Latest news with #GaryTaylor
Scoop
23-07-2025
- Politics
- Scoop
Another Offensive Launched In The Government's War On Nature
Last week the Minister for Resource Management Reform, Chris Bishop, announced that the government would be intervening, yet again, to prevent councils from progressing environmental protections under the Resource Management Act (RMA). Legislation will prohibit the notification of any new changes to regional policy statements and regional and district plans. It will also prevent notified plan changes from going ahead if they have not yet had a hearing. These will need to be withdrawn within 90 days. The legislation will be passed before the end of the year. 'This is extremely unwelcome and yet another salvo in this government's war on nature,' said, EDS CEO Gary Taylor. 'It would, effectively, prevent any further implementation of national direction under the Resource Management Act, like the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management and National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity. It will also stop councils from improving any environmental outcomes in plans. 'The justification is that it would be inefficient for councils to make changes to their plans when the RMA is set to be replaced with a new system in a couple of years' time. The rhetoric is all about wasted effort. 'But what's truly inefficient is to spend the better part of a decade creating and implementing national direction and then scrapping it. Or for years of work and investment by councils to prepare plans, and even notify them, to be abruptly frozen because of future legislation that we still know very little about and which a new government might repeal anyway. 'The changes are also being framed as a kindness – to relieve pressure on struggling councils. But most councils and their constituents don't want to be patronised and actually want a better natural environment. Between now and when the new resource management system is stood up in 2027, the environment will continue to decline. 'Astonishingly, all private plan changes will still be allowed. So too will work that delivers on the Government's priorities like housing and urban development. 'Councils will be able to apply to the Minister for an exemption to progress other plan changes. But this will be completely discretionary, and not linked to the purpose of the RMA. And it is likely councils will simply not bother to apply where they know they will be denied. 'To top it off, the law change is being done by an Amendment Paper, which means an 11th hour change to the Resource Management (Consenting and Other System Changes) Bill. This will completely bypass scrutiny by select committee and public submissions. Local government won't have a say. 'It is not just another central government attack on the environment and localism, but also on the democratic process itself,' concluded Mr Taylor. Environmental Defence Society EDS speaks for the environment. It has influence. Since 1971, EDS has been driving environmental protection in Aotearoa New Zealand through law and policy change. That's why it's one of this country's most influential non- profit organisations when it comes to achieving better environmental outcomes. EDS has expertise in key disciplines including law, planning, landscape and science. It operates as a policy think-tank, a litigation advocate, and a collaborator – bringing together the private and public sectors for constructive engagement. EDS runs conferences and seminars on topical issues, including an annual Environmental Summit and the Climate Change and Business Conference. EDS is a registered charity and donations to it are tax-deductible.
BBC News
16-07-2025
- Automotive
- BBC News
Planned speed limit cut for West Willoughby wins backing
Plans to reduce the speed limit on a Lincolnshire road in response to an increase in "anti-social driving" have been backed by councillors. Members of the county council's planning and regulation committee discussed reducing the limit from 50mph (80km/h) to 40mph (about 65km/h) on the A153 in West Willoughby, near Ancaster, during a meeting on were told there had been a large number of accidents on the voted for the proposal to be put forward to the executive member for highways and transport to decide whether it should be implemented. "As we are all aware, sometimes anti-social driving is a problem," said councillor Gary Taylor, according to the Local Democracy Reporting fellow member Martin Hill said he was sceptical about whether drivers would keep to the new speed limit."My concern is that this happens a lot and the problem is that some people are starting to ignore them," he said."I'm concerned that the more speed reductions we put in, the more motorists won't follow them." Listen to highlights from Lincolnshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North or tell us about a story you think we should be covering here. Download the BBC News app from the App Store for iPhone and iPad or Google Play for Android devices
South Wales Argus
31-05-2025
- Entertainment
- South Wales Argus
New rage room comes to Newport and we tried it out
