News from Elsewhere

Kuwait: Fire ripped through 25,000 square metres of Al Sulabiya tyre site | Kuwait – Gulf News

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An estimated one million tires were said to have been burned in blaze last week
Yasmena Al Mulla October 23, 2020 16:37
An estimated one million tyres were said to have been burned, as the fire blazed through 25,000 of the site’s million square metres, according to KUNA.
The aim of the visit was to reevaluate the current situation of the tire site, otherwise known as the tire graveyard. In addition, questions arose during the visit as to why there has been no development on the front to construct three factories that would recycle tryes, as well reduce the number of tires in the site.
Last year, the Public Authority for Industry transferred the responsibility to the Environment Protection Agency (EPA), who were tasked to find a solution to the tire graves. After taking over, the Director General of the EPA pointed out that there are around 20 to 40 million tyres, in Al Sulabiya, and that, “we will be able to deal with them all within a period of not more than a year.”

News from Elsewhere

Flooding closes London tube stations after heavy rain in south-east | UK weather | The Guardian

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Met Office warns of thunderstorms across Northern Ireland, north Wales, northern England and Scotland over the weekend

Parts of the UK have faced rain and localised flooding this weekend, but forecasters have said drier and sunnier weather could be possible by the end of the month.
Heavy downpours caused flooding in areas of London on Saturday, and the Met Office warned that torrential rain would continue to affect the south-east of England throughout the day.
There are also warnings of heavy rain, thunderstorms, flooding, lightning strikes, cold winds and hail in central and southern Scotland, northern England and Northern Ireland over the weekend.

News from Elsewhere

The lost history of the electric car – and what it tells us about the future of transport | Motoring | The Guardian

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Tom Standage 3/8/21
In the 1890s, the biggest cities of the western world faced a mounting problem. Horse-drawn vehicles had been in use for thousands of years, and it was hard to imagine life without them. But as the number of such vehicles increased during the 19th century, the drawbacks of using horses in densely populated cities were becoming ever more apparent.

Perhaps the most remarkable example, to modern eyes, of how things might have worked out differently for electric vehicles is the story of the Electrobat, an electric taxicab that briefly flourished in the late 1890s. The Electrobat had been created in Philadelphia in 1894 by Pedro Salom and Henry Morris, two scientist-inventors who were enthusiastic proponents of electric vehicles. In a speech in 1895, Salom derided “the marvelously complicated driving gear of a gasoline vehicle, with its innumerable chains, belts, pulleys, pipes, valves and stopcocks … Is it not reasonable to suppose, with so many things to get out of order, that one or another of them will always be out of order?”

News from Elsewhere

Political inaction is dragging the UK deeper into the climate crisis – Financial Times

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Henry Mance August 4 2021
The first histories of the pandemic have been written, and they converge on a single truth. In March 2020, the scientific evidence became so overwhelming that conscientious western political leaders declared an emergency. They acted more radically than they had ever imagined.
Histories of climate action are being written too, and they read very differently. In the past few years, the scientific evidence became so overwhelming that conscientious western political leaders declared an emergency. Then they delayed — acting timidly, sporadically, belatedly.
The contrast is infuriating. In what sense is the UK government, or any other government, treating climate as an emergency? Where are the stark press conferences, the appeals to solidarity? Imagine calling out the fire brigade to a blaze, then watch

News from Elsewhere

Highways England may have to reverse concreting of Victorian bridge arch | Heritage | The Guardian

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Agency must apply for retrospective planning permission after filling in railway arch in Cumbria

Matthew Weaver
The government’s roads agency could be forced to remove hundreds of tonnes of concrete it used to fill in a Victorian railway arch in a project that was condemned as the first act of “cultural vandalism” in a nationwide plan.
Eden district council told Highways England (HE) this week that it needs to apply for retrospective planning permission for a scheme that involved pouring an estimated 1,000 tonnes of concrete and aggregate under the bridge at Great Musgrave, Cumbria, at the start of nationwide programme to infill scores of historic structures.
If planning is refused, the agency will be obliged to restore the bridge to its state before the infill began at the end of May.

