Mixed views on Wethersfield expansion plans
'I feel for them'
Susan Duffin, 69, said there is not enough to do in the village, and while they were "no trouble", asylum seekers needed to be in bigger towns with more amenities."It's a totally unsuitable place for people to live who have come from another country, another culture; they need to be where there is some access to life in general, so I just feel for them," she said. "They're no trouble to us, but they're just wandering around, really not knowing what to do with themselves, and that's not right."
'Sheer madness'
Alan McKenzie, chair of campaign group Stop Wethersfield Airbase Prison (SWAP), was exasperated by the news."If they are intending to increase the capacity in Wethersfield, it would be another folly on the part of the government - It's already been shown not to be value for money," he said."If they're talking about increasing the accommodation further, then it's sheer madness...because people get unhappy up there, it's a very enclosed environment, it's a long way to the centre of Wethersfield village where there are no facilities."He added: "I think locally everybody would want the government to adhere to what they've promised in the past, that the air base will be shut as soon as practically possible."
'Human beings, not aliens'
Sheila Collar, 88, was enjoying the sun with Barbara Boxall, 74.Ms Collar said: "They've got to live somewhere, we've got to put them somewhere and they are human beings, not aliens.""They haven't worried us at all. We were very concerned when we knew it was coming, but they haven't bothered Wethersfield in the village."Ms Boxall added: "The asylum seekers have not been any problem to us at the moment… we don't see them at all really,"
'Send them to Rwanda'
Retiree Ian Dalziel, 69, was disgusted at the prospect of the site expanding.He backed the Rwanda scheme, which was brought in by the previous Conservative government and aimed to send people who arrived illegally in the UK to the East African country. It was scrapped when Labour came into power after winning the 2024 general election."They shouldn't even be in this country, let alone being out in the countryside here, where there is nothing for them," he said. "It's just free handouts."Rwanda, that's where they should be. Put them up in that nice big hotel we paid for, which is empty. Stick them there, that's all there is to it."
'Prefer families over young men'
Pruning her front garden in Finchingfield, Christine Ashford-Hodges, 78, said she would have been happy to help refugee families settle in, but is less comfortable with the high proportion of "young men" at the site."Not that I've seen them doing anything they shouldn't do, but it's intimidating sometimes, and it worries me there's going to be even more," she said."The traffic flow has certainly increased because obviously... staff, food, maintenance."
'Threatened and concerned'
Personal assistant Christine Blake, 72, was watering her plants outside her home in Wethersfield."I'm a single female, there are many single females in this village, and we all feel threatened and concerned," she said."I have dogs which I walk and have walked for many years around the fields here, feeling completely safe and at home, but now it is a concern for all of us."It's not the right place, it's too remote and we really can't deal with it."She added: "I really and truly feel that the government needs to take control of the whole situation, never mind placing asylum seekers somewhere else, the whole situation needs to be dealt with."
What does the government say?
This week, the BBC revealed that Wethersfield was one of the sites that was being considered for an extension.A Home Office spokesperson said it was looking to deliver a "more sustainable and cost-effective asylum accommodation system", after Chancellor Rachel Reeves said that stopping the use of hotels would save £1bn.
