Latest news with #Woolley
BBC News
10-07-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Solar farm near Yorkshire Sculpture Park set for approval
Plans to build a solar farm near to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park have been recommended for officers at Wakefield Council have advised councillors to give the green light to the scheme on two sites near the villages of Woolley and Haigh, about 0.3 miles (500m) from the council received 172 objections from residents opposed to the scheme, but a report said the benefits of providing renewable energy to up to 11,700 homes a year outweighed the potential will make a decision on the application at a meeting on 17 July. The development, which would be in place for up to 40 years, includes installing solar panels up to 9ft (2.8m) in height, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.A council report said the solar farm, stretching across 55 hectares of open countryside, would be visible from parts of the sculpture plan also includes laying an underground cable from the farm to a substation at Woolley Grange to connect to the National sites would be surrounded by 2m-high fencing and protected by a CCTV against the plan cited the detrimental impact it could have on "uniquely picturesque" Parish Council said the proposal could "impact dwellings in the local area" and have an "unacceptable impact on landscape character."Other concerns raised included the potential loss of wildlife habitats, loss of agricultural land and an increased flood risk, while some called for the site to be based on brownfield land in the district. Applicant Boom Power said the biodiversity of the site could be "significantly improved" by the development.A total of 35 comments of support were made in favour of the said the facility would "sit comfortably within the application site and wider landscape" and "help to provide a more stable price for energy in the country".A planning officer's report acknowledged the scheme would "cause harm to nearby heritage assets," but added: "The public benefits of providing renewable energy that could power appropriately 11,700 homes and save 7,300 tonnes of CO2 is considered to outweigh this harm."The report said the harm would be "relatively easy to reverse, though would be present over a prolonged period of 40 years".Last month, Boom Power's plans for a solar farm within the same council ward near to the villages Middlestown, Overton and Netherton were approved following a public inquiry. Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.
Otago Daily Times
09-07-2025
- Health
- Otago Daily Times
Woman found dead four hours after calling 111
A woman struggling to breathe early on Christmas Eve called for an ambulance, but died before one arrived more than four hours later. An ambulance crew arrived at Barbara Rose McGee's Auckland home around 7am and found her dead in her bed. It was the third unit dispatched to help McGee that morning in 2022, after the first two were diverted to higher-priority calls. A coroner found that the 67-year-old, who suffered from emphysema, died from a type of pneumonia known as acute bronchopneumonia, which caused inflammation to her airways and lungs. Two months earlier, a man lay dying in front of family and friends who tried in vain to save him during the 45 minutes it took for an ambulance to arrive. NZME reported in January this year that the Health and Disability Commissioner had received 166 complaints involving Hato Hone St John from July 1 in 2019 to 30 June 30 last year. They included two cases where people died because of delays in the arrival of ambulance crews. A coroner has again pointed to failures in the ambulance call-taker process. In her recent findings, Coroner Erin Woolley said that McGee's initial 111 call was incorrectly coded, and that standard procedure around welfare checks was not followed. Damian Tomic, St John's deputy chief executive of clinical services, told NZME it apologised unreservedly for what happened, and had extended condolences to McGee's whānau, whom the service had offered to meet. Call for help that arrived too late According to the findings, McGee experienced difficulty breathing early on Christmas Eve in 2022. Her son had visited the day before and made her comfortable after she messaged to say she had the "flu and a fever" and was "very weak and sleepy". Around 3am, McGee phoned 111 and asked for an ambulance. She had also tried to reach her son by text message to say she was going to the hospital and that she could not breathe. Her son woke to the messages at 6am and was told by police of his mother's death when he later