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Brighton and Hove park and ride service to begin on Sunday

Brighton and Hove park and ride service to begin on Sunday

BBC News28-07-2025
A new park and ride service will launch in Brighton this weekend, the city council has confirmed.Brighton & Hove City Council (BHCC) approved plans for a long-discussed park and ride scheme in January, and now says that it will launch on Sunday.The scheme, which will take passengers from the University of Sussex campus in Falmer to Church Street in the city centre, will run every weekend in August, as well as on the Bank Holiday Monday on 25 August.Buses will run every 15 minutes from 09:00 to 21:00 BST, the council added.
The park and ride service will cost £7 per car, which includes all passengers in the vehicle, the council said.Final buses from Brighton returning to Falmer would leave Church Street at 20:30.Trevor Muten, cabinet member for transport, parking and public realm, previously said: "This initiative will operate alongside our efforts to make parking simpler and fairer, our expansion in electric vehicle charging, and our improvements to the city's walking and cycling infrastructure."It all adds up to a comprehensive, city-wide strategy to give our residents and visitors more options to travel sustainably."BHCC also said it would look to introduce further locations around the city following the opening of the first site.It added that the service was currently only for people parking their cars at the university, but it would be "considering wider options in the future".
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Moment private plane makes emergency landing at Birmingham Airport: Travel chaos for holidaymakers as all flights remain grounded
Moment private plane makes emergency landing at Birmingham Airport: Travel chaos for holidaymakers as all flights remain grounded

Daily Mail​

time22 minutes ago

  • Daily Mail​

Moment private plane makes emergency landing at Birmingham Airport: Travel chaos for holidaymakers as all flights remain grounded