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The Guardian
12 minutes ago
- The Guardian
‘An unjust transition'? Teesside locals divided over net zero after deindustrialisation
'We're basically going through a deindustrialisation of the country at the moment and I think we're losing a lot of jobs,' says John Mac, over a pot of tea in a bustling Caffè Nero in the centre of Stockton-on-Tees. The local candidate for Reform UK worked for years at the Billingham plant of Imperial Chemical Industries's (ICI), before taking voluntary redundancy in the 1990s. Having witnessed decades of industrial decline on Teesside first-hand, including the dismantling of the once-mighty industrial behemoth, Nigel Farage's pivot to court the working class is speaking Mac's language. The Reform leader is targeting voters in post-industrial communities across Britain, outlined in a Guardian series showing how Farage views the 'next Brexit' as reversing net zero to create a manufacturing renaissance. This, the third in the series, looks at the future of another of Britain's industrial heartlands. If the latest opinion polls are anything to go by, four of the Tees Valley's constituencies would go to Reform if an election was held tomorrow – including for Mac in Stockton North. Labour – which now controls six of the seats – is at pains not to allow a repeat of 2019, when its so-called red wall heartlands fell to the Tories, with many places – including on Teesside – turning blue for the first time. Wednesday is market day in the town on the north bank of the Tees and Mac would usually be handing out leaflets to passersby. Many people are frustrated with the cost of living, lack of opportunities for young people, and immigration, he says. 'They just think Labour don't represent the working class any more,' Mac says. His uncle, Maurice Foley, was a trade unionist and Labour MP in the 1960s who left parliament in 1973 to become the deputy director general for development at the European Commission. Ironically, Mac says it was Brexit that turned him to Reform. Stockton and the wider Teesside area has higher than national average rates of unemployment, poverty and low educational attainment – trailing the rest of Britain in no small part as the legacy of a de-industrial revolution. Once described by William Gladstone as an 'infant Hercules', a hotbed of steel making, shipbuilding and chemicals, Teesside has suffered waves of job losses in the past half century amid Britain's broader industrial decline. 'It was central to British industrial capitalism, as a relatively prosperous booming place. The fall from grace has been huge,' says Luke Telford, an academic at York university and author on Brexit and industrial decline. 'Deindustrialisation acts as the economic backdrop to a lot of the problems, combined with the lack of an alternative. It has been an unjust transition, without really a plan in place. 'It gives rise to this sense that nobody listens to us, nobody really cares, we're just left to languish. And politicians aren't doing anything about it. Clearly Farage and his political strategists are learning the lessons from where that form of populism has gathered pace.' In the 1970s, Teesside was the third biggest contributor to the British economy behind London and Aberdeen. ICI employed more than 30,000 workers at its peak across two sites on either side of the Tees, at Billingham and Wilton; there were thousands more welders, electricians and other trades in the local supply chain, pumping money around the local economy. However, the oil crises, galloping inflation and soaring interest rates of the 1970s, followed by Margaret Thatcher's drive to reshape the UK to focus on services, while crushing the trade unions, hit the local area hard. Unemployment on Teesside exploded to more than a quarter, with a peak of up to 40% in central Middlesbrough. Almost 40 years ago, Thatcher took a now famous 'walk in the wilderness' through the barren landscape of the former Head Wrightson steelworks to highlight how her government would regenerate British industry. Jobs were created, but the Teesside Development Corporation she established to regenerate the area was wound up amid controversy in the late 1990s with vast unpayable debts. The latest wave of deindustrialisation – amid pressure from global competition and all too-familiar lack of government support – came in 2015 with the closure of Redcar's steelworks a little further down the river, ending 170 years of steelmaking on Teesside. Telford grew up on Teesside and still lives locally. His uncle was among the 2,000 steelworkers who lost their jobs. He drives through Middlesbrough on Friday nights to play football with his brother, and says passing the demolished works and empty buildings has parallels with the US rust belt. 'One of them is a call centre which is shut. The tallest building in Middlesbrough, standing empty. It symbolises the area's decline. Call centres were regarded as this new globalised service industry that was going to replace the relatively well-paid industrial jobs. But obviously that's not how it turned out.' But the story of Teesside's economic troubles is not uniform. 'We need to talk about the upside,' says Tania Cooper, the managing director of Steel Benders, a metal-bashing firm operating on the banks of the Tees in the shadow of Middlesbrough football club's Riverside stadium. The business owner sees burgeoning opportunities for economic growth, if regional leaders and central government get things right. While Teesside has some of the most deprived neighbourhoods in the country, there are also dozens of affluent villages and market towns also dotted about the picturesque spot underneath the Cleveland hills. 