest Mediation on 07931318347 or via email at ed.johnson@northwestmediation.co.uk

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