
Work to begin on latest phase of improvements to A660 in Leeds
The improvements are being funded by a £10.4m grant from Active Travel England, with this phase of work being delivered by Hinko Construction.It includes delivering a segregated inbound and outbound cycle track on both sides of the road, changing pedestrian crossings outside the Arndale Centre and The Original Oak to toucan crossings, and a major upgrade of junctions at Hyde Park Corner and North Lane.Other improvements include introducing a 20mph speed limit between Shaw Lane and St. Michael's Road, wider pavements, and continuous crossings at most junctions, upgrading bus stops and shelters, and providing better access to public transport outside the Arndale Centre.From Monday 16 June, the junction of St. Michael's Road and the A660 will be permanently closed to motor vehicles, with the area being transformed into a public space.The junction of the A660 with Regent Park Avenue will also be closed to motor vehicles from 30 July, and the existing left-turn road closure from Woodhouse Street to A660 Woodhouse Lane will be made permanent, with greenery and space for outdoor dining.
The council's deputy leader and executive member for economy, transport and sustainable development, Jonathan Pryor, said the A660 was one of the city's busiest routes between north Leeds and the city centre."It's important that we make these improvements so it's safer for everyone using it - helping to meet our Vision Zero-strategy goal of eliminating road deaths and serious injuries on Leeds roads by 2040."As with any scheme of this nature, there is likely to be some disruption during construction, but we will work to keep this to a minimum - so we are encouraging people to plan ahead when travelling along this route."The work follows previous phases completed earlier this year.The council said the majority of works will be carried out between 09:30 and 15:30 on weekdays, and said bus routes would not be affected.
Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


The Sun
a few seconds ago
- The Sun
Plans to lift two-child benefit cap will land UK's biggest jobless families with £20K a year costing taxpayer £3.5B
PLANS to lift the two-child benefit cap could give Britain's largest families around £20,000 a year. Around 70,000 families would receive more than £18,000 a year in child benefits if ministers move to lift the controversial limit. 3 3 Some of the largest families in the UK would find themselves more than £20,000 better off compared to the current system, however this could come at a hefty cost to the taxpayer. The two-child benefit cap - introduced by the Conservatives in 2017 - means parents cannot claim Universal Credit payments (worth about £300 a month) for more than two of their kids. However, ministers have floated the idea of scrapping the cap - which would cost £3.5 billion. Pressure has been growing on Keir Starmer to change the policy, with his backbenchers believing the cap is deeply unfair to children growing up in poverty. However, the Conservatives argue it would be unfair to hand packages to families on benefits that are worth more than the minimum wage when other taxpayers cannot afford to have more children. Former prime minister Gordon Brown has pleaded the government to increase gambling levies in order to fund the scrapping of the cap. If lifted, around half a million children could be taken out of poverty. Nigel Farage has said Reform UK would also lift the cap to encourage families to have more children, leaving the Tories somewhat isolated in their position. At present, the two-child benefit cap prevents families from claiming the £292.81-a-month child element of Universal Credit for third or subsequent children born after April 6, 2017. Around 71,000 families with five or more children on Universal Credit would stand to gain significantly from the abolished cap, official figures show. Changes to UC & PIP payments in full as Labour reveals bruising welfare bill concessions in bid to quell rebellion Each one of these would become eligible for at least £18,122.88 every year. This includes 14,899 families with six children, 4,812 with seven children, 1,822 with eight children and 668 with nine children, according to data released in answer to a parliamentary question. On top of these, there are 424 families with ten or more children who, without the cap, could gain child Universal Credit payments worth more than £35,000 a year, in addition to other benefits. Exactly how much each family stands to gain depends on when their children were born. Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Helen Whately said: "Without a cap, Labour will end up giving households thousands of pounds in extra benefits — a top-up worth more than a year's full-time pay on the minimum wage. "Not only is this unaffordable, it's also unfair. If you're in work you don't get extra pay for another child, so it doesn't make sense for parents on benefits to get more." She added: "Working people shouldn't see their taxes go up to fund uncapped payouts to others who've opted out of work but opted in to multiple children." The prime minister has faced backlash from his backbench in recent months, including pressure which led to a u-turn on planned tightening for Personal Independence Payments (PIP) claims. Whately said: "Starmer's Britain is living beyond its means. He needs to stand firm against the pressure from his backbenchers and make the firm but fair choices to get welfare costs under control." TWO-CHILD BENEFIT CAP IS 'BIGGEST DRIVER OF RISING CHILD POVERTY' However, Chief Executive of the Child Poverty Action Group Alison Garnham said that "evidence shows the two-child limit does not affect parents' decision about family size". She highlighted that just two per cent of families on benefits had five or more children, arguing it was "poor policy" to focus on extreme cases. Garnham added: "Clearly for these households, money does not drive decisions about family size since the vast majority are only receiving UC support for two children" Around 4.5 million children currently live in relative poverty, with Garnham saying the two-child limit was the "biggest driver of rising child poverty". 100,000 more children entered relative poverty last year, and Garnham argues that "scrapping it is the most cost-effective way to reverse the increase". She said: "Giving all children the best start in life will be impossible unless the government abolishes the policy in its autumn child poverty strategy." A government spokesman said: "Every child — no matter their background — deserves the best start in life. "That's why our child poverty taskforce will publish an ambitious strategy to tackle the structural and root causes of child poverty, and in the meantime we are investing £500 million in children's development and ensuring the poorest children don't go hungry in the holidays through a new £1 billion crisis support package."


