The party must ensure the benefits of significantly increased land values in the proposed areas for development are shared by all, says Miles Gibson. Plus letters from Christina McGill and Peter Waterman
As a former town planning policy adviser to both Tony Blair and David Cameron, I have only one question about Labour’s proposed new towns: who will benefit from the significant increase in land value arising from granting planning permission for them (Labour will aim to reveal new town sites within first year in power, 20 May)?
Postwar new town legislation forced landowners to sell land to the state at the existing use value. The surplus from the later resale of the land at market prices paid for infrastructure and affordable housing. Angela Rayner gave no suggestion that Labour would deploy such heavy artillery. But if it does, it would be well advised not to announce new town locations until it has control of the land, “grey belt” or otherwise.
Continue reading...© Photograph: Robert Stainforth/Alamy
© Photograph: Robert Stainforth/Alamy
Grace Wolstenholme tried to persuade Meta to take down the fraudulent page, which was trying to make money by copying her posts, for five months
A young social media star with cerebral palsy says Facebook refused to take action after scammers used her content to set up a fake account and make money from her fans.
Grace Wolstenholme, 20, who has 1.3m followers on TikTok, says she has lost income from not posting videos after she was advised by the police to stop. Content she put on TikTok and on Instagram was being stolen and posted on Facebook by someone pretending to be her.
Continue reading...© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images
© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images
Hearing loss charities say deaf people struggling to access healthcare and facing cancelled appointments
NHS England has been accused of “dragging its feet” on bringing in new accessibility procedures, leading to disabled people routinely struggling to access healthcare and facing cancelled appointments.
The Accessible Information Standard (AIS), originally implemented in 2016, was part of legislation designed to ensure that NHS and adult social care services providers make sure that people with a disability are able to have their accessibility requirements met when accessing health and social care.
Continue reading...© Photograph: Peter Byrne/PA
© Photograph: Peter Byrne/PA
Norwich Theatre Royal
Brew revisits the car crash at the beginning of his ballet career that killed his three companions and left him paraplegic
Not quite dance, not quite theatre, An Accident/A Life is more like a multimedia, queasily hallucinatory staging of a story that puts the body of a dancer at its centre. That dancer is Marc Brew, and the story revisits the traumatic turning point in his life when, at the beginning of his ballet career, the car he was in was hit by a drunk driver. All three of his companions died; Brew survived but was left paraplegic, aged 20. The story he tells is harrowing, touching, brutal and tender, but what makes this feel like a work of almost classical tragedy – you will absolutely experience fear, pity and catharsis – is its notably unclassical treatment of the staging, the body and its voice.
The set is simple, symmetrical, and devastatingly effective: two screens flank a car that first sits impassively on the ground and is later hoisted up to hang perilously above the stage, like a traumatic memory that defines everything around it. Two figures in crash dummy costumes serve both as supplementary characters (clinicians, nurses, even alter egos of Brew’s fragmented self) and as stagehands, moving around bits of set, or using hand-held cameras to relay scenes on to the screens.
Continue reading...© Photograph: Filip Van Roe
© Photograph: Filip Van Roe
Scientists have found that immersing kids in computer games can train their brains to localise sounds better
Scientists have recruited an unusual ally in their efforts to help children overcome profound deafness. They are using computer games to boost the children’s ability to localise sounds and understand speech.
The project is known as Bears – for Both Ears – and it is aimed at youngsters who have been given twin cochlea implants because they were born with little or no hearing.
Continue reading...© Photograph: NIHR
© Photograph: NIHR
Sunak and Starmer pay tribute to South Thanet MP as he returns to chamber after sepsis ordeal
Craig Mackinlay, the Conservative MP who had his hands and feet amputated last year due to sepsis, has returned to the Commons chamber for the first time since his illness, receiving a standing ovation from fellow MPs as well as tributes from Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer.
Mackinlay, the MP for South Thanet, who has said he will stand again for his seat, arrived just before prime minister’s questions. Science and technology questions, which were taking place, paused while MPs stood to applaud him.
Continue reading...© Photograph: House of Commons/UK Parliament/PA
© Photograph: House of Commons/UK Parliament/PA
Some eligibility decisions have been linked to deaths of vulnerable claimants, and EHRC will examine if ministers acted unlawfully
The treatment of chronically ill and disabled people by welfare officials, including benefits decisions subsequently linked to the deaths of vulnerable claimants, is to be formally investigated by Britain’s human rights watchdog.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) said it would examine whether ministers at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) had acted unlawfully by failing to protect claimants with learning disabilities or severe mental illness.