'The Combat Zone' located in the Kingsway Centre offers a range of fun activities including airsoft, axe throwing, Nerf battles, and a rage room, and being an Argus staff member I headed straight to that rage room! Slots for the rage room were a total of 15 minutes each. We were then decked head to toe in red boiler suites and given leather gloves and protective facemasks. What happened next was absolute chaos. Weapons of destruction at Newport's new rage room (The Combat Zone) (Image: NQ) We were encouraged in a space of 15 minutes to break as many items as possible as fast as we could. Objects available to break ranged from glass bottles and tiles to household items like a flat screen TV, wooden cabinet, and even a washing machine (the flatscreen TV was our personal favourite). Staff at the rage room egged us on 'have you tried smashing it like that?' and 'remember that TV isn't your friend', which made us even more determined to embrace the chaos. A range of 'weapons' were available including metal and wooden baseball bats and hammers. Our Argus volunteer hitting a TV at Newport's new rage room (The Combat Zone) (Image: NQ) Alongside staff encouragement we were also given the option of connecting to the room's Bluetooth speakers. Rage room enthusiasts could pick whatever song they'd like to smash things to. We quite enjoyed cracking a few bottles against the wall to Nirvana's 'Smells Like Teen Spirit.' The experience itself cost £50 and in our eyes was worth it. A grand opening took place on Saturday May 26. Newport locals and husband and wife duo Claire and Gary Taylor 44 and 47 are the masterminds behind 'The Combat Zone.' The Combat Zone owners Claire Taylor and Gary Taylor (Image: NQ) Speaking of their first day Claire said: 'We'll we were very nervous this morning but really happy now. 'It's been absolutely amazing we've had so many people coming in that hadn't booked and brilliant interest excellent feedback so a really good morning.' Gary said: 'For me it's got to be the rage room people are going bonkers for it, and to be fair there seems to be a lot of angry people out there." Claire added: 'Come down see what we are about it's something completely new for Newport something like Newport's never seen before.'
The Guardian
27-05-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Fast-track to where? The new law opening up New Zealand to a mining boom
Kate Selby Smith strides through the undergrowth of a track on the North Island's east coast when the bush suddenly thins to reveal a hidden treasure. 'Welcome to my heaven,' she says, gesturing to a bend in the Wharekirauponga stream where a jade-green swimming hole has formed among the rocks and soft green ferns. 'Isn't it beautiful?' The fairytale grotto lies at the southern end of Coromandel forest park – a protected conservation area home to native flora and rare animals, including one of the world's rarest amphibians, the Archey's frog. Like other locals, Selby Smith brings her family to the pool to swim and explore. But she worries for its future. Further up the valley lies another kind of treasure that has attracted the interest of the government and a multibillion-dollar mining company: gold. New Zealand is embarking on a major mining expansion. A controversial new fast-track law is pushing through projects designed to spur economic growth, alarming groups who say the country's unique biodiversity and natural resources are under threat. 'That legislation is egregiously damaging … for New Zealand's environment,' says Gary Taylor, the chief executive of the Environmental Defence Society. 'It's heavily stacked against the environment and in favour of development – in all my years of working as an environmental advocate, I've never seen anything like it.' For many living in New Zealand – where a deep connection to nature is regularly cited as being an important part of personal and collective identities – the mining strategy undermines a path towards a greener future. They argue it also runs counter to New Zealand's self-image as a wild and pristine place. The country famously promotes itself to the world as '100% pure' and 'clean, green'. Yet to others, the law represents a much-needed boost to the economy. The Minerals Council chief executive, Josie Vidal, says mining is 'one of the most productive sectors in New Zealand, which translates into high wages'. The rightwing coalition government has promised to restart offshore oil and last week set aside $200m of its budget to invest in gas exploration. It plans to boost mineral exports to $3bn by 2035, at the same time it has slashed funding to conservation and climate initiatives. It has also proposed a law change to make it easier for companies to kill protected wildlife in order to pursue certain infrastructure projects. The direction marked a departure from the Jacinda Ardern-led government, which banned new offshore oil and gas exploration and promised to ban new mines on conservation land. The coalition's fast-track law – a 'one-stop shop' for infrastructure and mining projects deemed nationally significant – passed into law in 2024 amid anger that it bypasses environmental regulations, shuts out public consultation and throws a lifeline to so-called zombie projects that have been rejected in the courts and languishing for years. The government says the process will include a description of the project's impacts on the environment, which the decision-making panel must consider. Nearly 150 projects are moving through the fast-track process, including 11 gold, mineral sands and coalmining proposals. They include new mines and expansions to existing projects. Some are generating controversy, including a plan to mine iron sands off Taranaki's seabed previously rejected by the supreme court, and two mines in the South Island's west coast: a goldmine critics fear will threaten rare birds, and a coalmine on ecologically significant land. The fast-track law prompted thousands to march in protest in 2024 and nearly 30,000 public submissions on the bill. Now, targeted protests are springing up around some of the proposed mining sites, including in Selby Smith's beloved Coromandel area. Mining company