Category Archives: North of England

Visits to shopping centres and high streets dip below pre-pandemic levels

Posted on by

South of England experiencing faster recovery than north, Scotland and Northern Ireland

Visits to high streets and shopping centres dipped to below pre-pandemic levels last month, with the north of England – plus Scotland and Northern Ireland – trailing behind the south in terms of the overall recovery from Covid-fuelled gloom.

Footfall decreased by 14% in July compared with 2019, reversing gains made in April, as retailers struggled to entice shoppers amid a heatwave in the third week of the month and surging inflation.

Continue reading...

York and North Yorkshire to get mayor under £540m devolution deal

Posted on by

Elected leader would take office in 2024 alongside return of powers from Westminster as part of levelling-up agenda

York and North Yorkshire are to elect a mayor and receive £540m of government investment over 30 years in a landmark devolution deal to be signed on Monday.

The agreement will create a new combined authority across the region led by a directly elected mayor, who will have the power to spend the money on local priorities such as transport, education and housing.

Continue reading...

Global heating hits home up north as it sizzles along with UK south

Posted on by

Analysis: As heat records break across Britain, the north of England and Scotland are reassessing the effects of the climate crisis

Newspaper readers in the UK’s northern half were used to scowling at the front pages every time they declared a sizzling summer. “It may well be sizzling in the south but it’s chucking it down in Hull/freezing in Wrexham/blowing a hoolie in Aberdeen” they grumbled, as they put on another cardigan or rescued the washing from a downpour.

Not this time. With a few exceptions (it’s still coat weather for those living in Shetland) much of the UK really has been outrageously hot this week. Whether it is asphalt melting, schools shutting or allotments withering, all but the most hardcore of climate crisis deniers now accept people are experiencing the effects of global heating in their own communities.

Continue reading...

North of England rail services to receive £11.5bn investment

Posted on by

From 2025, commuters can expect two extra trains every hour between Manchester and York and journey times up to 40% shorter

Train services in the north of England are to be given triple the intended investment after the government announced the first part of its £96bn integrated rail plan.

The multibillion pound plan – announced last November – pledged to deliver faster train journeys more quickly than the original plans for the HS2 eastern leg and Northern Powerhouse Rail.

Continue reading...

North-east England overtakes London as UK’s child poverty hotspot

Posted on by

Almost two-fifths of children in north-east live in poverty after a decade of decline as campaigners warn of worse to come

The north-east of England has the highest rate of child poverty of anywhere in the UK, for the first time overtaking London as the nation’s hotspot for hardship and deprivation, new analysis shows.

Although the latest UK-wide figures show child poverty rates overall fell slightly in the first year of the pandemic due to the temporary £20 weekly uplift to universal credit, detailed breakdown shows child poverty continued to rise in areas like Sunderland, Newcastle and Middlesbrough.

Continue reading...

‘Serious failings’ left children exposed to abuse in Oldham, finds damning review

Posted on by

Report singles out failings by police and council and suggests senior officials may have misled MPs

Vulnerable children were left exposed to sexual exploitation in Oldham because of “serious failings” by the police and council, a damning independent review has found.

The report found there were multiple missed opportunities to prevent abuse stretching back to 2005, including offences committed by a council welfare officer who was later convicted of 30 rapes.

Continue reading...

Calling a man ‘bald’ is sexual harassment, employment tribunal rules

Posted on by

Tony Finn, who worked at West Yorkshire manufacturing firm for 24 years, is in line for compensation

Calling a man “bald” is sexual harassment, an employment tribunal has ruled.

Hair loss is much more prevalent among men than women so using it to describe someone is a form of discrimination, a judge has concluded. Commenting on a man’s baldness in the workplace is equivalent to remarking on the size of a woman’s breasts, the finding suggests.

Continue reading...

Imran Ahmad Khan completes MP resignation process with full April pay

Posted on by

Wakefield MP found guilty of sexual assault on 11 April says delay caused by Easter and HR issues

Imran Ahmad Khan has said he has now resigned as Wakefield’s MP and will no longer be a parliamentarian from this Saturday, two and a half weeks after being found guilty of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy.

Ahmad Khan told the Guardian he had submitted his resignation on Monday and that it was effective from 30 April. That means he will be paid his salary in full for April.

Continue reading...

UK temperatures to plummet to as low as minus 6C over weekend

Posted on by

Gardeners warned of frost damage to blooms on Saturday night ahead of a week of unsettled weather

The UK is braced for more wintry weather across the weekend with frost creeping in overnight and temperatures set to plummet as low as minus 6C in some areas.

Forecasters said the “peaks and troughs” of spring will hit most of the country over the next week, with sunny spells and windy intervals expected in most regions.

Continue reading...

Revealed: money for educating excluded children funded Bolton bar owner’s social life

Posted on by

Call for ‘seismic change’ in social care system after Robert McGuinness’s use of funds

The owner of a children’s home in Bolton shut down for “serious and widespread failures” spent thousands intended for educating marginalised children on drinking, foreign trips and his pub business, the Guardian can reveal.

Between 2015 and 2021, £1.5m was paid by two local authorities to a “community interest company” (CIC) run by Robert McGuinness, the main director of the children’s home. The CIC was set up to provide vocational training to children from years 9 to 11 (ages 14-16) excluded from mainstream schools.

Continue reading...

Storm Eunice: London added to red weather warning amid ‘danger to life’

Posted on by

Major bridges closing and millions told to batten down and not go outside as authorities warn of ‘significant disruption’

The east of England including London has been added to the red weather warning for wind issued by the Met Office because of Storm Eunice, which has prompted rare danger-to-life warnings, with millions of people told to stay indoors at home to avoid 90mph winds.

