Plans to lower some speed limits to 20mph approved by Tynwald
That commitment was cemented by an amendment by Ann Corlett, which included local consultation, the prioritisation of the lower speed limit around schools and clearer maps of the plans.Tynwald members also approved the monitoring of the new speed limits, with a review of the measures being published once implemented.
'Divisive'
Haywood previously confirmed the implementation would be phased by region following local consultation.However Rob Callister MHK said the minister had £400,000 to spend on implementing the zones in the "wrong places".He said although there were areas in Onchan that "might benefit" from lower speed limits or traffic-calming measures, those changes "should only occur through full engagement with the community, local authorities, and local MHKs.Julie Edge MHK said there was "still a lot of confusion" about what was going to happen. But MLC Gary Clueitt said it was an "operational plan" which seemed "reasonable".Corlett said that the principle of reduced speed limits around schools and in residential areas had been unanimously approved by members twice, but the "difficulty was in the where and the how", which had remained "divisive".Haywood told Tynwald final decisions would "only be made after local engagement" and mapping had been updated to make the proposals "clearer".She said the measure would enable residents to "enjoy the streets in which they live more" and reduce the risk of serious pedestrian injury.The infrastructure department's approach was "proportionate, evidence-led, and reflects the financial and operational realities we face", she added.
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BBC News
25-07-2025
- BBC News
Coventry residents lose petition to lower 20mph speed limit
Residents who campaigned for the speeding limit on their estate to be reduced to 20mph on their estate have been told it cannot be than 50 people signed a petition to cut the current limit of 30mph that vehicles can travel at in Bannerbrook Park in at a city council cabinet meeting this week, it was announced the move would not be possible because the roads have not yet been adopted by the local authority. It was agreed that extra traffic calming measures on the estate would be brought forward into the current financial year. Conservative group leader Gary Ridley, who represents the Woodlands ward, said the issues of road safety and speeding motorists evoked passions within the community."I know that 50 people near enough have felt motivated to sign this petition, so I thought it important to air some of these things in public," he explained. "I certainly welcome the commitment to bring forward potential traffic calming measures but would appreciate some clarity about what they look like and perhaps a bit more of a timescale." John Seddon, the city council's strategic lead on transport and innovation, said: "My starting position is that where we have estates like this, then we should aim to get them adopted as quickly as possible, but one of the issues is to ensure that Severn Trent has adopted the drainage system before we go ahead and adopt the roads, which are built on the drains so we don't inherit a problem."In the long term, I don't see it [20mph speed limit] being a problem once the roads are adopted."Once adopted, the city council would become responsible for maintaining and repairing the roads on the estate. Until then, they remain private and the responsibility of the developer or landowner. This news was gathered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service which covers councils and other public service organisations. Follow BBC Coventry & Warwickshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
The Guardian
14-07-2025
- The Guardian
The right wants us to think Britain is on the verge of ethnic conflict. The truth is worse than that
June 2025 was a now typical month for the British press. It began when, on Tuesday 3 June, the Telegraph's Sam Ashworth-Hayes and Charles Hymas worried that white Britons, according to new data published by Matt Goodwin and trailed earlier that day in his column in the Daily Mail, will 'become a minority in the UK population within the next 40 years'. There followed a brief calm, interrupted only by the odd article informing us that 'London's decline is now irreversible', or that 'Starmer and Farage have doomed Britain to an endless spiral of decline'. By Friday 13 June, however, things reached a new pitch. That day, former Tory MP Douglas Carswell used his Telegraph column to complain that 'low-skilled, non-western immigrants' are a 'burden' on the country. We need, he wrote, 'a detailed plan to take foreign nationals off the benefit system and remove them from the country'. A day later, the Sun followed up with a report noting that the 'majority of Brits say UK 'is in decline' and fear civil unrest'. Later, the Telegraph warned the nation of a coming 'revolution', one born from the effects of immigration, state failure and economic stagnation. Here, in full flow, was a new chorus of 'declinism', the fear that the country's relative global decline is the result of the pathological failings of the British state and society. This is not, of course, the first time that declinism has lodged itself in the national consciousness. As historians such as Jim Tomlinson and David Edgerton have noted, it is a recurring feature of British politics, a near ever-present national neurosis in which failure in the present is traced to some corruption in the past. 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The cover story in the summer edition of the Critic, for instance, warned of a soon-to-be-realised Britain of gated compounds and armoured trucks protecting British citizens from ethnic guerrilla conflict, thick with lurid depictions 'of gunfire, off in the distance; you're getting used to it now'. 'Fiction, perhaps,' wrote its author, a Conservative councillor for bucolic Scotton and Lower Wensleydale. 'But for how long?' Much of this can be explained as a form of circular reasoning. The same sources are endlessly recycled, with Goodwin's predictions of demographic collapse and various rightwing memes quoted and requoted in each succeeding piece, in turn justifying the next ratcheting up of racialised panic. 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Leader Live
08-07-2025
- Leader Live
Michael Douglas ‘no real intentions' of going back to acting
The 80-year old actor and producer was speaking during a press conference at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in the Czech Republic for the 50th anniversary of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, which he co-produced. Douglas most recently starred as Benjamin Franklin in the Apple TV+ series Franklin in 2022 and said that unless something 'special' came along, it was time for him 'to stop'. The actor, who is married to Welsh actress Catherine Zeta Jones, also spoke about how 'lucky' he was to have made a recovery from stage four cancer after undergoing chemotherapy and radiation treatment and avoiding surgery that would have impacted his speech and removed parts of his jaw. He said: 'I've had a very busy career. I have not worked since 2022, purposefully, because I realised I had to stop. I had been working pretty hard for almost 60 years, and I did not want to be one of those people who dropped dead on the set. 'I'm very happy with taking the time off. I have no real intentions of going back. 'I say I'm not retired, because if something special came up, I'd go back, but otherwise, I'm quite happy. Just like to watch my wife work.' Douglas co-produced the film adaptation to Ken Kesey's novel, which explores themes of power and resistance as a rebellious convict arrives at a psychiatric hospital in 1963 where he encourages his fellow patients to take control of their lives and defy the tyrannical head nurse. Starring Jack Nicholson and Louise Fletcher, the film was nominated for nine Oscars and took home five including the 1975 award for best picture. When asked about the parallels between the film and current political environment in the US, Douglas said: 'I think our president's name has been mentioned enough in the short time that he's been president. 'And I look at it generally as the fact of how precious, how precious democracy is, how vulnerable it is, and how it always has to be protected, and we have to be reminded. 'Right now, our country is flirting with autocracy as some other democracies in this world. 'Democracy is not to be taken for granted, and I think it reminds us that we all need to make our efforts. It's not the job of somebody else. 'And of course, the disappointing thing is, politics now seem to be for profit. 'I myself am worried, I'm nervous, and I just think it's all of our responsibilities, not for somebody else to look out for us, but for us to each look out for ourselves.'
