Apr122017

The Inspectorate is clear, police funding and police numbers have been cut under the Tories – Abbott

Labour
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Following today’s publication of the PEEL report on the effectiveness of individual police forces in England and Wales, Labour’s Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott said:  

“HMIC has previously warned that the police are not well equipped to prevent crime. These individual assessments of police forces show that verdict is fully justified.

“We have some police forces artificially lowering demand, crimes being written off and fewer arrests being made, even for serious crimes. HMIC also found that in some forces key capabilities, such as skilled investigators and community policing are insufficient or are declining.

“We should be clear. This is not the fault of the police forces of individual officers. The government is in denial, but the Inspectorate is clear, police funding and police numbers have been cut under the Tories. This is where the problem lies. These problems of police effectiveness are a Tory failure.”

Apr122017

Press release: Design and technical consultant announced for A303 Stonehenge scheme

HM Government
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Highways England has appointed AECOM to provide technical support in the detailed design and planning application process for the A303 Stonehenge scheme.

AECOM will be Highways England’s Technical Partner for the Amesbury to Berwick Down project, which includes proposals for a tunnel near Stonehenge.

In its £15 billion five-year Road Investment Strategy – the biggest in a generation – the Government has pledged to upgrade the A303 corridor into a high quality, high performing route.

The aim is to provide an enhanced link between the M3 in the South East and the M5 in the South West, improving journeys for millions of people, and additional schemes in the first road investment period include dualling the A303 between Sparkford and Ilchester and the A358 between Taunton and Southfields.

As part of the investment, a £1.4 billion project has been proposed to improve the single carriageway section of the A303 at Stonehenge, and to assist in further developing and delivering the scheme, Highways England has awarded the Technical Partner contract to AECOM, in partnership with Mouchel and MACE.

The Technical Partner will be required to develop the preliminary design for the scheme, manage and lead on the Development Consent Order application for the scheme, and provide technical assurance of the detailed design and construction.

The eight-year contract, valued between £40 and £50 million, has been awarded under an open tender competition.

Subject to the outcome of the Development Consent Order examination by the Planning Inspectorate, and to the Transport Secretary’s decision regarding a development consent order application, the proposed scheme is on target for construction work to start in 2020.

Derek Parody, Highways England project director for the A303 Stonehenge scheme, said:

This award is another step in our commitment to deliver the A303 Stonehenge improvement scheme. We have enjoyed an excellent and productive working partnership with the Arup Atkins Joint Venture during the route options identification phase, and we are now looking forward to forging another successful partnership with AECOM.

We are still busy developing the design of the scheme, following a successful public consultation, and although we are yet to receive permission to start construction, this appointment will help us to design the best scheme possible to improve this road and enhance the World Heritage Site, and to prepare for works getting under way on time and to budget.

The single carriageway A303 between Amesbury and Berwick Down currently runs alongside Stonehenge and the proposed option is to dual the seven-mile section, including a 1.8-mile tunnel, to improve journey times, remove the sight and sound of traffic and enhance the World Heritage Site. The proposal also includes options for a bypass of the village of Winterbourne Stoke.

General enquiries

Members of the public should contact the Highways England customer contact centre on 0300 123 5000.

Media enquiries

Journalists should contact the Highways England press office on 0844 693 1448 and use the menu to speak to the most appropriate press officer.

Apr122017

The Centre for Environmental Geochemistry secure £450,000 funding for research on the Red River Delta, Vietnam

British Geological Survey
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A new £450,000 research project investigating sustainable water management on the Red River Delta in Vietnam has recently been awarded UK and Vietnamese Collaborators under the Newton funding Scheme. The project will involve collaborators from the School of Geography at the University of Nottingham (in UK and Malaysia), British Geological Survey and the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VAST) in Hanoi.

Apr122017

On International Day, UN celebrates historic event that opened doors to outer space

United Nations
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12 April 2017 – The United Nations today commemorated the International Day of Human Space Flight to celebrate the 56th anniversary of the first human space flight, which ushered in the beginning of the space era for mankind.

“The International Day is an opportunity for us to recognize how much humanity has achieved thanks to international cooperation in space and the benefits space technology and applications has brought us for making the world a better place,” said the UN Champion for Space, Scott Kelly in a message on the occasion.

The International Day commemorates the historic space flight that Yuri Gagarin, a Soviet citizen, took on 12 April, 1961, and which opened the way for space exploration for the benefit of all of Earth’s inhabitants.

This year’s commemoration features a live “Twitter Chat” with Mr. Kelly, a former astronaut with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), who holds the record for the most cumulative number of days spent in space by an American astronaut.

During his “year in space,” astronaut Kelly and NASA partnered with the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs (OOSA) on the #WhySpaceMatters campaign to draw attention to the importance of space-based science technology and their applications for sustainable development.

In 2011, the UN General Assembly declared 12 April as the International Day of Human Space Flight “to celebrate each year at the international level the beginning of the space era for mankind, reaffirming the important contribution of space science and technology in achieving sustainable development goals and increasing the well-being of States and peoples, as well as ensuring the realization of their aspiration to maintain outer space for peaceful purposes.”

The Assembly expressed its deep conviction of the common interest of mankind in promoting and expanding the exploration and use of outer space, as the province of all mankind, for peaceful purposes and in continuing efforts to extend to all States the benefits derived there from.

VIDEO: International Day of Human Space Flight