#neighbourhoods

#neighbourhoods

A housing estate in Warwickshire completed its brilliant and amazing 80-metre Pride March which is thought to be the shortest in the world on Saturday, and has plans to become a new Guinness World Record next year.The annual event, run by residents of Batts Close in Rugby, hopes to mark its fifth year anniversary in 2024 by becoming the new world record holder for the shortest Pride march.

The rollout of schemes like low-traffic neighbourhoods may have actually discouraged cyclists and walkers in some neighbourhoods because of their "patchy" delivery, a new has report found.The public spending watchdog told The Independent that too often it found local authorities had not followed national guidance in their active travel interventions and only implemented cosmetic changes, which could have discouraged cycling and walking.

More than a third of a million council and school support staff across England and Wales will start voting on Tuesday on whether to strike over pay.Unison said an offer of a flat rate 1,925 was nowhere near enough to meet rising prices during the cost-of-living crisis.The union, which had called for an increase of 2% above inflation, said that since 2010, the value of local government pay has fallen by 25%.

A food-sharing initiative in Worcestershire has been crowned winner of the Coronation Communities competition as part of the Coronation Big Lunch celebrations.Food Share Wyre Forest won top prize in the contest, which aimed to find the country's most welcoming streets and communities.The Stourport community group repurposed materials to set up a space to share food three times a week and provide breakfasts and roast lunches to support people struggling with the cost-of-living crisis.

Copenhagen-based architecture studio MAST has unveiled plans to create a park with floating buildings and islands called Centroparco in an abandoned sand quarry on the outskirts of Milan.Located at the centre of the Segrate district on the outskirts of Milan, the aim of the project is to bring together several neighbourhoods that were previously disconnected while serving as a natural retreat for the city's residents.

British architect Norman Foster has launched the Norman Foster Institute, which will offer educational courses focused on the sustainable development of cities.
Launched by the Norman Foster Foundation today, the institute's first course will be a 36-week, full-time programme named Sustainable Cities.

British studio Foster + Partners has unveiled its plans to redevelop the waterfront of the resort town of Larnaca in Cyprus.The development, designed by Foster + Partners for Cypriot petroleum company Petrolina Group, will replace around two kilometres of oil refineries that were previously located on the waterfront to the north of the city's centre.

A large solar farm forms the centrepiece of Rome's bid to host the World Expo in 2030, masterplanned by Carlo Ratti Associati with architect Italo Rota and urbanist Richard Burdett.If selected for the event, the mosaic-like structure would become "the world's largest urban solar farm" and power the exhibition site in Rome with renewable energy.

A series of bridges, walkways and exterior staircases connect the various parts of this community centre in one of the most densely populated neighbourhoods in Mexico City by Rozana Montiel Estudio de Arquitectura.The building occupies a sharp corner lot, where a plaza forms the entrance to the building.

If you've ever wanted to see inside the art deco walls of the R.C. Harris Water Treatment Plant, head to the top of the mid-century Toronto-Dominion Centre or gaze up the shelves at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, this weekend is your chance.On May 27 and 28, the city is hosting Doors Open Toronto, an annual, city-wide open house of Toronto's most culturally and architecturally significant buildings and sites.

Toronto councillors have approved multiplexes across the city a move some say will help address the growing housing crisis.Council voted 18-7 in favour of legalizing two, three and four-unit multiplexes, which had previously not been allowed in many parts of the city because of restrictive zoning bylaws.

Shawarma has long held a special place in the stomachs of Ottawans as a way to fill up quickly with a low-cost, delicious dish.It's the kind of lunch that leaves plenty of leftovers, and some see it as the perfect way to end a night out.Everyone swears their favourite spot is the best in town.Lately, some consumers have noticed a change meals that once ran in the $10 range have in some cases doubled in price.

Emmanuel Macron likes to take risks.To insist on a hated but necessary pension reform at a time of crisis abroad and dissension at home was, from the beginning, a calculated risk.On Thursday afternoon afternoon the President found himself confronted, like one of the priggish heroes of classic French tragedy, with a choice between two great risks.

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails The growing number of electric vehicle charge points and outdoor restaurant tables is making it harder for disabled people to move around their communities, according to a new report.

High commercial rents are forcing independent businesses off Toronto's Roncesvalles Avenue, a process that locals say will make the quirky commercial strip look just like any other street in the city..After eight years on Roncesvalles, the popular Lambretta Pizzeria is the latest business to close down because its owner says she can't afford a 30 per cent rent increase.

