Latest news with #RobWaltham
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Plans for Lincolnshire 'super councils' rejected
Councillors in North Lincolnshire have said they will not support proposals for "super councils" in the county. The government introduced plans to reduce the number of councils by creating single-tier unitary super councils across the wider Lincolnshire area earlier this year. Council Leader Rob Waltham said the local authority did not back the proposed changes following discussions with parish councils, residents, and businesses. "The feedback we have received was clear that there is no support for a large council to take over North Lincolnshire," he said. Mr Waltham said the council restructure could end initiatives like free parking in Ashby, Brigg, and Scunthorpe, and the Imagination Library scheme, which provided books to young children. Community grants and road investment could also be cut, he said. Mr Waltham added that relocating the council away from Scunthorpe might weaken local government support for the town's steel industry. "We are keen to make sure we continue to support our communities, making sure that we continue to create better paid jobs, invest in support for leisure and play facilities and to keep listening and working with local people," he said. "The thought that super councils could undermine this great work and ignore the views of our residents and communities is a distraction that we will no longer have." Listen to highlights from Lincolnshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North or tell us about a story you think we should be covering here. Eight options submitted for councils shake-up Options for Lincolnshire councils shake-up revealed Plans for 'remote mega-council' rejected North Lincolnshire Council
BBC News
29-05-2025
- Business
- BBC News
North Lincolnshire councillors reject 'super council' proposals
Councillors in North Lincolnshire have said they will not support proposals for "super councils" in the government introduced plans to reduce the number of councils by creating single-tier unitary super councils across the wider Lincolnshire area earlier this Leader Rob Waltham said the local authority did not back the proposed changes following discussions with parish councils, residents, and businesses."The feedback we have received was clear that there is no support for a large council to take over North Lincolnshire," he said. 'A distraction' Mr Waltham said the council restructure could end initiatives like free parking in Ashby, Brigg, and Scunthorpe, and the Imagination Library scheme, which provided books to young grants and road investment could also be cut, he Waltham added that relocating the council away from Scunthorpe might weaken local government support for the town's steel industry."We are keen to make sure we continue to support our communities, making sure that we continue to create better paid jobs, invest in support for leisure and play facilities and to keep listening and working with local people," he said."The thought that super councils could undermine this great work and ignore the views of our residents and communities is a distraction that we will no longer have." Listen to highlights from Lincolnshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North or tell us about a story you think we should be covering here.
BBC News
15-05-2025
- Automotive
- BBC News
M181 to reopen for Scunthorpe United and Chester play-off final
A road closure on the M181 will be lifted to allow football fans to get to Scunthorpe United's play-off final against Chester on Sunday, officials have motorway will close in both directions at 20:00 BST on Friday, before the northbound carriageway reopens at 13:00 on Sunday for fans travelling to Glanford southbound carriageway will reopen at 18:00 after the final whistle. A full closure of the road will then resume from 20:00 until 06:00 on Lincolnshire Council said the decision had been made after talks with National Highways, Humberside Police and the contractor. Concerns were raised by football fans after the closure was announced on addition to the sold-out National League North play-off final, more than 1,000 runners are set to take part in the town's annual 10k race on Sunday. Fears had been raised about the impact of the closure on the events and on leader Rob Waltham said the situation had been "unfortunate" and the authority had listened to "the concerns of local residents, communities and businesses"."Road closures are planned months in advance by all the teams involved and it is not always possible to know what events may be happening in the future," he said."We have been able to get the road reopened temporarily to allow football traffic to pass through, which will alleviate traffic in and around Scunthorpe."The M181 closure will allow work on a £4.5m southern roundabout junction. The project, which started in 2020 and is due to finish this year, will connect a link road between the motorway and Scotter Road Listen to highlights from Hull and East Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North or tell us about a story you think we should be covering here.
ITV News
02-05-2025
- Politics
- ITV News
Reform's Andrea Jenkyns becomes Greater Lincolnshire's first mayor
Dame Andrea Jenkyn's has been named as Greater Lincolnshire's first ever mayor after winning the election today. The former Conservative MP has won eight out of the nine districts to seal the victory. Rob Waltham, the Conservative candidate, is second, with Labour's Jason Stockwood in third. Turnout was around 29.9%. Jenkyns will represent 1.1million people as leader of the Greater Lincolnshire Combined County Authority (GLCCA). All of Lincolnshire had a say in the election, with people living in the Lincolnshire County Council, North Lincolnshire Council, and North East Lincolnshire Council areas voting. Those three councils will stay in place - for now at least - but some of their powers will be devolved to the new mayor. Want a quick and expert briefing on the biggest news stories? Listen to our latest podcasts to find out What You Need To Know...
