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Belfast Telegraph
7 days ago
- Business
- Belfast Telegraph
Council vehicles still fuelled by used cooking oil from takeaways despite test equipment theft
A council has agreed to continue with a trial that sees used cooking oil fuel its vehicles after equipment was stolen during a break-in. The burglary at a Mid and East Antrim Council depot resulted in the theft of testing equipment containing trial data. However, councillors have agreed to continue with their trial of hydrogenated vegetable oil (HVO) in a further three vehicles. To date, 11,800 litres of HVO fuel have been used in the trial involving six council vehicles during the initial testing phase. This started last October but was halted temporarily following the break-in. The report states that emissions from council vehicles contribute to a quarter of the local authority's carbon footprint. By fully adopting HVO as an alternative fuel, it is anticipated the council could reduce the amount of carbon its fleet produces by up to 90%. The HVO is produced from used cooking oil collected from fast food outlets. It can be fully blended with diesel and requires no modifications to diesel engines. It has been estimated the council's vehicle emissions could be reduced overall from 1,733 tonnes annually to 132 tonnes. However, the council's annual fleet fuel bill could rise from £790,000 to around £898,000. Speaking at the meeting, DUP councillor Peter Johnston said: 'For us as a council, value for money is a big consideration. It is positive to note that the cost of fuel is coming down.' Ulster Unionist Roy Beggs said it was 'right that we should continue with the trial'. Alliance's Aaron Skinner said: 'Trials like this are what we have to be doing. It is good to see this coming forward. In terms of energy security, it is good to see.' Shaun Morley, the council's operations director, stated: 'Technology has moved on quite a bit. Engines are much more resilient.' Mid and East Antrim Borough Council owns 260 vehicles worth £3.2m, councillors have been told. A previous report said the fleet consists of bin lorries, vans, heavy goods vehicles, trailers, tractors, quads and excavators. With the exception of four small electric vans, the fleet is diesel-powered.
Belfast Telegraph
27-05-2025
- Belfast Telegraph
‘People were screaming': NI Liverpool fans react to ‘shocking' car incident during victory parade
A man has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, dangerous driving and drug driving, following the incident which occurred on Water Street in the city centre on Monday at around 6pm during the street celebrations for Liverpool FC winning the 2024/25 Premier League. Merseyside Police said it believed the car which struck pedestrians was able to follow an ambulance attending to someone suffering a heart attack after a roadblock was temporarily lifted. The force is not treating it as terrorism-related. Detective Chief Superintendent Karen Jaundrill said there were a total of 65 confirmed casualties. More than 50 people were treated in different hospitals, where 11 people remained on Tuesday afternoon in a stable condition. One Belfast woman who was at the scene of the incident with her partner said that she saw 'lots of kids walking with their parents' and then heard 'the screams of people'. 'I've never witnessed anything so bad,' she continued, adding that she 'had no idea how bad it was' as she and her partner 'ran to safety'. 'It was a fantastic day, although wet, until this happened. It's shocking. No need for that at all — so many people. This was supposed to be the best day of their lives. And then this happens.' Lindsay Millar, a former Ulster Unionist mayor of Mid and East Antrim Borough Council, also attended the victory parade with her friends and loved ones. Speaking from Liverpool on Tuesday, she praised the city and football club for its sense of community and support in the aftermath of the news. 'The feeling around the parade was really positive despite the pouring rain,' she told the Belfast Telegraph. 'We were standing near the end of the parade route, so when it finished we started to disperse. It was only as we were leaving we became aware of the incident. Everyone around us was of course very shocked to hear it had happened. 'With nearly everyone being in Liverpool FC clothing, there was a real spirit of solidarity, with people saying 'Wasn't that dreadful?' to each other. 'It was similar for the rest of the night. Before even mentioning Liverpool's win or celebrations, everyone was just checking in with each other. Liverpool is such a friendly city and there has been so much camaraderie around the whole situation. 'Obviously, very quickly fake news began to spread as well. Within half an hour of everything happening, we had heard that three people had died. But thankfully we know that's not the case. 'I think that's why the police were so quick to put out a statement about someone being arrested and how many people were badly injured. 'From being in the city so far, it's what everyone has been talking about. It's so awful that it happened.' Merseyside Police Assistant Chief Constable Jenny Sims said: 'It is believed the driver of the Ford Galaxy car involved in this incident was able to follow an ambulance onto Water Street after the roadblock was temporarily lifted so that the ambulance crew could attend to a member of the public who was having a heart attack. 'There was no intelligence to suggest an incident of this nature would take place.' Ms Sims defended the policing operation during the parade, telling reporters that the force planned for 'all contingencies', including road closures and an armed police presence. It followed the city's metro mayor Steve Rotheram's comments that the vehicle should not have been on the street and that questions about how the car was able to enter the road were 'legitimate'. Providing an update on the investigation, Ms Jaundrill said the suspect, from the West Derby area of Liverpool, remains in custody and is being interviewed by officers. Probe into whether Liverpool driver tailgated ambulance before parade horror Jack Trotter, from Newtownards, and his girlfriend Abbie Gallagher were both hit by the car as it drove into fans on Monday evening. Mr Trotter has since been discharged from hospital. He posted on social media shortly afterwards, describing the events as 'crazy'. 'I'm writing this because I've got a million texts asking if I'm OK and it's crazy over here. I've barely any service,' he said. 'The parade was going unreal until the very end. Unfortunately I was hit. However, I'm extremely lucky as I dodged the car just in time, [but] still got hit. 'In absolute shock [over] how an event like this can turn [into] such a tragedy.'
