Innovation

A charity has called for the government to commit to a date when plastic will be banned in wet wipes, to help prevent the effect they are having on the River Thames.

Thames21 says wet wipes are not only creating artificial islands, harming wildlife and impacting water quality; they are reshaping the waterway itself.

The charity said although plans were announced last year to ban the sale of plastic wet wipes, progress had halted following the general election.

A spokesperson for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said: "Plastic wet wipes clog up our sewers, pollute our waterways and harm our treasured wildlife. That is why the government will ban them."

Liz Gyekye from Thames21 said: "Wet wipes are a massive problem, it's devastating.

"The principal challenge is that people flush the wet wipes down the toilets, then you get sewage overflows after heavy rain that chuck them into the river.

"They then destroy wildlife because it ingests these microplastics when they break down."

Ms Gyekye said the charity wanted the government to act "urgently".

"We had the previous Conservative government last year commit to banning plastic in wet wipes, and now we're calling on this government to implement this ban," she said.

Asked why the public were still flushing wet wipes despite the obvious damage being caused, Ms Gyekye said: "I think the issue is over labels – some labels say they are 'flushable' – but there is no marine biodegradable standard out there – so they should all just go in the bin."

She added: "Consumers need to do their part and dispose of their waste correctly, flushing down only the 3 Ps (pee, poo, and paper)."

The director of sustainability at the Port of London Authority (PLA), Grace Rawnsley, said the new Thames super sewer "should help" cope with flushed wet wipes, but said the ban on plastic in wet wipes was "key" to achieving a cleaner river.

Volunteer Janice Bruce-Brande said that although the wet wipe island she was surveying was "soul destroying", she had noticed a possible improvement since the introduction of the super sewer.

But she said it was still "so disheartening" to see the wet wipe problem.

'We will ban them'

In response to Thames21's calls, a Defra spokesperson told the BBC: "Plastic wet wipes clog up our sewers, pollute our waterways and harm our treasured wildlife.

"That is why the government will ban them.

"This is part of our wider plan to clean up our rivers. We have passed our landmark Water Act, introducing two-year prison sentences for polluting water bosses, and banning unfair million-pound bonuses."

Formal approval has been given to plans to build 93 new homes on a meadow, despite more than 500 objections.

Councillors at Fenland District Council agreed nearly two years ago to approve the development at Wenny Meadow, Chatteris, Cambridgeshire, but official permission has only now been given after the agreement of conditions and financial contributions.

The 93 homes are set to include four five-bedroom houses, 25 four-bedroom houses, 40 three-bedroom houses, 20 two-bedroom houses, and four one-bedroom flats.

They are proposed to be part of a wider development to the east of the town of around 350 homes.

In planning documents submitted to the district council, the developer said it would "provide a large amount of public open space incorporating a [play area], ecological benefits including the creation of new habitat, as well as economic benefits including increases in local expenditure and support for jobs both directly and indirectly through the proposed development."

However, the project was met with backlash from people in Chatteris, with 551 formal objections lodged against the plans.

The application was recommended for approval by planning officers, who said: "By providing a new community with accessible open and green space, in a high-quality environment, with easy access to local services, the scheme will make a valuable contribution to improving the overall health of the local community."

When the application was considered by councillors in July 2023, they ultimately agreed to approve the plans, subject to the agreement of conditions and financial contributions.

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, an update report published by the district council in April recognised a "significant amount of time" had passed since that planning committee meeting.

It said amendments to some conditions had been made and financial contributions from the developer towards services in the town had now been agreed.

Officers said they still recommended the plans should be approved and the district council has now agreed to formally grant planning permission for the development.

In the wide-ranging interview, which will be broadcast on Tuesday, Lineker also discussed his footballing career, his son's leukemia battle as a baby, and his views on gambling sponsorship in sports.

Lineker said the football industry should rethink its responsibility when it comes to taking money from gambling firms.

"I know people [for whom] it becomes an addiction, it can completely destroy their lives," he said.

"There's talk about taking [logos] off the shirts, but you see it on the boards around the ground everywhere.

