Closures within chain formerly under the WH Smith brand raise fears of high streets becoming ‘postal deserts’ Towns and even city centres face being left as “postal deserts” after it emerged that more than a third of post offices within the troubled TG Jones chain are closing. So far this year 36 branches within the high street chain formerly known as WH Smith have closed and a further 34 are set to close by early 2027, according to Post Office records analysed by the Guardian. Continue reading...
More than third of post offices in TG Jones stores to shut by early 2027
Source: The Guardian
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What essentials to keep, what rubbish to get rid of? Burnham, Badenoch, Farage don’t know either | Robert Hutton
After a fractious week, they probably agree that no one at all needs Liz Truss’s new book, but then the political housekeeping decisions get much harder What are you stockpiling? Wes Streeting says we need water and food to last 72 hours in case of national emergency, as well as wind-up radios so that we can check in on how the apocalypse is developing in Ambridge. Personally, I have a two-week supply of jokes about the government that I can draw upon even as the zombies break down my front door. Andy Burnham, far from stockpiling, is busy chucking stuff out. This week Labour’s much cherished commitment not to allow new drilling for oil and gas in the North Sea went into the skip round the back of Downing Street, where it lies next to a complete set of European Union red lines, a plan for digital ID and a signed photograph of Peter Mandelson. Robert Hutton is an author and journalist Con
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The Guardian2 outlets
Most levelling up projects still unfinished years after funding allocated
Data released under freedom of information laws reveals hundreds of projects unfinished despite Tory promises on regional equality • Can a £5.8bn scheme help revive Grimsby and other town centres? Most levelling up projects are not finished, years after funds were allocated, highlighting how ambitious Conservative promises of quick progress on regional equality have faltered. Data released under freedom of information laws and manually reviewed by the Guardian found 821 levelling up projects out of 1,347 were yet to be finalised as of May this year. Across the UK, 73 council areas that had a bid for a project accepted were yet to see a single one fully completed. The Guardian has identified 59 projects that were completed since the data was collected. Continue reading...
The Guardian2 outlets
Can a £5.8bn scheme help revive Grimsby and other town centres?
Turning boarded-up shops into community spaces is a bigger and more complex task than just adding funding Most levelling up projects still unfinished years after funding allocated “It is nice to see something happening for once,” says Jack Vincent, a Grimsby resident, as he considers a wave of change finally arriving in a town that had become a byword for deprivation. In June, King Charles visited the Lincolnshire coastal town, celebrating the opening of a youth centre in a previously derelict Victorian warehouse building and a Care charity community drop-in centre in a vacant bank on the high street. Scaffolding also shrouds one end of the town’s shopping centre, part of which is being converted to house leisure facilities including a cinema and a food market. Continue reading...
The Guardian2 outlets
He wants to clean up the city and banish high prices. But who is ‘London’s Batman’?
The caped crusader is paying for hospital parking fines, giving out fuel to drivers – and sponsoring the return of cut-priced Freddo bars In the harsh light of day, a caped crusader storms the streets of London to tackle a crime that has long blighted the capital: littering. “When I said I wanted to save London, I meant it. I will not stop until every single bit of trash is off the streets,” he says in a viral video, narrated in his trademark deep, husky and (suspiciously) American voice, joined by a gang of hooded helpers clearing rubbish-strewn streets in Tower Hamlets. Continue reading...