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Increasing the fine level for drivers who fail to follow the rules on TfL managed roads | Have Your Say TfL

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Increasing the fine level for drivers who fail to follow the rules on TfL managed roads
To help keep London moving safely and reduce disruption and delays we are proposing to increase the fine level (TfL penalty charge) from £130 to £160 for people who fail to follow the rules of the red route network (those roads we manage in London). The fine level would be reduced by half to £80 if paid within 14 days.
Please share your views by taking part in our online survey. It should take you no more than 10 minutes to complete.
If you prefer not to complete the survey, then please submit your response to us in writing to:
Haveyoursay@tfl.gov.uk ; or FREEPOST TFL HAVE YOUR SAY 

News from Elsewhere

“Cycling has just made me really happy”: Jeremy Clarkson’s daughter partners with Specialized – road.cc / Instagram

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em_clarkson 
Alex and I are SO excited to be partnering up with @specialized_uk to show you their e-bikes! I’ve got no shame in telling you I’ve always been a nervous city cyclist and although Alex has been trying to get me cycling in London for the best part of a decade, it took until now for me to GET it. But I’m here. Probably cos riding an electric bike is about 10 million times easier than the bikes I rode before (statistic made up by me) – although you still have to pedal it really does take the sting out of the hills 🤪 they’re fun and practical but mostly they’re just so comfortable. We got into central London quicker than we’d have done in the car (and didn’t have to pay congestion) and saw so much more of it than we would have done on the tube. It sounds odd but cycling has just made me really… happy a HUGE thanks to @iamspecialized for partnering with us on this, we’re loving it  #iamspecialized #comosl #vadosl #ebike #electricbike #bikeride #gogreen

News from Elsewhere

Review of National policy statement for national networks – GOV.UK

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National policy statement for national networks, the strategic plan for major road and rail schemes, to be reviewed for net zero commitments.

Department for Transport
In 2019, our roads handled 88% of all passenger travel by distance, the vast majority of it by car or van. Even doubling rail use across the country would only reduce this proportion to 75%, assuming that overall demand did not rise. The roads also carry more than three-quarters of freight traffic, and of course nearly all pedestrian, cycling, bus and coach journeys.
Continued high investment in our roads is, therefore, and will remain, as necessary as ever to ensure the functioning of the nation and to reduce the congestion which is a major source of carbon. Almost half of our £27 billion programme for England’s strategic roads, though often described as for road-building or capacity expansion is, in fact, for renewing, maintaining and operating the existing network or for funds to improve safety and biodiversity, deliver active travel schemes and tackle noise or pollution.

News from Elsewhere

Government gets tough on active travel | London Cycling Campaign

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The Gear Change: One Year On report announced last week is the central document that holds all of the updates the government announced last week. Its key takeaways include:

• £338m, for active travel funding in England (excluding London) which is a one third rise

• “We will reduce funding to councils which do not take active travel seriously, particularly in urban areas. This includes councils which remove schemes prematurely or without proper evidence, and councils which never installed them in the first place. As Gear Change said, an authority’s performance on active travel will help determine the wider funding allocations it receives, not just on active travel. We will require more from all local authorities, urban or rural.” (For more on this, see our separate story on funding freezes for some London boroughs and new network guidance below)
News from Elsewhere

No cycling, no cash, London boroughs told | London Cycling Campaign

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Councils on the naughty step
One of the shock announcements from the DfT and Andrew Gilligan in the Prime Minister’s office last week was of three councils outside London and seven inside that faced a freeze on future funding opportunities due to their actions around active travel schemes.
In London, Ealing, Harrow, Hillingdon, K&C, Redbridge, Sutton, and Wandsworth, it was announced would not be able to bid for the next round of active travel funding schemes from TfL “pending further discussion”, but also might lose out on other transport funding in general for a period (joined by Brighton, Liverpool and West Sussex outside London).

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