Law Commission also suggests reopening cemeteries declared full as part of England and Wales consultation
Graves could be reused and closed burial grounds reopened under proposals aimed at tackling a lack of space for the dead.
The Law Commission has suggested that cemeteries that have been declared full could be reused for new burials. The proposal is part of a public consultation by the commission on updating 170-year-old burial laws in England and Wales.
Continue reading...Customer disputes over sewage spills, billing mistakes and water meters soar in past year
The number of customer complaints that were unable to be resolved by water companies in England and Wales has risen by almost a third to the highest level in nearly a decade.
There was a 29% increase in 2023-24 in cases escalated to the Consumer Council for Water (CCW) by households that failed to achieve a resolution from their supplier, the watchdog said.
Continue reading...Researchers say interventions could address key factors, such as smoking, but ‘structural changes’ also needed
Four key factors have been identified that together account for more than one-third of the inequalities in infant deaths between the most and least deprived areas of England.
Researchers say targeted interventions to address these factors – teenage pregnancy, maternal depression, preterm birth and smoking during pregnancy – could go a significant way to reduce inequalities, although higher-level structural changes to address socioeconomic inequality will also be necessary.
Continue reading...Joint review by chief of Ofsted and prisons chief inspector discovers children kept in cells to avoid conflict
Children in youth offender institutions (YOIs) are being denied access to education, with too many being kept in their cells as staff struggle to keep warring youngsters apart, a damning new report has found.
It documents a worrying decline in the quality and quantity of education provided to 15 to 18-year-olds in YOIs over the last decade despite a sharp drop in the number of children being held in custody.
Continue reading...Port of London authority to reopen scheme with waiting list, after surge in popularity of exploring riverbank for treasure
Whether fuelled by social media or prompted by the Covid lockdowns, the years between 2019 and 2022 saw a huge surge in interest in mudlarking on the foreshore of the River Thames in London.
The practice of exploring the riverbank for archaeology is permitted only with a permit from the Port of London authority (PLA), which owns much of the shoreline. But so dramatic was the growth in demand for permits – from 200 applications in 2018-19 to more than 5,000 three years later – that the port suspended the scheme in 2022 to “protect the integrity and archaeology of the foreshore”.
Continue reading...Businesses in England and Wales say they are paying for ‘historic errors’ by water suppliers
Small businesses have accused water suppliers of saddling them with the cost of “historic errors” made by bosses in the scandal-hit industry, as it emerged their bills will rise nearly 30% by 2030.
The water industry regulator, Ofwat, has told businesses that it expects average wholesale charges for non-household customers – which include small firms, charities and hospitals – to increase by about 27% before inflation over the next five years, outstripping the anticipated rise in household bills.
Continue reading...New figures show nearly 80% of businesses in some parts of England have been denied support
Ministers are being urged to overhaul the “nightmare” compensation scheme for flood victims after it emerged that nearly 80% of businesses in some parts of England had been denied support.
After heavy downpours caused chaos across much of England and Wales this week, new figures laid bare the “opaque” and inconsistent level of help available to those whose properties lay in ruin.
Continue reading...Two weather warnings for wind and rain, with river levels already high and ground saturated in some places
England and Wales are braced for heavy rain and strong winds just days after homes and businesses were flooded.
Two fresh weather warnings came into force on Sunday for wind and rain that will hit areas already saturated by downpours earlier in the week.
Continue reading...Days after floods hit, further heavy rain likely to cause travel delays and flooding from late Sunday afternoon
Weather warnings have been issued as strong winds and heavy rain approach the UK, days after some areas were hit by flooding.
The Met Office issued a yellow rain warning – meaning further heavy rain is likely to cause some travel delays and flooding – covering much of southern England and south Wales between 4pm on Sunday and 9am on Monday.
Continue reading...Transport disrupted and more than 60 flood warnings still in place, with more downpours to come
The Met Office has issued a weather warning for strong winds on Sunday as parts of the country recovered from heavy rain and flooding. Flooding disrupted rail services in England and Wales on Friday morning and led to the closure of the M5 motorway in both directions in Gloucestershire.
The Environment Agency told drivers their cars could be swept away in as little as 30cm (12in) of water as more than 60 flood warnings were issued in England after heavy rain overnight, with further downpours to come.