arrived at her house. When McGee called the ambulance, she told the call taker she had been unwell for a while and was experiencing shortness of breath. The call was coded as an "orange" response, which meant it was considered serious, but not immediately life-threatening. An ambulance was sent about 15 minutes later but was then reassigned to attend a call coded as "an immediate life-threatening situation". At 4.20am, an emergency call handler phoned McGee to conduct a welfare check. Coroner Woolley said the notes from this call indicated there had been no change in her condition. A further welfare call was made at 5.30am, but McGee was unable to be reached. A second ambulance was sent an hour later, but that too was reassigned to a higher priority call. A third ambulance was sent to McGee's address just before 7am. It arrived 10 minutes later, but McGee was dead. Procedures 'not correctly followed' Coroner Woolley found that welfare calls should have been made every 30 minutes until emergency services arrived. When McGee could not be reached, further attempts should have been made to contact her, and if there was still no response, then a reassessment would have been required. "On this basis, it appears that in addition to Barbara's initial call being incorrectly coded, the standard operating procedure about welfare checks was also not correctly followed," the coroner said. St John investigated its response and found that the call handler had incorrectly recorded McGee's answer to a question about her breathing. The handler asked McGee if she had difficulty speaking between breaths, and recorded "no", but a review of the call found McGee could clearly be heard struggling to breathe. Coroner Woolley said the answer should have been recorded as "yes". "Had Barbara's answer been correctly recorded, her call would have been coded as a 'red' priority/immediately life-threatening situation, requiring the immediate dispatch of an ambulance." St John told the coroner that it would have provided further training to the relevant call taker; however, that person had resigned after what happened. One of the improvements the service identified was the possibility of creating a process to address the situation when no voice contact was established during a welfare call. It also proposed changes to the line of questioning and the terminology used for these call-backs, currently referred to as "welfare checks", to make them more safety-focused. Coroner Woolley recommended that St John ensure all call-takers were reminded of procedures around welfare checks, and that if contact could not be made, attempts must be made every five minutes and a reassessment done. St John told NZME it accepted the coroner's findings and recommendations. "Patient safety is a core priority, and we've made significant improvements to how welfare checks are conducted," Tomic said. They included more timely follow-ups and changes to the way checks were structured and phrased to ensure they were clear, consistent and safety-focused, he said. - By Tracy Neal Open Justice multimedia journalist of NZ Herald
South Wales Argus
02-07-2025
- Health
- South Wales Argus
Abergavenny Nordic walking group sees growing interest
The sessions, which began in January, have grown to about 10 regular participants. Members have praised the benefits of the group walks, citing improved endurance and muscle tone. Some have even invested in their own Nordic pole equipment. The group, organised by Ed Woolley, follows five different routes, including tracks in Llanfoist and Govilon, and the canals at Gilwern and Goytre Wharf. Each walk lasts for around 90 minutes and is described as being at a 'medium pace.' The routes also provide views of the local mountains and countryside. The walks have become a regular fixture for those involved, providing not just exercise but a social opportunity too. Mr Woolley, a seasoned Nordic walking instructor with more than 12 years of experience, has also started a 'netwalking' class, encouraging members of Frogmore Street Art Gallery to join in. This initiative aims to further enhance friendships and bonding opportunities within the group. Nordic walking, which originated in Scandinavian countries as a training exercise for cross-country skiers, was introduced to the UK in 2005. It quickly became a popular method of achieving a good level of all-round fitness and is now practised in almost every county. The Abergavenny group still has spaces available for those interested in a full-body exercise that is not too demanding. Potential new members are encouraged to contact Ed Woolley on 07906 365280 for more information.