'It's not all doom and gloom. It's not grim up north, I wouldn't want to live anywhere else,' Cooper says. Although the Conservatives were booted out of parliamentary seats here in 2019, having been seen to have reneged on their promises of levelling up, many locals are still supportive of the Tees Valley's Tory mayor, Ben Houchen. The mayor's assessment of his own party's failings is frank. 'What's happening with Reform at the minute is like Brexit 2.0. 'People feel like the system isn't working for them. The Conservatives let them down, despite them putting their faith in them. Labour have been a huge disappointment, and so people are looking at voting for Reform in the same way that lots of people around here voted leave: because they feel disenfranchised.' Houchen says his continuing presence as the only Conservative mayor in Britain, among a sea of Labour regional leaders, is down to his activism, including securing a freeport from the last government, funding local regeneration projects and taking stakes in assets such as Teesside International Airport. However, his leadership has not been without controversy. Deals done at the Teesworks regeneration site and freeport have involved local business people who donated to the mayor. While an independent review found no evidence to support allegations of corruption or illegality, it warned the project was excessively secretive and could not ensure public money was being well spent. Still, many local business leaders point to the project as a galvanising force for attracting investment; alongside central government prioritising the development of green jobs in the area. Sign up to Business Today Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning after newsletter promotion 'People definitely connect with that past narrative about the area. They feel it, they're proud of it, and they want it to continue. If that means net zero Teesworks and green energy: so be it, great,' says Kiran Fothergill, a former Tory candidate in Middlesbrough, and the sixth-generation director of Pickerings Lifts, one of Teesside's oldest manufacturers, based in Stockton. There are hopes that offshore wind will be big business, including the construction of a £900m monopile manufacturing facility by South Korea's SeAH Wind that will be the world's largest. The government is investing heavily in a £4bn carbon capture and storage project alongside BP and Equinor, aiming to create 2,000 jobs. That many of the opportunities rely on a net zero transition ought to make campaigning tough for Reform, given Farage's pledge to cancel the central plank of government policy. 'I know people are saying they're being replaced by jobs in the green industry, solar and the windfarms, but for every job there, we're losing more, probably in the typical industrial sectors,' Mac says. His opponent, Chris McDonald, the Labour MP for Stockton North, like Mac, is a former engineer. Labour is making good progress on bringing investment to Teesside, he says, while Reform's anti-net zero agenda would stop things dead. 'They'll take all that investment away, people know that. Reform saying they will scrap all these things is such a disaster. It will put investors off,' he says. Despite Farage's attempts to position himself as a tribune of the working class, McDonald says Reform's priorities are anywhere but – highlighted by the party's opposition to Labour's workers' rights bill, which will strengthen access to maternity pay, sick pay, and banning exploitative zero-hours contracts. 'People in my area – a working-class area, with working people – they know how important those protections are and they know Reform are against them,' he says. Several of Teesside's heaviest carbon emitters and industrial businesses are in danger of closing down operations before the new green jobs arrive, amid sky-high energy and carbon costs. Britain has among the highest industrial electricity costs in the world, while gas prices have more than doubled since 2021. There are fears hundreds of jobs could be lost at the Saudi chemical firm Sabic's Olefins 6 plant – known as 'the cracker' – at Wilton, after the company paused a multimillion-pound upgrade project, amid spiralling costs and concerns about high energy prices. CF Industries, a US company that took on ICI's Billingham fertiliser plant, closed its ammonia plant at the site two years ago with the loss of almost 40 jobs, blaming high energy costs. Paul Peacock, a former production technician and Unite union rep at Sabic, says losing the jobs would be 'another nail in the chemical coffin' for Teesside. 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Telegraph
14 minutes ago
- Telegraph
BBC admits it is still letting biological men use women's lavatories