"I think football needs a long, hard look at itself about that, I really do."

On top of his presenting roles, Lineker is also the co-founder of Goalhanger Podcasts, which make the successful The Rest is History series and its spin-offs about Politics, Football, Entertainment and Money.

The 64-year-old indicated to Rajan his next career move "won't be more telly", adding: "I think I'll step back from that now.

"I think I'll probably focus more on the podcast world, because it's such a fun business and it's just been so incredible."

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A collection of rare documents by World War Two codebreaker Alan Turing have been saved for the nation.

Last year, a temporary export bar was placed on the wartime project writings to prevent them being taken abroad.

A successful campaign was launched to keep the papers on home soil, which were described by the government as some of Turing's most "inventive, secret, and overlooked work".

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has announced that the documents will join the largest collection of Turing artefacts at King's College, Cambridge.

"This is a powerful example of what can be achieved when private and charitable sectors come together," she said.

"This collaboration has ensured that these treasures will be preserved for years to come."

In the UK, significant cultural objects require a licence to be exported.

Items considered too important to leave can be placed under a temporary export ban, which allows British buyers time to raise funds to purchase the items instead.

Once digitised, they will become part of the Turing Papers online archive, freely available to scholars.

The papers, valued at more than £397,000, relate to the Delilah project, which developed a portable encryption system – or voice scrambler – to protect secrets during military operations.

Turing worked on the project at Hanslope Park, near Milton Keynes, in 1943 following his groundbreaking work on the Enigma machines at Bletchley Park.

The documents consist of more than 40 pages of unpublished notes written by Turing and colleague Donald Bayley.

Unpublished evidence of Turing's work has rarely survived.

The project to save the documents was led by the Friends of the Nations' Libraries charity.

Other donors included the National Heritage Memorial Fund and King's College.

The algorithmic trading firm XTX Markets donated £250,000.

King's College provost Gillian Tett said: "Alan Turing's work laid the foundations of computer science, artificial intelligence and much of our modern world.

"We are honoured to house the Delilah papers at King's and are deeply grateful to our partners in this endeavour."

Turing arrived at King's College as an undergraduate in 1931 and was made a fellow in 1935.

The Turing Archive was founded in 1960 following a donation of his papers by his mother, Sara Turing.

Turing died of cyanide poisoning in June 1954. His death was thought to be suicide.

Worcestershire County Council slipped into no overall control after Thursday's election with no party having a majority of councillors.

Reform UK were the significant winners after the votes were counted as they now have 27 seats, two short of the number needed for overall control.

The big losers were the Conservatives, who went from 45 councillors to 12.

Here are three takeaways from the election:

Reform's rout of the Tories

Almost every seat in the county was affected in some way by the swing towards Reform.

Before this set of elections the relatively new party had never won a seat in the county; now it is the largest party with 27 councillors.

Twenty-six of those gains – based off the 2021 results – were from the Conservatives.

Before polling day, Reform candidates were optimistic but this result has far exceeded their expectations.

Two seats short of an overall majority, they now face a decision – form a minority administration and try to go it alone or find a partner to run the county council with.

Dead Heat

The most dramatic moment of these elections came in the rural Littletons division, where the Green and Reform candidates had a dead heat – both on 889 votes.

This meant a ballot was drawn with both their names being placed into a box and one drawn at random.

Green candidate Hannah Robson's name came out, meaning she took seat from the Tories.

She acknowledged it was not the ideal way to decide a vote but "that's what we have to work with".

Good day for the Greens

If these elections were evidence voters were disenchanted with the two main Westminster parties, Worcestershire's Greens were the other clear winners.

The party now has eight seats on the county council, five more than in 2021.

They managed to cement their strong position in Worcester itself, with music teacher and parliamentary candidate Tor Pingree defeating the Conservative council leader Simon Geraghty.

A man has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after two people were stabbed in Bradford.

Officers were called to Seymour Street, off Leeds Road, at about 22:15 BST on Sunday and two men were taken to hospital, with one man's injuries described as "serious".

