Latest news with #South East
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Climate
- Yahoo
Thunderstorm weather warning issued across London and south of England by Met Office
A yellow weather warning has been issued across London, the South East and the South West of the country. The Met Office has issued a yellow thunderstorm warning from 10am to 9pm on Thursday, expecting heavy showers to bring disruption. The forecaster said thunderstorms and heavy showers are expected to develop during Thursday morning and through the afternoon. A few areas will see 'torrential downpours', the Met Office said, with 25 to 35mm of rain falling within an hour, and potentially 60mm within two hours. Frequent lightning and hail will bring additional hazards, it warned. 'Storms will tend to become more confined to the south and east of the warning area later in the afternoon before dying out during the evening,' it said. The warnings cover major counties and cities such as London, Suffolk, Brighton, Kent, Oxfordshire, Bristol, Portsmouth and Southampton. People living in areas at risk of flash flooding are advised to 'consider preparing a flood plan and an emergency flood kit' to minimise potential damage, the Met Office advised. Strong winds could also pose a hazard, and residents have been told to secure objects including bins, trampolines, tents and garden furniture before gusty conditions arrive. Motorists have been urged to check road conditions and public transport timetables before travelling, and to amend plans if necessary to avoid getting caught out by severe weather. The Met Office has also told households to prepare for possible power cuts by gathering essentials like torches, spare batteries and mobile phone power packs. In its UK-wide forecast, the Met Office said there will be a few showers on Friday, mainly in the East. Saturday will remain largely dry with warm sunny spells, and locally heavy rain will spread on Sunday. Temperatures will be near normal throughout the weekend, the forecaster added. Here is a full list of areas covered by the weather warning: East of England Central Bedfordshire Essex Hertfordshire Luton Southend-on-Sea Suffolk Thurrock London and south-east England Bracknell Forest Brighton and Hove Buckinghamshire East Sussex Greater London Hampshire Isle of Wight Kent Medway Oxfordshire Portsmouth Reading Slough Southampton Surrey West Berkshire West Sussex Windsor and Maidenhead Wokingham South-west England Bath and North East Somerset Bournemouth Christchurch and Poole Bristol Dorset Gloucestershire North Somerset Somerset South Gloucestershire Swindon Wiltshire
Telegraph
3 days ago
- Business
- 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
3 days ago
- BBC News
RMT union calls for action over an 'escalation' in train violence
A rail workers' union has said there has been a "serious escalation of violence and anti-social behaviour" on routes in London and the South National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) is calling for action by Operator Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR), which runs the Gatwick Express and Southern franchises, linking London with stations in Sussex and union said its members were facing "daily incidents" of of assault, threats, spitting, verbal abuse and intimidation, and is considering industrial said it has invested £2.5m in a plan to deal with anti-social behaviour. RMT general secretary Eddie Dempsey said: "The level of violence on Southern and Gatwick Express services and stations has reached a crisis point and is totally unacceptable."Our members are being assaulted, threatened and abused at work and the company is not doing enough to stop it."GTR must take urgent action now to protect staff and passengers or we will have to consider all our options, including industrial action."The union wants additional staff deployed, including extra and more visible security, and a company-wide plan introduced. GTR's safety, health and security director Sam Facey said: "Last year we launched a £2.5m anti-social behaviour improvement plan, created following feedback from stakeholders, including the police and some of our staff and trade unions representatives."He said the rail company was "fully committed to tackling this issue by working closely with the unions and building on what we've done so far".More than 1,500 body worn cameras had been made available, said Mr Facey, adding that studies showed the cameras "reduce assaults by 47%" as well as gathering "vital evidence to prosecute".He continued: "We have also doubled the number of high-visibility travel safe officers who are deployed using data-led insight to work with British Transport Police and our teams of rail enforcement officers."We have also invested heavily in education projects for schools and colleges."But this is bigger than the railway, it is a wider, regional problem of youth violence affecting communities, particularly those on the south coast, which is why the close collaboration of the police, councils and other agencies continues to be so important in tackling this kind of behaviour."
