Cheshire devolution: Lib Dems criticise mayoral election delay
The ministry of housing, communities and local government spokesperson said leaders of the councils had requested the delay to "simplify the elections process for voters and save taxpayers' money".The Conservative opposition on both Cheshire East and Cheshire West and Chester councils had first called for the delay and welcomed the move.Gowland said there had been "no consultation with elected councillors, no engagement with opposition groups, and no public transparency" on the decision.The county will choose its first mayor to head a new combined authority consisting of the three councils, which is set to come into being at the beginning of 2026.Gowland said the delay to 2027 aligned with local elections in two areas of Cheshire, but Warrington's next local elections were not until 2028.He said: "More concerning is the possibility that we now lose a full year of access to devolution funding—money that could be invested in vital transport, infrastructure and skills projects starting from June 2026. "Residents should not pay the price for a politically convenient delay."
Read more stories from Cheshire on the BBC and follow BBC North West on X. For more local politics coverage, BBC Politics North West is on BBC One on Sunday at 10:00am and on BBC iPlayer.
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The Guardian
6 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Tuesday briefing: What the fraught talks to reach a ‘Paris agreement for plastic pollution' could bring
Good morning. Not only does plastic waste clog up waterways, beaches and strangle sea life, it also causes havoc inside the human body. Tiny fragments – invisible to the human eye – are probably swimming around your lungs, blood and liver right now. This represents a 'growing and underrecognised danger' to human health, the latest report in the Lancet warns, as 10 days of tense talks kick off in Geneva today, with 179 countries due to hash out a kind of 'Paris agreement for plastic pollution'. These talks – which have been going on since 2022 – have been dogged by deep disagreements. More than 100 nations want a legally binding cap on plastic production, while petrostates want to keep things vague, and maybe promise to, errrrr, do some more recycling, perhaps? It's possible talks will collapse with no reference to cuts to plastic production. I spoke to the Guardian's environment correspondent Sandra Laville about why the sixth (and hopefully final) round of talks are likely to be so fraught and what a good deal could look like. Weather | Gusts of more than 100mph from Storm Floris have brought travel disruption, power cuts and the widespread cancellation of events across large parts of the UK. Disruption to the rail network in Scotland is expected until around 4pm on Tuesday, ScotRail has said. UK news | A member of the House of Lords urged ministers to crack down on Palestine Action at the request of a US defence company that employs him as an adviser. Police are planning to arrest anyone demonstrating in support of Palestine Action this weekend. Politics | The Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, is not telling the truth about the 'real failures of 14 years of Conservative government', the former Conservative prime minister Liz Truss has said. Tommy Robinson | The far-right activist known as Tommy Robinson has been arrested by British police on suspicion of grievous bodily harm after a man was allegedly assaulted at a London railway station. Gaza | More than 100 critically ill and injured children in Gaza hope to come to the UK as soon as possible after the government announced a scheme to provide those in severe need with NHS care. The United Nations agreed to create a treaty on plastic in 2022. Since then, five separate negotiations have failed to secure an agreement. Initially, the idea was for the treaty to address the whole life cycle of plastics, but plans have since been watered down. The last round of talks – held in Busan, South Korea – broke down at the end of last year. 'There was some concern we wouldn't even get another meeting,' says Sandra Laville. Country representatives are resuming today for 10 days of talks in Switzerland. Although plastic is often seen as a cheap material, it's expensive when you factor in the cost of cleaning up the damage it causes – the latest report found it is responsible for at least $1.5tn (£1.1tn) a year in health-related damages. And almost all plastic is made from fossil oil and gas. Producing all of this plastic results in greater emissions than those produced by Russia – the world's fourth-largest polluter. According to the University of Oxford's Our World in Data, plastic production has increased sharply over the past 70 years. In 1950, the world was producing two million tonnes of plastic to more than 450m tonnes today. Less than 10% of the world's plastic is recycled, and more than 40% is stuck in landfill. 'Single-use plastic is the big earner for lots of companies and the petrochemical industry,' says Sandra. There were a record 220 fossil fuel and chemic industry lobbyists at the December talks in Busan. That was far more than even the host nation's delegation of 140 and was three times the number of independent scientists. Hotel and flight costs make the treaty negotiations expensive to attend, which is why rich industrial interests can flood the talks with lobbyists while smaller countries, scientists and NGOs struggle to find the funds. Why is this such a pressing problem for human health? Plastic is, in many ways, a wonder material, but the most rapid increase in production is for single-use plastics, things such as drinks bottles and fast-food packaging, which we sometimes use for a matter of minutes before chucking away. This sort of plastic may be a big earner for companies, but it is not essential