Latest from Rhyl Journal
Rhyl Journal
3 hours ago
- Rhyl Journal
Prison illegally detaining inmates after release date put in special measures
Chief inspector of prisons Charlie Taylor has served an urgent notification on HMP Pentonville after an inspection discovered many inmates have been kept in prison after they should have been freed because staff 'failed to calculate sentences accurately'. The watchdog said data from the prison showed 130 inmates – 20% of those eligible for release – had been held illegally after their release date in the last six months. The backlog in sentencing calculations also meant 10 prisoners had been released early 'in error' between July 2024 and June 2025. In a letter to the Justice Secretary, the chief inspector said arrangements for new prisoners' first night at the north London jail and induction were 'chaotic and even frightening'. Men were held in dirty cells missing bedding, furniture, telephones and pillows, the watchdog said, while the majority of prisoners were locked in their cells for more than 22 hours a day. The report also said 60% of prisoners were sharing cells that were designed for one person, many living areas were dirty and there was a widespread infestation of mice and cockroaches. Inspectors took emergency action after they found care of vulnerable prisoners under constant supervision was 'shockingly poor', with one prison officer found asleep, two were reading books and another was 'completely absent'. The 'unacceptable practices' in looking after these prisoners, deemed at serious risk of self-harm, were a particular concern for inspectors given three suicides at the jail in 2025. Mr Taylor said: 'Pentonville is an overcrowded, inner-city, Victorian prison with a record of poor performance over many years. 'Too many of its staff have become disillusioned about the possibility of improvement or their capacity to affect change. Yet many of its shocking failures are firmly within the control of leaders. 'The governor will need significant support and investment from HM Prison and Probation Service to strengthen his senior leadership team, re-focus on the basics, and put in place effective oversight and assurance systems to turn this failing prison around.' A survey of prisoners also revealed 44% told inspectors they felt unsafe at the time of inspection, which the watchdog said was the highest figure recorded during his tenure as chief inspector. Pentonville is the 10th prison to be issued with an urgent notification since November 2022, following Exeter, Cookham Wood Young Offender Institution, Woodhill, Bedford, Wandsworth, Rochester, Manchester and Winchester prisons. The emergency measure was introduced in 2017 as a way to raise immediate concerns following an inspection, which requires a response and action plan by the Justice Secretary within 28 days. Elsewhere, the inspector's report also found when releases were planned, 23% of those prisoners were homeless on the day they were released, and very few had employment on release. Reacting to the urgent notification, Prison Reform Trust chief executive Pia Sinha said: 'Prisoners illegally held after they should have been released, or others released early in error, further undermine effective sentence planning and erode public confidence. 'This urgent notification must be a rallying cry for immediate action – fix the failing infrastructure, improve staff training, and treat prisoners with dignity.' Andrew Neilson, director of campaigns at the Howard League for Penal Reform, said the findings of the inspection were 'outrageous' and represent a 'new low' for an overcrowded public service on the brink of collapse. He added: 'While the Government inherited a dire state of affairs in prisons, it has had more than a year to bring about change. 'As report cards go, such a dire account of dysfunction in Pentonville instils little confidence that ministers have a grip of the situation.' Prisons minister Lord James Timpson said he visited the prison on Thursday, where the team is already working to urgently address the concerns raised by the chief inspector. An action plan will also be published in the coming weeks to support the efforts. Lord Timpson said: 'This Government will end the chaos we inherited in our jails. 'We are building 14,000 new prison places and reforming sentencing so our jails reduce reoffending, cut crime, and keep victims safe.'
