Latest news with #ofInformation
Glasgow Times
30-06-2025
- Glasgow Times
Fire crews struggled to tackle fire at historic Glasgow hotel
The Carnbooth House Hotel on Busby Road in Carmunnock burst into flames in August 2023. Firefighters swarmed the area on Thursday, August 17, of that year, at around 8pm after receiving reports of the derelict building blaze. A pile of rubble and some salvaged stonework is all that remains of the former Carnbooth House hotel following a fire in August 2023 and its subsequent demolition. (Image: Colin Mearns, Newsquest) READ MORE: Police update on fire probe at Carnbooth House Hotel READ MORE: 'How sad': Locals react to blaze that ripped through beloved historic hotel READ MORE: 999 crews still battling huge blaze at historic Glasgow hotel as road closed Picture showing the hotel on fire in August 2023. (Image: Matt Smith) Now, almost two years later, we can exclusively reveal that it is understood the main cause of the devastating fire was 'combustible articles' that were 'too close to heat sources (or fire)'. A Freedom of Information (FOI) request submitted to the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) by the Glasgow Times confirmed the fire's main cause; however, it also claimed the 'person or action that caused' the inferno remains 'unknown'. The report also suggests the 'cause/motive' of the fire is currently unknown. It also highlights the source of the inferno's ignition, what powered it, and the item that ignited first, all remain unknown as well. Following the incident, Police Scotland said an investigation would be carried out. Road near the hotel closed amid the incident in 2023. (Image: Newsquest) In late 2023, officers confirmed after probing all 'available lines of enquiry' that no one had been identified as responsible for it, which they were treating as 'wilful'. Cops have since said that any further information regarding the fire, which comes to light, will be probed. The FOI also said the fire spread through the building's 'structural fixtures and fittings'. However, the report stated it is 'unknown' where the blaze started in the premises. Stations' that fire crews were sent from. (Image: Newsquest) Additionally, the request revealed that 22 fire appliances were sent to the incident from multiple stations across Scotland's west coast and central belt. In total, 120 firefighters helped tackle the inferno. Once crews arrived at the scene, they discovered that the building's whole roof was engulfed in flames. Fire crews at the incident in 2023. (Image: Newsquest) However, firefighters were prevented from instantly battling the blaze. The FOI said crews had a 'delay in commencing firefighting action' due to 'accessing the fire' via 'security doors/other security measures'. The report also confirmed, which had been reported at the time, that no one was injured during the inferno. Carnbooth House Hotel site in June 2025. (Image: Colin Mearns, Newsquest) Carnbooth House Hotel site in June 2025. (Image: Colin Mearns, Newsquest) READ MORE: Pictures show aftermath of Carnbooth House Hotel fire in Glasgow READ MORE: 999 crews race to historic hotel after it bursts into flames AGAIN Pictures captured on August 18, 2023, showed the historic hotel had been horrifically damaged following the blaze. Images showed the roof of the building had collapsed in, while windows, some of which were boarded up, had been destroyed. Carnbooth House Hotel, August 2023. (Image: Newsquest, Colin Mearns) Carnbooth House Hotel, August 2023. (Image: Newsquest, Colin Mearns) Photographs also showed firefighters tackling the fire 12 hours after being alerted to it. The Carnbooth House Hotel was a large country house built by architect Alexander Cullen around 1900. Previously, the venue, which had been empty since 2019, was used as a residential school. READ MORE: Investigation to be carried out after Carnbooth House Hotel fire READ MORE: Blaze that ripped through hotel being treated as 'wilful' as cops release statement Carnbooth House Hotel site in June 2025. (Image: Colin Mearns, Newsquest) Carnbooth House Hotel site in June 2025. (Image: Colin Mearns, Newsquest) Following the horrific fire, in December 2023, a planning application was submitted to Glasgow City Council to pull down the Southside hotel. Documents confirmed plans to knock down the site, parts of which, it said, were in 'precarious condition' after suffering 'substantial damage'. It was also claimed that the flames 'completely destroyed' the B-listed building's interior and roof. READ MORE: One single part of fire-ravaged Glasgow hotel saved after building torn down On Monday, December 18, 2023, the council issued a 'dangerous buildings notice' requiring the owner to demolish the property following the approved building warrant. An email sent to councillors at the time claimed children had continued to breach the security fence and access the damaged building since the fire. So, to avoid 'tragedy', the owners of the hotel had begun demolishing it on December 19, 2023. Carnbooth House Hotel site in June 2025. (Image: Colin Mearns, Newsquest) But Glasgow MSP Paul Sweeney was angered by the decision, claiming it was 'deeply frustrating'. The politician objected to the original planning application to destroy the property. In January 2024, we reported how only one part of the fire-ravaged hotel had been saved after its owners were 'forced to tear' the building down. Now, all that is left of the hotel is a pile of rubble. Fresh pictures captured in June 2025 show that all that remains after the demolition and fire is a pile of rubble and some salvaged stonework. The stonework is understood to be the red sandstone decorative porch, which was 'saved' from the property as councillors requested it be reused within Glasgow in the future, in January 2024. Carnbooth House Hotel site in June 2025. (Image: Colin Mearns, Newsquest) Carnbooth House Hotel site in June 2025. (Image: Colin Mearns, Newsquest) READ MORE: Objections raised over demolition of much-loved Glasgow hotel Speaking to the Glasgow Times following the release of the Incident Report, Paul Sweeny MSP said: 'The fire at the much-loved Category B-Listed Carnbooth House Hotel, a remarkable example of Scots Baronial and Arts & Crafts style country architecture, was devastating. 