Licensing law proposals also include more rigorous regime on driver background checks
Taxis and minicab drivers in England and Wales could be forced to install CCTV in their vehicles under government proposals to tighten up licensing laws.
Local authorities might also have to conduct enhanced criminal record and background checks on every driver.
Continue reading...Theresa May faced cross-party calls to sack her transport secretary, Chris Grayling, last night, after the calamitous collapse of a no-deal Brexit ferry contract handed to a company with no ships.
Senior Tories said the prime minister had turned “a blind eye” to Grayling’s decision to award the £13.8m contract to Seaborne Freight to run ferries between Ramsgate and Ostend, despite widespread derision and accusations that it had been awarded illegally.
Continue reading...Keith Williams criticises micromanaging by government as one of the failings driving passengers away
Britain’s rail industry will “drive passengers away” if it continues to operate as it does now, according to the man leading the government-commissioned review into the working of the railways.
Keith Williams, the former British Airways chief executive, also suggested that the government had compounded problems by “micromanaging the industry” through ever more specific rail franchises.
Continue reading...Chillingham Barns in Northumberland reaches a low of -11.7C while Braemar in the Scottish Highlands falls to -12.6C
England has seen its coldest night of the winter so far as temperatures tumbled across the UK. A low of -11.7C (10.9F) was recorded at Chillingham Barns in Northumberland in the early hours of Sunday morning, the Met Office said.
In Scotland a low of -12.6C (9.3F) was seen at Braemar in the Highlands, although it was a few degrees off the -15.4C seen there on Thursday. Elsewhere on Sunday morning the coldest spot in Wales was at Swyddffynnon in Dyfed, where -6.5C (20.3F) was seen, while in Northern Ireland the lowest temperature recorded was -2.6C (27.3F) in Katesbridge, Co Down.
Continue reading...Follow live updates on the disruption in the UK after the Met Office issues a warming for continuing snow
Wiltshire Health and Care, a partnership formed by the three NHS foundation trusts that serve Wiltshire to deliver adult community health services, is looking for volunteer 4x4 drivers to help nurses get to work.
We still urgently need 4x4 volunteer drivers in North #Wiltshire to help get nurses to and from work today. If you can help please call Sarah on 07514-323303. Please share. @wiltscouncil @Chippenhamtcl @MTCwilts @malmesburyteam @ChippenhamCEM
Welsh rugby fans trying to get to Paris for the opener of the Six Nations kept themselves entertained at Bristol airport after flights were cancelled.
Some of our amazing passengers choosing a singalong to keep upbeat during the snowy weather ❄️ pic.twitter.com/OoMigFLcJV
Continue reading...Two boats go out looking for Cardiff City footballer after £259,000 raised online
A new search for missing Cardiff striker Emiliano Sala has been launched after more than £250,000 was raised to fund the operation.
An official search and rescue operation for the Piper PA-46 Malibu carrying the Argentinian striker and pilot David Ibbotson was called off on Thursday.
Continue reading...Phased out vehicles often end up back in use in developing countries – a form of dumping with serious environmental consequences
In a sparsely furnished office overlooking dozens of buses at the Zone 21 depot in Guatemala City, Jorge Castro flips through photographs on his mobile phone. He settles on one.
“There’s the bus when I bought it in Maryland,” he says proudly. It is a blue and white bus emblazoned with the words “Ride On”, the name of Montgomery County’s public transit system.
Continue reading...Loss of autonomy is a painful reality of old age – but it’s hard to let go when, like Prince Philip, you are used to being in charge
In the wake of his car crash on Thursday afternoon, in which the Duke of Edinburgh rather miraculously walked away unhurt, there has been much speculation over the man’s great age, and whether, at 97, he is now simply too old to operate so independently. Loss of autonomy becomes inevitable when you reach such a ripe vintage, but it is never easy to hand over – in both a metaphorical and literal sense – the keys you have held for so long in your grip.
My grandfather lived until he was 94. Neither he nor his wife, my grandmother (still alive at 99), looked, or acted, their age. The necessity to give up certain activities only ever came at them rudely, and they could never be told they were too old for anything; they had to learn it for themselves, the hard way.
Continue reading...Police investigating collision in which two women received minor injuries
The Duke of Edinburgh has undergone hospital checks on his doctor’s advice following his car accident in which two women received minor injuries and a baby escaped unhurt.
Buckingham Palace said Prince Philip, 97, went to the local hospital near the Sandringham estate in Norfolk on Friday, but was found to have no injuries of concern.
Continue reading...Road haulage body dismisses trial involving 79 lorry drivers as ‘window dressing’
The Department for Transport is carrying out a live trial of an emergency traffic congestion system to be used in Dover in the event of a no-deal Brexit, with 79 lorry drivers participating.
The trucks started their journey north of the port, at the disused Manston airport near Ramsgate, at 7am on Monday and were due to make their way to Dover.
Continue reading...Each week, it takes Ray Taylor an entire day to claim benefits. He can’t afford the bus – and others in his Cambridgeshire town won’t have the option either when the route is cut in March
Twenty-four miles there and back is one hell of a hike to your local jobcentre. But when Ray Taylor, 56, had his benefits cut for 13 weeks after illness meant he missed an appointment to sign on, he had no option but to get out his walking shoes. He doesn’t have friends with cars to give him a lift, and with no money coming in, he couldn’t pay the £7 bus fare from the small Cambridgeshire town of Ramsey to Huntingdon, where he is registered for benefits. And if he missed signing on again, he would be sanctioned again.
Taylor, a former electrician – he couldn’t afford to update his qualifications after being made redundant and going freelance – is remarkably stoical about what could be a weekly trek. “If you’ve got a 9 o’clock appointment, you have to set off in the early hours to make sure you get there,” he says. There have been “quite a few times” he has set off at two in the morning to avoid penalties for lateness. (“Sanctions” can involve benefits being reduced – or stopped entirely.)
Continue reading...Murder hunt underway after incident on service from Guildford to London Waterloo
A murder inquiry has been opened after a man was stabbed to death on a train in Surrey.
The man, who was believed to be 51, was with his 14-year-old son, and is not thought to have known his attacker, British Transport police said. He suffered multiple stab wounds and died at the scene.
Continue reading...Confusion still hangs over the investigation into airport’s three days of chaos last month
Six days before Christmas, an airport security officer at Gatwick was finishing his shift at about 9pm when he saw something unusual. There were two drones, each in the shape of a cross, flying over the south perimeter road with sharply flashing lights.
The worker reported what he had seen – and chaos ensued. About 1,000 flights affecting 140,000 passengers were cancelled or diverted across three days. Tempers flared, and hearts were broken. Two people were arrested and released without charge. The army was brought in.
Continue reading...London airports purchase equipment in wake of incidents that caused around 1,000 flights to be grounded
The UK’s largest airports are set to spend millions of pounds on anti-drone equipment, the Guardian understands, as they seek to protect themselves from future attacks like that which grounded about 1,000 flights into and out of Gatwick airport during the Christmas period.
The country’s two busiest hubs – London’s Heathrow and Gatwick – have brought in their own military-grade anti-drone apparatus. The owners of both airports invested millions of pounds in the equipment after about 140,000 passengers were affected by the unprecedented disruption to Gatwick.
Continue reading...Some major routes to be 208% over capacity by 2022, shows data compiled by Labour
Overcrowding on trains is at the highest level for years, according to official data compiled by Labour showing some major routes are to be 208% of capacity by 2022.
A study of government figures found the most overcrowded services were on average 187% of capacity in 2017, an increase of 25% since 2011.
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