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Heathrow airport: MPs vote in favour of expansion
'Mini-Holland' schemes have proved their worth in outer London boroughs | Peter Walker
First formal study into their impact finds that boroughs with the schemes have boosted walking and cycling rates
The so-called mini-Holland schemes – much-debated changes to boost cycling and walking in outer London boroughs – have done precisely that, according to the first formal study into their impact.
The research found that after one year, people living in parts of such boroughs were, on average, walking and cycling for 41 minutes a week more than those living in comparable areas.
Continue reading...Grayling to face legal action over Heathrow expansion plan
Four councils back move, claiming proposal will not survive ‘independent, lawful and rational’ scrutiny
The transport secretary, Chris Grayling, is facing a fresh headache over Heathrow as a group of councils confirmed they were planning legal action against expansion, just hours after MPs voted overwhelmingly to back a third runway.
In an embarrassing blow for Theresa May, Conservative-run Windsor and Maidenhead, the prime minister’s own local council, suggested after Monday night’s vote that it was seriously considering joining the judicial review.
Continue reading...The amazing return of the starfish: species triumphs over melting disease
After a mysterious ‘mass mortality event’ turned ochre stars to goo, experts say rapid evolution may have saved the creatures
Five years after a mysterious virus wiped out millions of starfish off the western coast of North America, causing them to lose legs, dissolve into fleshy goo and taking various species to the brink of disappearance, scientists have announced a remarkable reversal.
Continue reading...Country diary: delighted by daisies
Allendale, Northumberland: Growing abundantly along motorways, these pristine white flowers with their yellow centres have an endearing simplicity, like a child’s drawing
Driving north from Newcastle up the A1 there’s an upside to the slowing traffic. It’s an opportunity to look at the high embankments on either side that are crowded with oxeye daisies, Leucanthemum vulgare. Growing abundantly along motorways, these pristine white flowers with their yellow centres have an endearing simplicity, like a child’s drawing. Mixed among them I can see the yellow of buttercup, mauve of vetch, sharp pink of campion and isolated patches of red clover. Lower down, near the gritty edges of the road, are canary-yellow sprawls of bird’s foot trefoil, colours that have mostly been banished from farmland.
I grow all those wildflowers in my garden. All have nectar for bees, butterflies and hoverflies. The golden centre of the daisy head is not one flower but many, a composite of tiny disc florets, each containing food for insects. A grass path curves through my small perennial meadow, where chimney sweeper moths flicker between umbels of pignut and ragged robin. As I pause there in the evening light, there’s a delicacy to the planting with its fine grasses and small bursts of colour. On tall stems, the oxeye daisies glow as the sun drops behind the wood.
Continue reading...Coal Joy and the Base-loads – “Dancing around the Party Room”
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MPs vote in favour of third runway for Heathrow – video
MPs have voted in favour of building a new runway at London’s Heathrow airport, paving the way for expansion after decades of delays and policy U-turns. The 415 to 119 vote was missed by the most high profile opponent Boris Johnson, who once said he would ‘lie down in front of bulldozers’ to stop the expansion. He was in Afghanistan and came in for criticism from Tory MPs for sidestepping the embarrassment of either not supporting the government or breaking his word
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