West Yorkshire Police said the 36-year-old arrested man remains in custody, with investigations continuing.

The second injured man's injuries were described as not life-threatening, with a damaged vehicle found at the scene seized by officers.

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A council has spent £4.56m on 66 agency workers in the 2024/25 financial year with many needed to work in social care.

The figures were shared at a Wiltshire Council committee and were lower than the previous financial year, with a high of £8m in 2018/19 according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Wiltshire Council said they spent less compared to similar local authorities and without the agency workers there would be impacts on service users and the wider Wiltshire community.

The council has just approved a new three-year contract for agency workers too, with the option to extend for a further 12 months, at an estimated cost of £20m over four years.

The £4.65m equates to around £75,000 per agency worker, which would be well above the average council pay of £35,000.

However, the council said when it comes to agency hiring "a simple average does not accurately reflect the true cost of these roles."

Even those within the separatist movement have different ideas on how best to achieve their goals.

Lorna Guitton, a born-and-bred Albertan and a volunteer with the Alberta Prosperity Project, told the BBC in Lethbridge that her aim was for the province to have a better relationship with the rest of Canada.

She described the current union as "broken", and believes a referendum, or the threat of it, will give Albertans "leverage" in future negotiations with Ottawa.

But Ms Guitton also dismissed any notion of it becoming a 51st US state.

"They've got enough of their own problems. Why would I want to be part of that?" she said. "I would rather be my own independent, sovereign province, or a province with a better deal in Canada."

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At his ranch outside of Calgary in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, Mr Rath has a different view.

As he tended to his race horses, he spoke of the political and social attitudes of free enterprise and small government that are shared by Albertans and many Americans.

"From that perspective, I would see Alberta as being a good fit within the United States," he said.

He is currently putting together a "fact-finding" delegation to travel to Washington DC and bring the movement directly to the Trump administration.

Many voters in Alberta, however, dismiss the notion of independence altogether, even if they agree that the province has been overlooked.

Steve Lachlan from Lethbridge agrees the West lacks representation in Ottawa but said: "We already have separation, and we need to come together."

And the Liberals are not entirely shut out from the province. Polls suggest that Alberta may send more Liberal MPs to Ottawa than in 2021, partly due to changing demographics that led to the creation of new ridings in urban Edmonton and Calgary.

James Forrester, who lives in the battleground Calgary Centre district, told the BBC he had traditionally voted Conservative but has leaned left in recent years. This time, he will vote Liberal because of the "Carney factor".

"I feel he's the best guy to deal with Trump," he said. As for the separation sentiment: "I'm not worried about it."

A new Universal resort near Bedford is due to open in 2031, creating 28,000 jobs and attracting 8.5 million visitors a year.

But more than 40 years ago, a similar vision was announced just outside Corby, Northamptonshire.

Called WonderWorld, the ambitious £346m project promised a British answer to Disney – complete with themed villages, hotels, and rides designed by Monty Python's Terry Gilliam. But it never opened.

Here's what was planned, and why it was never built…

Where was WonderWorld?

In 1981, planning permission was granted for WonderWorld to be built on a 1,000-acre site at Priors Hall, about two miles (3km) north-east of Corby.

The land, part of a disused quarry once linked to the town's former steelworks, was identified as the ideal location due to strong local support.

Signs for the theme park feature in Netflix's Toxic Town, and it is mentioned in BBC podcast The Toxic Waste Scandal.

Developers Group Five described the area as the perfect home for the park, citing the "positive attitude displayed by the local and county authorities and the Commission for the New Towns".

The attraction was described as the "equivalent of America's Disneyland", and it was supposed to be an answer to unemployment in Corby following the 1980 closure of the steelworks, which led to 10,000 job losses and left nearly a third of the town out of work.

What would be in WonderWorld?

Modelled on Walt Disney World's Epcot, the attraction was to include 13 themed "villages" built around a central bowl, 700m in diameter.

Six of these were due to open in the summer of 1992, with a projected four million annual visitors and parking for 7,000 vehicles.

Plans included hi-tech rides, educational centres, themed restaurants, a conservation zone and shopping areas.

