Latest news with #SimonHall
Belfast Telegraph
a day ago
- Business
- Belfast Telegraph
NI could see milk shortages due to industrial action by dairy production staff, warns trade union
Dale Farm however said there would be 'no interruption' to supply Northern Ireland could experience milk shortages as a result of industrial action at Dale Farm, a trade union has warned. Unite the Union has confirmed strike action at the dairy producer will begin next Wednesday, August 20. Engineers and drivers at multiple production sites will participate in an initial three-day walkout with a further three strike days scheduled for the following week. A planned escalation to a five-day strike is in place for the week after that, with all-out strike action commencing from the fourth week if a resolution is not reached. "Management knows what is needed to avoid this outcome' – Simon Hall (Unite) The move follows a formal members' ballot which saw 90% of drivers and 89% of engineers voting in favour of the action as row over pay rumbles on. The union said compensation for Dale Farm workers is lower than industry comparators in NI. Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said, 'Dale Farm engineers and drivers are determined to win a needed pay increase. Dale Farm is a highly successful enterprise and can afford to pay their skilled workforce properly. Read more Ballymena man appears in court accused of shooting ex-UVF boss in face with crossbow "The workers can count on the full support of Unite for as long as it takes to win fair pay and respect.' Unite General Secretary Sharon Graham Unite regional officer for the workforce Simon Hall said 'Dale Farm workers at multiple sites will participate in the strike. Given the involvement of so many drivers and engineers, this industrial action will very likely affect both milk collection and production. "Management knows what is needed to avoid this outcome: they need to provide an increase meeting our members' legitimate pay expectations.' However a spokesperson for Dale Farm insisted there would be no interruption to milk supplies as a result of the strike action. "We value all our staff and take pride in our employee relations. We believe we have made a very fair offer to this small group of our workforce, and we urge them, and Unite, to reconsider their decision,' they said. "Our farmers can be assured that we have contingency plans in place, and their milk will be collected, as normal, during this period. We also want to assure our customers and our consumers that there will be no interruption to the supply of any of our products. "We remain open to discussions with our team and Unite, in the hope of reaching a resolution.'
Irish Times
4 days ago
- Politics
- Irish Times
Three Revolutions by Simon Hall: Lenin, Mao and Fidel's biggest overseas fans came from an unexpected source
Three Revolutions: Russia, China, Cuba and the Epic Journeys That Changed the World Author : Simon Hall ISBN-13 : 978-0571367153 Publisher : Faber & Faber Guideline Price : £25 Irish people can be as susceptible as anyone to the charms of a communist dictator. Michael Collins and Éamon de Valera approved a $20,000 loan from Sinn Féin to Vladimir Lenin's Bolsheviks. Young Bob Geldof distributed 100 copies of Mao Zedong's Little Red Book around Blackrock College, while President Michael D Higgins paid a warm tribute to Fidel Castro when the 'giant among global leaders' died in 2016. As Simon Hall shows in his lively, insightful but disjointed study of how revolutions shaped the 20st century, however, Lenin, Mao and Fidel's biggest overseas fans came from a more unexpected source. Three American journalists played key roles in presenting these tyrants to the West as principled, charismatic and a force for good. Hall frames his episodic narrative around six gruelling journeys that led to either a coup or a scoop. In 1917 Lenin and around 30 other Russian dissidents took a train from Zurich across war-torn Germany to Petrograd's Finland Station, where his fiery rhetoric inspired the world's first Soviet republic. READ MORE That was a cakewalk compared with Mao's Long March, the 6,000-mile retreat from Chinese nationalist forces in 1934-5 that cost more than 80,000 lives but still established him as the Communist Party's toughest leader. Castro ended his exile in 1956 by sailing from Mexico to Cuba on what Hall calls 'a creaking, leaking leisure yacht', escaping into the Sierra Maestra mountains and plotting a guerrilla war. The newspaper men profiled here are less familiar, but formidable characters in their own right. John Reed was a bohemian poet who watched Saint Petersburg's Winter Palace being stormed and penned the Lenin-approved bestseller Ten Days that Shook the World. The goofy, part-Irish Edgar Snow spent three months living among Red Army troops and obediently wrote up Mao's autobiography. Donnish veteran Herbert Matthews hiked through a dangerous wilderness to secure his star-struck interview with Castro, which caused a sensation when it appeared on the New York Times's front page. Three Revolutions works best on a storytelling level, full of colourful human details such as Lenin drawing up rules for who could use his carriage toilet. While Hall is clear-eyed about his despotic subjects, however, he goes a little too easy on the newshounds. Journalism may be the first draft of history, but sadly the copy these naive idealists delivered has turned out to need a radical rewrite.