The Guardian
13-04-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Labour has done right by British Steel – now it must speed up a radical strategy for all industry
The four stately queens were saved. Mary, Vicky, Annie and Bessie are the mighty blast furnaces, though only two are still in action. Jubilation broke out in Scunthorpe, North Lincolnshire council leader Rob Waltham told me, exhausted from striving to keep the steelworks open. 'I've just been talking to a family with three generations all working there,' he said. 'It's all the family's earnings, all about to lose their jobs at once. The eldest retires next week, really afraid his pension might have gone.' Such was the suspicion of Chinese owners Jingye that workers blockaded the plant on Saturday morning to stop executives entering; they were reportedly worried that they might sabotage the works as the emergency bill in parliament was stripping away their power. Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, told the Commons how negotiations with the owners had come to naught: he said it had become 'clear that the intention of Jingye was to refuse to purchase sufficient raw materials to keep the blast furnaces running.' In the Lords, John Reid, former defence and home secretary, blamed Boris Johnson for recklessly allowing British Steel to be sold to a company in a hostile state. 'Did it never occur to anyone,' he asked sardonically, 'that it may be, in a competitive world, in the interest of the Chinese government to purchase and then close down the British steel industry?' Waltham says 20,000 Scunthorpe people are dependent on the plant. As the Commons debated the bill, he was talking to the owner of a firm with 200 people working inside it on a maintenance contract. 'It might have finished a small company,' he said. Full nationalisation of British Steel is near-certain, but couldn't be done in one parliamentary day. Eight years leader of the council, Waltham is the Conservative candidate in next month's elections for the new Greater Lincolnshire mayoralty. But he has no ideological qualms about nationalisation, a word that Tony Blair and Gordon Brown never dared utter, using euphemisms when they were forced to nationalise Railtrack, the precursor to Network Rail, in 2002. Waltham says: 'Government intervention here was inevitable, I always said so. When a market fails, there's no choice and other essential heavy industries under pressure may need the government too.' That echoes Reynolds telling the Commons that most of Britain's 'foundation industries' were in 'substantial difficulty' when Labour took office. While Tories postured loudly in the Commons about needing a one-year sunset clause to end these unwelcome emergency powers, Waltham was telling me the government needs to run the plant for three years or more to transition to electric arc furnaces. This government is not allergic to the notion of public ownership: Blair had made ditching clause IV his emblem of 'newness', abandoning the Labour party's commitment to 'the common ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange'. The Starmer government will say it's 'pragmatic', quite rightly. But the dilemmas are hard, even if not ideological. The epic failure of Margaret Thatcher's privatisations are plain for all to see, but she's not here to castigate. Public support has soared for bringing rail, mail, electricity and buses back into public ownership, reaching 82% for water. Privatisation has left Thames Water £16bn in debt and with decrepit machinery. Should the state really take on heavily indebted, loss-makers that swallow up funds for public services, if a company will shoulder some of the risk? Yet there should be a healthy suspicion of any company stepping forward: private equity group KKR is top of the bidding for Thames, so someone clearly thinks there's money in our sewage. Ditto any other bidder for British Steel after a series of short-lived, dud owners. What is the 'pragmatic' solution when Scunthorpe is reported to be losing £700,000 a day? As in their manifesto, Labour has £2.5bn set aside to revive the steel industry, but that could be drained fast. Rousing patriotic words rang through the Commons on the need for a 'sovereign' steel industry to defend us from a wildly uncertain world: speaking on Sunday, Reynolds admitted the raw materials might not arrive in time to save it. 'At the heart of this debate is actually a very simple question – can we entrust a critical national asset to a company that we do not trust? … In a world where threats to our economic security multiply each day, we cannot allow that risk to fester at the heart of our industrial core,' went Liam Byrne's eloquent tub-thumper, as chair of the Commons business and trade select committee. Just before the debate, reading the emergency steel bill's wording, he said to Reynolds, only half-joking, that he would add an amendment removing the word 'steel' so these commanding powers could be used for any industry in the national interest. Our nationalisation phobia has handed state assets over to foreign governments to make handsome profits that should have been ours. The French and Italian states own chunks of our railway companies, while nearly half our offshore wind capacity is controlled by foreign state-owned entities, including Denmark and Norway. If they can make them turn a profit, why not our own government? Thatcher's mystical belief that private is always more efficient died long ago. The world has indeed changed and the government needs to be alert to all the shifting moods in the air. It must stop respecting outdated shibboleths, speed up a radical industrial strategy – and urgently reopen the trade routes to Europe that would support many more workers. Reynolds ended his speech with 'Take back control!' A clear signal of intent for a newly activist, interventionist state. Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist
