Tag Archives: HM Government

A man was caught out after GPS data was seized from the rental van he had used to illegally dump waste and he has now been sentenced at Nottingham Magistrates Court.

Kirk McRoberts, of Waterloo Promenade in Nottingham, pleaded guilty on Tuesday 19 September and was fined £900. He was also ordered to contribute £500 towards the cost of prosecution and had to pay a £45 government surcharge.

McRoberts was charged with illegally depositing waste in Long Eaton in Derbyshire and Cossall in Nottinghamshire. The judge described the illegal deposit of the waste as “a scourge” and remarked that these offences were serious.

The judge gave McRoberts full credit for his early guilty plea and noted that he had no previous convictions for breaches of environmental legislation.

Between 4 and 7 April 2016, McRoberts deposited twenty-three barrels filled with adhesive at Lock Lane in Long Eaton and at Cossall Road in Cossall. Running a firm called ‘No Need for a Skip Ltd’, McRoberts used a hired vehicle which was fitted with a GPS tracker. Data recorded by the GPS tracker clearly shows the van stopping at both locations. CCTV footage from one of the sites also showed the barrels being dumped.

The company that hired Mr McRoberts to remove the waste has been issued with a warning for not making the necessary checks as to where the waste would be going and that the company used was registered as a waste carrier.

The Environment Agency estimates that McRoberts avoided costs of around £900 by disposing of the waste illegally.

Commenting, Peter Haslock, enforcement team leader with the Environment Agency said:

The acts of illegal waste carriers like McRoberts can have seriously damaging effects on the environment. They also undermine legitimate businesses operating within the confines of the law.

We will continue to work tirelessly to bring those responsible for illegal waste dumping to justice. We’d also like to remind people to check their waste carrier is licensed by the Environment Agency. You are required by law to make sure your waste goes to a site licenced to take it, and could end up with a hefty fine if you fail to do so.

Proposals for the second phase of the Leeds Flood Alleviation Scheme are going on show this month to communities upstream of the city centre.

A series of drop in events are being held in Kirkstall, Horsforth, Rodley and Apperley Bridge areas of Leeds, giving residents the opportunity to view options to reduce the risk of flooding to their homes and businesses.

An eight week consultation runs from today, Thursday 21 September until 16 November.

Members of the project team will be available at the following events to explain the options, answer any questions and seek views. Residents and business owners are invited to stop by within the following times to find out what is proposed:

• Monday 2 October, 3pm to 7pm, Horsforth Community Hub, Town Street, Horsforth, Leeds LS18 5BL
• Thursday 12 October, 3pm to 7pm, Radio Aire, 51 Burley Road, Leeds, LS3 1LR
• Thursday 19 October, 10am to 1pm, George & Dragon pub (car park), Apperley Rd, Bradford BD10 0PU
• Thursday 19 October, 2.30pm to 5.30pm, The Church (car park), Wesley Street, Rodley, LS13 1JH
• Saturday 28 October, 9am to 1pm, Kirkstall Leisure Centre, Kirkstall Ln, Leeds LS5 3BE
• Sunday 29 October, 12pm to 3pm, Kirkstall Abbey Deli Market, Abbey Rd, Leeds LS5 3EH

With the £50 million first phase of the scheme, which has introduced state-of-the-art new flood protection for the city centre, Holbeck and downstream at Woodlesford set to be completed next month, Leeds City Council working with the Environment Agency, BMM jV Limited, Thomas Mackay and Arup, have released details of the further measures required for phase two.

The proposals for phase two represent the outcome of an extensive survey and feasibility study of the river catchment carried out by Leeds City Council and the Environment Agency following the devastating impact of Storm Eva at Christmas 2015, to determine the level of future protection needed to provide vital reassurance to residents and businesses.

They include measures further upstream including the Kirkstall corridor which was badly hit by the floods as well as Stourton, an industrial area that was badly affected on Boxing Day 2015.

