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Edinburgh Reporter
11-06-2025
- Politics
- Edinburgh Reporter
West Lothian Council to give families more than £1.5m in support over summer holidays
West Lothian Council will give families more than £1.5m in support over the summer holidays. The money is part of the free school meals programme which ensures youngsters do not lose out during the six-week summer holidays which start at the end of this month. Beverley Akinlami, CLD Youth Services Manager revealed the spend in addition to the £400,000 summer holiday programme for the county this summer. The Council Education PDSP heard that activities will be delivered by council staff in partnership with regulated childcare providers, third sector organisations, and community groups with a wide variety of programmes set to be available across West Lothian. The 2025 Summer Programme will provide holiday clubs over the six-week school holidays. Officers will coordinate the delivery of summer holiday provision for young people in partnership with regulated childcare providers, third sector organisations, and community groups to design and deliver activity programmes and services, to support targeted groups and wider provision for young people. The council will also invest £1.513 million towards free school meal payments during school holidays. As per previous years, this will come in the form of direct payments to families of pupils entitled to receive free school meals. Family vouchers enabling free access to activities will be distributed by West Lothian Council Anti-Poverty Service linking in with the West Lothian Food Network Ms Akinlami told the councillors: 'The provision of summer holiday activities to support targeted groups and wider provision for young people in West Lothian will complement direct payments to be made to families of children and young people entitled to free school meals, and embed support for the most targeted groups and young people within their local community over the holiday period.' Councillor Pauline Orr said: 'There's something going on in almost every area. How do we communicate this information out there to families and providers, so they know?' Ms Akinlami said: 'As a council we take all the information from our providers, and we have advertised on the council website. That wlll be under the Get into Summer webpage. Theres also information that we circulate to schools and colleagues within social policy so they can support families who may need additional help to access services.' By Stuart Sommerville, Local Democracy Reporter Like this: Like Related
Daily Record
11-06-2025
- Business
- Daily Record
West Lothian summer holiday support will include free school meals
The money is part of the free school meals programme which ensures youngsters do not lose out during the six week summer holidays which start at the end of this month. West Lothian Council will give families more than £1.5m in support over the summer holidays. The money is part of the free school meals programme which ensures youngsters do not lose out during the six week summer holidays which start at the end of this month. Beverley Akinlami, CLD Youth Services Manager revealed the spend in addition to the £400,000 summer holiday programme for the county this summer. The Council Education PDSP heard that activities will be delivered by council staff in partnership with regulated childcare providers, third sector organisations, and community groups with a wide variety of programmes set to be available across West Lothian. The 2025 Summer Programme will provide holiday clubs over the six-week school holidays. Officers will coordinate the delivery of summer holiday provision for young people in partnership with regulated childcare providers, third sector organisations, and community groups to design and deliver activity programmes and services, to support targeted groups and wider provision for young people. The council will also invest £1.513 million towards free school meal payments during school holidays. As per previous years, this will come in the form of direct payments to families of pupils entitled to receive free school meals. Family vouchers enabling free access to activities will be distributed by West Lothian Council Anti-Poverty Service linking in with the West Lothian Food Network Ms Akinlami told the councillors: 'The provision of summer holiday activities to support targeted groups and wider provision for young people in West Lothian will complement direct payments to be made to families of children and young people entitled to free school meals, and embed support for the most targeted groups and young people within their local community over the holiday period.' Councillor Pauline Orr said: 'There's something going on in almost every area. How do we communicate this information out there to families and providers so they know?' Ms Akinlami said: 'As a council we take all the information from our providers and we have advertised on the council website. That will be under the Get into Summer webpage. There's also information that we circulate to schools and colleagues within social policy so they can support families who may need additional help to access services.'