Continue reading...© Photograph: Benjamin John/Alamy
© Photograph: Benjamin John/Alamy
First-time exhibitor Ula Maria scoops best in show for garden designed for muscular dystrophy charity
A garden demonstrating the joys of forest bathing has won best in show at the Chelsea flower show.
Designed by the first-time exhibitor Ula Maria, the garden was inspired by the ancient Japanese practice of shinrin-yoku, which means being calm and quiet among trees, breathing deeply and observing nature.
Continue reading...© Photograph: Victoria Jones/PA
© Photograph: Victoria Jones/PA
Artistic director of Shakespeare’s Globe says much of the anger about a non-disabled actor playing the role has been misogynistic
Michelle Terry, the artistic director of Shakespeare’s Globe, has called the backlash to her casting as Richard III “disproportionate” and said much of the anger aimed towards her in recent months has been misogynistic.
The Globe faced widespread criticism when it was announced that Terry, an Olivier award-winning actor and writer, would play Shakespeare’s “deformd, unfinish’d” king in its summer production opening on Tuesday night.
Continue reading...© Photograph: Marc Brenner
© Photograph: Marc Brenner
Exclusive: Ombudsman writes to AJM Healthcare after a sharp rise in complaints over delays for wheelchairs and parts
The NHS’s leading wheelchair provider has been told to urgently improve its complaints system by the health service ombudsman amid concerns disabled people are waiting up to two years for chairs.
The parliamentary and health service ombudsman (PHSO) took the unusual step of writing to AJM Healthcare after a sharp rise in complaints from wheelchair users. Most related to people not receiving new wheelchairs or the correct parts. The waits range from a month to two years, the ombudsman said.
Continue reading...© Photograph: Jozef Polc/Alamy
© Photograph: Jozef Polc/Alamy
Assisted dying is shockingly unpacked by Liz Carr; Nicola Coughlan moves centre stage in Netflix’s Regency romp; Skins meets Euphoria in a Liverpool psychodrama. Plus, the trouble with a ‘mostly true’ Black Panthers drama
Better Off Dead? (BBC One) | iPlayer
Bridgerton (Netflix)
The Gathering (Channel 4) | channel4.com
The Big Cigar (Apple TV+)
Every so often, a documentary comes along that unnerves you so much you half-wish you hadn’t seen it. Better Off Dead? (BBC One) is one such programme. Presented by Silent Witness actor and disability activist Liz Carr, who’s had arthrogryposis – congenital joint contracture – since childhood, it delivers a passionate and coherent argument against assisted dying. An emotionally bruising slab of television, it’s about life and death itself.
Continue reading...© Photograph: Burning Bright Productions Ltd/BBC
© Photograph: Burning Bright Productions Ltd/BBC
Passengers were left abandoned and humiliated after operator banned staff from providing assistance
Eurostar has reversed a new accessibility policy that left a wheelchair user stranded and has retrained its London staff following pressure from the Observer.
Travellers with disabilities claimed that they would be barred from Eurostar services after the company banned its London staff from pushing passenger wheelchairs. Those who require assistance were told they must travel with a companion or cancel their ticket if they were unable to access services unaided, according to passengers who contacted the Observer.
Continue reading...© Photograph: Kiran Ridley
© Photograph: Kiran Ridley
The cultural sector falls short on other measures of diversity too, with 9o% of workers white, says new report
Six in 10 of all arts and culture workers in the UK now come from middle-class backgrounds, compared with just over 42% of the wider workforce, according to new research.
And while 23% of the UK workforce is from a working-class background, working-class people are underrepresented in every area of arts and culture. They make up 8.4% of those working in film, TV, radio and photography, while in museums, archives and libraries, the proportion is only 5.2%.
Continue reading...© Photograph: Caiaimage/Martin Barraud/Getty Images/iStockphoto
© Photograph: Caiaimage/Martin Barraud/Getty Images/iStockphoto
‘Strikingly large’ sum being recouped from people who fell foul of system that did not flag overpayments
Ministers are clawing back more than £250m from unpaid carers over benefit infringements that occurred largely as a result of government failures, it can be revealed.
More than 134,000 people who care for loved ones are being forced to repay often huge carer’s allowance overpayments. The debts are incurred in many cases through no fault of their own, and leave carers saddled with enormous debts, and some with criminal convictions.
Continue reading...© Photograph: Westend61 GmbH/Alamy
© Photograph: Westend61 GmbH/Alamy
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