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Confidential documents fly-tipped at flats

by Emily March 17, 2025
written by Emily

Customers of a rubbish collection firm have expressed their shock after learning their waste ended up outside derelict flats.

Confidential and sensitive paperwork, including tax documents, was left strewn across the ground in Druids Heath, Birmingham.

The BBC tracked down several of those named, who said they had hired Budget Removals and Clearances to dispose of the rubbish properly.

The Tipton-based firm has not responded to the BBC's request for comment, while its website has been taken down. Birmingham City Council said it would investigate any instances of fly-tipping.

One local councillor said the site has been a regular target for fly-tipping, but that the bin strike in the city might have made it even worse.

It comes as the government rolls out plans to crack down on fly-tipping and rogue waste collection companies.

Local resident Tracey Gall said the mess outside the tower block was "disgusting"

One woman, who wished to remain anonymous, said she handed over more than £100 to have rubbish removed.

"Obviously they're just pocketing the money and dumping it," she said.

"It's shocked and upset me – I've never had this happen to me before."

Keith Stansbie, of KS Decorating Services, said he paid the firm £150 to take rubbish away when he was working at a house in Kings Norton.

"I feel duped," he said.

"As far I was concerned everything was above board and going to the right places."

Keith Stansbie, of KS Decorating Services, said he paid £150 for his rubbish to be removed

Figures show there were 1.15 million incidents of fly-tipping nationally in 2023-24, 6% more than in the previous financial year.

The government recently announced plans to tighten up rules around waste collection.

These include changes to the waste carrier, broker and dealer registration system – which Budget Removals and Clearances is listed on – to make it easier to identify rogue operators in the waste sector.

Currently, anyone can get on the register by paying £154, although they have to disclose any environmental offences.

The number of registrations has been increasing, with more than 65,000 registrations in both 2023 and 2024, compared with fewer than 50,000 in 2022 and 20,704 in 2021.

Rubbish found included private letters from HMRC

Rubbish found opposite the tower block in March included an HM Revenue and Customs letter to Kevin Sutcliffe when he used to live in Kings Norton.

The letter showed his tax code and National Insurance number.

Alerted to this by the BBC, Mr Sutcliffe, who now lives in Worcester, said: "That is bad. I'm not happy about that at all.

"There are scammers out there who can use your National Insurance number for all sorts of purposes.

"It's my identity. I can't believe it."

Councillor Julien Pritchard said fly-tipping had been taking place outside the flats in Druids Heath for some time, but added that the bin strike might have intensified it.

"People are coming in vans dumping rubbish on the community and it's just not fair," the Green party councillor said.

"The council needs to get a grip of this."

Councillor Julien Pritchard said fly-tipping had been taking place outside the flats in Druids Heath for some time

Birmingham City Council said it was aware of rogue rubbish collectors charging residents to clear waste and then disposing of it by fly-tipping.

"We are committed to investigating these incidents and prosecuting fly-tippers whenever possible," it said. "We have plenty of lawful options for people to responsibly dispose of waste or unwanted items, such as Household Recycling Centres and our popular free-to-use Mobile Waste Centres."

Majid Mahmood, the council's cabinet member for environment and transport, urged people affected by the bin strike to be cautious if they resort to paying someone to take their rubbish away – and make sure they are properly licensed.

"We would advise any resident to be wary of anyone offering to take their waste away for a small amount of money," he said.

"The current charge to dispose of waste lawfully is around £130 per tonne. If the price is 'too good to be true', then it will almost certainly be unlawfully disposed of."

March 17, 2025 0 comments
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Tech

Man dies in Plymouth road crash

by John March 17, 2025
written by John

A man in his 60s has died after a crash between two vehicles in Plymouth, police have said.

Devon and Cornwall Police said the crash happened on North Prospect Road at about 13:05 BST.

The force said the man, who was driving one of the vehicles, was pronounced dead at the scene despite the "best efforts" of the emergency services.

It added the man's next of kin had been informed.

March 17, 2025 0 comments
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Global Trade

'Amazing' artefacts unboxed by public

by Bella March 17, 2025
written by Bella

Boxes of artefacts belonging to a museum, including many which have never been displayed before, are being unpacked by members of the public.

A total of 6,658 boxes from the Museum of Gloucester's collection are being sorted at the city's Discovery Centre in Eastgate Shopping Centre.

Lizzie Johansson-Hartley, the museum's collection officer, said Anglo Saxon leather and a Roman tile with a print of a dog were among the "amazing" items which had so far been unpacked, relabelled and "preserved for the future".

Archaeologist Mark Horton said the year-long project made archaeology "accessible" to the public.

Ms Johansson-Hartley said some of the boxes had not been opened up "for 50 or 60 years".

"We're making sure everything is preserved for the future.

"We wanted to be in a public space particularly because we wanted to open up the heritage that we have hidden away in storage to the public," she said.