Edinburgh Live
11-06-2025
- Business
- Edinburgh Live
West Lothian summer holiday support will include free school meals
Our community members are treated to special offers, promotions and adverts from us and our partners. You can check out at any time. More info West Lothian Council will give families more than £1.5m in support over the summer holidays. The money is part of the free school meals programme which ensures youngsters do not lose out during the six week summer holidays which start at the end of this month. Beverley Akinlami, CLD Youth Services Manager revealed the spend in addition to the £400,000 summer holiday programme for the county this summer. The Council Education PDSP heard that activities will be delivered by council staff in partnership with regulated childcare providers, third sector organisations, and community groups with a wide variety of programmes set to be available across West Lothian. The 2025 Summer Programme will provide holiday clubs over the six-week school holidays. Officers will coordinate the delivery of summer holiday provision for young people in partnership with regulated childcare providers, third sector organisations, and community groups to design and deliver activity programmes and services, to support targeted groups and wider provision for young people. The council will also invest £1.513 million towards free school meal payments during school holidays. As per previous years, this will come in the form of direct payments to families of pupils entitled to receive free school meals. Family vouchers enabling free access to activities will be distributed by West Lothian Council Anti-Poverty Service linking in with the West Lothian Food Network Ms Akinlami told the councillors: 'The provision of summer holiday activities to support targeted groups and wider provision for young people in West Lothian will complement direct payments to be made to families of children and young people entitled to free school meals, and embed support for the most targeted groups and young people within their local community over the holiday period.' Councillor Pauline Orr said: 'There's something going on in almost every area. How do we communicate this information out there to families and providers so they know?" Ms Akinlami said: 'As a council we take all the information from our providers and we have advertised on the council website. That will be under the Get into Summer webpage. There's also information that we circulate to schools and colleagues within social policy so they can support families who may need additional help to access services.'
NDTV
03-06-2025
- Business
- NDTV
As Race To Replace Space Station Heats Up, California Company Bets On Haven-1
As the International Space Station (ISS) approaches its retirement, the race to build the next generation of space stations is heating up, particularly in the commercial sector. Leading the charge is Max Haot, the CEO of VAST Space, a company dedicated to creating a commercial space station named Haven-1. In an exclusive interview with NDTV, Mr Haot shared insights into the unique aspects of Haven-1, the competition with other entities like Axiom and India, and the potential for collaboration with ISRO. "We're going through an era where the current International Space Station is one of the most expensive objects ever created by humans, about $150 billion," Mr Haot said. "And we are now transitioning to an era where the commercial space stations are run by commercial entities, not by the government. The two key criteria are safety and dramatically lowering the cost." NASA is running a competition called the Commercial Low Earth Orbit (LEO) Destination (CLD) program, where in July 2026, they are expected to pick one or two winners to develop the replacement for the ISS. Mr Haot emphasised VAST Space's unique strategy: to build a commercial space station before NASA makes its decision. "No one has ever built a commercial space station yet. And we want to build one before NASA makes the decision." The space station, named Haven-1, integrates with the Crew Dragon spacecraft of SpaceX and is set to launch on a single Falcon 9 rocket in May 2026. "It is a single module space station that can house a crew of four with important science, Starlink internet, sleeping berths, and all the consumables to live there on a two-week mission. It will be in orbit for three years. During that time, we will have four two-week missions with the Dragon spacecraft," he said. Mr Haot explained that the main reason for building Haven-1 is to win the NASA competition to develop a much larger space station composed of nine modules. "We believe that if we are selected in July 2026, we will have the first module up for NASA and other international partners in orbit by the end of 2028, a year ahead of what NASA requires. More importantly, it will allow NASA and its partners to test the replacement with a two-year overlap before the retirement of the ISS." When asked about the cost, Mr Haot highlighted the significant reduction compared to the ISS. "VAST is investing a billion dollars by the time we fly Haven-1 next year, in private funding and some of our customer revenue. We've developed all the facilities, all the technologies. We have about 850 people in our California, Los Angeles facility." He emphasised the efficiency of vertical integration in reducing costs and speeding up development. "We can make the next module not only quicker - in two and a half years instead of three - but at a much lower cost because we build everything from the primary structure to a lot of the systems in-house." The competition in the commercial space sector is fierce, with Axiom Space being a notable contender. Axiom plans to link its module to the ISS, but Mr Haot believes VAST Space has an edge. "They started a long time before us, but I think the facts are telling us they're going much slower. Their stated strategy is to launch that module in 2027. If we achieve our goal, we're already at least one year earlier than them." Mr Haot pointed out the strategic advantage of building a free-flyer space station that does not rely on the ISS. "We are building a free flyer, which does not need the ISS and can be standalone, regardless of what happens to the ISS." India is also entering the space station race with plans to launch its first module of the Bhartiya Antariksha Station by 2028. Mr Haot sees potential for collaboration rather than competition. "Absolutely. India might have more interest in training more astronauts before its space station. That could be an interesting discussion - to maybe bring an Indian astronaut to Haven-1."
