Some areas forecast to have warmer weather than Ibiza and Corfu on Thursday’s spring equinox
Parts of the UK are expected to be warmer than Ibiza and Corfu this week on the first official day of spring.
This Thursday marks the spring equinox and temperatures could reach 19C (66F) in the south of England. The Met Office meteorologist Becky Mitchell said that was 8C hotter than the average for the time of year.
Continue reading...One of those waiting for Labour’s announcement explains why he depends on personal independence payments
Adam Gabsi is unequivocal on the subject of his personal independence payment: “It really is an essential lifeline. I don’t feel that I would be able to function without it.”
Gabsi receives his Pip disability benefit for multiple sclerosis, with which he was diagnosed 18 years ago, when he was 21.
Continue reading...Uncollected food waste ‘poses public health danger’ as 400 workers take indefinite action over pay and conditions
A bin collection strike in Birmingham could lead to rats thriving on a “banquet” of food waste and pose a public health danger, pest controllers have said.
About 400 council bin workers in Birmingham began an indefinite strike on Tuesday as part of a dispute over pay and conditions.
Continue reading...Loss of staff will be at least twice as big as thought, as new NHS England chief tells regional boards to cut costs by 50%
The jobs cull from the government’s radical restructuring of the NHS will be at least twice as big as previously thought, with other parts of the health service now being downsized too.
The staff shakeout caused by NHS England’s abolition and unprecedented cost-cutting elsewhere will mean the number of lost posts will soar from the 10,000 expected to between 20,000 and 30,000.
Continue reading...Cuttings of tree captured by John Constable being planted on restored Devon floodplain
Captured by John Constable in one of his most celebrated paintings, the black poplar tree was once as common as oak and beech in Britain.
Now the rarest and most threatened native species in the country, the National Trust is creating a living gene bank of the black poplar to ensure Constable’s The Hay Wain does not become a tribute to an extinct breed.
Continue reading...NFER says pupil behaviour, stagnant pay and inflexible working practices contributing to exodus from workforce
Teachers in England are abandoning the classroom over worsening pupil behaviour, stagnant pay and inflexible working practices, leaving vacancies at their highest rate on record, according to a report.
It warned that this month’s spending review was the government’s “last chance” to meet its manifesto pledge of hiring 6,500 additional teachers in state schools, as younger teachers continue to abandon the profession since the Covid pandemic and fewer graduates sign up as trainees.
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...Mark Ross to be sentenced on Friday over killing of Claudiu-Carol Kondor during theft of vehicle in Armley area
A “career criminal” has been found guilty of murdering an Amazon delivery driver who was trying to stop his van from being stolen.
Claudiu-Carol Kondor, 42, was dragged along a street at high speeds as he clung to his vehicle to try to stop the theft on 20 August last year.
Continue reading...Marta Bednarczyk’s family release tribute to loving mother and supportive friend who moved to England 15 years ago
A 13-year-old girl has appeared in court charged with murder and arson after the body of a woman was found in a house in Northamptonshire.
The teenager, who appeared in the dock holding a teddy bear, was remanded in custody at Northampton magistrates court on Wednesday, after being charged with the murder of 43-year-old Marta Bednarczyk.
Continue reading...Applications to the sustainable farming initiative no longer accepted but no clarity on what will replace it and when
Farming and countryside groups in England are furious that the government has paused a key post-Brexit farming payments scheme with little information about what will replace it and when.
In a statement on Tuesday evening the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said the sustainable farming incentive would no longer accept new applications.
Continue reading...Checkpoints backed by education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, follow complaints from teachers of children arriving in nappies
Toilet training and the ability to use cutlery are two key checkpoints in a new list of “school-readiness” skills developed by a coalition of early-years educators and endorsed by Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary.
The group said the guidance was the first of its type, intended to help parents to prepare children starting in reception classes in England from the age of four and came after complaints from teachers of children arriving at school in nappies, lacking basic skills and unable to play with others.
Continue reading...Officer who investigated Rhianan Rudd, who killed herself, tells inquest ‘wider conversation’ needed on such cases
MI5 officers investigating a schoolgirl who went on to kill herself after being charged with far-right terror offences had complained of a lack of guidance on handling the growing number of such cases, according to internal emails heard at an inquest.
A special evidence session in London heard that intelligence agents working on the case of Rhianan Rudd, who died at the age of 16, lamented the lack of national strategy in dealing with a proliferation of vulnerable young people holding violent far-right views.
Continue reading...People in capital breathing much cleaner air, with significant improvements in capital’s most deprived areas
People in London have been breathing significantly cleaner air since the expansion of the ultra low emission zone (Ulez), a study has found.
Levels of deadly pollutants that are linked to a wide range of health problems – from cancer to impaired lung development, heart attacks to premature births – have dropped, with some of the biggest improvements coming in the capital’s most deprived areas.
Continue reading...Survey reveals senior officials think changes will do little to address local authorities’ dire financial crisis
Ministers’ plans to shake up the structure of English local government by merging councils are “ill-thought-out”, “insane” and a “bizarre diversion” that will fail to deliver savings, according to a survey of town hall leaders.
The depth of unhappiness with the plans is revealed in an annual poll of senior councillors and executives, most of whom said the changes would be costly, time-consuming and do little to address the dire financial crisis facing councils.
Continue reading...Alice Mackey, 42, remanded in custody over death of Annabel Mackey, who was found in a pond in 2023
A 42-year-old woman has been charged with the murder of her two-year-old daughter who died after being found in a pond.
Police were sent to a report that Annabel Mackey had gone missing from her home in Kingsley near Bordon, Hampshire, on 10 September 2023.
Continue reading...New method reported to cut number of false positives by 87% has been registered with regulator for approval
A new swab test could help hundreds of thousands of women a year in the UK who may have womb cancer avoid having an often painful invasive procedure to detect the disease.
About 800,000 women annually go to see a GP because they are suffering from abnormal bleeding from their uterus and then undergo uncomfortable and stressful investigations to identify the cause.
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...Guardian analysis lays bare a neglected system that is ruinously expensive, and often fails children and parents
The alarming details of the special educational needs financial crisis in English local authorities are buried deep in internal council papers but the reality of the situation is crystal-clear to those close to it. “It’s a ticking timebomb,” one town hall boss told the Guardian. “It’s what keeps me awake at night.”
Budget reports, schools forum minutes and financial planning documents help tell a story of a system woefully unprepared for the explosion in numbers of children with special educational needs and disabilities (Send) in recent years, chronically underfunded to meet the growing demand, and now struggling to keep afloat.
Continue reading...Government must scrap English baccalaureate to make arts more accessible to working-class children, critics say
Leading cultural figures have expressed doubts about the government’s commitment to restoring the creative arts in English schools, with one warning that Labour has “lost the plot” and “the current signs are they are worse than the Tories”.
When Labour won the election, it promised to expand opportunities for working-class children by broadening the school curriculum to include more drama, art, music and sport alongside the core academic subjects.
Continue reading...Officers in Operation Castle attend every reported break-in and no longer treat such crimes as ‘low level’
When Sean Edwards found his car and his neighbours’ houses had been broken into in Longsight, Greater Manchester, in 2022, he was not expecting much from the police based on previous experiences.
“I expected them to dust for prints and take statements, then give us a crime reference number and nothing else happen,” he said.
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