A plane skidded down the runway to make an emergency landing at Birmingham Airport today forcing the cancellation of all flights until at least 8pm. The small aircraft, a Beech B200 Super King Air plane, had been headed for Belfast before it was forced to make an impromptu landing on the city runway at 1.40pm. An observer, who wished to remain anonymous, filmed the plane - forced to descend without fully extending its landing gear - as it made the emergency stop. He said: 'It took off from Birmingham, and as it was flying over Tamworth, it declared an emergency. 'The plane turned around to come back to Birmingham - when it came to land, it went for a go-around [an aborted landing]. I saw all its landing gears out.' The person who filmed the footage said the plane then attempted a 'long' go-around - which means the plane wasn't able to land because it hadn't been given clearance, so it stayed in the air. 'A few aircrafts landed in the meantime,' he added. 'Then about 15 minutes later, the Super King plane came into view. I could hear a loud noise which I initially thought was the brakes seizing. I realised, after zooming in, the plane was dragging along.' A plane skidded down the runway to make an emergency landing at Birmingham Airport today forcing the cancellation of scores of flights until at least 8pm Three people received medical attention after the emergency landing, but just one person has been treated for minor injuries. All departures and arrivals at the hub have been halted leaving thousands of passengers impacted by the disruption this afternoon. Some arriving flights were diverted, with services from Ryanair and Jet2 sent to Stansted, Manchester and East Midlands airports while Birmingham remained shut. West Midlands Ambulance Service has since discharged all those onboard the aircraft. Birmingham Airport said in a statement posted at 4.16pm that people due to travel later today should check the status of their flight before coming to the airport. One X user posted photos of the stricken plane's tail sitting on the runway, writing: 'An aircraft on the runway at Birmingham airport seems to have emergency crews around it.' They added: 'No flights taking off till 6.00. Not a great start to the holiday.' Another wrote: 'Son and family have been diverted to Stansted. Just landed but not given any more info yet.' And a third said: 'How can a plane that small and on the grass delay us for three hours? Any explanation?' Emergency crews headed to the runway to assist those on board the plane, which is operated by Belfast-based private charter operator Woodgate Aviation. The plane, registered G-NIAA, was built in 1981 and is owned by a firm called Blue Sky Investments on the Isle of Man, according to Civil Aviation Authority records. It left Birmingham at 1.11pm but soon made a turn and several loops before landing back at the same airport at 1.58pm, according to tracking website FlightRadar 24. The Beech B200 Super King Air is the same aircraft model involved in the fireball crash at London Southend Airport on July 13 which killed four people onboard. A Birmingham Airport spokesman said at 2.40pm today: 'Following an aircraft incident, the runway is temporarily closed. We apologise for the inconvenience this will cause. 'We will keep passengers already at the airport informed, and those due to travel later today are advised to check the status of their flight before coming to the airport. We will continue to issue updates when we can.' A further update from the airport at 4.15pm said: 'Following an aircraft incident earlier today, the runway is still temporarily closed. All persons on board the aircraft have been discharged by West Midlands Ambulance Service. 'During this temporary closure we apologise for the inconvenience this is causing. Passengers on site remain informed and those due to travel later today and advised to check the status of their flight before coming to the airport. 'At this time, both check-in and security are temporarily closed. We will continue to issue updates when we can.' A West Midlands Police spokesman said: 'We are at Birmingham Airport this afternoon after a small aircraft was involved in an emergency landing at around 1.40pm. 'Officers are among the emergency crews at the scene and one person has been reported to have minor injuries. 'The Civil Aviation Authority has been informed and the airport has suspended operations as an investigation is carried out.' West Midlands Ambulance Service said in a statement: 'We were called at 1.45pm to an incident involving a light aircraft at Birmingham Airport. Hazardous Area Response Team (HART) paramedics and three paramedic officers were sent to the scene. 'Upon arrival we found three patients from the aircraft, all of whom were assessed and discharged at the scene.' The airport's website also appeared to have gone down, with users greeted by a message saying: 'Bad gateway. Error code 502.' Birmingham is the UK's seventh-largest airport in the UK and handled about 13million passengers last year, with over 130 direct routes offered by 30 airlines. The disruption comes during the peak summer holiday season, and follows chaos at Heathrow yesterday when the airport was forced to shut a road tunnel connecting to Terminals 2 and 3. Roads leading up to the airport were gridlocked due to the closure, with some desperate flyers sprinting down the motorway with their luggage to catch their flights. It was the second incident to cause delays at the airport in just one week after an IT issue with a National Air Traffic Services (NATS) centre last Wednesday led to more than 150 flight cancellations across the country. The Southend Airport tragedy on July 13 saw a Beech B200 Super King Air on a medical flight crash within the airport boundary shortly after take-off that afternoon. Captain Danny Marko Franken (left), 53, and First Officer Floris Christiaan Rhee (right), 24, were two of the four people on board who all died in the crash at Southend Airport on July 13 Captain Danny Marko Franken, 53, and First Officer Floris Christiaan Rhee, 24, were piloting the plane chartered for a patient to be transported for treatment in the UK. The two pilots were on board with a female nurse and a male doctor, with the Zeusch Aviation plane bound for its Netherlands base after dropping off a patient. The nurse was named as Maria Fernanda Rojaz Ortiz, 31, a German national originally from Chile, and the doctor was German national Dr Matthias Eyl, 46. Footage showed fire and black smoke billowing into the air from the crash site, while witnesses described seeing the jet 'corkscrew' before erupting into a ball of flames. An investigation is underway into the cause of the crash in Essex involving the Super King Air, which is often used for mapping and for medivac journeys. The plane had completed two trips that day, one from Athens in Greece to Pula in Croatia and then from Pula to Southend, landing in the UK at 2.51pm. The crash happened at 3.48pm and led to all flights in and out of the airport, which is used by easyJet for many of its holiday routes, being suspended. The airport was closed while an early investigation was carried out but it partially reopened three days later and resumed normal operations from July 17.

Bureaucracy is a spoke in wheel of e-bike revolution
Bureaucracy is a spoke in wheel of e-bike revolution