For all their architectural merits, the shortlisted projects for this year's Neave Brown award cannot escape the problems that continue to plague the British housing sector writes Kaye Stout, chair of the jury panel for the recently announced prize.Chairing the Neave Brown Award for Housing 2022 was a privilege and one I will always be grateful for.

Though I have a photograph of me standing on the Great Wall of China, my sole memory of the visit is the noodles I had for lunch in a truckers' cafe afterwards.Equally, while I know our student trip to Venice must have taken in St Mark's Square, two decades on I can only conjure an image of cuttlefish in ink as dark as a Tintoretto devoured in a hidden trattoria (startling to callow youths expecting pizza and pasta).

Because ministers have missed their target to recruit 6,000 new GPs in England by a wide margin, they have now produced a set of fixes designed to relieve pressure on general practice by directing people elsewhere.These changes will extend the orbit of primary care to pharmacists and even receptionists, ensuring, according to the NHS chief executive, Amanda Pritchard, that patients won't need to go to a GP unless they really need to see a GP.

The countdown clock is ticking, the panicky last-minute revision reaching feverish levels.No parent currently tiptoeing around snappy, stressed teenagers will need reminding that exam season now looms in England and Wales, or that it's already under way in Scotland.But if nerves are jangling more than usual this year, both in staff rooms and at home, that's hardly surprising.

Offenders who engage in anti-social behaviour will have to do immediate community work in hi-vis jackets or jumpsuits under new government plans.It aims to have people repair damage they cause within 48 hours of being given an order, through tasks such as cleaning graffiti.The pilot, covering 10 areas, will show the public such acts are "quickly and visibly" punished, Downing Street said.

Offenders guilty of crimes such as vandalism will be ordered to start repairing the damage they caused within two days of receiving their punishment, under a government pledge to tackle antisocial behaviour.Victims of crimes will also be given a say over the type of punishment that offenders should face, as will communities, under an immediate justice scheme to be unveiled by Rishi Sunak on Monday.

N ew Royal Mail statistics are set to reveal how some neighbourhoods are receiving post as little as once a fortnight, including in London, according to reports.Insiders have dubbed these postcodes postal deserts, according to the Telegraph newspaper, as mail bosses battle with staff shortages and strikes.

Chinese cities from Wuhan in central China to Xining in the north-west are doubling down on Covid-19 curbs, sealing up buildings, locking down districts and throwing millions into distress in a scramble to halt widening outbreaks.China on Thursday reported a third straight day of more than 1,000 new Covid cases nationwide, a modest tally compared with the tens of thousands a day that sent Shanghai into a full-blown lockdown earlier this year but enough to trigger more curbs and restrictions across the country.

China reported a third straight day of more than 1,000 new COVID-19 cases nationwide on Thursday.Chinese cities from Wuhan in central China to Xining in the northwest are doubling down on COVID-19 curbs, sealing up buildings and locking down districts in a scramble to halt widening outbreaks.China on Thursday reported a third straight day of more than 1,000 new COVID cases nationwide, a modest tally compared with the tens of thousands per day that sent Shanghai into a full-blown lockdown earlier this year but enough to trigger more restrictions across the country.

Nato and Russia's military have staged separate nuclear exercises as the Russian president again stood firm on the internationally rejected claim that Ukraine plans to set off a radioactive "dirty bomb".n the battlefront, Vladimir Putin's forces targeted more than 40 villages around Ukraine over the past day.

Through its very design, Istanbul is a gateway.A city divided between Europe and Asia, its neighbourhoods straddle the banks of the two separate continents across the Bosphorus Strait.It is the first place many head to in a country whose borders remain more accessible than others, the first place that many head when home is no longer somewhere they can stay.

Saed Gutale, 25, of Cholmondeley Avenue has been jailed alongside Lloyd Brown, 25, of no fixed address, and Max Daniels, 19, of Orminston Grove.In April 2021, police from the Operation Orochi team raided a house in Westminster that they believed was being used as a drugs stash house.MOST READ: Appeal for three men after triple stabbing at station Three suspects, Gutale, Brown and Daniels, ran out of the back of the house when they heard officers entering.

