Transport secretary cancels A12 widening scheme in Essex
The A12 scheme was a £1.2bn project to widen a 15-mile (24km) stretch of the road from Chelmsford to the A120.Alexander said the scheme had to be cancelled because it was one of the most expensive upcoming projects."Only those projects that are fully costed, affordable and will deliver a return on taxpayers' money will be given the green light under my watch," she added.She also announced the decision not to progress with the A47 Wansford to Sutton scheme. National Highways planned to make a 1.6-mile (2.5km) section of the A47 between Wansford and Sutton in Cambridgeshire into a dual carriageway.She said: "We are already investing over £500m on improvements to the A47 corridor, with work to dual sections in Norfolk already under way, but it's just not feasible to support further investment at this time."I understand some communities will feel frustrated, but by taking this decision, we are rebalancing funds towards those areas that for too long haven't had the infrastructure investment they have deserved."Alexander added: "The north and Midlands will now get a higher proportion of strategic road spend than we've seen in the last five years. "I believe that's the right and fair thing to do."
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BBC News
21 minutes ago
- BBC News
'Totally torn apart' - how Morecambe decline threatens a whole community
In its post-war heyday, the town of Morecambe was one of the UK's foremost seaside holiday destinations, with a thriving local economy and prestigious the decline of the domestic tourism industry which underpinned Morecambe's boon, its 105-year-old football club has filled the gap - providing jobs, powering local businesses, and offering a sense of community, identity, and now, Morecambe FC faces the imminent prospect of shutting down due to a deepening financial crisis, with owner Jason Whittingham's failure to sell the club leading to suspension from the National proud local people, the impact is enormous."It's absolutely horrible", says Alison Williamson, a Morecambe resident who began supporting the club in 1974. "The football club gives so much to the town. It's just so sad that Whittingham is down in Essex and allowed to take it all away from us."It's kind of a grieving process. It's like losing a member of your family that has always been there. Even if you don't see them all the time, when they're not there anymore, you suffer and you feel the loss."The club's players were sent home a week ago and are unable to train because of a lack of insurance cover. The academy has now also stopped functioning,For some, the slow, painful deterioration of their football club threatens the cohesion of the community and mimics the previous era's erosion of the local economy. "Morecambe used to be fantastic in its heyday," says Les Dewhirst, the club's kit man for the past 30 years. "It had everything from small zoos to fairgrounds to theatres and piers. We've not got much of that now, but it's still a cracking place and football is such a big part of it."I met my wife at the football. We were second-timers and our kids have grown up coming to this ground together. Strangers stop me in the street and say 'hiya Les' and it feels good."I don't know all the names of the people who come here, but I know all the faces. We all come here for the same reason - because we care."That level of care means supporters, led by fans group The Shrimps' Trust, have been protesting against Whittingham's ownership of the club and demanding he sell up for deals have been agreed in the past but nothing has come to fruition and fans face the prospect of having no club to support in the upcoming season."This place is half of my life", says Kate Barker, a fan and former chief steward for 20 years who was subsequently made honorary life vice-president. "All my good friends are here. It's a cliche, but we are a family and we look after each other."We always look forward to seeing each other on a Tuesday and a Saturday, and going to see a match. We might win, lose, or draw - the result doesn't really matter. We've never let football get in the way of a good day out." "We'll still gather together and talk about the old times, what we've done and where we've been. But we should still be able to do it here, every week," adds Barker."Inside I'm being absolutely torn apart."Where once on the town's seafront there were multiple fairgrounds, theatres, piers and miniature zoos, there are now a smattering of bars and restaurants, many of which are funded by matchday income and travelling away club's peril means local businesses are now at risk."The winter months are the hardest here, because it's the seaside," says Chris Donaldson, owner the The Royal Hotel on the seafront. "The football season sees us through that."I've got 19 bedrooms here and away fans are coming from all over fully booking them weeks in advance. The whole town can be full."It'll cost us tens of thousands, easily. It's crazy what it'll do to the town to lose that kind of money. Everyone will feel the effect of it."For staff at the fans' matchday pub, the difference in demeanour is already stark."We get around 400, 500 people on a matchday," says Michael Woolworth, manager of the Hurley Flyer opposite the stadium. "It feels like everyone in Morecambe is in here."It's a ritual every weekend. In here we see that football really brings people together. "But in the last few months we've seen the happiness taken away from them. We have regulars who have come in visibly upset."Morecambe FC has been one of the area's biggest employers in recent times. But the club's financial issues mean that salaries paid to staff and players have been delayed or not paid at all in some months. Dewhirst was last paid in May."I'm eating into my savings now," he says. "Some people aren't lucky enough to have savings - some are going to food banks because they can't afford to buy their shopping."It's been hard watching players leave. There was another one gone yesterday. I've known lots of them for years."I feel broken. Numbness has set in." The club offers far more than football to local residents. Its facilities host a variety of events, fun days and fundraisers for the community and causes close to people's hearts."The club does major work in the community, including sessions here for the elderly people and sessions in care homes," says former co-chairman Rod Taylor, who has removed from the board earlier this summer in a video call hastily arranged by Whittingham."We've got a pre- and post-cancer group that meet regularly, we go into schools to deliver sessions. You can't put a price on that. A high percentage of the population of this town is touched by more than football in some way."That idea of connection across the community, and across generations, is something which typifies the essence of Morecambe's supporter base."Football is that release from normality," Taylor says. "It's a generational thing. My granddad took me to our old stadium Christie Park when I was about five or six years of age. It stays with you. It's ingrained. It's in your DNA."I feel Whittingham probably has to raise more money to settle some of his some of his personal debts. I think he's trying to squeeze more money."The BBC has repeatedly attempted to contact Whittingham, but received no response. Chair of The Shrimps' Trust, Pat Stoyles, has dedicated swathes of his spare time to trying to protect the club's status and long-term future in recent years."The lack of communication from Jason Whittingham has been the biggest problem," he says. "The turmoil has been going on for weeks and weeks on end."The start of the EFL season last weekend was difficult. Normally we'd be glued to that sort of thing, but seeing live football again shows to people what we're going to be missing."The social part of football is the biggest part. What goes on the pitch - that's fine. It's about the people you travel with, you drink with, you stand with, the community that you feel apart of. For a lot of people, losing that is going to have a big impact on their whole wellbeing, their mental health."Some people are already asking if, should the worst come to the worst, we can still go to places together."The National League will meet again on 20 August and, unless convinced Morecambe have the financial means to complete the season, will formally expel them from the fans, staff, and players wait anxiously to see if Whittingham will finally sell the club before it is too late.