Forbes
29-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Going Eco Benefits Planet And This Hotel's Bottom Line
Medical and other curios on display in the Welbeck Hotel's lobby, Marylebone, London. The recent refurbishment and rebranding of a 120-year-old central London hotel enabled the new owners to incorporate sustainable features, such as occupancy-based controls and reduced-flow showers, measures that may not be noticeable to guests but which reduce CO2 emissions and costs. In short, doing well by the planet saves money. The refurb 'wasn't just some new wallpaper and a lick of fresh paint,' said Simon Hall, the general manager of the Welbeck Hotel near Carnaby Street, Marylebone. 'The hotel has been completely rewired, with every bedroom replumbed. We've got new showers, new bathrooms; everything within the building has been renewed and refurbished.' Welbeck Street is within London's "medical quarter." The Edwardian-era, 164-bedroom hotel was previously a lackluster midmarket Holiday Inn. It's now independently owned and pitched as a four-star-plus lifestyle boutique hotel. It's in London's medical quarter, close to Harley Street and several leading medical institutions; Welbeck Street also has medical history of its own—curios in the lobby flag this medical connection and today's association with wellness. 'The refurbishment meant we were able to look at how we could bring in newer, greener technologies,' continued Hall. 'Even simple things—such as occupancy-based controls like passive infrared sensors in the corridors so that the lights aren't on all day—make us more sustainable. Our upgraded building management system enables us to control ventilation, air handling, heating, and cooling all centrally. The new plumbing has allowed us to have reduced flow showers, which don't affect the guest experience but use a lot less water.' The strip-back to the studs 'allowed us to look at all sorts of ways that we can be more sustainable within the confines of what is a 120-year-old building,' said Hall. The property dates back to the early 1900s when it opened as the Welbeck Place Hotel. Exterior of the Welbeck Hotel, London. Welbeck Street has a two-hundred-year history of housing physicians, hospitals, and wellness practices. Physician—and polymath—Thomas Young established his surgery in 1799 at Number 48 Welbeck Street and went on to research the mechanics of the eye, and much else. In a different era, tropical medicine expert Sir Patrick Manson lived at Number 50. The street has also housed institutions such as the Welbeck Street Hospital for Diseases of the Nervous System and the British Institute of Radiology; nearby, there is the Edwardian-era building housing the Royal Society of Medicine, constructed not long after the Welbeck Place Hotel. Part of the IHG Hotels & Resorts group, today's Welbeck Hotel supports local wildlife with the use of wildflower planters. It has achieved a BREEAM Excellent rating for its energy efficiency, waste reduction, and environmentally responsible operations. A partnership with The Felix Project, London's largest food redistribution charity, is part of the hotel's dedication to social responsibility. Being green and a caring neighour is 'good business,' said Hall. 'It's win/win for the guests, win/win for the planet, and win/win for our bottom line.' And working with the Felix Project is also mutually beneficial. 'Aside from food donation, we've also donated non-food items, things like toiletries and crockery for people that don't have it,' said Hall. 'Many of our staff also volunteer for the project, helping at depots or collecting food from local businesses. There are so many ways we can work with them as a business; it's not just about writing a check—we can get involved. That's a real driver of our team's engagement and purpose, knowing that they're supporting their local community.' Sustainability is being incorporated into the wider hospitality industry's overarching strategies and day-to-day operations. And well it might because hotels—most especially luxury hotels—are significant users of finite resources, and those hotels that go green often quickly see financial returns. According to Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark data, hotels have the highest energy intensity at 293 kWh/sqm compared to sectors such as office (181 kWh/sqm), retail (152 kWh/sqm) and residential (124 kWh/sqm). Most industries, organizations, and investors are committing to sustainability not out of supposed 'wokeness' but because it can generate significant cost savings and lead to a greater longer-term valuation of assets. Travelers are also increasingly seeking sustainable practices and expect hotels to pay more than lip service to environmental factors. Tiny shampoo bottles are no longer seen as cute freebies by many travelers but as profligate waste when refillable larger containers make more environmental sense. When planning trips, more and more travelers prioritize eco factors. A recent Virtuoso survey found that nearly 60% of tourists are willing to pay more for hotels that have sustainability goals. But with a sector flooded with messages such as 'certified green' and 'climate positive,' how can travelers discern which hotels are genuinely committed to responsible practices? Benchmarking, that's how. But there are many competing schemes, and it's tough to know which ones are independently audited and which are self-certified greenwashing. Hotels are businesses, and the biggest are usually owned—or operated—by