The BBC has admitted it is still letting biological men use women's lavatories. In response to a Freedom of Information (FoI) request, the corporation said it would only change its policies once guidance from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is approved by the Government. In the meantime, the BBC said that 'sanitary facilities vary' across its estate, which includes studios and offices across the country. Signs will not be changed until the guidance is approved this autumn. The Supreme Court ruled in April that the word 'sex' in the Equality Act refers to biological sex and not to a person's gender identity. It means that facilities such as lavatories, changing rooms and showers should be segregated by sex and gender. The EHRC followed this up with interim guidance which confirmed that transwomen – biological males – should not be allowed in such women's spaces. And last month, Sir Keir Starmer said public bodies must implement the ruling 'as soon as possible'. However, the BBC said it would wait until the final guidance is published and signed off by the Government before taking any action. Catherine Leng, advocacy lead at the gender-critical group Seen in Journalism, said: 'We know that before the ruling, the BBC did not signpost facilities for women only by biological sex – in fact, it refused requests to do so – and they've done nothing since the Supreme Court judgment to change that. 'The BBC itself said the judgment gives clarity, so why is it dragging its feet on single-sex spaces? 'How can female journalists and other staff feel confident their employer will support them in being impartial when it won't respect the law itself? The law is the law now, it doesn't depend on EHRC guidance and the EHRC chair has made that clear. 'It needs to stop asking its diversity teams what to do and start asking lawyers.' 'Deeply shocking' In its FoI request, Seen in Journalism asked: 'Do all or any BBC buildings and workplaces in the UK have single-sex toilets, changing rooms and/or showers which are accessible only to members of one sex and not to trans-identified members of the opposite sex?' The response was: 'Sanitary facilities vary across the BBC property estate. We fully intend to comply with any new guidance once approved, while ensuring that we provide facilities that respect the needs and rights of all staff and visitors to our buildings.' A BBC spokesman said: 'We want to ensure dignity and respect for all colleagues. We currently have self-contained facilities and/or mixed-sex toilets everyone can use at most of our sites. 'We are now working through what steps we might need to take, noting the EHRC's interim update, to ensure we have sufficient provision of facilities everyone can use across all BBC sites. No signage has been changed at this time. 'An EHRC consultation on its Code of Practice for services, public functions and associations following the Supreme Court Ruling closed on 30 June. After this, a new Code of Practice will be sent for ministerial approval. 'Following this we will be reviewing our policies and practices to consider if they need to be updated, to meet any legal obligations across any applicable legislation.' Fiona McAnena, the director of campaigns at women's rights charity Sex Matters, said: 'It is deeply shocking that the UK's flagship broadcaster, which covered the Supreme Court judgment extensively, cannot give a straight answer to a very clear question on whether it provides single-sex facilities for its employees. 'In fact, the BBC's response suggests that the organisation could currently be operating outside the law, and gives the impression it is in no hurry to ensure it complies with the law. 'The ruling laid out clearly how the Equality Act should be interpreted, with single-sex toilets and changing rooms operating on the basis of biological sex. 'The Prime Minister himself has said that public bodies refusing to implement the Supreme Court ruling on the definition of a woman must do it 'as soon as possible'. The BBC surely has the legal resources to interpret and implement a clear judgment. It is only putting itself at increased risk of legal action with each day it delays.'
The Independent
18 minutes ago
- The Independent
Tim Mayer to challenge Mohammed Ben Sulayem for FIA presidency
American Tim Mayer announced on Friday that he would stand against incumbent Mohammed Ben Sulayem in a December vote for president of the FIA, motorsport's world governing body. The 59-year-old, a former Formula One steward and son of former McLaren principal Teddy Mayer, left the FIA last November. He said then that he had been fired via text message by an assistant to Ben Sulayem. The FIA dispute that he was sacked by text. "What I see is a failure in leadership right now," he told a press conference at a hotel near the British Grand Prix circuit Silverstone, adding that he had been working on his campaign for six months. He described his bid as a Herculean task with the deck stacked in Ben Sulayem's favour, given recent statute changes, and only five months to campaign and win votes from member federations. Mayer did not say who would be on his presidential list, a requirement for standing, which he admitted still had some open positions. He said he had good support from Motorsport UK and had informed Stefano Domenicali, chief executive of Liberty Media-owned Formula One, of his plans. "The job now is to go out and explain to lots of small clubs around the world ... why we can do a better job," said Mayer. "Explaining how we can bring value and restructure the FIA to do a better job. "I do feel restructuring needs to happen." Ben Sulayem, an Emirati, has already announced he is seeking a second term and until Friday had no declared opponent, with Spain's double world rally champion Carlos Sainz Sr. recently deciding not to stand. Mayer said he would have stood even if Sainz had decided to run. He also dismissed any suggestion of a conflict of interest regarding the historic family connection with McLaren. The FIA is the governing body for F1, the World Rally Championship and Formula E among other series. Reuters