for human wellbeing, and the drawbacks are significant. The latest review, published in the leading medical journal the Lancet, was carried out by leading health researchers and doctors. They found plastics cause disease and death from infancy to old age because they are laced in more than 16,000 chemicals such as fillers, dyes, flame retardants and stabilisers which have been known to damage human health. The most vulnerable in society are the most at risk. The analysis found that foetuses and infants were subject to harms such as increased risks of miscarriage, stillbirth, birth defects, impaired lung growth, childhood cancer and fertility problems later in life. What are delegates going to achieve? There are two groups battling it out in Geneva. One is comprised of more than 100 countries – including the EU – which support legally binding global reductions in plastic production and the phasing out of single-use plastic products. The other camp are countries with large fossil fuel industries, such as Saudi Arabia, Russia and Iran, who say they don't want any suggestion of tackling plastic production. The latter group want the agreement to focus on better management and recycling of waste, and for countries to implement voluntary or national measures. 'Countries such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, and China have moved the discussion away from production towards, 'Oh we just need to manage the waste better, oh we just need to recycle more',' says Sandra. Since 2022, these divisions have become more entrenched. Countries such as Egypt and Malaysia have plastic industry representatives in their national delegations. Meanwhile, the 100 high-ambition countries are not going to fold – the evidence shows we have to reduce plastic production to reduce pollution. 'That's why it all collapsed in Busan in December,' says Sandra. The nature of any agreement is still up the air – it's possible a meaningful treaty will be agreed, or they have further meetings, or some countries agree to pursue a 'coalition of the willing' treaty outside the UN. Greenpeace is calling for at least a 75% reduction in plastic production by 2040. But if an agreement can be reached, it would be the equivalent of getting the Paris agreement for climate negotiations. 'You can argue the Paris agreement hasn't done much, but there has been an agreement, and we just haven't had one on plastic pollution. So this is the kind of vacuum that needs to be filled,' says Sandra. What does this say about international environmental diplomacy? 'I think there was this real optimism in 2022 when the idea of a treaty was agreed,' says Sandra. Scientists were saying that getting a good agreement could be a gamechanger for cutting plastic pollution. But the winds appear to have changed. 'By last November that optimism had all gone.' The US – which is the world's second-largest producer of plastic after China – has flip-flopped positions during negotiations, but now appears to be aligned with other major fossil fuel producers and is supporting the least ambitious option. China and Iran are also among the countries looking for less ambition, an option they describe as 'realistic'. It comes as the Trump administration in the US rolls back environmental policies, including a longstanding finding on greenhouse gas emissions endangering health. Andrés del Castillo, senior attorney at the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), a non profit providing legal counsel to some countries attending the talks, said oil states were questioning even basic facts about the harm to health caused by plastics. 'We are in a moment of revisionism, where even science is highly politicised,' he says. Hopes for a 'last-chance' ambitious global treaty to curb plastic pollution are looking dim – but a weaker agreement still shows international diplomacy functions. 'It doesn't feel as if the world is ready to address any of this,' says Sandra. 'I do think that any treaty – as long as it's not really weak – is a good thing to hold up.' Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion Nels Abbey is compelling in this column on Kemi Badenoch's 'comedic, but sadly revealing' rejection of her Nigerian heritage – not least, he writes, because her life 'hardly describes the general Black experience'. Charlie Lindlar, acting deputy editor, newsletters Someone in Teesside has (or had) been sharing their house with a rat the length of a carry-on luggage bag. Rats are getting bigger and bolder as cash-strapped local authorities can't deal with pest control. Quite a memorable read – if only for the picture at the top. Phoebe Some strong takes here in Michael Hogan's list of TV characters so bad they ruined shows. Emily from Friends ('unfunny wet blanket') gets a rough go of it, but Ted Lasso's Nate Shelley deserves even deeper condemnation. Charlie Millions of people are in line for payouts after the launch of a compensation scheme for those affected by the car finance scandal. This is a useful explainer on who is eligible and what you need to do. Phoebe Forget something to read, how about something to cook? Rukmini Iyer's baked feta tacos with pink onion and pineapple salsa is a fun, fuss-free dinner that, she promises, 'comes together in minutes'. Charlie Football | Everton have raised their bid for Tyler Dibling to about £40m and opened talks with Chelsea over signing Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall (pictured above) as they attempt to ease David Moyes's transfer frustrations. Formula One | Lewis Hamilton gave a remarkably downbeat response after a 12th place finish in the Hungarian Grand Prix on Sunday, prompting questions about his future. The former world champion suggested he was in turmoil and that he would 'hopefully' return when F1 resumes after the summer break. Football | Fifa is facing a multibillion-pound claim for compensation