Phase two will also look at areas beyond the city boundary to further reduce the possibility of the river flooding in Leeds, as well as additional measures to offer protection for the South Bank area of the city centre which is a key future economic driver for Leeds. The range of measures proposed are a mixture of natural flood management and new infrastructure including:

• Creating new woodland areas by planting hundreds of thousands of tree saplings.
• Where possible, using sites in Leeds to retain flood waters when levels are high. Control gates would be used to fill and then release water from the stores back into river when safe to do so.
• A new 700-metre long flood defence at Stourton with new walls and surface water interventions similar to those installed at Woodlesford as part of phase one.
• Removing existing obstructions along the river to help reduce water levels, along with also lowering the riverbed in places to improve its capacity and flow.
• Improving riverbank protection measures along the river catchment in Craven and Pendle along with enhanced woodland areas and installing debris dams.
• Constructing raised defences along with landscaping, terracing, embankments and walls, but due to the range of natural measures the height of any engineered defences will not need to be as high as previously projected.

Leeds City Council executive member for regeneration, transport and planning Councillor Richard Lewis said:

The response to these plans when they were released last week was very positive, especially the use of new trees and natural flood management measures along the catchment to help provide essential protection for communities in Leeds.

It is now vitally important we hear the views of residents and businesses so I would encourage as many people as possible to take part in the consultation and attend these drop-in sessions.

Following an extensive study agreed with the government and other agencies these are the measures identified as being necessary to offer the level of protection needed which the government said it would provide, so we look forward to seeing these plans develop as soon as possible.

The impact of Storm Eva in Leeds at Christmas 2015 affected 3,355 properties in Leeds, of which 672 were commercial businesses. The direct cost to the city was an estimated £36.8 million, with the cost to the wider city region being more than £500 million. Following the flooding in December 2015, the government committed £35 million between now and 2021 to a new scheme to further enhance flood protection in Leeds.

It is an honour to be here this morning on behalf of the British High Commission.

When I was asked to attend the certificate giving for the Cambridge and Edexcel exams I’ll be honest, I got rather nervous. I was nervous because I knew that last year we had over 3,000 Zambians taking the exams, which meant I was going to have to get my cheek muscles working overtime for the amount of smiling I was going to have to do when presenting the certificates. I’m delighted that we’ve got a representative group rather than the whole lot here today!

The 3,000 is part of a bigger group of nearly 22,000 exams provided by UK exams boards, undertaken by students in Zambia in the past 12 months. I’m delighted that schools and education institutions in Zambia still recognise the UK education sector as the best in the world. Cambridge and Edexcel exams in particular have given opportunities to thousands of Zambians to continue their secondary education and prepare them for university. I hope that many of you will choose the UK as your destination of choice for your higher learning.

Now is the perfect time to go; the latest Higher Education global rankings recently recognised two British Universities, Oxford and Cambridge, as the world’s best. Of course, I’m biased, but having two children who’ve recently completed their university studies I can promise you that not only will the academic course fully meet your expectations, the exceptional diversity and cultural opportunities that you’ll benefit from will help you realise your full potential. Last year we had over half a million international students from 200 countries study in the UK. So it not only offers exposure to the UK’s rich history and culture, but a networking opportunity that’s truly global.

The UK has always been an outward looking country, keen to export our skills and products for use by others. Whether that’s our expertise in financial services (as with the Lord Mayor of London’s visit to Zambia last week), the Premier League (which seems to be gaining ever more followers from abroad) or our cutting-edge educational programmes, the UK has, and always will, remain keen to share. I am pleased that the UK Government, specifically in Zambia the British Council, has continued to support efforts of the government of Zambia in providing quality education. UK qualifications are globally recognised which ensures candidates have opportunities to work not just in Zambia but anywhere in the world.

As parents, teachers and those responsible for the pastoral care of students, we all want what is best for our children. Often this will involve making sacrifices to allow our children the opportunities that we may not have had. I hope, seeing your children succeed and do so well in these examinations will show that your efforts were worthwhile.

Of course, there is always more that we can do. The British Council is working with 10 partner institutions in Lusaka, including the University of Zambia, providing them with examination services, quality assurance and supporting professional development of their tutors. I’m delighted we’re now looking further afield and have partnered with the Copperbelt University to offer the first IELTS exams session outside of Lusaka and we look forward to developing that relationship further. It is right that, for Zambia to develop all of its children to their fullest potential, we look to take our expertise out of the capital.