The Independent
30 minutes ago
- The Independent
Government must stop children using VPNs to dodge age checks on porn sites, commissioner demands
England's children's commissioner has demanded that the government stop children from using virtual private networks (VPNs) to get around age verification on porn sites. Calling for change, Dame Rachel de Souza warned it is "absolutely a loophole that needs closing" as she released a new report, which found the proportion of children saying they have seen pornography online has risen in the past two years, with most likely to have stumbled upon it accidentally. VPNs are tools that connect internet users to websites via remote servers, enabling them to hide their real IP address and location, which includes allowing them to look as if they are online but in another country. This means the Online Safety Act, which now forces platforms to check users' ages if attempting to access some adult content, can be dodged. After sites such as PornHub, Reddit and X introduced age verifcation requirements last month, VPNs became the most downloaded apps, according to the BBC. A government spokesperson told the broadcaster that there are no plans to ban VPNs as they are legal tools for adults. Dame Rachel told Newsnight: "Of course, we need age verification on VPNs – it's absolutely a loophole that needs closing and that's one of my major recommendations." She called on ministers to look at requiring VPNs 'to implement highly effective age assurances to stop underage users from accessing pornography'. More than half (58 per cent) of respondents to the commissioner's survey said that, as children, they had seen pornography involving strangulation, while 44 per cent reported seeing a depiction of rape – specifically someone who was asleep. Made up of responses from 1,020 people aged between 16 and 21 years old, the report also found that while children were on average aged 13 when they first saw pornography, more than a quarter (27 per cent) said they were 11, and some reported being aged 'six or younger'. The research suggested four in 10 respondents felt girls can be 'persuaded' to have sex even if they say no at first, and that young people who had watched pornography were more likely to think this way. The report, a follow-on from research by the Children's Commissioner's office in 2023, found a higher proportion (70 per cent) of people saying they had seen online pornography before turning 18, up from 64 per cent of respondents two years ago. Boys (73 per cent) were more likely than girls (65 per cent) to report seeing online pornography. A majority (59 per cent) of children and young people said they had seen pornography online by accident – a rise from 38 per cent in 2023. Dame Rachel said her research is evidence that harmful content is being presented to children through dangerous algorithms, rather than them seeking it out. She described the content young people are seeing as 'violent, extreme and degrading' and often illegal, and said her office's findings must be seen as a 'snapshot of what rock bottom looks like'. Dame Rachel said: 'This report must act as a line in the sand. The findings set out the extent to which the technology industry will need to change for their platforms to ever keep children safe. 'Take, for example, the vast number of children seeing pornography by accident. This tells us how much of the problem is about the design of platforms, algorithms and recommendation systems that put harmful content in front of children who never sought it out.' The research was done in May, ahead of new online safety measures coming into effect last month, including age checks to prevent children accessing pornography and other harmful content. A Department of Science, Innovation and Technology spokesperson told the BBC that "children have been left to grow up in a lawless online world for too long" and "the Online Safety Act is changing that'. However, responding to Dame Rachel's remarks on VPNs, they added that there are no plans to ban them, "but if platforms deliberately push workarounds like VPNs to children, they face tough enforcement and heavy fines'.


BBC News
30 minutes ago
- BBC News
Londonderry: US flag saved from bonfire returned to school
A historical US flag stolen from the grounds of a school built on the site of a former American naval base has been returned after it was recovered from a bonfire in flag was taken from Foyle College on the city's Limavady Road in early Monday, independent Derry City and Strabane District councillor Gary Donnelly said he believed the flag had been removed from the bonfire after efforts to have it College confirmed on Tuesday that the flag had now been handed back to the school. The school thanked those involved in securing the safe return of the flag."We hope its safe return will play a part in improving mutual understanding across our shared society and assist efforts to build a more peaceful future," a statement school said "given the sensitivity surrounding this process", it would be making no further comment. The flag was gifted to the school by members of the former US naval communications was last officially flown at the base in November 1963 to mark President Kennedy's death and more than half a century later in 2019 was presented to Foyle College which had moved to the site the year before. Police have said they are investigating the placing of materials on the bonfires, which were lit in the Creggan and Bogside areas of Derry on Friday night, including flags and wreaths, as sectarian hate crimes and sectarian hate Monday it was reported that a last-ditch attempt to save a flag stolen from Londonderry's Protestant cathedral from being burned on a bonfire in the city had failed.