March 17, 2025 0 comments
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Business

Solar farm the size of 30 football pitches planned

by Eva March 17, 2025
written by Eva

A solar farm the size of about 30 football pitches could be built on agricultural land, if plans go ahead.

The project would involve two parcels of land off Ewanrigg Lonning in Maryport, Cumbria, measuring a total of 19.7 hectares (197,100 sqm).

Anesco, the Preston-based company behind the plans, said the solar farm would support the government's net zero targets.

Labour-led Cumberland Council has launched a consultation, which closes on 8 July.

In planning documents submitted to the council, Anesco said: "There is an urgent need to address carbon emissions and support renewable energy schemes in this locality, which this scheme can facilitate."

Google
The solar farm would be developed on land off Ewanrigg Lonning

Anesco said the development would be about 1.7 miles (2.7 km) away from another solar farm in Flimby.

The development has an estimated lifespan of 40 years and the site would be returned to its original state, the planning documents said.

They added the project would support the government's aim to reach net zero by 2050.

"This is in addition to Cumberland Council's commitment towards delivering decarbonisation and renewable projects," they said.

March 17, 2025 0 comments
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Economy

Fears over bar in mill village opening later

by Abigail March 17, 2025
written by Abigail

A mill village on an "ale trail" could experience more anti-social behaviour if a bar is allowed to open later, an objector has said.

Empire House in Slaithwaite, near Huddersfield, has applied to Kirklees Council to extend the hours it sells alcohol by an hour and trade until 23:00 BST seven days a week.

The business is a workspace during the day and operates as a bar in the evenings, but an objection to the proposal has now been submitted on public safety grounds.

The member of the public said the village was facing "considerable difficulties" caused by late-night drinking already.

The current licence was first granted by the council in 2021, with representations expressing concern for public nuisance heard at the time, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

The applicant said the later trading option would only be invoked from Thursday to Sunday and "very rarely" during the rest of the week.

The proposal has to be determined by Kirklees Council's licensing committee because of the objection being submitted.

The opponent claimed that the community was facing problems particularly relating to the "ale trail" and large groups of "boisterous drinkers" congregating on Station Road.

"We are deeply concerned that extended drinking hours could correlate with a discernible rise in alcohol-related anti-social behaviour such as audible profanities which we have previously experienced," the comment stated.

"Such a development would directly undermine public safety within our community, creating an environment of increased fear and insecurity for residents."

They added it would also place an "unwelcome burden" on law enforcement agencies.

The village is on the Transpennine Real Ale Trail route between the railway stations of Stalybridge and Batley.

West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds

March 17, 2025 0 comments
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Tech

'Otley Run attack shows misogynistic violence is growing'

by Leo March 16, 2025
written by Leo

Before two women were shot with a crossbow in Headingley two weeks ago, Owen Lawrence – the suspected attacker – posted a hate-filled online "manifesto" on Facebook.

He detailed plans for "The Otley Run Massacre" and listed "students, nightclub goers", "neurotypicals" and "police" among his targets.

The post described the planned violence as "terrorism, revenge and misogynistic rage".

In the two weeks since the attack, residents, police, politicians and experts have been discussing how future incidents of this nature can be avoided.

Earlier this week, mayor of West Yorkshire Tracy Brabin called for tougher laws around crossbows, and Leeds Central and Headingley MP Alex Sobel said he supported more security around the Otley Run pub crawl.

But what about the ideology behind Lawrence's manifesto?

'It could have happened anywhere'

Dr Anna Kruglova, a lecturer in terrorism studies from the University of Salford, says we need to be concerned about a rise in "misogynistic violence".

"We should be mindful of this phenomenon being again on the rise," she says.

"It is a random attack in the sense that it can happen anywhere. You have disenfranchised, upset and hateful people. So unfortunately it could have happened in any corner of the UK or elsewhere.

"But it's hard to estimate the level of threat. It's not an organised phenomenon. It's a lone-wolf attack. It's not something that is inspired by a particular organisation."

Dr Kruglova studies the "manosphere", a term used to describe online communities that promote anti-feminism, misogyny and hateful ideas about women, trans and non-binary people.

She says: "The manosphere is not an organised movement. That's kind of a loose group of people who are hating women and some of them, not all of them, will be willing to take this further and become violent.

"There's been a growing body of research and interest from all kinds of communities, practitioners and governments looking into this.

"So it does seem like gender-based violence, misogynistic violence is growing, or has become more and more concerning in the last few years."

Dr Anna Kruglova
Dr Anna Kruglova studies terrorism at the University of Salford

Psychologist Leona Deakin started her career with West Yorkshire Police. She says it is easy to think these ideas are "silly" until they become violent reality.

"If we're not in a community, or close to a community and their beliefs, then it's easy to think it's a small group of people being a bit silly until something like this happens. Then that makes us all take a closer look," she says.

"There is a community out there for men who feel they are isolated or rejected by society and more immediately by women and girls."

