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United Kingdom: ‘Jubilee deluge saved us from drought,’ reveals Tory ex-minister
Posted by Guardian: Daniel Boffey on November 16th, 2013
Guardian: It was the defining image of last year's jubilee celebrations – a drenched Queen Elizabeth II, then 86, and Prince Philip, then 91, standing on a barge sailing down the Thames on a wet summer's day that was more like November than June.
Now the image has taken on a new significance, with the revelation that the south-east was saved from a drought that would have forced residents to get their water from standpipes on street corners by the rain that soaked the royal couple.
Richard Benyon MP,...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on United Kingdom: ‘Jubilee deluge saved us from drought,’ reveals Tory ex-ministerUnited Kingdom: DIY plumbing is polluting rivers, experts warn
Posted by Guardian: Daniel Boffey on December 2nd, 2012
Guardian: The growing popularity of DIY, encouraged by an "explosion" in daytime TV programmes on property, is leading to raw sewage being increasingly pumped into Britain's rivers, killing wildlife.
Botched plumbing jobs mean that foul water that should be piped into the sewage system is being fed into ground and coastal waters. According to the Marine Conservation Society, the growing problem is causing the degradation of the country's smaller rivers and threatening invertebrate ecosystems and depleting...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on United Kingdom: DIY plumbing is polluting rivers, experts warnUnder pressure: the man who must rule on next UK airport
Posted by Guardian: Daniel Boffey on November 3rd, 2012
Guardian: Reclining in an office chair usually filled by the transport minister, Norman Baker, who is away for the day, Sir Howard Davies, 61 – former senior mandarin at the Treasury, one-time aide to Nigel Lawson, former director of the London School of Economics, head of the Financial Services Authority under Labour and now chairman of Phoenix Insurance – oozes the confidence of a man who has seen it all before.
"It happened in the way these things do. Jeremy Heywood, the cabinet secretary, gave me a...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Under pressure: the man who must rule on next UK airportLake District in peril from phone mast ‘free-for-all’
Posted by Guardian: Daniel Boffey on November 3rd, 2012
Guardian: A plan to relax planning constraints on phone masts and overhead cables being erected across Britain's most protected countryside has been described by campaigners as the biggest attack on national parks and areas of outstanding beauty in more than 50 years.
Ministers are to be allowed to prioritise the expansion of broadband and 4G into rural areas over the need to maintain the splendour of cherished countryside, when it comes to sites for telecoms networks. The move, contained in a bill to be...