T hree men have been jailed for running a drug network from Westminster following a Met Police operation.Saed Gutale, 25, of Cholmondeley Avenue, was jailed for six years for being concerned in the supply of Class A drugs and possession of a firearm and ammunition.Lloyd Brown, 25, of no fixed address, was jailed for six years for being concerned in the supply and possession of Class A drugs.

Former Irish premier Bertie Ahern has highlighted the importance of continuing engagement with paramilitary organisations in the wake of the shooting of DCI John Caldwell.Mr Ahern's comments came from Monday's British Irish Parliamentary Assembly (BIPA) to discuss the ongoing significance of the Good Friday Agreement approaching its 25th anniversary.

Opposition to new housing developments could be reduced if there was a greater focus on design and the heart and soul of places, Michael Gove has suggested.The Levelling Up Secretary hit out at indifferent or insipid planning and suggested that the potential of some public spaces was being squandered as a result of poor design and maintenance.

Offenders blighting their communities will be put to work in jumpsuits or hi-viz jackets to clean up their crimes within 48 hours of being handed punishments, Rishi Sunak is set to announce.The Prime Minister said his plan, due to be announced on Monday, would crack down on anti-social behaviour once and for all.

Residents of Beltinge Road, Harold Wood hosted a street party to mark the Queen's Platinum Jubilee last year (Image: Sandra Rowse) King Charles III's historic coronation ceremony will be marked by three days of celebratory events in Havering, the council has announced.The main event will be held at Westminster Abbey in London in the presence of more than 2,000 guests, but residents can organise their own festivities in their neighbourhoods.

In the last 48 hours raw sewage has been dumped in at least three residential areas across the Thames - Vauxhall, Blackfriars and North Woolwich.A stormwater overflow was discharged from a sewer near Vauxhall Bridge on Wednesday afternoon and again at an adjacent sewer on Thursday.Sewage was dumped into the Thames for 10 minutes near Blackfriars Pier on Wednesday and again at a sewer on Henley Road, in North Woolwich, on Thursday morning.

Striking workers deliberately cut the electricity in the south-east France hometown of the country's labour minister during Tuesday's pension reform protests.Published: 8 March 2023 09:33 CET RMC reported that the hardline CGT union targeted the 16,000-population town of Annonay in the Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes region, with serious power cuts leaving some 2,000 homes without electricity on the afternoon of the March 7th protests.

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Leading experts are calling for parents to be given safety advice about co-sleeping with their babies after research revealed that most do it at some point.

90,370 tenants left London last year



Have London's ridiculous rents finally broken us?Tenants are leaving the Big Smoke at the highest rate in a decade: according to research, last year 40 percent of renters moving house chose to leave the city, the largest exodus in ten years.For 90,370 people, having instant access to Torres crisps, Perello olives and independent craft breweries wasn't enough to keep them in London, where rents have reached an all-time high .

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails A 14-year-old boy has been arrested on suspicion of murder after a 17-year-old male was stabbed to death in a targeted attack in West Yorkshire.Police were called to Kings Mill Lane in Huddersfield just before 4am on Monday to find a boy had suffered serious injuries from a bladed weapon.

Toronto city council has backed a call for a public inquiry or third-party review of the troubled Eglinton Crosstown LRT, but the councillors who led the charge say they're disappointed such a probe will be delayed until the project is complete.Council endorsed the call by Coun.Mike Colle and Coun.Josh Matlow at its Thursday meeting for an inquiry into the "delayed and over-budget" project.

Drivers in Croydon and South London's other outer boroughs will have to pay the ULEZ charge in their neighbourhoods for the first time next August.Croydon and Sutton are included in an expansion of the low-emission zone where the most polluting cars will have to pay 12.50 a day.Conservative MP Elliot Colburn said he is very, very angry with the decision in a video filmed in his Carshalton and Wallington constituency.

The French capital is, by quite some way, France's largest and most densely populated city.It's also a symbol of a heavily centralised country as government, media and industries including entertainment are concentrated there, leaving people from the provinces little choice but to move to the capital if they want a career in certain sectors.

Elska Magazine, a publication dedicated to sharing the bodies and voices of LGBTQ communities around the world, has put the spotlight on Paris for its latest issue.Inside readers can get up close and personal with a cross-section of beautifully ordinary local men from one of the world's most legendary capitals.

The commissioner of the Metropolitan police has promised to make immediate radical changes as he battles to restore confidence in his force shattered after the David Carrick scandal.Sir Mark Rowley released more detail of his plans to turn around Britain's biggest police force, whose continuous scandals are blamed by some other police chiefs for dragging down the service's reputation nationally.