from a group of former players after last year's ruling by the European court of justice that its transfer rules are unlawful. The Guardian leads with 'Police warn of mass arrests at Palestine Action protest'. The Mirror reports on Nigel Farage under the headline 'Fanning the flames'. The i reports 'Home Office to detain small boat migrants for deportation to France in days'. The Times has 'PM and police at odds over migrant suspects'. The Telegraph reports 'Parents pay £500m to beat school VAT raid'. The Financial Times says 'Tesla awards Musk $30bn of stock to keep billionaire focused on business'. How the Trump administration made a sewage crisis 'woke' How did the Trump administration upend a landmark civil rights victory for environmental justice? Nina Lakhani reports. A bit of good news to remind you that the world's not all bad Last year, Chiara Wilkinson (pictured above) felt increasing guilt about getting to the end of a week and facing a fridge full of wilted ingredients. A long commute and grand ideas about what she had the time and energy to cook meant that a lot of food got chucked in the compost bin. But last summer, while auditing her overall spending, she also started growing a few vegetables. 'It was as if a switch had been flicked in my mind – as if it had taken the idea of growing my own food to truly understand the value and timescale of food production,' she writes. She committed to using up every scrap of uneaten food and became more flexible about following recipes. Apples in a curry? Yes, please. Leftover roast potatoes with spaghetti? Delicious. It hasn't been without what she terms 'flavour disasters', but she has found the challenge has made her less ambitious but more creative. 'Best of all,' Wilkinson writes, 'I've rediscovered what I loved about cooking in the first place: the joy of making something delicious out of almost nothing.' Sign up here for a weekly roundup of The Upside, sent to you every Sunday And finally, the Guardian's puzzles are here to keep you entertained throughout the day. Until tomorrow. Quick crossword Cryptic crossword Wordiply
BBC News
34 minutes ago
- BBC News
Oxford controversial bridge scheme cost rises by £3.7m
A controversial bridge will cost an extra £3.7m to build because of delays caused by a recent judicial review, a local authority has Oxpens River Bridge, which would link Oxpens Meadow to Grandpont Nature Park in Oxford, was approved last year and was supposed to have been built by against the bridge launched a judicial review into the decision earlier this year, which was dismissed by the High Court on all five counts in bridge was initially expected to cost £10.3m, but the city council now estimates it will cost £14m. Oxford City Council said the increase in cost was due to the inflation of construction costs, caused by the delay from the judicial a report prepared ahead of a scrutiny committee meeting on Tuesday, the council said it was working with potential benefactors, including Homes England and the University of Oxford, to bridge the funding gaps. Construction work on the bridge is set to begin in early 2026, with a view to be completed by February Friends of Grandpont Nature Park, who brought the judicial review, said it "hopes to save [the taxpayer] millions by scrapping the project altogether".The group has submitted an appeal against the high court decision, and is waiting to hear whether it can city council previously said the bridge would provide a walking route between Osney Mead and Oxpens - with both areas set for regeneration with new homes and for the bridge currently consists of £8.8m from the Oxfordshire Housing and Growth Deal, and £1.5m from the Housing and Infrastructure Fund from Homes opposed to the development argue locals would lose a cherished nature park, emphasising that there is already a bridge a short distance away that could be fixed instead. You can follow BBC Oxfordshire on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.
The Herald Scotland
34 minutes ago
- The Herald Scotland
Now will the small minds of the SNP twig what voters care about?
Gus Connelly, Calderbank. Time to trim constituency Yet another bright light in Holyrood is dimmed, as Deputy First Minister [[Kate Forbes]] announces her intention to stand down from politics in 2026. Ms Forbes certainly lit up the Chamber back in 2020 as the first female to deliver a Scottish Budget (incidentally at short notice) and she brought great ability and commitment to her new-found position. To be an MSP in such a rural and geographically taxing constituency as Skye, Lochaber & Badenoch would be difficult for anyone, but for a mum with a young child it presents a scenario which raises questions. Should the Boundary Commission be considering geographically halving the constituency to make it manageable? Should Parliament be looking for options for such a widely-spread constituency? The make-up of constituencies should be manageable in the interest of constituents and their representatives. Catriona C Clark, Falkirk. Read more letters How much did Sturgeon cost us? In her paean of praise for Nicola Sturgeon's 'many achievements', Ruth Marr (Letters, August 2) draws a veil over the costs to the public purse of these policies. With regard to the SNP's abolition of prescription charges, perhaps one example will suffice to illustrate the financial impact of this policy. The cost to NHS Scotland in 2023-24 for paracetamol prescriptions alone was £14 million. Adding pharmacy dispensing charges of £7m brings the total cost to £21m. A Google search reveals that a pack of paracetamol can be bought for around 90p in any supermarket. Alan Ramage, Edinburgh. • It is notable that the list of "achievements" by Nicola Sturgeon given by Ruth Marr all involve her spending other people's money. I wonder if Ms Marr can come up with an example of Ms Sturgeon making a positive