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Irish Examiner
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
Cleo Laine, Britain's most successful jazz singer, dies aged 97
Cleo Laine, the UK's most successful and celebrated jazz singer, has died aged 97. A statement from her children Jacqui and Alec reads: 'It is with deepest sadness that we announce the passing of our dearly beloved mother, Cleo, who died peacefully yesterday afternoon. We will all miss her terribly. The family wish to be given space to grieve and ask for privacy at this very difficult time.' She was well known for a longstanding collaboration with her late husband, the composer and reed player John Dankworth, singing with his jazz bands from the mid-1950s onwards. But she also had a stellar solo career, including in the US, where she became the only female artist to be nominated for Grammy awards in pop, jazz and classical categories; few singers have the versatility to deliver atonal Arnold Schoenberg pieces and to have duetted with Ray Charles. Laine was born in Uxbridge, west London, in 1927, the daughter of a Jamaican father and an English farmer's daughter (her original name was Clementina Campbell, though she was registered at birth as Clementine Bullock, her mother's surname). She was raised in nearby Southall and had an unassuming youth, working at various jobs after leaving school including as a hairdresser, librarian and pawnbroker. Still a teenager, she married George Langridge and had a son, Stuart. Jazz couple and husband and wife team John Dankworth and Cleo Laine perform together on stage during a County Hall concert. Picture: PA/PA Wire She sang in clubs after work, but became a professional singer in her mid-20s after successfully auditioning for Dankworth's band the Dankworth Seven. 'In a sense, with them, I started at the top,' she later said. She earned £7 a week, and changed her name to the snappier Cleo Laine. Her marriage faltered – Langridge 'thought my career was a pipe-dream', she said – and Laine left him for Dankworth, marrying him in 1958. She developed her voice, eventually reaching a four-octave range and becoming one of the most esteemed proponents of the scat singing style. She acted in plays and musical theatre in London, as well as performing with Dankworth and his band; in 1961, she crossed over into the British pop charts with You'll Answer to Me reaching No 5. She and Dankworth achieved further recognition with their jazz arrangements of poetry by Shakespeare, ee cummings, WH Auden and TS Eliot. Emboldened by a successful Australian tour, they began live performances in New York. US reviewers received her rapturously, and Laine cemented her American career with concerts backed by her husband at prestigious venues such as Carnegie Hall, alongside musical theatre on Broadway. She recorded an acclaimed album of Stephen Sondheim numbers, duetted with Ray Charles for a recording of Gershwin's opera Porgy and Bess, and made collaborative albums with the guitarist John Williams and the flautist James Galway. In 1992, she supported Frank Sinatra for a five-night residency at London's Royal Albert Hall. British singer Cleo Laine in an instrumental mood at her home in Wavendon. Picture: PA/PA Wire In 1970, she and Dankworth founded the Stables venue in the grounds of their home in Wavendon, Buckinghamshire, which has gone on to present concerts by Dave Brubeck, Amy Winehouse and many others, and hosts music education projects. In 1979 she was awarded an OBE and in 1997 she was made a dame. Dankworth was knighted in 2006. The couple continued to tour together until shortly before Dankworth's death on 6 February 2010, aged 82. Laine performed later that night, alongside their musician children Jacqui and Alec, for a scheduled concert celebrating 40 years of the Stables; she only announced her husband's death at the end of the concert. 'It wasn't so much 'the show must go on' – I'm not that committed to the stage,' she said in 2010. 'I instinctively knew Johnny would want it to. That if I had died he would have gone on. Johnny and me – we were joined at the hip.' She is survived by Jacqui and Alec. Her son Stuart died in 2019, aged 72.
