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Convert offices into flats, not nightclubs

Convert offices into flats, not nightclubs

The Guardian9 hours ago
Your article (Turn empty London office blocks into 'late-night party zones', report suggests, 13 July) misses the real opportunity to promote using those ghastly, unsightly Towers of Babel for something useful: housing. Forget partying, think existing. Let's redeem the disasters of the past and give people somewhere to live.Janet TomlinsonAndover, Hampshire
Jonathan Jones says: 'This is where celebrity artists get it wrong: they think art is fun but art is suffering and madness' (Ed Sheeran's Pollock homage has energy but no feeling or truth, 9 July). Is he not confusing 'art' with 'art criticism'?John WarburtonEdinburgh
The correspondence on beards (Letters, 13 July) reminds me of when I was in the civil service and, at a meeting, one of our managers warned us: 'Never trust a man with a beard.' This was in full hearing of one of the other managers who was bearded.Ian ArnottWerrington, Peterborough
A beard is not always a good travelling companion. In the 1970s, my husband was stopped at the Czechoslovakian border because he had a beard but his passport did not. The border guards made him shave it off before they would let him in.Christine CrawshawLondon
Somerset cows bunch nose to tail so that one cow's tail is another's fan and fly swat (Panting, gular fluttering and sploots: how Britain's animals try to keep cool, 11 July).Prof Terry GiffordWookey, Somerset
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Poorest households spend a QUARTER of income on car ownership
Poorest households spend a QUARTER of income on car ownership

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Poorest households spend a QUARTER of income on car ownership

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St Helena teen sprinter's 5,000-mile journey for Island Games
St Helena teen sprinter's 5,000-mile journey for Island Games

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St Helena teen sprinter's 5,000-mile journey for Island Games

Teenage sprinter Tyler Anthony has just made the biggest journey of his 15-year-old left his home island of St Helena to travel to Orkney for the 20th International Island epic trip had several steps considering he was coming from the middle of the South Atlantic Ocean, roughly 4,850 miles flew from St Helena to Johannesburg, then to the UK, followed by a coach trip to Manchester, a flight to Aberdeen and, finally, a ferry to Orkney. Despite being so far from home, Tyler is not far from four other teammates, he is staying with St Helena's chief vet - who happens to have a house in Kirkwall. Andy Cant, who is originally from Orkney, is currently working in St Helena, but has kept his house back Tyler first qualified for the games, the word went out that he was looking for said: "Andy's wife, Alice, rang and she said 'Don't look for accommodation, you can come and stay with us in Orkney'."Because Andy and Alice are from Orkney, there's loads of athletes coming round the house. "So you get to mix and talk and ask how their training is, what they're doing and make it a friendly environment."Tyler was surprised by the weather in Orkney and has quickly warmed to the archipelago."It's just like back home in St Helena. Everything is small, everyone's cultural, it's really nice." For Tyler, the Island Games is the biggest sporting event he has ever been part St Helena team will be competing in athletics, squash and he is a bit nervous, he is mostly excited about the competition. Tyler, who will line up in the 100m and 200m, is one of the youngest competitors at the said: "It really is amazing, the best thing that's ever happened to me to be honest. "From the day I qualified, it's been on my mind ever since."The teenager usually trains twice a week on a Monday with a local athletics club, and on a Wednesday with a personal coach. Tyler hopes to compete in the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow next summer and would love to one day break into the "big world of athletics". He was first inspired to take up running when he was around recalled: "I think I was in year four when I was in this athletics club. "The coach's son had qualified for the island games and that was my first time hearing about it. "He left a few weeks after and watching him on TV running."It kind of gave me the inspiration to train and do it in the future."Tyler hopes to get a medal at the Island Games this year and said he was taking the competition seriously. And so far he has attracted a lot of attention from locals and spectators in Orkney. Tyler competed in his 100m heat on Sunday and finished sixth with a time of will take part in the 200m race on said: "When I was walking up for the 100m, we had our St Helena crowd. "There were a few people here and there, cheering for St Helena. "I think it was a group of people from Orkney, who were further up from the 100m start and they were all cheering for me and I was so surprised. "It's very amazing to have a crowd cheering for me."People back home have also been showing their support. On BBC Radio Orkney's request music program on Friday night, he received 19 messages of good luck.

Shetland eyes Faroes-style tunnels to replace ageing ferries
Shetland eyes Faroes-style tunnels to replace ageing ferries

BBC News

time4 hours ago

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Shetland eyes Faroes-style tunnels to replace ageing ferries