contribution to achieving economic growth in Scotland. She certainly made many negative contributions like destroying the ferry service to Arran and allowing her erstwhile allies in the Green Party to introduce measures like National Planning Framework 4 that are strangling economic development all over Scotland. I also wonder if Ms Marr is aware that her hero's actions in relation to the ferries, including having the Glen Sannox launched on her direct orders six months before the ship was ready so that she could upstage the Conservative Defence Secretary when he was announcing new jobs, and her contribution to the closure of the Grangemouth oil refinery by further high-handed actions, have resulted in the new "greener" ferries actually being responsible for more emissions of carbon dioxide than their conventionally powered predecessors. This is because the diesel fuel that the conventional ferries use can be brought to Ardrossan by electrically powered railway trains but the Liquefied Natural Gas needed to make the new ferries "greener" has to be transported from Essex on diesel-powered lorries. You couldn't make it up. Peter Wylie, Paisley. Indy target should be two-thirds As GR Weir (Letters, August 2) has not answered my simple question as to how he would define his 'stable majority" for independence, allow me to propose two-thirds for consideration. In my view, irrespective of how, when and by whom the decision to hold another inevitably divisive referendum on independence is taken, the stable polling majority sufficient to justify it must be understood in advance, and to achieve independence the actual voting result must at least confirm that polling majority. That result can then be taken as the settled will of the people at that time. The same requirements would apply to any subsequent calls for a rejoin referendum. As Mr Weir will know, to change the constitution of the [[SNP]], the principal advocate of independence, requires at least a two-thirds majority (Article 27), so nationalists should have no difficulty in supporting my proposal. Alan Fitzpatrick, Dunlop. Why can't they admit mistakes? Kevin McKenna's interview with Jackie Baillie on Saturday (''I hated how Sandie Peggie's daughter was used', says Scottish Labour deputy leader', The Herald, August 2) highlights an uncomfortable but increasingly familiar feature of our politics: an unwillingness to accept responsibility for past decisions. In December 2022 Scottish Labour gave full support to the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill. The party whipped its MSPs to vote in favour and, with their backing, the legislation was passed by the Scottish Parliament. Since then, the well-publicised cases of Isla Bryson and Sandie Peggie have shown that public concern is widespread – particularly about allowing individuals to legally change their gender through self-identification, thereby acquiring all the rights of their preferred gender. Labour now appears to be pivoting in response to that unease. Jackie Baillie attempts to distance the party from the fallout by suggesting Labour's support of the bill was dependent on key amendments and a future consultation with the UK Government. This rings hollow. If those amendments were so crucial, why did the party not withdraw its support when they were not accepted? And what purpose does consultation serve after a bill has been passed? This kind of political hedging only deepens public distrust in the integrity of politicians. Would it not be more honest and more effective to simply say "Sorry. We got this wrong"? George Rennie, Inverness. How will Nicola Sturgeon be remembered? (Image: PA) Let the media into Gaza The first and continuing victim of war is truth. Despite evidence from non-Palestinians, western doctors among them, about the near-famine conditions in Gaza, it has not come as a surprise to watch and listen to Israeli officials claim it is a lie that Palestinians are facing starvation. From what I have seen from interviews with [[Israel]]i citizens, they too believe the world is subject to Hamas propaganda. There is a way for the world to see, without bias, the actual conditions under which Palestinians are now compelled to live – reverse the present [[Israel]]i policy and let the world's media into [[Gaza]] so that we can all see for ourselves from objective reporting. If not, why not, is the question Keir Starmer should put to his [[Israel]]i counterpart. As for Hamas, is it not past time for those in its leadership languishing in the safety of Qatar to be asked why, given its ability to construct miles of tunnels in Gaza, it did not build shelters for the population when it must have known that Israel would respond to the atrocity of October 7 with a fury not seen before? Jim Sillars, Edinburgh. Shame on Ian Murray The Secretary of State for Scotland's antipathy towards the Scottish Government is persistent, but surely reached a new low when he castigated Public Finance Minister Ivan McKee for using the word 'genocide' during a BBC broadcast discussion about recognising the state of Palestine ("Minister confirms Scottish Government 'genocide' in Gaza position", heraldscotland, August 3). Ian Murray wants the courts to decide what is genocide, presumably before the UK Government acts, and despite the fact that the UN Special Committee, Amnesty International and Médicin San Frontières have all used the term to describe the continuing Israeli actions in Gaza. In addition, reports from the front line bring us daily reports of massive fatalities, destruction of infrastructure, displacement of communities, murder of aid workers, and human rights abuses, all of which meet the criteria for genocide. But Ian Murray wants to wait on the courts, and by doing so extends the United Kingdom's complicity in the despicable acts of the Israeli state. Shame on him. Graeme Forbes, Edinburgh.