Yahoo
24-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
‘Goblin prince': New monstersaur discovered in Utah reveals hidden secrets of Gila monster relatives
Artistic reconstruction of Bolg amondol, depicted raiding an oviraptorosaur dinosaur nest amidst the lush Kaiparowits Formation habitat. (Courtesy of Cullen Townsend/University of Utah) When Hank Woolley, a paleontological researcher who specializes in lizard evolution, opened a jar of bones labeled 'lizard' at the Natural History Museum of Utah, he said his first thought was, 'Oh wow, there's a fragmentary skeleton here.' 'We know very little about large-bodied lizards from the Kaiparowits Formation in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah, so I knew this was significant right away,' said Woolley, from the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County's Dinosaur Institute. With Woolley's expertise, that jar of bones — even though it was collected back in 2005 — helped lead to a new discovery of a 'racoon-sized armored monstersaurian,' a giant relative of the Gila monster, according to an announcement issued last week by the University of Utah. Its name, Bolg amondol, was inspired by a 'goblin prince' villain in J.R.R. Tolkien's 'Lord of the Rings' universe. Bolg now represents an 'evolutionary lineage that sprouted within a group of large-bodied lizards called monstersaurs that still roam the deserts from which Bolg was recovered,' according to the U. Woolley knew that a new species of monstersaur called for an appropriate name from an 'iconic monster creator': Tolkien, the university said in its release. 'Bolg is a great sounding name. It's a goblin prince from 'The Hobbit,' and I think of these lizards as goblin-like, especially looking at their skulls,' Woolley said. He also used Tolkien's fictional Elvish language Sindarin to craft the species' epithet. 'Amon' means 'mound,' and 'dol' means 'head,' a reference to mound-like osteoderms (or bony deposits that act as a form of armor) found on Bolg's and other monstersaurs' skulls. ''Mound-headed Bolg' would fit right in with the goblins — and it's revealing quite a bit about monstersaurs,' the U. said. The research published June 17 in the journal Royal Society Open Science, led by the Dinosaur Institute in Los Angeles County and the Natural History Museum of Utah, 'reveals hidden treasures awaiting future paleontologists in the bowels of museum fossil collections,' the university said, along with 'the vast potential of paleontological heritage preserved in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and other public lands.' The field collection of the specimens were conducted under paleontological permits issued by the Bureau of Land Management, which also helped fund the study with a National Science Foundation award. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Though the Bolg specimen was first unearthed more than a decade ago, in 2005, Woolley's expertise in lizard paleontology helped determine its significance. He was the lead author of the research. 'Bolg is a great example of the importance of natural history museum collections,' said co-author Randy Irmis, an associate professor at the U. and curator of paleontology at the Natural History Museum of Utah, in the news release. 'Although we knew the specimen was significant when it was discovered back in 2005, it took a specialist in lizard evolution like Hank to truly recognize its scientific importance and take on the task of researching and scientifically describing this new species.' Though museum collection spaces are 'sometimes stereotyped as dusty, forgotten places, the truth is quite the opposite,' the Natural History Museum of Utah said in a post about Bolg last week. The museum's paleontology collection is a 'glorified storage unit. Instead, it's a space where staff, students, volunteers, and visiting researchers can care for fossils and conduct new research.' 'It was this reevaluation of collection specimens,' the museum added, 'that led to Woolley's breakthrough research on Bolg amondol.' Irmis said discovering a new species of lizard that's an ancestor of the modern-day Gila monster is 'pretty cool in and of itself, but what's particularly exciting is what it tells us about the unique 76-million-year-old ecosystem it lived in.' 'The fact that Bolg co-existed with several other large lizard species indicates that this was a stable and productive ecosystem where these animals were taking advantage of a wide variety of prey and different micro-habitats,' Irmis said. Researchers identified the new species from a collection of skull, limbs, vertebrae and bony armor called osteoderms. Most fossil lizards from the dinosaur age 'are even scrappier — often just single, isolated bones or teeth — so despite their fragmentary nature, the parts of Bolg's skeleton that survived contain a stunning amount of information,' the U. said. 'That means more characteristics are available for us to assess and compare to similar-looking lizards,' Woolley said. 'Importantly, we can use those characteristics to understand this animal's evolutionary relationships and test hypotheses about where it fits on the lizard tree of life.' The clade (or ancestral grouping) of anguimorph lizards known as monstersauria are characterized by their large size and distinctive features, like 'sharp, spire-like teeth and pitted, polygonal armor attached to their skulls.' Bolg, the U. said, 'would have been a bit of a monster to our eyes.' 