The rare highest alert – meaning a major impact is very likely – was widened just before 4am, to run from 10am until 3pm on Friday, due to fears of the storm “causing significant disruption and dangerous conditions due to extremely strong winds”, the Met Office said.

Continue reading...

‘People want answers’: Boris Johnson’s apology lands flat with Bolton’s swing voters

Posted on by

Questions of fairness and trust linger for constituents in Tonge Fold, in the most marginal of Tory-won red wall seats

When Boris Johnson addressed MPs an hour after the release of Sue Gray’s redacted report, he will have hoped his apology would travel far beyond the Commons chamber and reached places like Tonge Fold, on the outskirts of Bolton.

But the immediate reaction suggests the prime minister might be in trouble. “It’s just extremely disappointing and very frustrating. There’s no other words for it,” said Adele Warren, a Conservative councillor, after watching Johnson’s Commons statement with some of her party colleagues.

Continue reading...

HS2 protesters plan ‘nationwide day of action’ over rail expansion

Posted on by

Activists say bill being presented to parliament sanctions irreversible destruction of environment

A nationwide day of action against HS2 – involving banner drops, solidarity protests and a Twitter storm – is planned for Monday as the bill to expand the line beyond Crewe is presented to parliament.

Environmental activists say the bill will “sanction immense and irreversible destruction to the environment” and want to raise awareness of HS2’s “continuing ecocide, corruption and financial mis-management”.

Continue reading...

Northern leaders to put culture at centre of region’s post-pandemic recovery

Posted on by

Report making case for culture as catalyst for levelling up wins cross-party backing

Think of “the north” and images that come to mind include Antony Gormley’s Angel of the North, the sculpture of Henry Moore and Manchester’s music scene.

But now a rare show of cross-party unity has called for all of the cultural icons of northern England to be a catalyst to rebuild the region and rebalance it with the rest of the UK.

Continue reading...

The Doctor Who treasure trove in a Northumberland village cellar

Posted on by

Neil Cole’s Museum of Classic Sci-Fi, hosted in cellar of his Allendale townhouse, holds costumes and props from numerous TV classics

At first glance the Northumberland village of Allendale, with its pub and post office and random parking, is like hundreds of sleepy, charming villages across the UK. It’s the Dalek that suggests something out of the ordinary.

Behind the Dalek is a four-storey Georgian townhouse. In the cellar of the house is a remarkable and unlikely collection of more than 200 costumes, props and artwork telling classic sci-fi stories of Doctor Who, Blake’s 7, Star Trek, Flash Gordon, Marvel and many more.

Continue reading...

Novavax expected to be approved as fourth Covid vaccine in UK

Posted on by

Trials show the protein-based jab causes fewer side-effects – and hundreds of British jobs depend on it

Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Moderna. Britons have become so accustomed to the three Covid vaccines available in the UK that most have forgotten about another jab, Novavax – even though the government has ordered 60m doses and hundreds of British jobs depend on it.

Late last month the US company, with a factory on Teesside primed to manufacture doses, submitted final data to UK regulators and a positive decision is anticipated within days or weeks. It will bring to an end what feels like a long wait compared with the speedy development and approval of the other jabs, including for those who took part in trials.

Continue reading...

Yorkshire police poster warns against trick or treating this Halloween

Posted on by

Force says it is discouraging the activity this year along with organised events because of Covid

A police force in the north of England is trying to discourage children from trick or treating this Halloween because of Covid-19.

South Yorkshire police (SYP) have produced a poster residents can print out and put in their windows saying “No trick or treaters”, with a picture of a silhouetted pumpkin crossed out like a no-entry sign.

Continue reading...

English cities to receive transport boost of almost £7bn in budget

Posted on by

Funding will be used to help ‘level up’ regions including Greater Manchester and West Midlands

Almost £7bn will be allocated in next week’s budget to “level up” urban transport in cities around England, the government has said.

City regions will receive a total of about £5.7bn in sustainable transport cash, while another £1.2bn will go towards improving bus services.

Continue reading...

Unholy row erupts over Larry Landtrain taking visitors on Lindisfarne

Posted on by

Council scraps four-week trial of alternative to existing shuttlebus after swift and fierce opposition

For centuries, pilgrims have walked in the footsteps of monks who once inhabited Lindisfarne, connected by a tidal causeway to the ancient kingdom of Northumbria.

They have marvelled at the birthplace of the Lindisfarne gospels, one of the most celebrated illuminated manuscripts in the world, admired the castle that towers over crashing waves and the ruins of the ancient priory, and watched thousands of grey seals basking on the sand banks.

Continue reading...

Getting on the right track with HS2 benefits | Letters

Posted on by

Jim Steer responds to an article by Simon Jenkins that said the high-speed rail link was of little use to the north, and Mark Sullivan hopes the West Midlands gets the transport hub it rejected a decade ago

Simon Jenkins’ latest piece on HS2 (Depleted and unwanted, HS2 hurtles on as Johnson’s £100bn vanity project, 30 July) repeatedly mischaracterises both the case for, and the benefits of, a rail project that will transform connectivity in the UK.

He talks as if services will only go from London to Birmingham, stating confidently that “Britain’s new high-speed railway will not – repeat: not – get to the north of England”. But this is simply untrue. Construction work on the Birmingham-Crewe section is now under way, and detailed planning and consultation prior to a parliamentary bill submission is under way for Crewe-Manchester. HS2 services will reach Edinburgh, Newcastle, Liverpool, Leeds and more than a dozen other cities across the country.

Continue reading...