Latest news with #SouthWestEngland
Telegraph
20-07-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Protesters vow to disrupt Vance's Cotswolds family holiday
JD Vance has been warned by protesters that he will 'find the resistance waiting' when he visits the Cotswolds this summer. The US vice-president is expected to travel to the UK with his family for a holiday among the picturesque villages and rolling hills of South West England in August. Ahead of his visit, however, an anti-Donald Trump coalition of pro-Palestinian demonstrators, climate protesters and trade unions has told Mr Vance to expect protests against his trip. Mr Vance and his family are expected to visit the UK shortly after the US president completes a five-day stay in Scotland. The US president is due to fly to Scotland on Friday, where he will check up on his business interests and meet the Prime Minister in Aberdeen. He will visit his Trump Turnberry golf club in Ayrshire on the west coast before opening a new course on his Menie Estate in Aberdeenshire, on the north-east coast. The Stop Trump Coalition have said previously they will protest against Mr Trump's visit by hanging banners and flags along the roads and inscribing a huge message on a nearby beach that will be visible from the air. Now, the coalition has issued a warning to Mr Vance that they expect further demonstrations to take place when he visits. A Stop Trump Coalition spokesman said: 'We are meeting Trump with protests in Aberdeen and Edinburgh this month, and then in London and Windsor in September. 'JD Vance is every bit as unwelcome in the UK as Donald Trump. 'We remember how Vance cut short his ski trip in Vermont because he was so enraged by the sight of a few protesters. 'We are sure that, even in the Cotswolds, he will find the resistance waiting.' In March, hundreds of protesters holding pro-Ukraine signs confronted Mr Vance in Waitsfield, Vermont, where he and his family were visiting for a ski holiday. Protesters branded Mr Vance a 'national disgrace' with some telling him and his family to 'go ski in Russia'. It was later reported that the family were forced to move to an undisclosed location from their planned ski resort because of the demonstrations. Earlier this month, Mr Vance was met with hecklers and widespread demonstrations after he visited Disneyland in California. Protesters gathered outside the nearby Grand Californian Hotel, where the vice-president and his family were staying, waving flags and chanting. Other Disneyland visitors later complained that regular guests were experiencing delays and long lines because of the additional security in place and rides being shut down for the Vance family. The vice-president, his wife Usha and their three young children are expected to join millions of American tourists in crossing the Atlantic to see the sights of London in mid-August. They are then expected to rent a cottage in the Cotswolds before leaving to spend time in Scotland. Mrs Vance has taken the lead in finding a cottage in the Cotswolds where they can unwind with Ewan, eight, five-year-old Vivek, and Mirabel, three. Trump has previously been highly critical of protests targeting his properties in the UK and reacted angrily when vandals daubed pro-Palestinian graffiti on his Turnberry golf course He raised the incident with Starmer and described the protesters as 'terrorists'. Following Trump's election victory in November last year, a number of celebrities 'fled' the US and relocated to the Cotswolds. Among them was US TV host Ellen DeGeneres, who moved to the UK from Montecito, California, with her wife, actress Portia de Rossi, following Trump's win. Recently, Ms DeGeneres and her wife were pictured enjoying a drink in one of the Cotswolds' most famous pubs. The couple were seen spending an evening at The Farmer's Dog in Burford, Oxfordshire, which is run and owned by Jeremy Clarkson. Mr Clarkson bought the Oxfordshire pub for £1million this summer, and customers queued for four hours to get in when he opened its doors in August.
Yahoo
18-07-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Car fire causes congestion on M4
THE M4 is closed eastbound due to a car fire. The closure is between J18 Tormarton Interchange (Bath, Stroud A46) and J17 Stanton St Quinton Interchange (Cirencester A429; Chippenham A350). Wiltshire Police, Wiltshire Fire & Rescue and National Highways have units on scene. Diversion Route according to National Highways Road users should follow the route marked with a solid square symbol on local road signs: Exit the M4 eastbound at J18 At the junction roundabout take the third exit on to the A46 southbound Continue south on the A46 to the Cold Ashton roundabout with the A420 Take the first exit on to the A420 eastbound Remain on the A420 eastbound to Chippenham At the Bumpers Farm Roundabout with the A350 take the first exit Follow the A350 northbound to J17 of the M4 At the junction roundabout take the third exit to re-join the M4 eastbound
The Independent
10-07-2025
- General
- The Independent
‘Historic moment' as reintroduced pine martens welcome first babies
Pine martens reintroduced to Dartmoor have successfully bred, marking the first time the species has reproduced in the South West of England in over a century. Camera-trap footage confirmed the presence of young kits, with films showing them exploring their new Devon habitat. This breeding success follows the release of 15 pine martens in autumn 2024 as part of a broader conservation effort to restore the species to the region. Conservationists involved in the Two Moors Pine Marten Project expressed their excitement, calling it a "historic moment" for nature's recovery. The project anticipates gradual population growth and plans a further release of pine martens in Exmoor this autumn.
