Alderney runway refurbishment plan to ensure airport safety
'Years of uncertainty'
He said: "We've done exactly that. We've drawn a line under the years of uncertainty and turned the conversation back to action."We now hope for an expedited route forward, building on the diligent work of our members and officers. "We're keen to hear the views of STSB and Ports, and we hope they are ready to progress delivery."The States said the proposals had been drafted to meet all necessary technical standards, grounded in prior contractor involvement and site knowledge.
It said it recognised "increasing pressures on the public purse" for Alderney and Guernsey."We therefore remain committed to being part of the solution to wider Bailiwick challenges by working collaboratively with our colleagues in the States of Guernsey to the benefit of the Bailiwick taxpayer," it said.It added upgrades to the terminal and control tower could be addressed following completion of the "critical phase".
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Telegraph
11 hours ago
- Telegraph
Thames Water faces rocketing demand for supplies
Thames Water has warned that plans to build 100 new data centres across London and the South East will pile more pressure on its creaking infrastructure. The utility giant said it had identified 108 'hyper or large' data centres that will drive up demand in its region, with bosses suggesting it will have to manage water supplies carefully to ensure there is no impact on households. Each data centre is equivalent to thousands of homes being added to a water network, meaning the pipeline of new data centres is on par with a new small city being built. In its annual report, Thames Water said that building data centres 'needs to be carefully managed from a demand and UK growth perspective'. The company, which is battling to avoid nationalisation amid pressure from a £17bn debt pile, has previously raised the prospect of rationing water use for data centres or charging more at peak times. Data centres contain giant racks of computer servers that need to be cooled to avoid overheating, often with water piped in. The facilities are crucial to the rise of artificial intelligence and are a key priority for Sir Keir Starmer's growth push. However, the vast number being built has sparked concern among water companies such as Thames Water, which is now engaging with the Government to prevent potential shortages in future. 'The south-east of England is a water-stressed region and data centres can use a vast amount of water, equivalent to the usage of thousands of homes at peak draw,' a Thames Water spokesman said. 'With a large proportion of the proposed data centres earmarked to be built in the Thames Water region, it brings a challenge between safeguarding our finite resources while supporting the UK's growth strategy. 'It is important that we work collaboratively to meet this challenge and to avoid exacerbating water stress and impacting service for customers and the environment.' 'We are engaging with the Government regarding the challenge of water demand related to cooling data centres and how this can be mitigated. We are also working with a number of data centre providers about opportunities to reduce demand through innovation.' A corridor of land between London and Slough, much of which is served by Thames Water, contains Britain's densest collection of data centres. An independent review of the water sector last week cited data centres as one of the factors that are likely to mean water bills rising by 30pc over the next five years. The report, by Sir Jon Cunliffe, a former deputy governor of the Bank of England, said that national infrastructure bodies should be consulted when deciding where to build them. The Government has welcomed investment in new data centres, including designating them as critical national infrastructure. Thames Water last week started a hosepipe ban for more than 1 million people in Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Wiltshire. The company is also seeking to agree a rescue deal with creditors, but has warned it may fall into special administration if talks between the lenders and regulator Ofwat fail.
BBC News
15 hours ago
- BBC News
Guernsey employers encouraged to help staff ditch cars
An active travel group in Guernsey is encouraging employers to find ways for their staff to ditch the car and walk, cycle or bus to work. The Better Journey's project, which is a charity, has released a leaflet that explains how employers can gain bus pass support, encourage walking to work and purchase bicycles. It follows a change in tax laws that allows employers to subsidise the cost of bike purchases for employees without it counting as a taxable Bennett from the group said the initial response from employers had been "extremely encouraging." The leaflet was created alongside the island's Health Improvement Commission and Admiral Park Better Journeys Project said it offered something for "every employer, large or small, public or private". "We've had really positive feedback so far, especially about the table that breaks down all of the options," said Ms Bennett. "It clearly shows whether an option is taxable, whether it requires any payroll admin, who pays for repairs, and so on. "That's made it very easy for employers to see what would work best in their own setting."The leaflet is available at local local bike shops, GP surgeries, and at Beau Sejour Leisure Centre. A digital version can be downloaded from the Better Journeys Project website.
BBC News
20 hours ago
- BBC News
National Development Plan: Can Ireland deliver on €112bn schemes?
It is a mark of the Republic of Ireland's recent economic performance that listeners to a popular politics podcast had to be reassured this week they will not face a "hair shirt" budget in the an economic context "hair shirt" tends to mean punitive austerity policies which make citizens uncomfortable and was in the wake of Ireland's pre-budget report which pointed to a 6.5% increase in core public spending, a tax cut for hospitality businesses and a €112bn (£98bn) package of infrastructure most European finance ministers those numbers would be closer to a silk shirt than a hair podcasters perhaps felt they had to give a reassurance as the budget will not deliver quite as much to household finances as it has in recent years. Big cash injection for housing For example a €250 universal energy credit introduced during the worst of the cost of living crisis will not be the run up to October's budget is expected to be dominated by a drip feed of announcements on the specific projects which will flow from that huge infrastructure fund, known as the National Development government is able to spend this money because Ireland's long-held policy of low corporation tax has come good in spectacular fashion, delivering a huge windfall from US firms who pay their global taxes in the is money which desperately needs to be spent because Ireland's basic infrastructure is example, a chronic failure to build enough housing is contributing to economic and social problems, such as tensions around infrastructure backlog has built up because public and private investment collapsed during Ireland's years of financial crisis and firms across construction and development failed during that period and the workforce shrank as the economy recovered rapidly and the population grew there wasn't the capacity to provide the investment which was National Development Plan (NDP) is an attempt to remedy this as quickly as the biggest allocation is for housing which will get €36bn between 2026 and 2030. The next biggest chunk is for transport, which gets €22bn. Of that, €2bn is supposed to be used to start work on a long-planned underground Metro rail line from Dublin city centre to the airport and northern experience of the Dublin Metro can help explain some of the scepticism around the Metro has been planned since 2000 but not a centimetre of track has been current planning application has been under consideration for more than 1,000 days and the man leading the project has conceded it is likely to face more legal is also the continuing saga of the new National Children's Hospital in Dublin which has missed 15 completion dates and is almost €1bn over government has attempted to show people that the state does have the capacity to section of the NDP is a list of recent projects across education, health, roads and broadband which have been built without much section lists the reforms to procurement and planning which should reduce delays, such as changes to judicial review there is a more fundamental issue: who will do the actual construction work required to turn the €112bn into houses, roads and sewers?The most recent figures suggest there are around 177,000 active construction workers in Ireland, the highest number in a an analysis by the Department for Further and Higher Education estimates that another 80,000 workers will have to be found to meet the government's targets on housing, let alone other those additional workers at a time when the Irish economy is at close to full employment will be a challenge in itself.
