Environment

Tragic example of failures of privatisation and outsourcing requires Government to intervene to protect public sector work, says GMB. GMB, the UK’s general union, demands the Government intervene and protect Carillion workers’ jobs and pensions – rather than focussing on bailing out a failing private company. Carillion, one of the government's biggest contractors, is struggling under £1.5bn of debt, including a pension shortfall of £587m. The government is meeting Carillion and the Pensions Regulator today (Friday) to discuss the services...

An activist who camped in a tree to protest a hotel development is facing a crippling legal bill of up to £50,000 after losing his appeal against a court ruling. Simon Byrom, 49, lived 20 feet above ground in a sycamore tree for a week to demonstrate against a 225-bedroom hotel being built in a historic part of town. The community councillor slept in a leaky tent which overhung wooden hoardings around the perimeter of the site in the Cowgate...

British beaches have been left looking like a 'plastic war zone' after the worst wave of pollution in four years was washed up in the wake of Storm Eleanor. The Cornish coast has been covered with plastic debris, broken fishing nets , pieces of Lego and everything from plastic straws and bottles to shredded bags and polystyrene. Piles of plastic debris and nurdles are seen littering the sand of Tregantle Beach in Cornwall, January 9 2018. The south west coast...

Bath could become the first city in the UK to introduce a tourist tax, in line with a model common in European cities. Tourists have flocked to the Georgian spa city for centuries in order to visit the Roman baths and famous abbey - but plans have been drawn up to charge visitors an extra £1 per night, which would be put back into the community. The plans, proposed by Bath and North East Somerset Council, will be put to...

Instead of selling off NHS land, the Government should create a People’s Land Bank, and use the land to build genuinely affordable homes The Government’s sale of NHS land is failing to produce affordable homes and is exacerbating the affordability crisis across the UK, according to new research from the New Economics Foundation. The research involved a comprehensive analysis of the 59 NHS sites that have been sold so far under the Government’s public land sale programme. It finds that,...

Some of the lowest CO2 emitting countries in the world are the least likely to survive a climate change apocalypse – thanks to their fuel guzzling neighbours. New research has revealed countries in sub-Saharan Africa are the most vulnerable to the perils of a potential environmental disaster despite emitting some of the lowest CO2 levels in the World. China emerged as the biggest carbon criminal emitting a mammoth 9,040 metric tons of CO2 into the atmosphere every year – nearly...

Scottish Parliament bosses have been urged to rethink spending £80,000 on using birds of prey to scare away pigeons after their effectiveness was called into question. Hawks and falcons are brought in regularly to fly over the Scottish Parliament building to deter pigeons from making it their home. But MSPs say that the unwanted birds have gotten wise to the scheme and simply wait for them to be taken away by their handler before settling back on the roofs and...

As the hosing crisis deepens with homelessness on the rise, especially in the capital, and other major cities, is has been revealed that over 11,000 dwellings in the UK have stood empty for over a decade. The research, carried out by the Lib Dems, used figures gather from 276 local councils also showed that over 216,000 homes have sat empty for over six months. There have been accusations that some of the wealthiest parts of the UK, in West London...

With barely hours left until the end of the year, Donald Trump may have just tweeted his dumbest tweet of the year yet. There have been quite a few contenders this year, especially this tweet incriminating himself. But the climate sceptic President hell-bent on removing science from government departments as well as removing the USA from the crucial Paris climate change agreement that every other country signed up to against all odds, turned to the topic of global warming with...