'As the police report at the time showed, the fire was an act of wilful fire-raising that resulted in the hasty demolition of the building, and the site has now been cleared for development. "Fire engines were blocked from entering the grounds of the hotel, delaying the fire service from tackling the blaze and potentially saving more of the building. "The circumstances of the case are depressingly similar to what happened to the Crooked House in Staffordshire a few days before the blaze at Carnbooth House, where access to fight the fire was blocked by mounds of dirt. 'The owner's application to fully demolish the fire-damaged listed building was unnecessary in my view, and they should have appointed an conservation-accredited structural engineer to determine the minimum work necessary to salvage the historic building. "It is clear to me that the developer's case for listed building consent for demolition did not meet any of the four tests required in the National Planning Framework Policy in relation to historic assets and places, which is why I objected." Paul added: 'I am supporting a petition in the Scottish Parliament submitted by SAVE Britain's Heritage, which would ensure that before listed buildings deemed to be dangerous are given the green light for demolition, a conservation-accredited structural engineer must be appointed to independently assess the building in an attempt to salvage as much of the structure as possible. "This would prevent the unnecessary loss of important historic buildings such as the Carnbooth House Hotel, which happens all too often in Scotland." In a statement on June 26, 2025, Police Scotland said: 'All current available lines of enquiry have been completed, and no one has been identified as being responsible. 'Any further information will be investigated.' The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service's (SFRS) Local Senior Officer for Glasgow, Andrew Kenna, said: "Derelict building fires can be complex due to the dangerous nature of these properties. "Owners of these types of buildings are encouraged to secure them properly to help minimise the risk of deliberate fire setting or other unnecessary fires. "We routinely conduct visits to derelict sites to gather intelligence to help prepare response plans in advance should we need them. "The fire on Busby Road in Glasgow on Thursday, August 17, 2023, was large in scale, and we remained at the scene for more than 24 hours. "Our crews did return to the site to dampen down small pockets of fire in the days that followed.
Sky News AU
26-06-2025
- Politics
- Sky News AU
'Warping the news': Internal documents reveal how ABC News pushes diversity, equity and inclusion quota system
A Freedom of Information investigation has uncovered documents which reveal the extraordinary steps ABC journalists must take to hit 'woke' diversity targets which are altering the structure of stories going to air. The FOI probe has also uncovered documents which show the project is being spearheaded by the ABC's powerful news boss Justin Stevens, with one email suggesting he had accused staff of committing acts of racism in 2022. The DEI push is detailed in a document titled '50:50 Equality Project' which sets out the framework for how journalists collect sensitive racial data and even disability status of voices used in news reports. READ THE EQUALITY PROJECT DOCUMENT IN FULL The ABC has been pushed to achieve diversity of 50 per cent women, 15 per cent cultural and linguistic diversity, 3.4 per cent indigenous and 8 per cent disabled representation. These identity data points are then discussed at weekly editorial meetings. Language used by the authors of the internal policy document paints a picture of the bureaucratic challenges that journalists face when attempting to choose which contacts they can put in a story. To track the details of story subjects, the national broadcaster has implemented a system asking reporters to enter identity data into a centralised application. That sensitive data is then shared with entire teams who have been instructed to hold meetings discussing the findings. The document even provides talking points for how the journalists should use that personal data to trigger conversations. While the ABC stresses journalists should never sacrifice news report quality, critics of the scheme have labelled it woke, and a waste of resourcing. In the last few years as the ABC was ramping up its diversity push, news bosses have overseen a litany of failures, including millions of dollars of taxpayer funds squandered on failed court cases, and major editorial errors. Earlier this year Mr Stevens was forced to apologise to