Rhyl Journal
3 hours ago
- Business
- Rhyl Journal
Homes with a sea view ‘command average premium of more than £88,000'
The website's analysis indicates that coastal home buyers wanting to be able to see the sea face paying a price premium of nearly a third (32%). The average asking price for a home with a sea view stands at just over £363,181, its analysis found. The property website looked at more than 200 coastal areas, comparing the average asking price of homes in these areas when a sea view was mentioned compared with those without a sea view. The average price for a home with a sea view is £363,181.51, while the average price for a coastal home where no sea view was mentioned is £275,074.81, the analysis indicated. This makes a price difference of £88,106.70. At a regional level, the East Midlands leads the charge with a 68% premium, with homes with a sea view having a price tag of £428,330 on average. The South West had the next biggest premium at 44%, with Scotland a close third at 43%. Torbay in Devon was found to be a sea view hotspot – being the area with the biggest cluster of available homes listed with a sea view in Rightmove's analysis. Colleen Babcock, a property expert at Rightmove, said: 'Sea views have always been a highly sought after feature for home buyers, and our latest research highlights just how much more people are willing to pay for one. 'The East Midlands claims top spot as the region with the highest price premium for homes with a sea view at 68%, compared to homes with a sea view in the South East which has a much lower sea view premium of 22%. 'A contributing factor for this difference could be the exclusivity of properties with a sea view in these areas.' Rightmove's analysis involved looking at properties on its website that mention 'sea view' in the listing description. The data covered January to June 2025. Here are the average asking prices for homes with a sea view, followed by the percentage price premium compared with asking prices for coastal homes without a sea view being mentioned, according to Rightmove: East Midlands, £428,330, 68% South West, £405,676, 44% Scotland, £218,867, 43% North East, £231,194, 28% Yorkshire and the Humber, £193,711, 27% North West, £201,292, 26% East of England, £305,264, 25% Wales, £298,824, 24% South East, £367,209, 22% And here are the hotspots where a sea view is most likely to be mentioned, according to the analysis by Rightmove: 1. Torbay 2. Bournemouth 3. Cornwall 4. Isle of Wight 5. Hastings 6. Folkestone 7. Brighton 8. Thanet 9. Tendring 10. North Yorkshire
Rhyl Journal
3 hours ago
- Sport
- Rhyl Journal
PCA calls for cut to County Championship schedule to protect players' wellbeing
A Professional Cricketers' Association survey showed 83 per cent of its members held concerns about the physical impact of the schedule and two-thirds had worries from a mental-health standpoint. Counties have held discussions about changes to the calendar for next year, with Warwickshire seamer and PCA chair Olly Hannon-Dalby urging a cut in the amount of red-ball cricket. He said: 'We are at a critical moment regarding the future of professional cricketers in England and Wales. The schedule has always been a contentious issue and we have seen too many reviews with no change. 'But the feeling in recent seasons due to ever-increasing intensity of fixtures has led the game to a position where positive action has to be taken immediately and as an opportunity for the game to grow. 'A change in format of the County Championship to 12 league games is the only reasonable option and would breathe new life into what I believe would become the best red-ball competition in the world.' An outcome on what the 2026 schedule will look like is expected this month and any modifications would require the backing of at least 12 of the 18 counties, some of whom have publicly expressed their preferences. Middlesex, Somerset and Surrey support the status quo of 14 matches, while Durham and Lancashire are in favour of a dozen games and a shake-up of the current two-division structure. PCA figures further highlighted more than three-quarters of men's players believe there is too much domestic cricket and 72 per cent feel the current programme is not conducive to high performance. England and Warwickshire seamer Chris Woakes said: 'The players aren't trying to play less cricket because they don't want to – it's about being able to produce the best cricket on the field as possible.' Teams playing twice in two days in the Vitality Blast has long been a concern, with PCA chief executive Daryl Mitchell last year warning of the potential for 'disastrous' consequences on the roads. It seems likely the domestic English T20 competition will undergo a revamp and return to three groups of six – it is currently two sets of nine – with each team playing 12 instead of 14 games. But Mitchell said: 'The congestion of the intense schedule cannot be improved enough by losing two 20-over games across a six-month season alone.' England and Essex seamer Sam Cook added: 'You hear stories of people driving at three, four o'clock in the morning in the middle of back-to-back (Blast) games, which from a health and lifestyle perspective is not right. 'We want to see these decisions made before something serious happens. 'We're not able to perform to the highest level we can due to the current schedule. We've got some amazing talent and brilliant cricketers in the country. I think with reducing cricket, fans and supporters will see the standard go up.'
Rhyl Journal
3 hours ago
- Politics
- Rhyl Journal
Diane Abbott: Labour ‘wants me out' after second suspension
The Hackney North and Stoke Newington MP said the Labour leadership 'wants me out' and that her comments in a BBC interview released this week were 'factually correct'. It comes a day after Sir Keir Starmer stripped the whip from four Labour MPs for persistent breaches of discipline. Ms Abbott, the longest-serving female MP in the Commons, lost the whip and had a lengthy stint sitting as an independent after she suggested in 2023 that Jewish, Irish and Traveller people experience prejudice, but not racism. She apologised for those remarks at the time and was eventually readmitted to the party just in time to stand as a Labour candidate in the 2024 general election. But in a BBC interview released this week, she said she did not regret the incident. 'Diane Abbott has been administratively suspended from the Labour Party, pending an investigation. We cannot comment further while this investigation is ongoing,' a Labour spokesperson said. Ms Abbott posted a clip of her BBC interview after news of her suspension emerged. She did not respond to a request for comment, but gave a statement to BBC Newsnight. 'It is obvious this Labour leadership wants me out. 'My comments in the interview with James Naughtie were factually correct, as any fair-minded person would accept,' she said. The original comments in 2023 were in a letter to The Observer newspaper, and she withdrew the remarks the same day and apologised 'for any anguish caused'. In the interview with BBC Radio 4's Reflections programme, she was asked whether she looked back on the incident with regret. 'No, not at all,' she said. 'Clearly, there must be a difference between racism which is about colour and other types of racism, because you can see a Traveller or a Jewish person walking down the street, you don't know. 'You don't know unless you stop to speak to them or you're in a meeting with them. 'But if you see a black person walking down the street, you see straight away that they're black. There are different types of racism.' She added: 'I just think that it's silly to try and claim that racism which is about skin colour is the same as other types of racism.' Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner was asked if she was disappointed by the comments. 'I was. There's no place for antisemitism in the Labour Party, and obviously the Labour Party has processes for that,' she told The Guardian newspaper. 'Diane had reflected on how she'd put that article together, and said that 'was not supposed to be the version', and now to double down and say 'Well, actually I didn't mean that. I actually meant what I originally said', I think is a real challenge.' Ms Abbott entered Parliament in 1987 and holds the honorary title of Mother of the House. Her suspension comes in the same week that Sir Keir carried out a purge of troublesome backbenchers in a bid to assert authority over the party. Rachael Maskell, who spearheaded plans to halt the Government's welfare reforms, had the whip suspended alongside Neil Duncan-Jordan, Brian Leishman and Chris Hinchliff. Party sources said the decision to suspend the whip was taken as a result of persistent breaches of discipline rather than a single rebellion.
