Four of five charged with murder of Joanne Penney, 40, at block of flats in Talbot Green
Five people have been charged after a 40-year-old woman was shot dead in south Wales last week.
Joanne Penney died at a block of flats in Talbot Green, near Pontyclun, in Rhondda Cynon Taf, on Sunday.
Continue reading...Minicab drivers say Uber’s bid to apply tax to all rides would put many out of business and leave people stranded
Two British taxi companies have launched a crowdfunding drive for the last leg of a lengthy legal battle with Uber that could result in higher cab fares.
Uber will seek, at a supreme court hearing in July, a ruling on contractual models that affect whether VAT applies to private-hire companies outside London, which it has argued would level the playing field across the UK.
Continue reading...Crime scenes set up in Green Park area with 40-year-old man taken into custody, say police
A man has been arrested after a 40-year-old woman who was shot dead in Talbot Green, about 15 miles west of Cardiff.
The woman was found with serious injuries in the Green Park area of the Welsh town just after 6pm on Sunday and could not be saved by emergency services, south Wales police said.
Continue reading...Oakwood Theme Park in Pembrokeshire shut due to rising costs and declining visitor numbers, owner says
The largest theme park in Wales has closed with immediate effect after nearly 40 years, its owner has announced.
Oakwood Theme Park, in Pembrokeshire, west Wales, announced on Tuesday that it will shut.
Continue reading...Parents banned from school sites after leaders spat at and trolled, poll finds
Four in five school leaders in England, Wales and Northern Ireland say they have suffered abuse from pupils’ parents in the past year, according to a poll that found they had been spat at, trolled on social media and even physically attacked.
The problem has become so serious that more than two out of five (42%) of those who took part in the survey said they had been forced to ban parents from the school site in the last year. Nearly a third (32%) have reported parents to the police and almost three-quarters (72%) have issued a warning letter or email.
Continue reading...Warrant will not be required where tracker shows an item is present, as part of raft of measures in crime and policing bill
Police will be able to search properties without a warrant for stolen phones or other electronically geotagged items under the government’s crime and policing bill.
The measure is among dozens in the bill, which will be put before parliament on Tuesday and would mostly apply to England and Wales. It has a particular focus on lower-level offences such as theft and wider antisocial behaviour.
Continue reading...Environment Agency warns of risk of river and surface flooding, as climate crisis brings warmer and wetter winters
Flood warnings are in place across the UK after a weekend of heavy rain and high winds.
As sunshine and scattered showers moved in on Monday, flood warnings were issued across much of Wales, the south and south-west of England and a few in central Scotland.
Continue reading...Public asked to help with investigation after postmortem examination in October failed to find any DNA
He was wearing a wetsuit when police found his body floating in a Welsh reservoir in October. No clothes or belongings were discovered on the shoreline, and no car or bicycle was found nearby, despite it being a seven-mile hike to the nearest bus stop.
A postmortem examination failed to find any DNA or fingerprint matches and two police appeals for information about the man were unsuccessful.
Continue reading...Jess Phillips says ‘Raneem’s law’ scheme will support ‘force-wide cultural change’ as initial phase is rolled out
Domestic abuse specialists embedded in control rooms receiving 999 emergency calls will help “create force-wide cultural change”, said Jess Phillips as the first phase of “Raneem’s law” was rolled out across England.
The new law is named in memory of Raneem Oudeh, who was killed alongside her mother, Khaola Saleem, in Solihull by Oudeh’s ex-husband, whom she had reported to the police at least seven times, as well as making four 999 calls on the night she was murdered.
Continue reading...Proposals designed to restore trust in politics would also criminalise the making of false statements to win votes
Elected politicians who deliberately lie could be forced from office under proposals designed to put Wales at the forefront of the “global challenge” to restore trust in politics.
Radical changes suggested by the Welsh parliament standards committee would also make candidates in elections liable to criminal prosecution for making any false statement to win votes.
Continue reading...Successive governments’ ‘penal populism’ has driven England and Wales justice system to brink of collapse, report finds
Successive governments’ overreliance on prison sentences and desire to seem “tough on crime” have driven the justice system in England and Wales to the brink of collapse, an official review has found.
A form of “penal populism” where longer incarceration is seen as the only effective means of punishment has contributed to the crisis in the prison system, according to the interim findings of a review led by former justice secretary David Gauke.
Continue reading...Resolution Foundation report says failure to reform has ‘slowly recreated the issues that undid the poll tax’
Britain’s poorest households are paying an increasing share of their income on council tax, according to new analysis that likened it to the poll tax that contributed to the downfall of Margaret Thatcher.
The poorest fifth of households paid 4.8% of their income on council tax in England, Wales and Scotland and on domestic rates in Northern Ireland in the 2020-21 financial year, up from 2.9% in 2002-3, according to research by the Resolution Foundation.
Continue reading...Judge takes rare step of naming Robert Charles Albon, who subjected mothers to ‘nightmare’ of controlling behaviour
A sperm donor who subjected a couple to a “nightmare” of controlling behaviour over their child has been named by a judge as a warning about the dangers of unregulated sperm donation.
