Category Archives: Derbyshire

Elk could return to UK after 3,000 years in rewilding project

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First stage of initiative will introduce ‘keystone’ species to beaver enclosures in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire

Elk could return to the UK after 3,000 years under plans by the Wildlife Trusts to reintroduce the “keystone” species into Britain’s landscapes.

The Derbyshire Wildlife Trust wants to introduce elk into two existing beaver enclosures in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, with the hope of demonstrating that the large semiaquatic deer should be released to roam free in the wild.

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‘The sewage scandal ends now’: UK water company fines to be used to clean up rivers

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After fears £11m would be diverted to Treasury, money will be spent on restoring polluted areas where penalties issued

Millions of pounds of fines imposed on water firms will fund environmental schemes to protect the country’s waterways after fears the money would be diverted to the Treasury.

The water restoration fund was set up by the Conservative government to ensure that polluting water firms paid for the damage they caused. The fund received £11m in fines and penalties from April 2022 to October 2023.

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‘I’m still dancing’: Derbyshire woman has 105th birthday rave at care home

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Hilda Jackson and fellow residents partied with strobe lights, glowsticks and drum’n’bass from festival-headliner

It was a birthday party that would do even the most seasoned raver proud, with strobe lighting, glow sticks and a headline act who has played some of the biggest festivals in the UK.

The birthday girl sipped on champagne, while guests helped themselves to free-flowing cocktails from a pop-up bar run by Jägermeister. This was not an Instagram influencer’s Ibiza pool party, however – it was Hilda Jackson’s 105th-birthday rave in her Derbyshire care home.

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Pressure on Nigel Farage as Reform UK councillors resign over his leadership

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Exclusive: Departures will add to scrutiny of party leader after Elon Musk said he was ‘not up to the job’

A group of 10 councillors representing Reform UK have given notice of their intention to resign en masse in protest at Nigel Farage’s leadership.

The resignations will add to pressure on the Reform leader after Elon Musk said he was “not up to the job”. They are timed to overshadow the party’s south-east conference this weekend.

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Michael Gove and Andrea Leadsom to stand down at general election

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Seventy-eight Tory MPs are quitting rather than standing, beating 1997’s record number

Michael Gove and Andrea Leadsom have joined the now record-breaking exodus of Conservative MPs from the Commons, with the former saying it was time for a “new generation” to lead the party.

Gove’s announcement in a letter tweeted on Friday evening had been anticipated by some given the strong Liberal Democrat challenge he faces in his Surrey Heath constituency, but adds to the sense of Tories fleeing in the face of a likely general election loss.

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‘Profiteering off children’: care firms in England accused of squeezing cash from councils

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A local authority leader claims private equity groups are exploiting vulnerable youngsters in care homes in the pursuit of profit

Care companies are insisting on unnecessary and expensive support packages for vulnerable children to boost their profits, a council leader has claimed.

Barry Lewis, the Tory leader of Derbyshire county council, said that former family-run businesses acquired by private equity groups were trying to get “as much cash as possible” out of local authorities.

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Stalking victims face ‘postcode lottery’, says coroner after Gracie Spinks killing

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Concerns raised over ‘consistency and availability’ of stalking advocates in UK police forces to support victims

Stalking victims face a “postcode lottery” of support due to a lack of advocates in police forces across the UK, a coroner has said following the death of Gracie Spinks.

The 23-year-old was killed in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, by a work colleague, Michael Sellers, who had become “obsessed” with her after previously harassing a number of other women. On 18 June 2021 he followed Spinks to the field where she kept her horse before fatally stabbing her and taking his own life soon after.

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MPs call for review of Environment Agency flood failings in England

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Derbyshire and South Yorkshire MPs say agency ‘not up to the task’ after people received warnings too late

MPs in areas of England worst hit by Storm Babet have called for a review of Environment Agency (EA) failings after reporting that some residents received flood alerts only after their homes were flooded.

Toby Perkins, the Labour MP for Chesterfield, said some people at Tapton Terrace in the Derbyshire town, where 83-year-old Maureen Gilbert was found dead in flood water, only received a phone call from the early warning system after their houses had been deluged.

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Son tells of anger after finding mother dead in flooded Chesterfield home

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Paul Gilbert says people in flood-prone areas are forgotten, after death of Maureen Gilbert, 83, in Storm Babet

A man who found his mother’s lifeless body floating in flood water triggered by Storm Babet inher Chesterfield home has spoken of his anger that people in flood-prone areas are being “forgotten”.

It is thought that Maureen Gilbert, 83, drowned after she was unable to escape the rapidly rising water inside her terrace home owing to mobility problems.

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