In 2021, Croydon recorded the most teenage murders of any London borough leading to it being called the city's knife crime capital.That year five teenagers, the youngest aged just 14, lost their lives on the streets of Croydon.However, in 2022 Croydon ended the year without any teenage deaths from knife crime.

Several regions of Ukraine, including its capital Kyiv, were facing a massive Russian missile attack on Thursday, the latest in a series targeting national infrastructure.ir raid sirens sounded across the country.Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said Russia launched more than 120 missiles.

As the Russia-Ukraine war enters its 282nd day, we take a look at the main developments.Here is the situation as it stands on Friday, December 2: US President Joe Biden said he is ready to meet Russia's Vladimir Putin if in fact there is an interest in him deciding that he's looking for a way to end the war.

Haiti has received its first shipment of cholera vaccines since an outbreak was declared more than two months ago.The first of the 1.1m doses, delivered last week, will be distributed in the capital, Port-au-Prince, and surrounding areas in the hope of stemming the spread of the disease, which has been aided by political instability and lawlessness.

In a major policy adjustment, China's National Health Commission says people who have mild COVID symptoms can quarantine at home.China has announced a nationwide loosening of COVID-19 curbs following a wave of unprecedented protests against the measures.In a statement on Wednesday, the National Health Commission (NHC) said asymptomatic COVID-19 cases and people with mild symptoms would be allowed to quarantine at home rather than in field hospitals that some have criticised as unsanitary and overcrowded.

The soaring cost of housing in Ontario was a major issue of concern for voters in the 2022 provincial election.(Evan Mitsui/CBC) Toronto's recently approved housing plan is a good step forward but more efforts are needed to address the city's affordability crisis, urban planners and experts say.Toronto city councillors voted on Wednesday in favour of Mayor John Tory's proposals to allow multiplexes to be built in neighbourhoods currently restricted to single-family homes and to legalize rooming houses across the city.

As Canada's largest city battles a housing crisis, Toronto's Port Lands could handle more density if city planners call for it, according to one of the project's managers.Although housing development in the waterfront megaproject is still years away, the foundational infrastructure that will service the new neighbourhoods in the area is nearing completion.

The Duchess of Sussex's mother has spoken out for the first time about her daughter's relationship with the Duke of Sussex, saying the past five years have been challenging.Doria Ragland, who made an appearance in the second episode of Harry & Meghan, a six-part docuseries which dropped on Netflix on Thursday morning, recalled the moment she heard the couple were dating.

Details about the royal family and alleged racism and harassment from the British press were revealed in the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's six-part docuseries on Netflix.In the first three episodes, which dropped at 8am on Thursday, Meghan told of finding the formality of royal life surprising, while Harry said his family's view of his wife were clouded by her being an American actress.

Dissident Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei is taking heart from recent public protests in China over the authorities' strict Covid-19 policy - but admits he does not see them bringing about any significant political change.I don't think that's possible," he told The Associated Press in an interview at his home in Portugal.

It's going to be a great weekend for Torontonians who love to lace up a pair of skates and hit an open-air ice rink.Starting Saturday, 52 outdoor rinks will open over the next two weeks as part of the city's Welcome T.O.Winter program.In a news release on Friday, the city said 38 outdoor ice rinks will open on Saturday and run until March 19, 2023.

Toronto's bike sharing agency is about to announce it's landed a major sponsor, CBC Toronto has learned  one the agency hopes will solve its nagging financial problems.Justin Hanna, the director of Bike Share Toronto, would reveal few details of the impending deal, but says he expects to make an announcement within months.

Dezeen has filmed an Instagram reel showcasing an exhibition by Dutch designer Fides Lapidaire about the benefits of using human waste as compost in the second of our three-part video series for Dutch Design Week.Situated in Strijp-S, Ketelhuisplein - one of the main squares at annual design festival Dutch Design Week (DDW) - the Shit Show or "Broodje Poep" in Dutch is designed to "show how your shit can feed the world".

Iran has been gripped by protests since the death in custody on 16 September of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian of Kurdish origin who had been arrested three days earlier for allegedly breaching the Islamic dress code for women.This interactive map shows how protests spread between 16 September and 21 October, fuelled by public outrage over a crackdown that has led to the deaths of other young women and girls.