former special forces commando Heston Russell after his newsroom edited fake gunshots into footage, giving the impression the soldier was firing shots at civilians. Mr Russell was also awarded more than $400,000 after successfully suing the ABC for defamation in October, 2023. In April, The Australian War Memorial lodged a formal complaint that separate footage in an ABC Four Corners episode gave a 'false impression' the Last Post was being disrupted by the work of construction. And yesterday, the ABC lost a high-profile unfair dismissal case after illegally sacking former ABC presenter Antoinette Lattouf. The journalist was awarded $70,000 and the ABC is expected to be left with more than $1 million in legal bills, which will ultimately be paid for by the taxpayer. What must ABC journalists do to satisfy DEI targets? The 50:50 policy document tells ABC journalists they can assess the diversity status of potential talent by a combination of personal cues — including 'how they look' and 'how they sound'. 'The ABC must ensure it equitably represents the perspectives and the lived experience people of different genders, ages, sexual orientations, social and geographic backgrounds, and those with disabilities,' the document says. 'This is not about being tokenistic to meet diversity targets – it is about diversifying and expanding our contacts to find excellent new contributors to include in our stories.' Another metric is the amount of 'CALD' (culturally and linguistically diverse) people included in news stories. Staff are instructed to make a 'reasonable assessment' of whether talent is CALD based on 'how they look', 'how they sound', '(if) they openly identify with a particular group or community' and 'their name'. People are considered to be diverse only if they are from non-Anglo-Celtic countries which do not speak English. 'The ABC defines CALD (for workforce calculation purposes) as people who are from countries in which the main language spoken is not English. European languages are included in the calculation of CALD. 'Anglo-Celtic backgrounds (where English is the main language spoken) is not, so we do not count people of Anglo heritage from the UK, NZ, Canada or the US.' In regular daily or weekly editorial meetings, the amount of diversity is then used to 'prompt a discussion about the diversity' of stories. Inside the ABC News boss' email accusing staff of 'racist behaviour' The DEI push is being led by ABC News Director Justin Stevens, a highly paid news executive who says staff have experienced racism at the ABC in an email obtained in full by Sky News. 'Six months ago I emailed you about issues around diversity and inclusion in (ABC) News and talked about the experiences of some of our colleagues with discriminatory, non-inclusive and at times racist behaviour,' he wrote in December, 2022. The email did not detail Mr Stevens' evidence or whether his own staff had committed racist acts but came six months after he publicly apologised to anyone at the ABC who 'has ever experienced racism or bigotry in our workplace'. His apology at the time related to an internal investigation which alleged racist acts had taken place in ABC newsrooms. In the same email, Mr Stevens pushed for everyone to get on board with the new 'Talent Diversity Tracking' initiative. READ JUSTIN STEVENS' ALL STAFF EMAIL ON DEI TRACKING Mr Stevens conceded the changes could be 'awkward and uncomfortable' but would improve the representation of marginalised groups in Australia. 'Talking about these issues can be awkward and uncomfortable – but it's vital we do in order to make the workplace positive for everyone,' he said. 'A key message from our people is that while we're improving the diversity of our workforce. We have a way to go to create a truly inclusive environment for all our people. Every one of us has a role to play in that. Everything we do in this area improves our journalism, making it more accurate and authentic, ensuring we're delivering for all Australians.' Mr Stevens wrote about the ABC's internal diversity tracking system, revealing that 'almost all news teams' had been storing sensitive data as early as 2022. 'Building on the 50:50 project, almost all News teams have now moved to the new talent diversity tracking system, designed to measure the representation of people with disability, women, Indigenous and culturally and linguistic diverse Australians,' he wrote. 'To help continue to increase the diversity of voices and faces in our coverage, the ABC is inviting all Australians to become part of our new Your Voice database. 'Teams across News and R&L will use Your Voice to source and store as many new diverse contacts as possible.' He also revealed that ABC journalists have been 'pilot testing' a new shared contact system known internally as the 'Your Voice' database which allowed journalists to easily find talent and voices for news stories in order to hit their diversity tracking KPIs. 'Already during the pilot testing phase more than 1500 people of many different backgrounds, locations and professional/lived experiences have made themselves available as experts and case studies,' he wrote. 'Every kind of diversity except viewpoint diversity' The ABC's diversity push has been criticised as being simply a woke waste of money, according to Scott Hargreaves, Executive Director of the Institute of Public Affairs. 