Latest news with #Malby
BBC News
18-04-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Ilkley Lido events to mark 90 years since opening
A Grade II-listed outdoor swimming pool is to mark its 90th anniversary with a community picnic and fun day. Ilkley Lido will host the birthday event, featuring live music, street food and a fancy dress competition, on 11 celebration comes after Bradford Council considered closing the 1930s pool as part of budget cuts, but axed the plans after objections from the Malby, chair of Ilkley Pool and Lido Community Group (IPLCG), said: "When we were worried about the future of the pool, hundreds of people got in touch to tell us how important it is and to offer to help the Lido to continue to be a fantastic experience for so many." IPLCG was formed in April 2024 and has been working with the council to secure the pool's future with planned 90th birthday party is the first in the line-up and will see live performances from Ilkley Live and Two Rivers swing will be a selfie photobooth, creative activities, a raffle, and rookie lifeguard sessions where people can learn CPR, spinal work and bandaging. An exhibition will also show the history of the lido. Upcoming events at the outdoor pool include full moon swims, outdoor cinema and Bollywood meets Hollywood as part of the 2025 City of Culture councillor Sarah Ferriby said: "This community picnic and fun day is a wonderful way to celebrate Ilkley Lido's 90th anniversary. "Preparations are well under way with the Lido having been repainted this week, so it looks its best for its special year." Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.
The Guardian
27-02-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
‘People's commission' to examine future of water industry in England and Wales
A 'people's commission' on the future of the water industry will travel across England and Wales taking evidence from the public and environmental campaign groups at the centre of the sewage pollution scandal. The inquiry has been set up by leading academics and environmental campaigners who were central to exposing the routine dumping of raw sewage into rivers by water companies to rival the government-established independent commission. Members include the former Undertones frontman and campaigner, Feargal Sharkey, Becky Malby, who was responsible for a stretch of the River Wharfe in Ilkley becoming the first to be given bathing water status, Kate Bayliss, an academic who has investigated how private equity has taken over large parts of English water firms, and Ewan McGaughey, a professor of law at Kings College, London. The people's commission will start taking evidence on 27 March. Malby said it was set up because the independent commission, chaired by Sir Jon Cunliffe, a former deputy governor of the Bank of England, was too limited in its scope and not willing to consider alternative forms of ownership from the privatised model. Malby said: 'The people's commission fills the gap because we are going to address the problems that really matter to the public: the level of pollution in our rivers and seas, the shocking level of debt that water companies have racked up that we are having to pay excruciating interest on, the massive increase in bills with no guarantees that we are going to have clean water.' Malby said participation in the Cunliffe commission was limited to stakeholders in the water sector and there was little scope for involvement from the public. Cunliffe called on Thursday for evidence from investors, and environmental organisations, but made clear he would not be looking at renationalisation of the industry during his investigation, which will report this summer. 'My job is to make the current system work better, the government has made clear they have ruled out nationalisation,' he said. In a speech in Manchester he said he did not think the privatised ownership of the industry was the problem. His remit will focus mostly on regulatory reform and ensuring financial resilience. 'The problems we see today have not emerged overnight. Nor, I believe, are they the inevitable consequence of a privatise regulated company model,' said Cunliffe. 'Rather, they have developed over time and due to factors including poor decisions and poor performance by companies, regulatory gaps, policy instability and a history of ad-hoc changes that have left an increasingly complex system that is no longer working well for anyone.' Some water companies have said they will raise dividends to shareholders as they increase customer bills to pay for record £100bn investment in the sector over the next five years. Bills rise by an average of £123 this year alone. The industry was responsible for record sewage pollution last year. This month a £3bn bailout for Thames Water, which has £17bn of debt, was approved by the high court to stave off the company's collapse. But customers will be forced to pay for the emergency loan – which comes with a 9.75% interest rate – in further bill increases, the high court heard. Bayliss, from the department of economics at Soas, has worked extensively on privatisation and contributed to Guardian research which revealed that in 2022 more than 70% of English water companies were owned by foreign investment firms, private equity, pension funds and businesses lodged in tax havens. 'Our water system is not working. Our biggest utility is in financial crisis while raw sewage spilling into our rivers and seas has become the new normal,' she said. 'We need to fully understand what exactly is driving these failings, and why. From here we can devise pragmatic solutions, learning from experience in the UK and abroad, to build a water system in the interests of society and the environment.' The people's commission will look at international examples, alternative models of ownership, innovation in water services and securing value for the public while protecting our rivers, lakes and seas.
