Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, has intervened to pause work on up to 69 bridges across Britain after mounting anger over the programme.

Highways England, the government-owned roads company, has identified bridges it claims are at risk of collapse, saying that the structures need to be infilled to protect the public.
However, heritage campaigners have opposed the move, insisting that most bridges are in good working order and many are on disused lines that are earmarked as future cycling and walking routes. Some could even be reopened as full passenger railways and blocking them off will ruin future plans, it is claimed.
They fear that the policy is being pushed purely because Highways England no longer wants to be liable for the structures.
Anger mounted after tonnes of concrete were poured beneath a bridge at Great Musgrave near Warcop, Cumbria, with the work being criticised as “vandalism”. Campaigners claimed that it would have cost only £5,000 to repair it.

Future generations will look back on the climate events of 2021 and say: “That was the year they ran out of excuses.”
Heatwaves and flooding here in the UK, temperatures topping 50C in Pakistan, hundreds killed by a heatwave in British Columbia, deadly floods in Germany and China. All within a single month. Add to that the recent dire warning from the Met Office that the age of extreme weather has just begun.
The wake-up call that this offers is not just the obvious one: that climate breakdown is already here. It also illustrates that we, in this generation, are in a unique position in the history of this crisis. Climate breakdown can no longer be plausibly denied as a threat etched only in the future. And all too soon, avoiding it may be a luxury lost to the past. The window to avoid catastrophe is closing with every passing day. We’re in the decisive decade in this fight, and we must treat the climate crisis as an issue that stands alone in the combination of its urgency and the shadow it casts over future generations.

Stonehenge campaigners are celebrating victory after a judge ruled that Government planning approval granted to a £1.7 billion road and tunnel development at the sacred site was unlawful.
The finding by High Court Judge Hon. Mr Justice Holgate followed a judicial review of transport secretary Grant Shapps’ consent to the scheme last November against the recommendation of planning officials. The legal challenge was brought by Save Stonehenge World Heritage Site (SSWHS), which is part of campaign group the Stonehenge Alliance.  

5 days ago
Sadiq Khan’s party has urged him to halt construction of a new road tunnel in London that campaigners say will make it impossible to meet climate targets.
In an overwhelming vote at the London Labour regional conference on Saturday delegates called for the Silvertown Tunnel to be scrapped by 74 per cent to 26%.
The twin-bore road tunnel under the Thames is planned to link Silvertown to the Greenwich peninsula, with an expected opening date of 2025.
Transport for London says it will reduce congestion in the nearby Blackwall Tunnel but environmentalists say it will induce more demand and lead to worsening air quality and car dependency.
Experts have warned that that project is incompatible with Mr Khan’s rhetoric on climate change. It is opposed by the Green Party, Liberal Democrats, some Conservatives, and many of Labour’s own MPs and mayors.
Delegates at the conference, where Mr Khan spoke, approved a motion calling on the mayor to “cancel this project” on the basis that “evidence shows the tunnel would worsen air pollution, traffic congestion, carbon emissions and is also financially unviable”.

Last year we asked for your feedback on the temporary traffic measures that have been installed throughout Westminster in support of the Covid-19 pandemic. The temporary measures are a series of interventions that the council undertook to facilitate social distancing, improve walking and cycling conditions, and enable outdoor dining. These included pavement widening, cycle lanes and timed closures for al fresco dining.
We had over 1,500 responses from a wide variety of sources: our request was publicised via social media and throughout Westminster, including in publications of The Belgravia Society and SEBRA magazine. 

The UK Government has announced a 30% increase in the walking and cycling budget to be spent this year, with the planned £257 million investment rising to £338 million.

Though there has been no indication of a rise in the top line £2 billion commitment across the Government term, the moving forwards of the investment will be welcomed as much of the cash is allocated to schemes that will make cycling safer through infrastructure developments, as well as proposed changes to the Highway Code to better shield vulnerable road user.
(Edit: For the avoidance of doubt CI.N checked with the DfT, confirming that the cash is not an increase in funding, rather a moving forwards of spend.)
The new Government body, Active Travel England, will be responsible for delivery of the cycling budget and will soon begin work following a lengthy recruitment phase.

Revisions to the Highway Code—the U.K. road safety manual first published in 1931—will result in motorists being officially relegated in the pecking order on Britain’s roads. Pedestrians will be at the top of a new road user hierarchy with motorists—who have the most potential to harm other road users—being told they now have the greatest responsibility to reduce the danger they pose to others.
This new hierarchy could have significant ramifications in future court cases involving motorists hitting cyclists and pedestrians.
The new Highway Code, subject to approval from parliament when MPs return from summer recess, will introduce strengthened pedestrian priority on sidewalks and when they are crossing or waiting to cross a road.

Damian Carrington

New Zealand, Iceland, the UK, Tasmania and Ireland are the places best suited to survive a global collapse of society, according to a study.
The researchers said human civilisation was “in a perilous state” due to the highly interconnected and energy-intensive society that had developed and the environmental damage this had caused.
A collapse could arise from shocks, such as a severe financial crisis, the impacts of the climate crisis, destruction of nature, an even worse pandemic than Covid-19 or a combination of these, the scientists said.