The winter months, from November to March, is the best time to plant bare root trees as the ground is generally damp. This gives them time for their roots to settle and become established before they come into growth in the spring.

290 trees, including some rare native black poplar, will be planted at various locations alongside the River Waveney downstream of Diss and along the River Dove.

The black poplar is 1 of the UK’s rarest trees, there are thought to be less than 8,000 in Britain, with around 430 in Suffolk. The rare tree has great wildlife value especially for insects, it also provides nesting sites for owls and roosts for bats.

So far the Environment Agency has planted 634 trees in Suffolk in 2021. 349 of these trees were planted along the River Gipping, 254 are in and around Stowmarket and Needham Market and 95 are in Ipswich. 200 trees were planted with Suffolk Wildlife Trust next to the Walpole River at Ubbeston.

Over 500 trees are scheduled to be planted between now and March 2022 with the River Waveney Trust and Essex and Suffolk Rivers Trust. 343 trees will be planted along the River Alde, River Deben and the Earl Soham watercourse.

Naomi Boyle, Catchment Co-ordinator for Suffolk said:

It has been a pleasure to work with landowners and partners to plant trees alongside our Suffolk rivers.

This planting will help our rivers to adapt to climate change. In time, they will not only provide shade to keep fish and invertebrate populations cool but the tree roots will help stabilise the river banks.

This will result in less sediment entering the water, which will help improve water quality.

Additional information

• From March 2021 to March 2022 1,151 trees will have been planted in Suffolk.

• Black poplar can grow to 30 metres and be identified by their leaning trunks. It is associated with wet meadows, river valleys, streams, ditches and farm ponds. For the tree to regenerate naturally male and female trees must grow fairly close together, and fertilized seed must fall on bare mud or silt which must remain moist until autumn for the seedling to establish. This habitat has become very rare due to floodplains being drained for agriculture or development and so now the tree is usually regenerated from cuttings.

• Picture credit: The Environment Agency

The Prime Minister welcomed His Majesty the Sultan of Brunei to Downing Street this morning.

The leaders praised the strength of the UK-Brunei relationship, as exemplified by the UK-Brunei Garrison Agreement and the visit of the UK’s Carrier Strike Group to Brunei in October. They looked forward to the inaugural UK-Brunei Strategic Dialogue, taking place next week.

The Prime Minister thanked the Sultan for his support, as Chairman of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, for the UK becoming a Dialogue Partner of the group this year. The Prime Minister said that the UK’s new partnership with ASEAN, alongside the inaugural deployment of the Carrier Strike Group to the region and our application to join the CPTPP trade agreement, were all part of our increased commitment to the Indo-Pacific, a region of vital importance.

The Prime Minister looked forward to more cooperation between the UK and Brunei on important global challenges, building on Brunei’s contribution to the success of the COP26 Summit. He also expressed his hope that Brunei will make further progress on human rights, and particularly LGBT rights, delivering on their commitments in this area.

Life can be difficult for those living with a chronic illness. It can be even harder when your illness is seemingly invisible to your friends and colleagues.

Craig Brown knows this only too well.

He was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease in 2015.

He shared his story to mark International Day of People with Disabilities and to raise awareness of the support he’s received through Sellafield’s Chronic Illness Peer Support Network – known as ChIPS.

Craig Brown

He said:

If you see me around, I’m usually ok. This is because I have medication to control my symptoms. To a large extent they are invisible. Unless my medication wears off.

When it comes to chronic illnesses, quite a lot of them have invisible symptoms. But we all share a fairly common theme. Firstly, it’s coming to terms with the condition and secondly, it’s managing day to day with controlling those symptoms.

About 15% of the working age population have a disability. More of than half of those are disabilities that are not visible. Many people with disabilities want to work or continue to work.

He added:

ChIPS is here to provide help, advice and support to people dealing with chronic illness. Whether that’s someone with chronic illness, their line manager, or someone caring for someone with a chronic illness.

You’re not alone and you’re not invisible.

Employees can find out more about the ChIPS network on the Sellafield Ltd intranet site.

The G7 Leaders have issued a joint statement, setting out principles and next steps to modernise the G7’s approach to infrastructure finance and narrow the infrastructure investment gap in developing countries. This supports a key part of the agreement reached by Leaders at the G7 Carbis Bay Summit in June, as a part of the G7’s commitment to build back better for a greener, more prosperous future.

The statement sets out the G7’s approach to financing quality and sustainable infrastructure that will help ensure a strong recovery from the pandemic and rapid progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals and supports international climate and environment commitments, including those recently made at COP26 in Glasgow.

Bitcoin prices have been, and continue to be, very volatile. This blog examines the long-term price history of the cryptocurrency and considers 2 ways these price movements could be explained.