Belfast Telegraph
21-05-2025
- Belfast Telegraph
PPS to consider if Winston Irvine sentence should be appealed
Irvine was sentenced to two-and-a-half years, with half to be served in jail, at Belfast Crown Court on Tuesday following an incident where firearms and ammunition were found in the boot of his car. Irvine avoided a statutory five-year sentence on several of the charges he faced after Judge Gordon Kerr KC ruled that there were 'exceptional circumstances' in his case, namely Irvine's 'work for peace and his charity work in the community'. Ulster Unionist MLA Doug Beattie has said he will write to the PPS over the sentence. A PPS spokesperson said: 'While sentencing is a matter for the independent judiciary, the Director of Public Prosecutions does have the power to refer certain sentences to the Court of Appeal on the grounds that they may be unduly lenient. 'An unduly lenient sentence is one that falls outside the range of sentences that a judge, taking into consideration all relevant factors and having regard to sentencing guidance, could reasonably impose. 'The sentence must not just be lenient, but unduly lenient. 'We are considering whether there is a legal ground to refer the sentence in this case to the Court of Appeal.' An application by the PPS to review a sentence must be made within 28 days from the day when the sentence was imposed. If the Court of Appeal agrees that the sentence was unduly lenient, it may increase the sentence. Irvine's co-accused in the case, Robin Workman, was handed the statutory five-year sentence by Judge Kerr. He will also serve half of that term behind bars. Irvine, 49, of Ballysillan Road in north Belfast and Workman, 54, of Shore Road in Larne, County Antrim had both previously admitted possession of a firearm and ammunition in suspicious circumstances. They also admitted two counts of possessing a handgun without a certificate, one count of possessing ammunition without a certificate, possessing a prohibited weapon and possessing a firearm without a certificate. Workman further pleaded guilty to possessing a .177 calibre air rifle without holding a firearm certificate. The offences were committed on June 8, 2022 when Workman transported a quantity of weapons and ammunition to the Glencairn area of Belfast in his van, which were then put into the boot of Irvine's Volkswagen Tiguan car. A short time later Irvine's vehicle was stopped by police in Disraeli Street. A long-barrelled firearm, two suspected pistols, several magazines and a large quantity of ammunition were discovered inside a bag in the boot. While the judge noted that UVF paraphernalia was found in the homes of both defendants he did not consider there was a terrorist link to the weapons that were seized. Mr Beattie told the BBC Nolan Show: 'Here we have a man at a time when tensions were heightened in Northern Ireland due to issues around Brexit and the protocol who was found with weapons and ammunition. 'How on earth the judge can say there was no terrorist link to this is utterly bizarre if we don't know what the weapons were for.'
The Independent
03-04-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
How a king's carpet gave a voice to Afghan women silenced by the Taliban
Hillsborough Castle, outside Belfast, is both a seat of government, used by the secretary of state for Northern Ireland and a cherished royal residence. Since 2021, the village has been known as Royal Hillsborough and the history of the peace process is captured in royal moments here. It was in the cosy Lady Grey's study, where the hard yards were put in for peace in Northern Ireland. There are portraits of the late Sinn Fein leader Martin McGuinness and of Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble, who died in 2022, and of prime minister Tony Blair and US president Bill Clinton. There is a chess board of orange and green squares, featuring protagonists of the period as players, which was given to Mo Mowlam, the former secretary of state for Northern Ireland. She gave so much to the peace process – famously once tossing off her wig in the middle of negotiations – that some of her ashes are scattered in the Hillsborough garden. It was in the dining room that Blair looked out at the rose bushes alongside Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and agreed on the 1999 Hillsborough Declaration in which both governments called for weapons to be put beyond use. It was in the Red Room that Queen Elizabeth met the Irish president Mary McAleese in 2005 for a 'cordial, friendly chat'. To preserve the rich story contained within its walls, Historic Royal Palaces, who maintain the palaces, started refurbishing Hillsborough Castle in 2014. The Throne Room was re-cast with rich dark green damask fabrics and dark red chairs of state. Behind the chairs, hangs a heraldic banner, created by needlework students at the College of Art in Belfast for the coronation of George V and reused for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. The paintings from the royal collection hung up in the room include Rubens, so there are more deep reds, emeralds and sapphires. And it will be in the Throne Room where the King will soon present a new vision of weaving destinies of another country's history. After the initial refurbishment, the Egyptian carpet on display looked a bit faded by the standards of the rest and in 2019, Aileen Peirce, head of interpretation and design at HRP, and Turquoise Mountain, a charity which protects the heritage of places in conflict, began a project close to the King's heart. His idea was for a gigantic Persian carpet, made in Afghanistan, overseen by Turquoise Mountain, of which he is a patron. It is hard to exaggerate the epic nature of the work, which was funded by the Drapers', a livery company dating back to the 14th and 15th