BBC News
08-07-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Toddlers enjoy Water Babies sponsored fancy dress swim event
Toddlers and parents across south-west England have describing having a splashing time raising money for children's swimming school Water Babies hosted a sponsored Splashathon in Exeter, in which toddlers and parents took part in water challenges while wearing pirates and sea creatures fancy event raises money for the Children's Alliance and Tommy's charities and organisers said they hoped more than £650,000 would be raised nationwide this Babies helper Lucy Abraham said this year's outfits were "brilliant". The Exeter swim was among events held between 23 June and 6 Abraham said: "It's so much fun, I love watching all the parents and the children competing in all the challenges and challenging themselves as well and the outfits are brilliant."She explained there is also an important safety lesson for the said: "It's not likely that you would be wearing a swimsuit if you accidentally fell into water - so feeling what it's like to try and swim in clothing is a safety skill as well."
The Independent
04-07-2025
- Climate
- The Independent
How beavers could become key to preventing droughts
Conservationists are championing river restoration and the reintroduction of beavers as crucial strategies to build landscape resilience against the escalating risk of drought. With two northern regions already in drought thanks to the UK 's driest spring in 132 years, the South West of England offers a compelling case study. Despite receiving only half its average spring rainfall, the National Trust 's Holnicote estate on Exmoor, Somerset, has maintained lush vegetation and thriving wetlands thanks to extensive river restoration work. The estate's 'Riverlands' project, launched in 2020, released beavers into two enclosures and worked to restore the River Aller to a 'stage zero' state – its natural, multi-channelled form with pools and shallow riffles, as it would have been before human interference. This approach, pioneered in Oregon, US, involved diggers moving over 4,000 tonnes of earth and laying hundreds of logs within the floodplain, marking the UK's first attempt at scale on a main river. Thousands of wetland trees were also planted and wildflower seeds sown to attract pollinators, demonstrating how natural solutions can help landscapes adapt to the increasing extremes of climate change. The project to give the river space and connect to its floodplain, completed just two years ago, has created a new natural landscape from once neat agricultural fields, with channels, pools, wetlands and marshes. The wetlands are rich in plants, the young trees are starting to grow and meadows in the floodplain are full of wildflowers. The landscape – along with the nearby beaver wet woodland – slows down the flow of water and holds it in the landscape to reduce flooding and counteract drought, as well as reducing pollution and loss of sediment, the Trust said. The wetlands that have been created are habitat for water voles, as well as an array of birds, insects and fish including eels. Ben Eardley, senior project manager for the National Trust in Somerset, said curbing flooding was a big part of the reason for the project, with communities downstream at Allerford and Bossington suffering from floods in the past. 'But then increasingly, you can see the impacts of hotter dry weather which I think are equally important in addressing,' he said. While some restoration schemes only improve the river channel itself, the work at Holnicote makes the wider landscape more resilient, he suggested. Even after the dry spring, the beaver enclosures, where the animals have created pools, dams and woodland clearings, were still 'brim full' of water, while the restored river catchment stays wet year-round, Mr Eardley said. The denser vegetation acts like a blanket on the soil, holding moisture in and keeping the soil temperature more consistent, he added. 'It's a combination of different things that lead to more resilience. 'And it's not saying that you have to have all of those things everywhere, but if you've got more diverse landscape with a greater mosaic of different habitats. then just by default, you'll have greater resilience,' he said. Farmers and landowners are among those who visit the 'exemplar' river restoration project, which comes amid intense debate over competing uses of land in the UK – for food security, energy production, climate action and to help restore nature and natural processes that can benefit people. Mr Eardley argues that it does not have to be a binary choice between beavers or river restoration and agriculture, but land could be managed to provide both, with benefits for landscapes which are suffering more extreme weather throughout the year as the climate changes. 'You might need to sacrifice some small areas for beaver habitat or whatever. 'But then in that wider landscape you're going to have better, lusher grazing for longer, during those summer months, whereas before, everything would have burnt off,' he said. 'Because you've got higher groundwater levels, your soil and your vegetation are healthier.' Stewart Clarke, senior national freshwater consultant at the National Trust said: 'Water is at the forefront of climate change impacts including flooding and drought, and after a very dry first six months of the year and with many UK regions either in or on the cusp of being in drought conditions, looking after the lifeblood of our landscapes is absolutely vital.' He said that giving rivers more space could create 'nature-rich corridors' through towns and countryside, store water during floods and droughts and give rivers space to adapt to changing flows. The riverlands project is one of a number of schemes the trust had undertaken to 'future proof' rivers, he said, adding: 'The new stage 0 wetland, and the beaver wetlands which it resembles, have created important stores of water and carbon to help in the fight against climate change. 'Over the coming years we aim to create and restore hundreds of such wetlands both for these benefits to people and for the rich wildlife they can support.' And while the Holnicote beavers are currently in enclosures – though prone to escaping – following the Government's recent decision to allow licensed beaver releases into the wild in England, the National Trust is applying to be able to have wild beavers on the estate. Then the beavers could link up with the stage 0 river landscape, and ultimately take over its management in their role as ecosystem engineers.