Straits Times
22-05-2025
- Business
- Straits Times
Thomson View's $810 million sale put on hold after lawyers submitted ‘incomplete' documents
UOL, SingLand and CLD signed a conditional call-and-put option in October 2024 to acquire the 99-year leasehold development at $810 million. PHOTO: THE BUSINESS TIMES SINGAPORE - The $810 million sale of Thomson View condominium was put on hold by a High Court judge after the lawyers representing the collective sale committee (CSC) submitted 'incomplete' documents. At least 25 residents and parties related to the Thomson View sale packed the courtroom on May 22, awaiting the High Court's ruling on the fate of the $810 million sale, potentially the biggest residential collective sale since Chuan Park's $890 million sale in May 2023. High Court Judge Audrey Lim spent a better part of the hearing dressing down the lawyers of the Thomson View CSC for errors in documents, including submitting an 'incomplete' affidavit, and told them 'it is important you do the proper due diligence'. Thomson View was sold to UOL, Singapore Land (SingLand) and CapitaLand Development (CLD), after at least 80 per cent of owners (206 units) consented to lower their reserve price to $808 million, allowing them to accept the $810 million offer that was below their original reserve price of $918 million. UOL, SingLand and CLD signed a conditional call-and-put option in October 2024 to acquire the 99-year leasehold development at $810 million. On Nov 25, 2024, UOL announced that it had exercised the call option for the purchase. In trying to determine if the 80 per cent threshold was met, Justice Lim sought clarifications on the number of signatures in the collective sale agreement (CSA) dated Jan 4, 2024, and the number of signatures in a supplementary collective sale agreement. The judge pointed out that 'the first time period to obtain all the signatures to cross the 80 per cent threshold is 12 months from the first signature, which means that all 206 signatures must be obtained between Jan 8, 2023, and Jan 7, 2024. 'Some of the signatures are signed out of the time period in October and November 2024,' Justice Lim noted. CSC lawyer Hui Choon Wai, a partner at Wee Seow Teow LLP, told the court that 'there were 211 unit holders' signatures on the CSA, of which 206 signed the supplementary agreement'. Justice Lim then asked Ms Hui to explain in another affidavit 'how the CSA and the supplementary CSA differs, in that the CSA contained 211 unit holders' signatures and the supplementary CSA contained 206 of these unit holders' signatures.' 'For the supplementary affidavit, it should only exhibit the extra five unit holders' signatures which are not found in the CSA already exhibited in (CSC member) Cecilia Koh's first affidavit. 'The affidavit should also explain how many of these unit holders signed between Jan 8, 2023, and Jan 7, 2024, and what proportion in terms of shares and plot size they comprise, and whether the 80 per cent requirement was met within the 12-month period,' the judge said. 'The affidavit should also explain that for those signatures that I have pointed out, that are after Jan 7, 2024, how many units they comprise and what is the proportion in terms of shares and plot size,' Justice Lim added. 'If the 80 per cent threshold is not made out, counsel is to file written submissions to explain why the court should grant this application' to approve the sale, Justice Lim said. 'It is important you do the proper due diligence,' the judge said. 'You spent a lot of time trying to get the requisite (80 per cent) threshold... and you have errors all over the place,' she added. A group of dissenting homeowners had filed objections to the Strata Titles Boards (STB) , which stopped the en bloc process after mediation efforts failed. It is unclear on what grounds they objected to the sale. Two of the six dissenting homeowners – Goh Mia Song and Lim Choe San – who had withdrawn their objections on March 29, were at the hearing. When asked by The Straits Times why they had objected initially, both declined to comment. The other four dissenting parties did not attend the hearing. They had withdrawn their objections one day before the CSC applied to the High Court on March 28 to seek approval for the sale. Apart from the stop order issued on March 19 for Thomson View, there have been no other stop orders issued for collective sales so far in 2025, an STB spokesperson told ST. The next court mention is July 1. Join ST's WhatsApp Channel and get the latest news and must-reads.