Robert Charles Albon claims to have fathered more than 180 children in several countries after advertising his sperm donation services under the name Joe Donor.
Continue reading...Under current rules, civil child sexual abuse cases must be brought within three years of turning 18
Hundreds of child rape survivors, including those targeted by grooming gangs, are expected to pursue their abusers in the courts after ministers scrapped a three-year time limit on compensation claims.
Under reforms hailed by campaigners as a “watershed moment”, ministers said civil claims will no longer have to be brought within three years of a child abuse survivor’s 18th birthday.
Continue reading...The Labour first minister talks to people in Blackwood, as Reform and Plaid snap at her heels
The next Welsh parliament elections are more than a year away but the first minister, Eluned Morgan, appeared to be on the campaign trail already as she swept through the town of Blackwood in the south Wales valleys.
Within half an hour, she had spoken to dozens of people, asking what they wanted of her government, acknowledging where things needed to be improved, challenging voters who she felt were not being fair on her party.
Continue reading...Legal action has begun to remove the tenants after the 80-acre site was sold to be turned into a healing retreat
Lunch around the huge sycamore and oak table in the farmhouse kitchen of the off-grid Brithdir Mawr community in the Preseli mountains of west Wales is a warm, gentle affair.
Members of the housing co-operative share soup made from leeks and potatoes grown in the gardens, served with crumbly goat’s cheese from its own herd, all washed down with mugs of mountain spring water.
Continue reading...General secretary highlights ‘legacy of 14 years of falling living standards under the Tories’
In an article for the Guardian, the Labour MP Clive Lewis said Rachel Reeves’ growth speech this week means the party has abandoned its pre-election green commitments.
Here is an extract.
A growing suspicion looms that our government lacks a coherent governing philosophy or ideological compass beyond the vague pursuit of “growth”. But if growth at any cost is the mantra, the costs will soon become painfully clear. Why pledge to be clean and green, only to undermine that commitment with a Heathrow expansion promise six months later? Burning the furniture to stay warm doesn’t signal confidence – it reeks of panic.
Regardless of the motivation, Labour has crossed the Rubicon. Approving Heathrow expansion is an irreversible break with our pre-election pledges. In 2021, Reeves stood in front of the Labour party conference and declared that she would be the “first-ever green chancellor”. Now, Labour is accused of obstructing the climate and nature bill and abandoning its ambitious decarbonisation plans. The rapid turnaround is striking …
I do a bit. There are nine million working age adults who are not working. And as we compete globally with countries like, you know, South Korea, China, India, you know, we need a work ethic. We need everybody to be making a contribution. … we need to lift our game and to up our game.
Chris Philp was the architect of the Liz Truss budget which crashed the economy and sent family mortgages rocketing.
After the Conservatives’ economic failure left working people worse off, it takes some real brass neck for the Tory top team to tell the public that it’s really all their fault.
I was making the case that tax cuts…need to be accompanied by spending control or spending reductions … in order to show that the books are being balanced and to avoid the market reaction that we saw …
I made that case internally … but it wasn’t unfortunately listened to. I think had my suggestions been listened to a bit earlier, then there was a there’s a much higher chance that [the mini-budget] would have worked. And it’ll be always a matter of regret that those points weren’t taken on board.
Continue reading...Scout leaders had launched judicial review over verdict of unlawful killing of Ben Leonard, 16, who fell from cliff on expedition
A high court judge has rejected an attempt by a scout leader and an assistant to overturn the findings of an inquest jury that concluded they were responsible for the unlawful killing of a 16-year-old boy who fell from a cliff during an expedition.
Ben Leonard from Stockport, Greater Manchester, became separated from his group during a hike in north Wales and fell about 60m (200ft) from a ledge, suffering a fatal head injury.
Continue reading...Union describe reductions as ‘cruel’ as university says it will run out of money without changes
Cardiff University has announced plans to shed 400 academic staff – almost 10% of its total – and cut subjects including nursing, music and modern languages, saying it will run out of money in four years if no changes are made.
Academics, union representatives and students expressed shock and dismay at the scale of the cuts, which were announced at staff meetings at the Russell Group university on Tuesday.
A reduction of academic headcount by about 400 full-time equivalent (7% of total workforce), using compulsory redundancy only if absolutely necessary.
Ceasing subjects and programmes in ancient history, modern languages and translation, music, nursing, and religion and theology.
Increasing student-to-staff ratios across the university.
Bringing “complementary” disciplines together through school mergers. For example, the creation of the school of natural sciences (merging chemistry, Earth sciences and physics) and school of global humanities (merging English, communication and philosophy, Welsh, and remaining elements of history, archaeology and religion and modern languages).
Continue reading...More than 100 people evacuated from their homes as Storm Herminia hits Britain after Éowyn
A major incident has been declared in Somerset after more than 100 people were evacuated from their homes because of flooding, while roads were blocked, trains delayed or cancelled and schools closed, as stormy weather once again battered parts of the UK.
Rest centres were set up for people forced to leave their homes in three Somerset towns – Chard, Ilminster and Somerton – with some residents reporting levels of flooding not seen for years. Highways teams dealt with almost 50 incidents.
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