BBC News
23-07-2025
- General
- BBC News
Worcestershire County Hall parking used by hospital staff
Hundreds of empty spaces at County Hall car parks will be opened up to hospital staff as a temporary measure to reduce parking County Council struck up an agreement with Worcestershire NHS Acute Hospitals Trust to provide 354 spaces at the site while the authority decommissions its former King from the trust welcomed the arrangement, which will see spaces made available to Worcestershire Royal Hospital staff from 4 August. "We are delighted," Ms King said, "this agreement will help to reduce congestion into and out of the hospital site during peak times." County Hall in Worcester has been left vacant since June 2024, with staff working remotely or from other council February, 50 parking spaces were temporarily made available for hospital staff while their usual parking was improved.A spokesperson for Worcestershire County Council said: "This arrangement supports hospital operations by freeing up visitor parking as hospital staff will use part of the County Hall car park." Follow BBC Hereford & Worcester on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
South Wales Argus
17-07-2025
- Automotive
- South Wales Argus
Pen-Y-Cae-Mawr Road, Monmouthshire, to be closed on July 24
The stretch of road from Usk Road to Buckwell Road in Pen-Y-Cae-Mawr will be temporarily shut from July 24. The closure will be in place between 9am and 4pm each day, according to Monmouthshire County Council. The length of road affected is about 433 metres long, starting roughly 488 metres from its junction with Buckwell Road. The council states that the closure is "necessary for resurfacing works to take place in a safe manner." It added that reasonable access will be maintained for properties fronting the affected lengths of road during the closure period. A signed diversion route will be in place for the duration of the closure. Drivers will be directed to take Buckwell Road, Old Road, and Usk Road. The order will be enforced by Monmouthshire County Council under Section 14(1)(a) of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984. The council has noted that anyone who contravenes a restriction or prohibition imposed under Section 14 of the Act will be guilty of an offence. The order, titled the R121 Usk Road to Buckwell Road, Pen-Y-Cae-Mawr, Monmouthshire Temporary Traffic Regulation Order 2025, will remain in force for a period not exceeding 18 months or until the completion of the works, whichever is the earlier. The council anticipates that the resurfacing work will be completed by July 25. The notice about the closure was issued by Carl Touhig, the head of neighbourhood services at Monmouthshire County Council, on July 16. For more information, the council can be contacted at County Hall, The Rhadyr, Usk, NP15 1GA.
Miami Herald
16-07-2025
- Business
- Miami Herald
‘Swim at your own risk': Mayor's cuts to Miami-Dade parks hit lifeguards, security
Roadside landscaping crews will get fewer hours, leaving roadside grass to grow taller. A pair of tax-funded senior centers will close. And some Miami-Dade parks will lose lifeguards and adopt a 'Swim at Your Own Risk' approach in the new era of austerity Mayor Daniella Levine Cava proposed Tuesday to close a $402 million budget gap. Her $12.9 billion spending plan for 2026 ends five years of relatively flush spending in which federal COVID dollars flowed into the Miami area and real estate values boomed. With Washington and Tallahassee cutting back and home sales cooling off, Levine Cava is proposing a series of service reductions, layoffs and fee increases to balance the 2026 budget. 'We've been through some good times together, and now we face some challenges,' Levine Cava said in a morning press conference at County Hall in downtown Miami. County commissioners will vote to approve the final budget in September, so the Levine Cava proposal is just a starting point for months of negotiating, lobbying and public pressure over how Miami-Dade should spend its tax dollars. Commissioners will get their first crack at the plan on Wednesday, when they're scheduled to vote on caps for the property-tax rates that fund Levine Cava's 2026 budget proposal. Levine Cava, a Democrat, has proposed flat tax rates for the five property taxes that fund daily county spending, but some commissioners want them lowered. Commissioner Roberto Gonzalez, a Republican, is advocating for lower rates and recently criticized Levine Cava as a liberal over-spender now facing reality. 'It's easy to be compassionate when you're spending other people's money,' he wrote in an op-ed the Miami Herald published Monday. Last week, the Herald reported that Levine Cava planned on cutting spending to some of the initiatives she launched after winning the mayor's office in 2020. That included closing the Office of New Americans, which helps permanent visa holders become citizens, and removing more than $40 million in county grants to nonprofits — funding that grew with the infusion of federal COVID dollars. 'It's very painful,' Levine Cava said of the budget cuts she's proposing for 2026. The budget proposal released Tuesday outlines other cuts and fee hikes that could go into effect when the 2026 fiscal year begins Oct. 1. They include: Closing two senior centers: the Little River and South Dade adult daycare facilities. Both operate with a mix of county and federal dollars. The budget describes them as 'underperforming,' with only about two dozen people using them, and says the closures will save about $450,000 in county dollars. Letting grass grow taller at county parks and roadways. The Parks Department plans to save $3.5 million by cutting back lawn mowing by 25%. Another $1.6 million comes from defunding a tree-planting initiative. Shuttering a 10-person team dedicated to dealing with substance abuse issues. The Treatment Alternatives to Street Crimes costs about $1.5 million to run. The budget was tied to a federal grant. Ending lifeguard coverage at an unknown number of county parks, which would adopt a 'Swim at Your Own Risk' policy. That would save about $770,000 a year. To save about $430,000, the Parks budget also gets rid of dedicated security guards at three park facilities: Arcola Lakes Senior Center, North Pointe Community Center and Oak Grove Park. Ending free parking at multiple