A brochure promised "a unique resort set in beautifully landscaped surroundings", with an "accent very much on participation".

In 1985, one of the architects, Derek Walker, said: "The basic ingredients [for WonderWorld] are very simple: entertainment at the very highest level. It's participatory and it's incredibly educational.

"[WonderWorld] will offer the best of British design."

Botanist David Bellamy was involved in planning a mock safari while astronomer Sir Patrick Moore was to contribute to an observatory.

The complex would house a covered 10,000-seat stadium for indoor sports, changing rooms, rugby and football pitches, and all-weather tennis courts.

There were also proposals for a family resort with hotels – 2,000 rooms in seven hotels initially, expanding to 6,000 rooms – and an 18-hole golf course with 100 holiday villas.

The park's overall goal was to launch a new leisure industry built around "British heritage, folklore, science, and innovation".

Who was building WonderWorld?

The developer behind WonderWorld was Group Five, a company that pitched the park as "a family affair" offering a broad mix of attractions to suit all ages and interests.

The first phase of construction was estimated to cost £223m, with the full development forecast to hit £346m.

A 39-month construction timeline was set, aiming for an initial opening in 1985.

Why was WonderWorld never finished?

Despite early enthusiasm, WonderWorld's momentum began to stall.

Rising costs, planning delays and difficulty securing long-term funding meant backers pulled out, and so as public investment wavered, the vision began to fade.

All that was ever erected at the site was a large WonderWorld sign and a small wooden cabin.

The land is now home to more than 1,000 houses at Priors Hall Park, and there are plans to build just more than another 5,000 houses.

"It's basically a family tradition, its something I always wanted to do…I was born and bred into the fire service."

Dave Vickress, from Leintwardine, Herefordshire, is not exaggerating – being a firefighter runs in his blood.

The tradition began with his father, Derek, who served for 32 years for Hereford & Worcester Fire and Rescue Service from 1952.

Now, Dave, 62, and his two brothers, Graham, 56, and Robert, 60, have tallied up more than 100 years of service between them as on-call firefighters at the same small station in their home village.

On-call firefighters do the role alongside full-time jobs.

Despite the trio being siblings, Dave described the dynamic with everyone at the station as being "like a family".

"I'm in charge of the station, there's 13 of us…including myself and my two brothers," he said.

"It's good, I like being in charge of them; I sometimes wonder whether they wind me up a bit."

Dave joined the service in November 1981 and worked his way up to becoming watch commander at the station, a role he has held for about 20 years.

Despite moving to Saundersfoot, Pembrokeshire, 11 years ago, Dave still works on-call at Leintwardine during the week, despite a distance of more than 100 miles (161km).

"I come up early on a Monday morning and I go back down either late on a Thursday evening or on a Friday…I stop with my sister, Shirley."

His youngest brother, Graham, is about to complete 25 years of service with the brigade in August.

He joined as a firefighter and is now a crew commander but his day job is as a postman.

Middle brother Robert has been a firefighter for 27 years and is also a carer.

Their father, Derek, was what was called a leading firefighter in his day and previous service rules meant he had to retire at 55.

Dave got to spend about two-and-a-half years working alongside him before then.

"It was good, he put me in my place, I learnt a lot off him," he said.

"I was always the one that got dirty if he was in charge."

Reminiscing, Dave said much had changed over the years – from health and safety to diversity and inclusion.

"Even our fire tunics. When I joined, we had a woollen tunic and plastic leggings and rubber boots…now we have full protective equipment," he added.

With decades of service between them, the brothers have attended some well-known cases in the county.

Dave was present at a huge fire at Bedstone College in 1996 which engulfed the faculty's main building, while Graham attended the 1993 Sun Valley poultry processing factory fire.

"All three of us attended the large fire in Hereford city centre in 2010 too," said Dave.

"Very often we go out to incidents, the three of us are on the same appliance."

Despite the many years of service, Dave is thinking about winding down.

"I'd like to see a couple more years, 65 might be it," he said.

"I owe it to my wife, I've been travelling up and down now for 11 years."