The Faroese prime minister says Shetland could boost growth and revitalise island life by following his country in replacing ageing ferries with undersea Islands Council says it is pushing ahead with plans to build tunnels to four outlying isles in the archipelago including Unst, the most northerly place in the UK."I think we have learned in the Faroe Islands that investment in infrastructure is a good investment," Aksel Johannesen told BBC Islands Council says its multi-million pound project is likely to be funded by borrowing money and paying it back through tolls, potentially providing a new transport model for other Scottish islands. Critics say politicians in Scotland have wasted years talking about tunnels while the Faroes, nearly 200 miles further out into the Atlantic, have actually built them."It is frustrating," says Anne Anderson of salmon producer Scottish Sea Farms, which employs nearly 700 people in Scotland, including just under 300 in island chain produces a quarter of all Scottish salmon - the UK's most valuable food export with international sales of £844m in 2024."Ten years ago Scottish salmon used to have 10 per cent of the global market. Nowadays we're slipping ever closer to five per cent," adds Ms Anderson, who blames that slide, in part, on a lack of investment in public infrastructure .She agrees that the UK should look to the Faroes for inspiration."Identify what works well for them and then just copy and paste and let's get moving," urges Ms Anderson. They have been building tunnels in the Faroes since the 18 islands which make up the self-governing nation under the sovereignty of Denmark are connected by 23 tunnels, four of which run below the sea. More are under dramatic is a 7.1 mile (11.4km) tunnel which connects the island of Streymoy to two sides of a fjord on the island of includes the world's only undersea its deepest point it is 187m (614ft) below the waves and has halved the driving time between the capital Tórshavn and the second biggest town, Klaksvik. Speaking in his grass-roofed office looking out over a busy harbour in Tórshavn, Johannesen says tunnels helped to grow the population and the economy of the archipelago, which is home to some 54,000 people, in contrast to Shetland's 23,000."It's about ambition," says tunnel builder Andy Sloan, whose company worked on part of the Faroese tunnel adds the islands have led the world "in connecting an archipelago in the middle of the North Atlantic through blood, sweat and tears – and focus."They have delivered a remarkable piece of infrastructure," says Mr Sloan, who is executive vice-president of engineering firm is now advising Shetland Islands Council on the technicalities and financing of Faroese tunnels were constructed using a technique known as drill and blast – where holes are drilled in rock, explosives are dropped in, and the rubble is then cleared away – which Mr Sloan says could also be used in Scotland."Without doubt, Shetland can copy what has been achieved in these islands," he adds. Prof Erika Anne Hayfield, dean of the Faculty of History and Social Sciences at the University of the Faroe Islands, says the tunnels have delivered significant benefits."People can live and thrive in smaller settlements," while still participating fully in island life and commuting to "the central labour market" in Tórshavn, she explains."In the long term, in terms of demography, social sustainability, a lot of people on islands believe that it is necessary," adds Prof she said the costs of some tunnels had been controversial, with some Faroese arguing that they are being built at the expense of investing in schools and hospitals. Shetland's main town, Lerwick, may be closer to Tórshavn than it is to Edinburgh – and closer to Copenhagen than London – but advocates of tunnels insist the islands are not a remote backwater but an advanced economy constrained by poor archipelago of 100 islands at the confluence of the North Sea and Atlantic Ocean boasts the UK's only spaceport and a thriving fishing industry."We land more fish in Shetland than we do in the whole of England, Northern Ireland and Wales," says Macdonald."Tunnels could be incredibly transformational," she adds: "We're really excited about the opportunity."The 20th Century oil and gas boom brought Shetland riches but the islands have since embraced the shift to renewable energy and are home to the UK's most productive onshore wind farm."Shetland's really integral to Scotland and to the wider UK," says Macdonald. The council has authorised a £990,000 feasibility study into building tunnels to four islands – Unst, Yell, Bressay and has not yet published an estimated cost for construction. "Tunnels would really open up this island for businesses," says Elizabeth Johnson, external affairs manager of Saxavord Spaceport on adds that they would "enhance the economic viability of the island".But with neither the Scottish nor UK governments volunteering to pay for Shetland's tunnels, the Faroese funding model of borrowing paid back by tolls looks likely to be adopted."I think people recognise that there is probably a need for tolling and I think people understand that," says adds: "They already have to pay to go on the ferries."At present the council runs ferry services to nine islands, carrying around 750,000 passengers each year on 12 vessels at a cost of £23m per average age of the fleet is 31.5 years, costs have risen sharply in the past decade, and some routes are struggling to meet demand for vehicle and Clyde ferries, off the west of Scotland, run by Scottish government-owned Caledonian MacBrayne, are also ageing and have been beset by problems. Mr Sloan says tunnels could provide more robust transport links for the west coast as well as the Northern Isles."Quite frankly, it can be repeated in Shetland, and not just Shetland, possibly elsewhere in Scotland."Mr Sloan agrees that tolls are the most feasible funding were abolished on the Skye Bridge in 2004 after a long-running campaign of non payment, and were scrapped on the Forth and Tay road bridges in Ms Johnson, of the Saxavord Spaceport, reckons Shetlanders would be happy to pay their way."I don't think anybody that I've spoken to would be against tolls," she says. Although there is no organised opposition to tunnels in Shetland some locals do express concern about whether they would change what it means to be an island. Pat Burns runs the northernmost shop in the British Isles, The Final Checkout on was not convinced about tunnels at first, fearing that they would alter the nature of island life."I like the challenges of trying to get from A to B," she after years of worrying about bad weather interrupting supplies for her shop and seeing tourists turned away because ferries are full, she has changed her mind."I was a wee bit iffy-iffy about it before," she says, "but now I realise that if Unst doesn't get a tunnel, the challenge is going to be too big."

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