Once again, I’m thrilled to have been invited here today to participate in this ceremony, and congratulations to all those who are receiving their certificates.

Thank you.

Prime Minister Theresa May said:

And thank you very much for being here. This is the first time that world leaders and the tech industry have come together to speak at the United Nations. And I am particularly grateful to my co-hosts, President Macron of France and Prime Minister Gentiloni from Italy, for their leadership in this area, and also to Kent Walker from Google for representing the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism.

Now, the internet and social media can and should be forces for good. But they have also been co-opted by terrorists to incite acts of evil. The internet is one way groups like Al-Qaeda and Daesh recruit, radicalise and direct their supporters, and it is proving increasingly effective.

Recent attacks have demonstrated a new trend in the threat we all face, as home-grown perpetrators are radicalised online and inspired to attack their fellow citizens, often using the crudest means. Daesh publications available online contained instructions of how to use a motor vehicle to attack pedestrians. This was the methodology which was used in the attacks on Westminster Bridge, London Bridge, Finsbury Park, Nice, Barcelona, Berlin – the list goes on. Those killed and injured came from all corners of the globe. And just last week, we saw the London Underground targeted by terrorists using an explosive device. This is a global problem and all our populations are affected, whether at home or abroad. As a global community, we must do all we can to tackle it.

Now, the United Kingdom has provided leadership in the global effort to remove dangerous content from the internet and we’ve been joined by friends and allies, including France and Italy. But governments alone will not succeed. Internet companies also have a vital role to play, and I am pleased that they are stepping up their action in this area.

In June, Facebook, Microsoft, YouTube and Twitter jointly launched the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism at an event attended by our Home Secretary. These and other companies are already making progress in stopping the spread of terrorist content, which we warmly welcome.

The average lifetime of Daesh propaganda online has now dropped from six days to just 36 hours in the first six months of the year. But that is still 36 hours too long, and the challenge ahead of us remains significant. As we make progress in one area, the extremist threat shifts and we must redouble our efforts in others. Terrorist groups are aware that links to their propaganda are being removed more quickly and are placing a greater emphasis on disseminating content at speed in order to stay ahead.

Industry needs to go further and faster in automating the detection and removal of terrorist content online and developing technological solutions which prevent it being uploaded in the first place. Our aim should be to ensure that links to new terrorist material are detected and removed within one to two hours. As it becomes harder for terrorists to share new propaganda and supporters look across the internet to re-share existing material, it is essential that companies prioritise the removal of legacy content and ensure it cannot be uploaded again.

The Forum is showing positive leadership in each of these areas, from expanding the sharing of digital fingerprints that help disrupt the distribution of terrorist content to investing in research to better understand the spread of this material. I look forward to progress being made by the G7 interior ministers’ meeting in Rome in October.

I recognise this isn’t something that we can fix overnight, but I know that together we can make significant strides in tackling this issue. And while this event and the Global Forum are about preventing terrorist propaganda from spreading online and radicalising our citizens, we must also work together to tackle the abuse of encrypted messaging apps to plan, direct and coordinate terrorist attacks. This is also something that we require greater company cooperation with and I hope that we can use the spirit of positive collaboration that we see here to make greater progress in that area in the future.

If we are to continue making progress in removing terrorist content online, governments must support the efforts of industry and civil society. That’s why the UK called for the creation of the Global Internet Forum for Counter Terrorism and why I call on others in the room to support it today. In my remarks to the General Assembly last year, I emphasised the need to tackle all forms of extremism. Today, we have the opportunity to call on countries, industry and communities around the world to do everything possible, online and offline, to tackle those attempting to radicalise our young people. And if we do so, we can protect our citizens against those who would harm them, and we can help to build a safer world.

I would now like to invite my co-host, President Emmanuel Macron, to give his reflections on this challenge. And I value the very close partnership that the UK has had with France in addressing this issue, particularly following the launch of the UK-France action plan in July of this year. And I’d like to thank the President for his strong, personal support and commitment to driving this agenda forward.