centuries. Altogether, the 15m x 6m carpet will require around 100 artists and craftspeople; designers, geometers, miniaturists, graphers, dyers, weavers, cutters and curators. It will provide the women weavers in Northern Afghanistan with employment for a year and the grand unrolling will take place in the summer of 2026. The Hillsborough commission is to be a contemporary version of the famous Ardabil Carpet from Iran, which is on show at the Victoria and Albert Museum in South Kensington. Only Iran and Afghanistan have the heritage skills for a carpet of this size. The design concept comes from a particular manuscript page that was made in the ateliers, or workshops, around 500 years ago in Herat, western Afghanistan. The medallion design has at its centre the royal coat of arms and a border which reflects motifs both from Afghanistan and Hillsborough. There will be emblems from the gardens: tulips, roses, pears, acorns, and Irish bees as well as pineapples from the historic pineapple house. Afghan designers have then added pomegranates and they stylised the flowers to suit the traditional shapes of Afghanistan. Silkworms are also hidden throughout the carpet for children to seek. Dr Thalia Kennedy, the creative director of Turquoise Mountain, worked with the medievalist Aileen Pierce at Historic Royal Palaces on the faithful understanding of heritage design. Peirce, who has a doctorate in Islamic art, says: ' You have to do justice to those original crafts. These are not your Hoxton bachelor pad. I am a medievalist. My world is a riot of colour.' The richness of the blues and reds are taken from a tabard in the Throne Room of the Ulster King of Arms and also from the paintings by Rubens. Peirce says: 'You want to get it right. So many micro-decisions are taken in a room like this: tassels on curtains, what gilding... We looked at bees and thought not quite right, the silkworms at first too big, mustard colour not quite right. When you are trying to realise a world you have to get it right.' Kennedy also says that their Afghan advisers are masters of tonal harmony: 'We looked at a lot of 15th- and 16th-century Afghan Persian and Moghul rugs, our Afghan colourist advisers who have got a great eye was the last word on that. ' Skills were tested by the sheer challenge of scale. The graphing software was not initially able to cope with the size of a carpet so big that it would need its own loom and room in Afghanistan. Once they had found a computer that wouldn't crash, they were able to print on to actual graph paper in order for the weavers to follow the exact design. The carpet is now finally ready to go to the weavers. Kennedy says they work with weaving groups mainly in the north and in Bamyan in the central highlands who specialise in a level of knot count necessary for the realisation of the curvilinear lines. The wool comes from Ghazni sheep, which has a lustre almost a lanolin quality to it which is distinctive: 'It is why carpets from Afghanistan are particularly prized,' says Kennedy. ' It has this intrinsic light quality to it, almost translucent – you look at it from various angles and it is totally different.' The dyers mostly come from Aqcha in northern Afghanistan and after the dyers come the weavers. Between 10 and 30 seated in rows, weaving on yarns. Kennedy says: 'I am in awe of the women who can sit with a bit of graph paper and make this a reality. They are not tracing it, they can read it straight into this huge carpet. Ten people sitting in a row are somehow subliminally in tune with each other. They do 3cms a day, all attuned to that same pattern and same outcome.' For Aileen Peirce, the next great concern is the arrival of the giant carpet next summer. She is looking for a commercial freezer large enough to house it to make sure no pests alight with it. For curators, moths are the things that strike the greatest fear into their hearts. But not everyone is a fan of this project, and others like it. There has been some cultural thuggery in recent months, with one commentator describing Turquoise Mountain as 'woke colonialism' and its hand-knotted rugs as 'a must-have for every virtuous home in the West's turbo-smug boroughs'. Shoshana Stewart, the president of Turquoise Mountain, says that the act of weaving the carpet has a wider resonance in a country where even looking out of a window and access to education has been banned. 'Women can earn income while husbands and sons are out of work, an income means security, health support, a connection with the outside world.' She adds that the work the charity does with artists in conflict zones is important because: 'When everything is going wrong – the economy, security, the future disappearing – there is something really special about heritage crafts, learned from mothers, passed on to daughters, something beautiful to show off to the outside world.' But Afghan activist Shabnam Nasimi, the CEO of Friends of Afghan Women Network (Fawn), which she co-founded with me, agrees. 'Afghanistan's heritage isn't just about the past, it's about survival today. Every knot in this carpet, every colour mixed by hand, is a quiet rebellion against those who would rather see our culture erased. Craftsmanship isn't just decoration; it's identity, history and the proof that these women are still here. This isn't just a carpet; it's a statement. A reminder that our culture endures – not in museums, not as relics, but as something living, breathing and impossible to silence.' Sir Nicholas Coleridge, chair of Historic Royal Palaces, says: 'It's a remarkable carpet – people will be visiting it in 500 years time. Lucky Hillsborough is to be the recipient of this extraordinary piece.' And in Afghanistan, the women carpet weavers are making a statement to reconcile the past to a hoped for a better and brighter future.