Rhyl Journal
3 hours ago
- Business
- Rhyl Journal
System of regulating water firms needs complete overhaul, MPs warn
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said the Government must act with urgency to strengthen oversight of the sector to rebuild trust and ensure its poor performance improves. In a report released on Tuesday, the committee highlighted how bills are expected to rise at their fastest rate in 20 years while customer trust in the sector is at an all-time low. Years of underinvestment, a growing population and extreme weather caused by climate change have led to intense pressure on England's ageing water system, causing widespread flooding, supply issues, sewage pollution and leakages. Last year 10 companies were unable to generate enough income to cover their interest payments at a time when the sector must invest in environmental measures, cut leaks and build new reservoirs in the coming years to avoid a shortfall of five billion litres by 2050. 'The environmental performance of companies is woeful,' the report said. 'Ofwat and the EA (Environment Agency) have failed to secure industry compliance.' The PAC said reforms to the system of regulation carried out by the Environment Agency and the Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI) are needed 'to address the fragmentation of accountability and failure to enforce current environmental standards'. 'There are gaps in critical areas such as oversight of the wastewater network and understanding of the condition of assets,' the report read. 'No-one is taking ultimate responsibility for balancing affordability with long-term needs.' The PAC's inquiry found that 20% of people are struggling to afford their water bills while companies are implementing huge bill increases without explaining why, or how the money will be spent. In response, the group of MPs recommended Ofwat sets clear expectations for companies to explain where customer money is being spent, why bills are rising and what improvements customers can expect for their money, in the next six months. The report also warned that company plans to spend around £12 billion in the next five years to update the antiquated sewage system will only fix around 44% of sewage overflows. And while the Environment Department (Defra) created a £11 million fund for rolling out environmental improvements from water company fines in 2024, the money has not yet been distributed, with the PAC urging the Government to do so by the end of the year. Elsewhere, the committee warned that there appears to be 'no single guiding mind' balancing the need for improvements with the impact on bills. It is therefore calling for the Government to plug the gaps in regulator responsibilities and be explicit on the trade-offs between the need for improvements, water supply needs, and the impact on bills. In terms of financial failings, the PAC is urging Ofwat to review its powers and capabilities to ensure it can act to improve the financial resilience of the sector. Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, PAC chairman, said: 'The monumental scale of work required to reverse the fortunes of failing water companies is rivalled only in difficulty by the efforts needed to repair customers' faith in the sector. 'In the face of looming water shortages, steps must be taken immediately if the Government is to set the sector back on the right path. 'Customers are being expected to shoulder the burden of water companies' failings, without being told why or on what their money will be spent. 'It is past time that we had a low risk, low return water sector, from its current farcical state of overly complex, sometimes unregulated companies, and a culture of excessive dividends and borrowing. 'There is also a lot to be done in the regulatory sphere, with a pressing need to improve and streamline the existing regulatory regime. 'More must be done to stem the flow of pollution entering our waterways, as it poses a serious risk to human health and continues to degrade the quality of our lakes and rivers. 'However, regulators are overwhelmed by the number of prosecutions and appear unable to deter companies from acting unlawfully. 'Government must act now to strengthen regulators and support their efforts to hold companies to account.' An Environment Agency spokesperson said: 'We take our role in protecting environment and regulating the water sector very seriously. 'Our enforcement action has led to over £151 million in fines since 2015 and we are conducting the largest ever criminal investigation into potential widespread non-compliance by water companies at thousands of sewage treatment works. 'We're also modernising our approach to regulating the water sector, with more regulation and enforcement officers, better data and are on track to carry out 10,000 inspections this year.'