county parks. Budget summaries that Levine Cava circulated to commissioners include $5 parking fees at A.D. Barnes Park and Tropical Park. The budget says the new $5 parking fees will raise about $3.6 million a year. Closing three places where older residents can get free meals. The 'congregate meal sites' — Florida City, Leonard Batz Center and Perrine — are also described as underperforming in the budget, which says closing them saves $272,000 in local funds. Miami-Dade would continue operating 13 other meal sites across the county. While the full budget includes self-sustaining county agencies like Miami International Airport and the sewer system, the bulk of the budget friction happens around expenses tied to property taxes. That part of the budget started at roughly $3.6 billion earlier this year, with only about $3.2 billion in projected revenues to pay for it. Levine Cava said the $402 million deficit came in part from Miami-Dade adjusting to a state-mandated change in local government. This is the first county budget that includes a full year's worth of spending on newly independent offices for sheriff and tax collector — positions that used to report to Levine Cava before Florida voters enacted a constitutional change requiring those agencies be spun off into their own governments. While Sheriff Rosie Cordero-Stutz now controls what used to be the Miami-Dade Police Department, the County Commission still approves county funding for the agency. The Levine Cava plan includes a 12% increase in spending for the Sheriff's Office, with a projected budget of $1 billion. Meanwhile, Tax Collector Dariel Fernandez, who took office in January, has been taking over the state-run DMV offices that became a Miami-Dade responsibility with the change in local government. The change did not come with state dollars to issue driver's licenses, though. State law does give Fernandez the authority to retain 2% of the county's property-tax revenue each year — a figure topping $120 million in 2026. While Fernandez does plan to retain the 2%, he said he expects to rebate a large portion of that to Miami-Dade by the end of the fiscal year. Decisions by Levine Cava and the commissioners drove the deficit, too. Commissioners approved $46 million in subsidies and free county services for the 2026 World Cup games, with $36 million coming due in the 2026 budget. Levine Cava endorsed the latest $10 million subsidy installment in a May 6 memo, despite saying the cash giveaway might require the county to cut government services. Slight cuts to property-tax rates that Levine Cava secured in the 2023 and 2024 budgets also will cost the 2026 budget about $48 million in lost revenue, according to Herald calculations. And rather than hold back dollars for a rainy day, Levine Cava and commissioners funded a number of one-off programs and payments in recent years, including issuing $25 million in property-tax rebates for low-income seniors over the last two years and using more than $50 million in federal COVID dollars to minimize increases in county trash fees. State tax cuts are costing Miami-Dade millions, too. The elimination of a statewide tax on commercial leases and changes in a Florida utility tax are expected to remove about $65 million from the county budget in 2026. Federal and state revenues are down about $78 million in the 2026 budget proposal. While her administration sees the proposed cuts as the steepest since the lean years following the 2008 housing crash, the Levine Cava budget proposal increases spending by a modest 1.3% over current levels. The county's workforce, including the Sheriff's Office, would grow 2% to 31,900 positions. The new positions largely come from the newly independent agencies, including about 500 additional jobs under the Office of the Tax Collector. Despite the overall number of positions growing, the Levine Cava budget proposal eliminates about 360 positions, including 142 currently filled by employees who will lose their jobs by Oct. 1, according to budget documents. Levine Cava's budget also doesn't provide long-term fixes to the county's financial challenges. Deficits are projected to return in 2027 and approach $250 million within five years. In an interview, Levine Cava said the county can't afford to reduce spending more without severe service disruptions. 'We don't have any ideas where else to cut,' she said. 'We'd have to cut bus routes. We'd have to cut parks entirely. It's pretty dire.'
BBC News
10-07-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
County Hall sale to be pulled says Kent council leader
The leader of Kent County Council (KCC) has dropped plans to sell County Hall, claiming it will save the council £ Thursday, Linden Kemkaran gave her first leaders update since taking over as leader of the council following May's landslide election victory for a surprise announcement, the KCC leader Kemkaran told the BBC: "When I took over, I was surprised to see how much we were spending moving to a new office."When challenged over savings, she said: "If I knew we were not going to be abolished in four years' time then I might support a move, but for now this makes sense to stay." The authority established the Department of Local Government Efficiency (Dolge) in June claiming this initiative was "going to save a lot of money", with Kemkaren saying in her speech the party aims to "quit schemes and memberships that cost the council £180,000 a year".Kemkaran added that Reform wants to create an office "repopulation plan", meaning she aims to get 500 workers back at their expressed the party's opposition to local government reorganisation plans, adding they are "considering what options are available after the November deadline".Kemkaren added that, in autumn, the party aims to run a campaign event to relaunch Eurostar services. Liberal Democrat leader of the opposition, Antony Hook, has criticised the Reform council agenda for being "too thin" with the leader "covering a lot in a verbal report" and "lacking detail"."If you want change, you have to put it on paper, you can't run a council like this," he added."Reform are caring too much about photos with party VIPs, headline grabbing soundbites, without substance of policy on paper."I'm fast losing the confidence in this council, and it appears to me the public are," the opposition leader told the full council.
