James Tapper
Fires that burned in several parts of the UK last week spread in the same way as those that led to the great fire of London and would have been far worse with stronger winds, a fire expert has said.
Fires in Wennington, Uxbridge and Erith destroyed 41 properties last Tuesday, when temperatures went above 40C to make it the hottest day on record in the UK, and fire services had their busiest day since the second world war.
Guillermo Rein, professor of fire science at Imperial College London, said that strong winds played a major factor in spreading the 1666 fire, which lasted for four days and ended when soldiers blew up houses to create fire breaks, and the strong easterly wind died down.

In collaboration with University of Westminster’s Active Travel Academy, we have published a report detailing:
• The problems experienced by disabled people in our cities. 

• The impacts of the low-car transition on disabled people.

• Pathways to achieving an inclusive low-car city.

With transport accounting for 27% of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions, a transition away from mass private car ownership in cities is needed to tackle the climate crisis. Creating these low-car futures must be a process which actively involves disabled people in order to best overcome the daily challenges and barriers they face.

Just Stop Oil protestors forcing sections of the M25 to close on the day. Record breaking temperatures the day before. The stage was set for my presentation.
It can be challenging to know your audience but my job was to situate road transport and future investment in the context of climate change. I took an early straw poll in the room – how many answered ‘yes’ to the title question? Most if not all in the room. Phew. But am I now the mad guy trying to remind people the house is on fire, or will I be well-received with open, concerned minds? That I can’t share here. But let’s press on with what I had to say.

The UK has many disused railways, and many of these have been converted into shared paths. In fact, Sustrans’ very first path was the Bristol And Bath Rail Path, which follows the course of an old, disused railway, and forms part of the Somerset Circle. The Camel Trail in Cornwall, and most of the Tarka Trail in north Devon are built on disused railways, too, as are many shared paths. One of those paths is the Strawberry Line, in Somerset. The Strawberry Line is now a shared path, linking Cheddar with Yatton, but they have big plans to extend it much further.

Record-breaking heat continued to affect parts of western Europe during the past week, with UK temperatures exceeding 40C (104F) for the first time since records began.
On Tuesday, several weather stations across London, Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire broke the 40C barrier, with a top temperature of 40.3C in Coningsby, Lincolnshire. A further 39 stations across central and southern England also broke the previous highest temperature of 38.7C, which was set in July 2019.
The central England temperature (CET), which is a daily temperature record dataset dating back to 1772, recorded the highest ever daily average temperature of 28.1C, an incredible 2.8C above the previous record.

The group took evidence from many witnesses, including deputy climate change minister Lee Waters. Its report, published on 28 June, calls for a National Delivery Plan for Active Travel to be put in place by the end of this year. Among other things, the plan should clarify and codify the roles of various organisations and set out priorities for infrastructure development based on maximising modal shift.