Continue reading...Amended memorial to the writers unveiled at Poets’ Corner 85 years after misspelled plaque first installed
An 85-year injustice has been rectified at Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey with the corrected spelling of one of the greatest of all literary names. Reader, it is finally Brontë, not Bronte.
An amended memorial to Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë was unveiled on Thursday with added diaereses (two dots) that ensure people pronounce it with two syllables. As if it rhymed with Monty, not font.
Continue reading...Lilly, an 8.5-metre tall puppet designed to help children talk about the environment, provokes mixed response
They say it is rude to comment on a baby’s appearance but that has not stopped the residents of Rochdale, who awoke on Wednesday to a “freaky” new arrival.
Lilly, an 8.5-metre tall puppet designed to help children talk about the environment, went on display in the town centre to a somewhat bewildered response.
Continue reading...Closure of hundreds of outlets hitting rural areas, older people and deprived communities hardest, according to Healthwatch England
High street pharmacies are closing at such an alarming rate that it threatens the drive to use them instead of GPs to care for millions of people, the NHS’s patient champion warns today.
A total of 436 community pharmacies in England shut permanently last year and there were also 13,863 temporary closures, which stopped patients from obtaining health advice and medication.
Cheshire and Merseyside ICB saw the most permanent closures last year – 51
The North East and North Cumbria ICB had the highest number of temporary closures – 1,438
The same area also saw the highest number of hours lost to temporary closures – 4,054
And pharmacies in the Norfolk and Waveney ICB area shut temporarily for the longest number of hours on average – 17.48
Continue reading...Thirty-five flood warnings in place across England after some areas get more than 100mm of rain in 48 hours
Commuters in parts of England are still facing travel issues despite a respite from heavy rain.
Parts of Bedfordshire, Oxfordshire, Warwickshire and Northamptonshire have had more than 100mm of rain in the past 48 hours, with Woburn in Bedfordshire recording 132mm, more than twice its September average rainfall, according to the Met Office.
Continue reading...Report finds prison is failing to prepare inmates for release and hundreds of prisoners have substance abuse problems
HMP Brixton, the most overcrowded prison in the country for moderate-risk inmates, is failing to prepare prisoners for release, with nearly half saying it is easy to buy drugs, a watchdog has found.
Inspectors found that many of the 740 men held there had turned to drugs because they had nothing constructive to do. Two-thirds of the men were sharing cells designed for one person.
Continue reading...Enclosure older than Salisbury monument found under late novelist’s garden is given heritage protection
When the author Thomas Hardy was writing Tess of the D’Urbervilles in 1891, he chose to set the novel’s dramatic conclusion at Stonehenge, where Tess sleeps on one of the stones the night before she is arrested for murder.
What the author did not know, as he wrote in the study of his home, Max Gate in Dorchester, was that he was sitting right in the heart of a large henge-like enclosure that was even older than the famous monument on Salisbury Plain.
Continue reading...Exclusive: store issues new statement as lawyers describe redress scheme it has set up as attempted ‘whitewash’
Harrods is investigating whether any of its current staff were “directly or indirectly involved” in the alleged sexual abuse of women by its former owner Mohamed Al Fayed.
With more than 100 women having come forward to allege being raped or assaulted by the Egyptian tycoon, the luxury store said it had launched a review and was in direct contact with Scotland Yard.
Continue reading...Work of German-Jewish sculptor Fred Kormis, who fled Nazis in 1930s, is subject of exhibition in London
The work of an overlooked German-Jewish artist who created the UK’s first memorial to victims of Nazi persecution is to be the focus of an exhibition that shines light on the unreported aspects of his life.
Fred Kormis, who fled Germany in the 1930s and later became a British citizen, was described by the Wiener Holocaust Library in London as a forgotten émigré artist who played a unique role in Weimar culture and 20th-century British art.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Welsh secretary will use conference speech to announce measure for elective treatment and outpatients
NHS patients in Wales will be allowed to travel to England to receive care for the first time ever under plans to be announced by the Welsh secretary on Monday.
Jo Stevens will tell the Labour conference in Liverpool that she is drawing up proposals to allow patients to travel between England and Wales to receive outpatient or elective treatment.
Continue reading...Thirty-two-year-old in custody after attack on man, 25, on Stapleton Road in the east of the city
A man has been arrested on suspicion of murder after the death of a 25-year-old man in Bristol, police have said.
Avon and Somerset police arrested a 32-year-old man in the Eastville area of the city at about 5.45pm on Saturday. He remains in custody.
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