Sub-standard farm site plans ‘more Blackpool than Eiffel Tower’
An entrepreneur’s plan for a farm site has been rejected by councillors, one of whom claimed the standard of proposed work had gone from “an Eiffel Tower to a Blackpool Tower”. Ribble Valley councillors feared the plan for Higher College Farm on Lower Road, Longridge, in Lancashire, looked too “industrial” for a rural setting and, […]
Cornwall farmers use alternative to wrapping hay bales in plastic
A group of farmers is wrapping up hay bales with an old-fashioned twine to test it as an alternative to plastic string and plastic netting. The twine, made from the sisal plant, was commonly used by farmers until it was replaced by plastic alternatives in the 1970s. Stuart Oates, from Rosuick Organic Farm in Cornwall, […]
Wiltshire Police hit 999 target for the first time
Listen to new call operator, Shannon Hibbert, on BBC Sounds Wiltshire Police has hit the national target for 999 answer rates for the first time. Each month the force takes an average of 8,000 emergency calls. In November, it answered more than 90% of them in under 10 seconds, which is the national target. This […]
Ghana’s illegal gold mining industry causes environmental destruction
Reuters Water from a polluted river in Ghana was so thick and discoloured that an artist was able to use it as paint to depict the environmental devastation caused by the illegal gold mining that has spread like wildfire in the resource-rich West African state. Mercury is increasingly being used to extract gold by miners […]
The changing face of working men’s clubs
BBC Bar worker Anni Cawley, 20, says young people are missing out on a “great craic” Three quarters of working men’s clubs have closed over the past 50 years, according to their national association. Now, one of the oldest in the country has dropped “working men” from its name in an attempt to reinvent itself […]
New Leighton Hospital to be UK’s most digitally advanced, bosses say
Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Trust Original plans to redevelop Leighton Hospital in Crewe were unveiled almost four years ago Plans are set to be unveiled for a new hospital that bosses say will be the most digitally advanced in the UK. The new Leighton Hospital in Crewe will be the size of about 15 football […]
Norwich car crash couple make ‘healing’ return to Iceland
Zak Nelson Elliot Griffiths and Zak Nelson enjoyed Iceland as tourists second time round A couple who got engaged in intensive care after surviving a head-on crash while on holiday in Iceland said they have “made peace” with the country during a return trip. Zak Nelson and Elliot Griffiths, from Norwich, had been in Iceland […]
Scrapping tax relief could ‘break-up’ Welsh family farms
Any decisions to scrap inheritance tax relief for farmers could lead to the “break-up” of Welsh family farms, a union has warned. The BBC has learned that the UK government is planning to increase the amount of money it raises through the tax at its Budget later this month. Land used for farming is currently […]
Civil servants must work differently, says new boss Chris Wormald
Alamy Civil servants have been told they will have to “do things differently” by their new boss, the cabinet secretary, on his first day in the job. Sir Chris Wormald has promised a “rewiring of the way the government works”, in a message to half a million civil servants. Sir Chris, who previously ran the […]
How will weight-loss drugs change our relationship with food?
BBC We are now in the era of weight-loss drugs. Decisions on how these drugs will be used look likely to shape our future health and even what our society might look like. And, as researchers are finding, they are already toppling the belief that obesity is simply a moral failing of the weak-willed. Weight-loss […]