groups. Traditionally, hotel management agreements, or HMAs, lead on financial performance, but hotel owners and operators increasingly use new, greener HMAs to hold each other accountable to ESG targets. Some of these targets are set internationally via legislation. For instance, the European Union's new Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) now requires travel-related businesses of a certain size operating within the EU to publish environmental and social impact reports. These will unlikely be consumer-friendly so hotels will prefer to use benchmarking badges in their front-of-house promotions. To increase access to consistent sustainability data and support the certifications industry, Travalyst, a non-profit founded by Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex, has a list of 49 certifications, standards, and schemes that it says will make the sustainability certifications space more straightforward to navigate. Internal and third-party green benchmarking schemes have increased in recent years, with some offering little more than pretty website badges and wall plaques. Others are more stringent, providing trustable certifications. Many online booking platforms now highlight those hotels certified for sustainable tourism. However, some of these paid-for eco-labels are tougher to pass than others. Green Globe and Biosphere Sustainable stress that businesses—and regions—in their schemes must meet the environmental and social standards aligned with frameworks like the UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals and 169 specific targets outlined by the UN. Green Globe's standards—measured on 44 criteria and 380 indicators—also align with international frameworks such as those curated by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC). Membership-based Beyond Green steers eco-minded travelers towards high-end hotels that have undergone third-party audits and can demonstrate measurable and positive impact, with hotels vetted for their preservation of natural and cultural heritage, and their impact on the economic and social well-being of local communities, as well as alignment with the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. B Corp measures a company's social and environmental footprint. To become certified, companies are scored on categories including employee treatment and 'stewardship of its customers.' Businesses must achieve an assessment score of at least 80 out of 200 points to be approved; most companies fail to reach even a score of 51. Regenerative Travel certifies hotels with a deep commitment to sustainability, continuous improvement, environmental stewardship, and community and economic resilience. A certain percentage of staff must be local, and there's a target for energy generated from clean sources. EarthCheck says it is 'the world's leading certification, consulting and advisory group for sustainable destinations and tourism organizations' and delivers 'science-backed, strategic and sustainable outcomes.' Green Key Global also aligns with the UN's Sustainable Development Goals and emphasizes land use, water conservation, indoor air quality, and building infrastructure. Green Key is the eco label used by Welbeck Hotel.
Time Out
21-04-2025
- Time Out
England's tallest water tower is set to reopen as a tourist attraction after a multimillion-pound revamp
Colchester is quietly one of England's most attraction-packed cities. One of the longest and best preserved Roman town walls in Britain? The Essex city's got that. A medieval castle dating back to the 11th century? Check. A much-loved zoo? Aye, that too. And soon Colchester could be getting a new heritage attraction, as one of the city's historic landmarks is receiving a multimillion-pound makeover. We're talking about Balkerne Water Tower, which is England's largest municipal water tower and better known, appropriately, as 'Jumbo'. Fashioned out of 1.25 million bricks and 142 tonnes of iron, Jumbo was built way back in 1882-3 and in its heyday could hold a whopping 1,140 tonnes of water. While the tower has sat empty and unused since 1984, it still towers 40 metres over Colchester and has been awarded Grade II* listed status. North Essex Heritage is taking on the task of turning Jumbo into a 'destination venue, restaurant, visitor experience and historical interpretation space', and the trust has already taken several steps to achieving its goals. Back in December 2021 North Essex Heritage secured a 150-year lease for Jumbo, and in recent months it has received an impressive amount of funding. In January 2025 it was announced that Jumbo would be one of one of seven historic UK sites to receive a grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, boosting it with £8 million. The site is also getting £1.1 million from the government, and in March Historic England said it would provide a further £550,000. For those who haven't done the quick maths, that's the best part of nine and half million quid that has been set aside for Jumbo. Chair of North Essex Heritage Simon Hall told BBC News that the funding 'significantly closes the gap' in paying for Jumbo's restoration, saying: 'It will provide Colchester with a fantastic accessible heritage asset, adding to Colchester's attraction as a city and tourist destination.' Current plans for the structure feature an 'audio-visual experience' in Jumbo's water tank to tell the tower's story, and 360-degree views of Colchester. The project hopes to open the tower to the public in 2027.