Times

time22 minutes ago

  • Times

Bureaucracy is a spoke in wheel of e-bike revolution

Every day, thousands of Londoners choose to travel by e-bike. Whether for commuting, meeting friends or exploring the capital, e-bikes are opening up green, affordable and accessible cycling to a much wider audience. This demand is borne out in the data. Just last month Forest, the e-bike company I co-founded in 2021, reached a record-breaking 1.5 million rides across London, a 60 per cent increase from last year. While the upsides of getting more people cycling are obvious — it promotes healthier lifestyles, eases congestion and is better for the environment — we are acutely aware of the challenges that come with rising demand. No one benefits from e-bikes cluttering pavements or being parked irresponsibly. We know that. E-bikes should complement London's streets, not complicate them. So, what is the issue? Cities like Oxford and Bristol have one coherent operating area, but London has a tangled web of conflicting rules across different boroughs. One council bans parking in certain areas, another permits it freely. Some impose strict fines, others barely enforce regulations at all. This patchwork means riders are often confused about what they can and can't do. And it undermines public confidence in an otherwise transformative mode of transport. • Cut parking for second cars to make room for e-bikes, says rental firm We need consistency across all boroughs. Without it, we're opening the door to operators more focused on market share than street harmony. We're not advocating for fewer rules, in fact we're calling for more of them. London urgently needs a single regulatory framework. One set of parking standards, one enforcement model, and one operational rulebook should apply from Brent to Bromley. A coherent approach would allow riders to enjoy the benefits of cycling without worrying how to end their journey. Part of the challenge lies in Whitehall. The stalled English Devolution Bill has left London, not to mention other major British cities, without the powers to govern its mobility infrastructure effectively. That must change. Transport for London needs the authority to plan and implement a city-wide strategy across borough boundaries. • Chris Hoy joins e-bike revolution . . . but can 'weekend warriors' catch up? Forest is ready to work with regulators, not around them. We want higher standards, better accountability and smarter city planning. But that future cannot be built one borough at a time. Londoners are ready for a change. Let's give them the infrastructure and clarity they need to use e-bikes safely, confidently and responsibly. One city. One set of rules. Agustin Guilisasti is co-founder and CEO of Forest

Reeves has driven Britain to the brink. Full-blown crisis will soon be upon us
Reeves has driven Britain to the brink. Full-blown crisis will soon be upon us

Telegraph

time22 minutes ago

  • Telegraph

Reeves has driven Britain to the brink. Full-blown crisis will soon be upon us

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What many may not realise is that around 75 per cent of government expenditure is mandated – benefits, pensions, for instance – and cannot be avoided in the short-run. Only a quarter is discretionary – areas such as transport, or defence. This means that major spending cuts would require primary legislation, which feckless Labour backbenchers will never swallow. It also means that further tax rises, which Reeves in January insisted would not be necessary, are inevitable. No wonder asset managers are telling clients to prepare for 'very real, very targeted moves on people with portfolios, pensions and property'. Keir Starmer has refused to rule out further tax increases in the autumn Budget. Be afraid, be very afraid. How did we get into this mess? Not since 2001 has a chancellor presented a balanced Budget. Despite lip-service to fiscal probity, the desire to splurge has consistently outweighed the need for restraint. Lord, give me continence, but not yet. Politicians, of whatever stripe, have engaged in a collective delusion: that the Treasury is so awash with cash it is scrambling to find things to spend it on. Pay rises across the public sector? Green subsidies? A pointless railway to Birmingham? Bring it on. But the overall state of the public finances tells a grim story. In 2024-25, the state is projected to spend £1.2tn. Some £450bn of this will go on welfare, health and pensions – more than the entire take from income tax, National Insurance and VAT combined. The UK entered this century with debt at around 30 per cent of GDP; it's now pushing 100 per cent. The tax burden is at a post-War high, set to be around 37.5 per cent of GDP for the rest of this Parliament, yet core public services are crumbling and the crowd yells out for more. Polling suggests the public are closer to grasping our fiscal reality than politicians, with economic optimism now half what it was in July 2024. But even growing pessimism isn't enough to slake their thirst for more spending. Some 9.1 million people of working age are currently economically inactive. Over half of households are taking more from the state than they are putting in. As the number of net contributors shrinks, who, exactly, do people believe is footing the bill? More than two centuries ago, Adam Smith wrote: 'Little else is requisite to carry a state to the highest degree of opulence... but peace, easy taxes and a tolerable administration of justice.' Peace is uncertain, the administration of our increasingly wonky justice has time lags measured in years, and taxes increasingly drag us down. Council tax on our homes. The licence fee. VAT on virtually every product we consume. Vehicle Excise Duty. Congestion charges, tolls, Ulez. The sugar tax. A Digital Services tax on any online orders or subscriptions. Income tax. National Insurance Contributions raised for employers, but which in the end the employee will pay. 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