'Three feet tip to tail, maybe even bigger than that, depending on the length of the tail and torso,' Woolley said. 'So, by modern lizard standards they're a very large animal, similar in size to a Savannah monitor lizard; something that you wouldn't want to mess around with.' Monstersauria have a roughly 100-million-year history, but their fossil record is largely incomplete, meaning Bolg's discovery is a 'big deal' to help fully understand the prehistoric lizards and their world, the university said. 'Bolg's closest known relative hails from the other side of the planet in the Gobi Desert of Asia,' the U. said. 'Though dinosaurs have long been known to have traveled between the once-connected continents of the Late Cretaceous Period, Bolg reveals that smaller animals also made the trek, suggesting there were common patterns of biogeography across terrestrial vertebrates during this time.' Bolg was discovered in the rocks of the Kaiparowits Formation of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument — a formation that has emerged as a paleontological hotspot over the past 25 years, according to the U. Those rocks have produced 'one of the most astounding dinosaur-dominated records in North America,' the university said. 'Discoveries like this underscore the importance of preserving public lands in the Western U.S. for science and research.' Co-author Joe Sertich, from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and Colorado State University, said in the release that the 'exceptional record of big lizards' from Grand Staircase-Escalante 'may prove to be a normal part of dinosaur-dominated ecosystems from North America.' He said those lizards appear to have filled 'key roles as smaller predators hunting down eggs and small animals in the forests of Laramidia,' which is an island continent that existed during the Late Cretaceous period. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Wales Online
24-06-2025
- Business
- Wales Online
Restaurant threatened with £2,500 fine in row over its signs
Restaurant threatened with £2,500 fine in row over its signs Il Gusto restaurant in Abergavenny has been threatened with enforcement action over the two internally-illuminated signs that have been in place for more than three years Il Gusto's signs illuminated at night on the popular Frogmore Street in Abergavenny, Monmouthshire (Image: Local Democracy Reporting Service ) A family-owned Italian restaurant could be forced to remove its illuminated signs and may face a hefty £2,500 fine in a row over lighting. Il Gusto in Frogmore Street in Abergavenny was told its bright signs on the restaurant's front are not in keeping with the conservation area. Last month it emerged the restaurant had been embroiled in a legal row with Monmouthshire County Council over the signage after the local authority told the building's owner Peter Woolley it would have no choice but to seek prosecution at magistrates' court should action not be taken to alter the signage. Bemused Mr Woolley has claimed in an interview with the local newspaper the Abergavenny Chronicle: "The attack on my tenants is based solely on a subjective opinion." He pointed to there being no fixed rule on what constitutes lighting which is not in keeping while other restaurants and stores in the town use similar lighting at the front of their premises. The legislation enforced by the local planning authority states: 'Signage should not unacceptably detract from the character or appearance of the area and would not result in undue visual clutter.' The owner of the building said he is baffled by what has happened (Image: Local Democracy Reporting Service ) Article continues below Il Gusto has now submitted an application to retain the two internally-lit fascia signs flanking its arched entrance. Mr Woolley said he has sought retrospective planning permission to keep the signs which have been in place for more than three years and were initially used by former tenants Amos and later adapted for Il Gusto. Mr Woolley's planning document highlights the "extensive illuminated frontage" of the Tesco store opposite Il Gusto in Frogmore Street. The supermarket's lighting was lauded as "a clear example of development that contributes significantly to the overall illumination level and modern visual character" of the town's conservation area in a 2016 appraisal by the planning department. The statement further clarifies that Il Gusto aimed to "closely reflect" the previously approved colour scheme used by the nearby Prezzo restaurant. They chose black UPVC panels with "discreet" white backlit lettering and the signs are only lit until the restaurant's closing time at 10pm. "These examples demonstrate that lighting is an accepted and established element within the conservation area's character. In this context the modest and discreet illumination of Il Gusto's signage is entirely in keeping with its surroundings and does not detract from the area's character or heritage value," the statement reads. Article continues below "Enforcing action against an independent restaurant for using illuminated signs – when similar signs by national brands have been allowed – raises serious concerns about fairness and consistency. It risks sending the wrong message that local independents aren't being treated equally." A spokesman for the council said last month: 'The local planning authority are collaborating with the owners to address the unauthorised signage to ensure the special character of the conservation area is protected.'