OceanaGold is hoping to dig a nearly 7km tunnel 200 metres beneath the Wharekirauponga forest in Coromandel, which forms part of a large conservation estate, to mine roughly 34-45 tonnes of gold worth about $5bn. The project is an expansion of the company's existing operations in the nearby historic goldmining town of Waihi and will also include a new open-pit mine, increased storage for tailings – a slurry of ground-up rock that contains oxidised minerals and cyanide – and upgraded infrastructure. Local environment group Coromandel Watchdog – of which Selby Smith is a member – opposes the proposal and has led multiple protest actions against it. The group worries that underground mining blasts will affect Archey's frogs, who sense the world through vibrations. It is also concerned that water-dredging and rock crushing could reshape the underground water systems and release pollutants that could spread downstream, and tailings storage will leave a toxic legacy for future generations. OceanaGold rejects these concerns, saying the project will be a 'win-win'. Alison Paul, the miner's manager for legal and corporate affairs, says 'the right projects in the right place can ultimately achieve both the protection of [the] environment and economic growth'. Paul says OceanaGold's modelling shows vibrations from blasting will have a limited impact on the frogs, and the company's 600-hectare pest-control programme in the amphibian's habitat will give back to the conservation estate. Sucking out underground water to stop the mine flooding will do little damage to the natural waterways, she says, adding that should high risks develop, the company could stop its project. The tailings dams, she says, are highly engineered to withstand the forces of nature for generations to come. Furthermore, the project will bring jobs to the region and produce export income for New Zealand, Paul says. Nearly 1,000km away from Waihi, on the west coast of the South Island, another battle is playing out over Bathurst Resources' proposal to extract an extra 20m tonnes of coal from the Buller plateau over the next 25 years. As in Waihi, the proposal's advocates say it will create jobs and financial growth, while critics worry it will damage the ecologically significant area that is home to rare native species and contribute to climate change. Up the coast, in the North Island, the Taranaki community has spent more than a decade trying to stop Australian company Trans-Tasman Resources from mining 50m tonnes of iron sands from the seabed, while in the far north, Bream Bay locals are hoping to halt a project to dredge more than 8m cubic metres of sand for concrete production. But these communities may struggle to find a sympathetic ear in the government. New Zealand's mining push is being led by the resources minister, Shane Jones, an ardent advocate for extractive industry who wears caps emblazoned with 'Make NZ Great Again, drill baby drill' and once told parliament that 'if there is a mining opportunity and it's impeded by a blind frog, goodbye Freddy'. 'Over the last 10 to 15 years the extractive sector has been marginalised and become an ideological plaything,' Jones told the Guardian. '[For] those people who have sought to deify our wilderness … those days are over. 'We cannot afford to maintain that level of naivety in the face of major geopolitical challenges [and] threats to our national resilience.' New Zealand's economy suffered as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. The country experienced the biggest contraction in GDP of any developed country in the world in 2024, due to high interest rates and unemployment. Rebuilding the economy is top of the government's agenda and Jones believes boosting the mining sector will create jobs, attract New Zealanders back to the country and generate GST and export royalties – though he concedes his $3bn by 2035 figure is aspirational. Martin Brook, a professor of applied geology at the University of Auckland, says mining will create well-paid jobs, feed minerals into global supply chains and leave a 'tiny' footprint. 'If any country globally can extract minerals effectively with as little environmental footprint as possible, it is New Zealand,' he says. New Zealand's unique natural environment evolved in the absence of people and predators, creating a high level of endemism. However, its species are in worrying decline, with a high proportion threatened, or at risk of extinction – one of the highest amid the global biodiversity crisis. Many of the country's fresh waterways are in a dire state, contaminated by thousands of sewage overflows, flooded with nutrient pollution from farming and blooming with toxic algae. 'It's a very fragile place,' Taylor says, adding he is concerned the stringent environmental tests that have been placed on mining companies are being whittled away through the fast-track process. 'Our environment could go materially and substantially backwards – more species extinctions, more stuffed-up landscapes, poorer freshwater quality,' Taylor says. Meanwhile, the economic benefits from mining are not certain, says Glenn Banks, a geography professor at Massey University. Fluctuating prices and demand for minerals, as well as challenges in taxing and securing foreign investment make the industry volatile. 'You get a lot of cowboys jump in on the boom and then walk away when prices aren't good,' Banks says. Back in the Wharekirauponga bush, Selby Smith pauses to reflect on the landscape around her. 'This is the crux of it: there are so few of these places left,' she says. 'If this becomes polluted from mining waste – what will we give to our children?'