Some of these men call themselves "incels", which stands for "involuntarily celibate".

Ms Deakin explains why this ideology can be attractive.

"There is a theory in that community that 80% of women are only attracted to about 20% of men, and those men are highly attractive and usually very wealthy.

"So if you're a young man who sees himself as not so attractive, and doesn't have much money or the capacity to earn much money, then you start to feel quite aggrieved.

"And social media is like an echo chamber, so you find one person who agrees with your sense of isolation and frustration, and then you find a dozen of them and then hundreds of them and that has a huge validation impact on the human brain.

"We start to think we must be right because everyone I'm talking to online agrees with me, so this must be correct."

Leona Deakin
Psychologist Leona Deakin says social media can be like an echo chamber

A government report by the Commission for Countering Extremism, "Predicting harm among incels (involuntary celibates)", concluded that men who fell into these groups were in need of mental health support more than counter terrorism interventions.

The report studied 561 men and concluded that there was likely to be tens of thousands of incels across the globe.

It found these men made up a "relatively small proportion" of the number of cases referred to the anti-terrorist government organisation Prevent (77 in total, or 1.2% of all referrals).

Dr Kruglova says incels are not violent generally but suffer from mental health issues and very low self-esteem.

"It's more of a psychological and personal problem," she says.

"A lot of these people don't need to be referred to Prevent [government anti-terrorism organisation] or be interviewed by police forces, they need someone to share their concerns and pain and problems and be listened to and probably be shown the situation is not as dire as they see it.

"But then unfortunately there is also someone who is willing to take it further and use violence as a way to address their issues."

Are our young boys 'robust'?

Ms Deakin says the solution, therefore, is not about security but society.

"We need better role models of what a good man looks like," she says.

"So, a kind, compassionate, emotional man, to counter these ideas that men have to be attractive, strong, in control, wealthy, all of those stereotypical ideals.

"The family and schools are key places because young, teenage boys, 15/16 is where we need to start the process of avoiding falling down this rabbit hole.

"Role modelling from dads, uncles, big brothers talking about their emotions. Talking about what makes a good relationship, that it is about partnership and love and respect.

"But we need to make sure young boys are robust in the face of disappointment.

"Do your boys understand how to bounce back from disappointment? Do they understand resilience? Do they feel a deep sense of self-worth, do they feel loved for who they are?"

West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds

March 16, 2025 0 comments
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Industry

Devon and Cornwall councils in no overall control

by Ian March 14, 2025
written by Ian

Two South West councils slipping into 'no overall control' doesn't sound like the most arresting election headline.

But that apparently modest development masks 24 hours of enormous upheaval and political drama.

When the vote counters stated their work on Friday morning both Cornwall Council and Devon County Council were Conservative-controlled.

By the evening the party had just seven councillors left on either side of the Tamar – down from 47 in Cornwall and 39 in Devon.

A party which had started out with no elected councillors at all in the region ended up the largest group on Cornwall Council and the second largest in Devon.

Reform shot from zero to 18 in Devon and to 28 in Cornwall.

The Tories' traditional rivals in the rural Westcountry, the Liberal Democrats, also made gains – adding 13 seats in Cornwall and 18 in Devon.

Labour lost one of their previous five seats in Cornwall but saw all seven of their Devon seats wiped out – with four of them going to Reform.

Conservative and Labour losses

Exactly where the Lib Dems and Reform made gains is almost as interesting as their total number of seats.

The former will be very pleased to see a very similar footprint to their parliamentary wins last July – in seats like St Ives, North Cornwall, South Devon and Honiton and Sidmouth.

For Labour and the Conservatives the opposite is often the case.

Cornish seats Labour won for the first time last July – Camborne and Redruth, St Austell and Newquay and South East Cornwall – proved happy hunting grounds for Reform.

And even the great Labour citadel of Exeter – home to a Labour MP through thick and thin since 1997 – has seen all seven of its county councillors turfed out.

The Conservatives, meanwhile, will view with dismay the carpet of light blue – Reform blue – now covering the constituency of Torridge and Tavistock.

It's not saying much but, as of last July, Torridge and Tavistock was the Tories' safest remaining seat in the two counties.

LIVE: Follow the latest election updates

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March 14, 2025 0 comments
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Tech

Key milestone in historic town hall refurbishment

by Aria March 13, 2025
written by Aria

The refurbishment of a Grade II listed town hall has reached a key milestone.

Construction hoarding around Trowbridge Town Hall is set to be removed on 28 April, having been in place since August 2023.

The hall was built in 1887 and is being restored to continue its use as a community and arts venue, with improved facilities. The work is part of a £16m project with the money awarded to Wiltshire Council from the government's Future High Streets Fund.

"While the building won't be open to the public until the summer, it's great to see this wonderful Grade II listed building coming back to life," said Parvis Khansari, Wiltshire Council corporate director.

March 13, 2025 0 comments
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