Revamp of Worcester leisure centres part of five-year plan
A deal has been struck over the management of a city's leisure services for the next five years.Worcester City Council has extended its partnership with not-for-profit company Freedom Leisure to continue its existing contract up to December 2030.Under the agreement, originally signed in 2016, the firm has run Perdiswell Leisure Centre, St Johns Sports Centre and Nunnery Wood Sports Complex, along with the city's Healthy Communities programmes.The council said the renewed contract included a commitment by Freedom Leisure to invest in facilities and boost energy efficiency.
Perdiswell Leisure Centre will get refurbished fitness facilities, improved energy efficiency and upgraded CCTV equipment under the plans.While St Johns Sports Centre will see a revamp of its fitness suite and the 3G football pitch will be replaced and upgraded.
Follow BBC Hereford & Worcester on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Times
17 minutes ago
- Times
Ineos hits out at government ‘madness' after green subsidy is pulled
Sir Jim Ratcliffe's chemicals giant Ineos has accused the government of 'madness' over plans to effectively punish it for making one of its major plants more environmentally friendly. Ineos Acetyls, which makes the acetic acid used in food production, medicines and synthetic fibres, spent more than £30 million switching the fuel source at its factory in Hull from natural gas to low-carbon hydrogen. The move has cut its carbon emissions by 75 per cent. However, the Environment Agency has said that, rather than support the move, it would cut Ineos's carbon subsidies, costing it £23 million over the next three years. Ineos Acetyls chief executive David Brooks said: 'We are being punished for doing the right thing. We've delivered on decarbonisation, exceeding our expectations, and this is the response we get.' He added that he was fighting competition from imports from China, which use cheap, coal-fired energy to produce acetic acid with a carbon footprint eight times greater than his Hull plant. 'It feels like, instead of fighting our competitors, we're fighting our government,' he said. The factory is already lossmaking, he said, and the Environment Agency's decision meant he was having to pause all further investment decisions. The site employs more than 300 workers. The facility was opened by Queen Elizabeth in 1981, but the agency had decided to reclassify it as a 'new-build' factory as a result of the improved process. This means it will not receive its allowances from the UK Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) until 2028. Under the ETS, industrial plants are gifted allowances by the Environment Agency to emit a certain amount of greenhouse gases, beyond which they have to buy credits. The idea is to incentivise polluters to emit less. However, the agency's stance on Ineos Acetyls means that, for the next three years, it will have to buy all of its allowances on the market, which at present prices will be approximately £23 million. Ineos has been appealing to the Environment Agency, which operates the ETS system and is run under the umbrella of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). Officials from the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero, the Department for Business & Trade and the Treasury, as well as the devolved governments, are also involved, Brooks said. 'It's a civil service soup of decision-making and it's very difficult to see who is actually making the decisions around this. 'So we're frustrated to get to the right people to talk to, we're frustrated it's taking so long to get what we believe is a slam dunk, and we're frustrated it's such a battle to get people to see common sense.' He described the Environment Agency's reaction as 'computer says no' because the Ineos technology is new. Ineos shut its refinery in Grangemouth after spending three years trying to obtain government subsidies to keep it open. Its decision to halt further investment in the Hull plant comes as Britain's biggest bioethanol plant nearby, owned by Associated British Foods, is threatened with closure after the US-UK trade deal allowed tariff-free US ethanol to enter the UK. The MP in Ineos Acetyls' neighbouring constituency, Kingston upon Hull West & Haltemprice, where many of the plant's workers live, is Emma Hardy, parliamentary under-secretary at Defra. Brooks said he had written to her and been told the decision is 'in the system'. Brooks has a meeting with officials from the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero and the Department for Business & Trade this week, but Defra and the Environment Agency are not due to attend. The Environment Agency said it was the regulator for the UK ETS Scheme and was supporting the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero in its discussions with company representatives about activities at the site. On Saturday afternoon the Environment Agency contacted The Sunday Times again and said Ineos would continue to receive free allowances. It said that Ineos needed to provide 12 months of activity data under the new, cleaner technology for its allowances to reflect the switch.