'ABC management simply do not get it, warping the news the ABC presents to meet woke DEI goals is completely inconsistent with its Charter. Kim Williams and the Board should shut this down immediately,' he told Sky News. 'DEI is a cancer that eats out organisations from within by distracting it from its actual purpose and tying up staff with pointless tasks. 'The definition of news is what is of interest to the public and what is important. DEI goals for representation have nothing to do with achieving this aim.' Mr Hargreaves said the 'DEI warriors' at the ABC were interested in all kinds of diversity except for viewpoint diversity, which has led the broadcaster to sound like the 'Green-Left Weekly'. 'The ABC is no longer an institution of cultural importance in Australia as it once was. Too often the ABC fails to represent the diverse views of the community,' he said. 'While the ABC's taxpayer funding increases every year, its ratings continue to fall. It demonstrates the deep structural and cultural problems at the taxpayer funded broadcaster. 'Given the declining relevance and audience of the ABC, it is time the federal government review its funding levels and ensure it is commensurate with performance and viewership. Maybe then Australians might see some balance return to the taxpayer funded broadcaster.' 'Not quotas, just representation targets' The ABC's diversity guidelines insisted that these DEI requirements were not 'quotas' but instead were being used to 'effect real change'. This is despite the fact its internal language repeatedly refers to targets, benchmarks, and representation levels that should be measured, reported, and built upon. Sky News contacted the ABC to enquire about the document, and was directed to a report which said the broadcaster has accepted 15 recommendations from an independent review into ABC systems. The recommendations include that the ABC 'commit to being proactively anti-racist', 'create culturally safe support systems' and 'improve diverse representation'. It comes after Sky News revealed that staff were ordered to avoid commonplace phrases such as 'no can do', 'Chinese whispers' and 'gone walkabout' because they can be racially offensive. The advice was part of the new diversity and inclusion measures at the public broadcaster which came out of its internal racism review. The 4000-strong workforce at the ABC was told they must complete the compulsory 75-minute Building an Inclusive Culture training course by the end of the month. In that course was a section on avoiding 'language with racial connotations', with staff advised the following phrases can be offensive to people from 'those races' and provided with 'inclusive alternatives'. Instead of 'Chinese whispers', employees are told to use the term 'misinformation'. Rather than say someone has 'gone walkabout', it's suggested they use the word 'absent'. Staff are also told to avoid the phrase 'no can do' and instead say 'I can't help'. The ABC launched its new Inclusive Team Planning project in July 2024, as a response to an internal racism review prompted by the departure of former Q&A host Stan Grant, who accused the broadcaster of failing to support him in the wake of racial abuse stemming from his coverage of King Charles' coronation. Mr Grant called the issue an 'institutional failure' and the subsequent review found racism was 'systemic' in the ABC's ranks. Of 120 staff interviewed, only one said they had not personally experienced racism and that person was still aware of it happening at the ABC.
Evening Standard
19-05-2025
- General
- Evening Standard
'Dire realities' of London's temporary accommodation crisis exposed
Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to the capital's councils show that one family with children has been living in TA in Croydon since 1998. The same is true of another family with children in Brent since 2000. Meanwhile, some single-person households have been staying in TA even longer, including one person in Haringey who has been officially homeless since at least 1983 - a period of more than 40 years.
Belfast Telegraph
13-05-2025
- Business
- Belfast Telegraph
Cost doubles for proposed NI health hub that was ‘prioritised' by Stormont in 2018
Exclusive | £5m already spent on project before sod has been cut The cost of a proposed state-of-the-art health and community care hub at an old army base in Derry has doubled in cost, with the department saying it is down to 'the passage of time and inflation'. A Freedom of Information (FoI) response obtained by this newspaper shows that the Western Health Trust submitted a major capital bid for the Cityside Health and Care Centre at Fort George as part of the Department of Health's (DoH) 'Capital Priorities Exercise' in 2018.
Rhyl Journal
12-05-2025
- General
- Rhyl Journal
New Rhyl childcare facility is council's only halted project
Development of the new facility at Ysgol Gymraeg Dewi Sant, on Rhuddlan Road, has been paused due to connectivity issues regarding the surface water drainage system in the area. This came as part of the council's response to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request, in which the Journal asked: In response, the council answered: In March, the council said that work on modernising the hall wing at Ysgol Gymraeg Dewi Sant in Rhyl was progressing well. Outside the hall wing, the school's grounds will also be upgraded to improve access for users with a disability. Other large-scale council projects include the Queen's Market on Rhyl promenade, and coastal defence improvements in both Rhyl and Prestatyn.