Associated Press
21-05-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
ArrowXL Optimizes Last Mile Delivery and Unlocks Capacity with Descartes
LONDON and ATLANTA, May 21, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Descartes Systems Group (Nasdaq:DSGX) (TSX:DSG), the global leader in uniting logistics-intensive businesses in commerce, announced that ArrowXL, the U.K.'s largest and longest-established two-person home delivery and warehousing specialist, is using Descartes' route planning and execution solution to automate and optimize last mile delivery route planning. This enables ArrowXL's route planning team to plan and optimize routes for deliveries dynamically and more efficiently, unlocking transportation capacity for the organization. 'ArrowXL is focused on bespoke services centered around a customer-first approach,' said Rachel Hopkins, Chief Information Officer, ArrowXL. 'With over 40 years' experience completing deliveries for the U.K.'s leading retailers, e-tailers, and manufacturers, we manage over 2.6 million consumer deliveries annually and we're growing. We cover 100 percent of the U.K., with 98% of the country covered six days a week and the remaining 2% covered on nominated days—all from seven main hubs and eight outbases using a fleet of 250 vehicles. We offer 'Next-Day', 'Nominated Day' and 'Diary Booking' delivery appointments to customers, as well as the setting up and connection of some white goods, assembly of some furniture items, and Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) recycling and packaging removal. Managing and executing these delivery services successfully at the sheer scale that we do requires precision planning and execution. With Descartes in place, our team of planners has automated and streamlined previous manual planning processes, allowing us to optimize our vehicle usage and minimize CO2 emissions. This approach increases capacity across our operations dynamically in real-time. Since the Descartes solution interfaces between our system and our clients' systems, we provide the entire value chain with a true view of delivery capacity to take advantage of, allowing everyone to increase operational efficiency.' Descartes' cloud-based last mile delivery solution helps distribution-intensive companies improve operational efficiency and customer experience. It supports dynamic delivery requirements, including same-day delivery. The Descartes solution improves route productivity by using advanced optimization technology to reduce the distance driven per delivery, which maximizes delivery capacity and reduces costs. In ArrowXL's case, Descartes helps the company to manage deliveries efficiently where boundaries between delivery locations and team areas are unclear. Descartes also improves delivery sustainability with increased route productivity. 'We're pleased our solution is playing an important role for ArrowXL in optimizing route planning and maintaining a high-level of customer experience,' said Gary Taylor, VP Sales, EMEA at Descartes. 'ArrowXL delivers goods daily in the U.K. for some of the highest profile brands in ecommerce and on the high street. Automating route planning and helping planners to execute this function dynamically will continue to allow the business to unlock capacity, support with increasing revenue, and enable their own clients to provide more delivery slots to their customers, all of which improves overall customer experience and service levels.' About ArrowXL ArrowXL is the UK's largest and longest-established two-person home delivery and warehousing specialist. We are committed to innovation and continuous improvement - investing in technology, new services and training. Learn more at About Descartes Descartes (Nasdaq:DSGX) (TSX:DSG) is the global leader in providing on-demand, software-as-a-service solutions focused on improving the productivity, security and sustainability of logistics-intensive businesses. Customers use our modular, software-as-a-service solutions to route, track and help improve the safety, performance and compliance of delivery resources; plan, allocate and execute shipments; rate, audit and pay transportation invoices; access global trade data; file customs and security documents for imports and exports; and complete numerous other logistics processes by participating in the world's largest, collaborative multimodal logistics community. Our headquarters are in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada and we have offices and partners around the world. Learn more at and connect with us on LinkedIn and Twitter. Global Media Contact Cara Strohack [email protected] Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws ('forward-looking statements') that relate to Descartes' route planning and execution solution offerings and potential benefits derived therefrom; and other matters. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from the anticipated results, performance or achievements or developments expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, but are not limited to, the factors and assumptions discussed in the section entitled, 'Certain Factors That May Affect Future Results' in documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Ontario Securities Commission and other securities commissions across Canada including Descartes' most recently filed management's discussion and analysis. If any such risks actually occur, they could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition or results of operations. In that case, the trading price of our common shares could decline, perhaps materially. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance upon any such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made. Forward-looking statements are provided for the purposes of providing information about management's current expectations and plans relating to the future. Readers are cautioned that such information may not be appropriate for other purposes. We do not undertake or accept any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statements to reflect any change in our expectations or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based, except as required by law.