Daily Mail
25 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Three out of five anorexia patients at top eating disorders clinic tell docs they've been using weight-loss jabs like Ozempic or Mounjaro - including children as young as SIXTEEN
Sixty per cent of patients at a leading clinic seeking help for eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia are using weight-loss jabs. A growing number of patients with the potentially life-threatening conditions have admitted to doctors during therapy sessions that they are taking Wegovy, Mounjaro or Ozempic to control their weight, says rehab specialist The UKAT Group. Doctors at its Banbury Lodge clinic in Banbury, Oxfordshire, say 28 out of the 48 patients they have treated for eating disorders this year – nearly two-thirds – were using the powerful drugs, which can reduce bodyweight by up to 20 per cent. Some patients were as young as 16, the doctors add. Experts at the clinic say the problem has significantly worsened in six months. Last year, no patient was using the jabs. The revelation raises fresh concerns about how easy it is to get hold of the drugs, and the lack of effective safeguards. They are only licensed for use on the NHS by people who are obese and have weight-related health problems – but there is a huge private market for the treatments and a spiralling black market. Dimitri Theofili, eating disorder therapist at Banbury Lodge, said: 'What we're seeing is really concerning. Clients as young as 16 are revealing during therapy that they are misusing weight-loss injections to fuel their unhealthy relationship with food. 'This is all about psychological control – the need to control what they're putting into their body. Society's acceptance of weight- loss jabs to tackle weight loss rather than their main intended purpose – to help control type 2 diabetes or to tackle clinical obesity – has fuelled this notion that if you're not using a weight- loss jab to lose weight, then you're falling behind.' Campaigners said last night that urgent action needs to be taken to restrict use of the jabs to protect vulnerable people. Tom Quinn, director of external affairs at the UK's eating disorder charity Beat, said the statistics are 'very concerning'. 'These medications are extremely dangerous for people with eating disorders because they can worsen harmful eating behaviours and thoughts for people who are unwell, or contribute to an eating disorder developing in those who are at risk,' he said. 'It should be mandatory for thorough mental health assessments to be carried out alongside physical health checks, and for regular check-ins if someone is prescribed weight-loss drugs, including once the course of treatment is over.' Some 500,000 people in Britain are thought to be taking Ozempic, Wegovy or Mounjaro, most via private prescriptions. Concerns have been raised about the lack of safeguards around such prescriptions. Little is known about the safety of the jabs for people of normal weight – let alone those with eating disorders who may already be severely underweight. If you're worried about your own or someone else's health you can contact Beat, the UK's eating disorder charity, on 0808 801 0677 or at
The Sun
31 minutes ago
- The Sun
Overweight Brits to get awarded shop vouchers for upping step count and eating healthily
OVERWEIGHT Brits will get shop vouchers to help shed the pounds. An NHS plan will see users awarded points for upping their step count and eating healthily. 2 They can then be traded for vouchers, with discounts at supermarkets and coffee shops. Details are still being finalised but it is expected users will link health data on their smartphones to the NHS app. Health Secretary Wes Streeting said: 'We're bringing together tech, business, the NHS, and citizens to get Britain moving and helping drive down waiting lists. 'During a cost-of-living crisis, we're not going to make food more expensive or ban treats — we're not the fun police. 'Our approach is more nudge than nanny.' The new measures are part of Labour's 10 Year Health Plan set to be unveiled on Thursday. Supermarkets will be forced to promote healthy products such as fruit and vegetables instead of chocolate and crisps. Sir Brendan Foster, long-distance Olympian and founder of the Great North Run, will also help in a new campaign to get people exercising. Sir Brendan Foster, long-distance Olympian and founder of the Great North Run, will also help in a new campaign to get people exercising. The Government says reducing daily intake by just 50 calories could lift 340,000 children and two million adults out of obesity. Treating obesity-related conditions costs the NHS £11.4billion a year. Mr Streeting added: 'If we don't tackle the rising tide of costs and demand on the NHS, then we won't have an NHS much longer.' 2