BBC News
7 days ago
- Business
- BBC News
Abingdon Reservoir judicial review dismissed by High Court
A water firm can move forward with its plan to build one of the country's largest reservoirs, after a claim for a judicial review was dismissed in the High Water's £2.2bn South East Strategic Reservoir Option (SESRO), will be created near Abingdon, Oxfordshire, to cope with increasing demand and climate project will cover an area the size of Gatwick Airport and the company says it will secure supply for 15 million charity CPRE Oxfordshire and water safety group Safer Waters, who brought the case to the High Court, said it would devastate local ecology and livelihoods. They were challenging Environment Secretary Steve Reed's decision to approve the water company's Water Resource Management Plan, which includes the new 4.5 sq mile (7 sq km) reservoir. Thames Water intends to submit an application to construct and maintain the reservoir next year. If that is granted, it hopes to start building in 2029 with the reservoir operational from water would supply customers in Oxfordshire and others in London and the South East, Thames Water said. It said it would "provide opportunities to create new habitats and increase biodiversity, as well as providing new leisure and recreation facilities". Derek Stork, a director of Safer Waters, previously said the project was "a scandalous misuse of public money". Lisa Warne, director of CPRE Oxfordshire, had called on the government to "prioritise leakage reduction, water reuse, and efficiency, not this vanity reservoir".It was designated a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project in June. You can follow BBC Oxfordshire on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.
BBC News
23-07-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Community groups call for locally-owned solar farms in Kent
Community groups in the South East are calling on ministers to "move faster" to help residents own and use locally-produced solar panels are a key part of the government's energy strategy, but are controversial, with residents campaigning against large scale farms that they fear will affect the local like Kent Community Energy say sites owned by the local community are more likely to gain support, because they allow profits from electricity sold to be re-invested in nearby charities and government said: "Community projects are at the heart of our 2030 clean power mission." Just outside Sittingbourne in Kent, two fields are covered in gleaming solar produces five megawatts (MW) of electricity, and together they can produce enough energy to power around 7,000 unlike many privately-owned solar farms, the profits made from selling the energy produced here are put back into the local community. 'What's not to like?' Michael Bax, managing director of Kent Community Energy, which owns one of the two sites, says the money they make is re-invested into the business and given to local charities."Kent Community Energy is owned by ordinary people in Kent and elsewhere... every penny that we make is put back into the Kent community," he believes this model of producing energy is the future."You only have to look at this site, it's quiet, it's friendly to nature. We're a haven to birds and biodiversity," he added."Yesterday we generated 37,000 kilowatt hours (kWh), that's enough to power about 3,500 houses without a single drop of carbon being produced."So from our point of view, what's not to like?" However, there are groups of residents across the region who are not so keen on particular, large scale solar Cleve Hill project, which covers more than 950 acres of farmland near Faversham, equivalent in size to four Bluewater shopping centres, has attracted multiple protests from local residents, worried about the impact on the landscape and plans for an even larger site at Romney Marsh have drawn similar concerns. The local Reform Kent county councillor, David Wimble, oversees environment for the said: "I've got nothing against solar farms, per se, but what I do have a problem with is them being on grade A agricultural land."I think food security is just as important, if not more important, than solar."He added that he intended to fight projects like these."I'm just about to set up something called the Kent Solar Forum to get all the [protest groups] together and have one voice. We just think it's too much." The government has made solar power a key part of its energy strategy to reach net zero carbon have vowed to generate enough clean power to meet Britain's total annual electricity demand by 2030 - including up to 47 gigawatts of they know they could have a fight on their asked about local opposition to projects earlier this year, Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said: "If we don't [build solar] we are going to be exposed as a country to those fossil fuels which have caused such damage to so many people".Those behind community-owned power believe government need to do more to unlock community schemes, which they say will help bring more residents on Pendered is the chief executive of Community Energy Pathways, which supports community energy groups to get themselves said local people could "take ownership" of these projects, "harness community benefits... and mould them into what they want to see locally".But he wants ministers to go further, by making it easier for residents to use the energy produced from local projects to power their own homes and bring down bills."That's something that needs to be unlocked by government. It enables people to keep the power in the local community and use that power locally, it just makes complete sense," he said.A spokesperson for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero said: "Community projects are at the heart of our 2030 clean power mission, and through Great British Energy, we're putting power back into the hands of the people by giving communities a stake in their energy supply and ensuring they can reap the benefits."There is nothing to prevent suppliers from selling their power via local electricity tariffs, and they do not have to sell it back to the grid."However, the government has said it recognises that there is scope to better enable local energy markets, and it is exploring this further.