The Guardian
3 hours ago
- The Guardian
Napier barracks to continue housing asylum seekers after small boat influx
Napier barracks, one of the first mass accommodation sites opened to house asylum seekers, will not be closing as planned in the coming weeks, as the government attempts to deal with an influx of small boats arrivals. Officials informed parliament in a Home Office document uploaded to parliament's cross-party home affairs committee in March 2025 that 'the Home Office intend to occupy and deliver services at Napier until September 2025, at which point the site will be handed back to the Ministry of Defence'. Napier has capacity to accommodate 328 male asylum seekers, but in recent months numbers have been winding down to as few as 40 people in preparation for its closure, according to non-governmental organisations (NGOs) working directly with asylum seekers living there. But now numbers have started to jump again and people are being taken to Napier soon after arriving on the Kent coast in small boats. It is thought that the Home Office is extending its use of Napier owing to the high number of recent small boat arrivals, more than a 50% increase on the same period last year and the increasing pressure the government is coming under from anti-migrant protesters outside asylum hotels. It follows news that the number of asylum seekers accommodated at Wethersfield, in Essex, the other mass accommodation site used by the Home Office, have increased by more than 50% to about 1,200. Mass accommodation sites for asylum seekers have proved controversial, with proposals to use RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire and another military base at Linton-on-Ouse never getting off the ground. It recently emerged that the Home Office lost at least £48m on the Scampton scheme, devised by the previous government, although no asylum seekers were ever accommodated there. Napier has been marred by controversy since it opened owing to a mass Covid outbreak, decrepit facilities and far-right protests. Sally Hough, the director of Napier Drop-In Centre, which provides support and activities for asylum seekers housed at the site, said: 'Our funding is due to run out in August to coincide with the closure of the camp so it's hugely disappointing and frustrating to know that the camp will continue without this essential support hub. The impact on the camp residents will be significant; it's only due to NGOs like ours that the camp has become a welcoming supportive environment for vulnerable people.' Steve Smith, the chief executive of Care4Calais, said: 'These large-scale, militarised sites, like Napier and Wethersfield, have a longstanding physical and mental health impact on those accommodated there. What is currently happening is people are being sent straight to Napier from Manston. The majority arrive with nothing but the clothes on their backs. The level of need is greater and it makes living on these sites much more difficult. It is deeply concerning that the government is not only keeping the site open, but appearing to revert back to a model that caused so much trauma when Napier first opened.' A Home Office spokesperson said: 'We continue to work closely with stakeholders across the country, including other government departments and local authorities, to fulfil our statutory obligations and deliver on our commitments to reduce the cost of asylum accommodation and end the use of asylum hotels by the end of this parliament. Any updates regarding specific sites will be notified to the relevant stakeholders in the normal way.'
BBC News
5 hours ago
- BBC News
A5: Ruling to be appealed, Liz Kimmins says
Stormont's infrastructure minister is to appeal a judgement that ruled construction of the new A5 dual carriageway should not go ahead in its current 58-mile (94km) £1.7bn project was given the green light by Stormont ministers in October last June, a court found the Department for Infrastructure's plans for the road did not comply with climate change road is the Northern Ireland part of the major arterial route that connects the north-west of the island - Donegal and Londonderry - to Dublin, via towns including Strabane, Omagh and Aughnacloy. On Monday, Kimmins said she had taken the decision to instruct legal counsel to seek the appeal ahead of the deadline for doing so this said staff had been "working night and day" to ensure the appeal was had said on 1 July that she was looking at "pursuing" an appeal into the ruling. More than 50 people have died on the A5 since 2006 and campaigners have called for the road to be upgraded. What happened in court? The judicial review proceedings that culminated in Judge McAlinden's decision on 23 June, involved a group of residents, landowners and farmers who mounted a fresh challenge against the decision to begin construction umbrella group, known as the Alternative A5 Alliance, contended it would breach legislative targets to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by High Court judgement blocking the upgrade of the A5 road - because the plans did not comply with government climate change targets - shows the reach and impact of Stormont's climate change legislation - but the judgement is clear that shortcomings in the project can be remedied.A solicitor for the Alternative A5 Alliance campaign group, which brought the successful case, said his clients' efforts had been "vindicated" and it was an important day for the campaigners from the Enough is Enough group said they were disappointed with the decision but added the judgement provided a "roadmap" for how the upgrade could Minister Michelle O'Neill said there was meeting with members of Enough is Enough 1 July. What is the A5? The road is the Northern Ireland part of the major arterial route that connects the north-west of the island - Donegal and Londonderry - to Dublin, via towns including Strabane, Omagh and dual carriageway scheme was first announced back in 2007, but has been beset by a number of delays.
