#future business opportunities find the Motorway City

[brexodus]

The City is Strange

I think Split was the first big city I'd visited since Torino (Turin) in Italy. I just wasn't ready for it.

You see, I'd been travelling mostly by smaller roads, through smaller places and although, yeah you've got Venice and Mistra and Verona and Trieste (Trst) and Ljubljana and Rijeka (Fiume), none of them compare to Split for size and infrastructure. Verona is too venerable, Mistra you skip for Venice which is unique beyond any comparison, Ljubljana is actually quite compact (they've pedestrianised a lot since 2006), and Rijeka is beyond the nightmares of any sane cyclist. Split has the dubious distinction of all the roads going in being dual carriageway motorways. So I had to risk it and join one of these nightmarish things at the end of my descent, still bit wasted, then after find my hostel.

And of course, beyond the traffic problems and battery issues, the street of the hostel is not properly signposted, it being a weird little kind of stepped cul-de-sac running parallel with the main road to the harbour. I spent a half hour going up and down, till I saw two chaps with bulging rucksacks that screamed backpacker to me. So I stopped and spoke to them and yes, we were all looking for the same place. And eventually we found it together.

In real Slavic style, outside was a small table around which a wee group were casually drinking. The lovely friendly receptionist, Anna, checked me in and I put myself into the mindset of 'let's get unladen, get food, get sleep!' I meant business. However one of the drinking party, an attractive dark-haired woman of perhaps mid to late thirties, took it upon herself to get me to play instead. Damn, I was torn between my head and my hips. Now, people who know me know I have a surfeit of energy which comes from oversized balls (and ego), which can often lead me astray; however in this case, utter fatigue from the previous days' cycling, plus all the booze etc, made me desperate to just finish the chores before I collapsed completely. Also, with this woman becoming ever more handsy, I was more than a little embarrassed as to my state: not having washed or changed my clothes for three days I could smell myself (and it was not good).

Nope, I had to be firm but polite, I had to get shit battened down stowed away, and wash, before I could even consider food, let alone romance! And I doubt she would have been terribly 'romantic', to paraphrase Van Halen: she ain't talking about love, her love was rotten to the core [insert suitable emoticon]

Well, I said I'd be at her disposal just as soon as I'd taken care of everything. Despite it all, I was still just another silly male following the divining rod. Unpacking became a whirlwind of activity, my new friend even lending a hand. Then I went for a nice hot shower, telling her we could go for food together after, and maybe more later.

Well I came out the shower feeling fresh and clean and potent. But my new friend had just disappeared. No-one knew where she'd gone, or even if she was staying at the hostel that night. With hindsight, I think I dodged a bullet, much awkwardness, and a reason to stay any longer than necessary in Split. The whole thing left an impression on me though, I am not used to this kind of upfront 'affection' from the fairer sex, and I have to say I was quite flattered. We Brits (and the French too) are kinda repressed. Or not enough so when we drink: there seems to be no happy medium (or endings), for anybody.

Anyway, that was merely the first weird thing I experienced in Split. I decided to just dress up nice anyways and have a good meal down by the sea. Got a recommendation from helpful Anna at reception and freewheeled down to the port where the restaurant was located. Well, the unsavoury vibe I'd had in Novalja returned. The whole place was packed with every type of western tourist you can imagine, and indeed it follows that the more *ahem* coarse elements seemed to predominate, what with them being louder and more obnoxious. I saw the roads to the harbour jammed with taxis and adverts for '8 day party boats to the Islands', which is a red flag for me (and not the good socialist kind). And everywhere the clamour of clumsy drunken Brits bawling to each other and discussing cocaine and booze supplies from across the street. So crass, especially as I hadn't heard anything like it since Novalja, or seen the like, well ever. I missed the tranquility of an open road, these roads were a honking mass of unhappy metal.

I found my restaurant, and asked nicely for the outside table (to keep an eye on my bike). Well they were kind of ok about it, less than accommodating seeing as I was alone and anglophone. They then asked I move my bike under the table cos it was blocking the pavement. I obliged. And then the food came, oh man. It was slow-cooked beef cheeks in a red wine reduction with mushrooms and caramelised onion, fresh bread and salad on side. With a half-litre of red to accompany. All quite delicious.

But spoilt by the surroundings. As it got later I saw more and more party people who I just was not in the mood for. If only I could've somehow 'muted' not just their voices, but their clothes and 'theatre'. I was rather tired and fed-up, but the good food and fine wine helped. Until the bill came.

It was rather more expensive than nice Anna had led me to believe. About 38€ - they charged not just for side salad but also the freaking bread! Yes you pay for quality, and yes it was a treat, but 38€ is like three or four day's of decent living for me travelling. I'd eaten just as well for far cheaper in Pavia, Ljubljana and just north in Ražanac. Ach, I took it on the chin (or in the wallet).

Another strange thing happened before I went to bed. When I returned to the hostel, I was finally able to meet those folks sharing my dorm. Which had a lightswitch to change from normal to green lighting. Bizzare. Anyhow, under these green lights a young lady was just about in tears as she tried to wrestle open her secure locker. These lockers were just like the ones you see on American high-school shows, and come with your bed at the hostel. But this poor girl's locker had jammed, her key would turn but nothing would move or open! And she needed her wallet from inside to pay something urgent (I think was booking flights home, or train or something). So I went and kindly asked Anna to make up some tea and I brought it to the girl, while I got my tools out and started probing the lock (I wish I could make this sound less sexual, but mechanics know how hot it is to delve right into a problem). Eventually I managed to move the interior catch and open the door. Oh man I rarely get the opportunity to see such joy! Especially transmuted from such misery.

She grabbed her wallet and went to close and lock the door again, but I stayed her hand. I wanted to make sure it was functioning smoothly before we tried locking it. She passed over the key and I started fiddling with the mechanism and catch, realising quickly that it was the door itself that had been deformed. All I had to do was bend it back into shape with my spanner, and voila! After demonstrating it to her and giving back the key she gave me a crushing hug and I saw she was again close to tears. It was kinda adorable.

Well I needed a smoke to unwind after the day and night I'd had, so I started to skin up. During this time, the locker girl, another girl, and I had a very interesting conversation, about racism in different countries, and travelling and future plans, all that jazz. Now the second girl was interesting, she sounded not quite London, and not quite Alabama, was dark-skinned and holding a Canadian passport. Quite a background. So she had some fascinating insights to share (Canadians hate blacks too it seems). The locker girl was a tiny cute blonde from Finland (oh man those Finnish girls: terrifyingly clever and all too often also intimidatingly beautiful... *sigh*), and this was her first time abroad as she wasn't even 16 yet! I felt quite glad I'd been able to keep it 'professional' during our interaction, mind you that day I think it was a case of the flesh being willing but disgusting, and the mind had turned to some kind of lumpy but helpful sludge. My inner creep had been anaesthetised. Yup Split was a weird one. Was likely best I'd remained unentangled. The most (nay only) normal part was my bedtime spliff!

Even though I wanted to see the impressive historic sites of Split, I knew I did not want to stay any more time than strictly necessary among such distractions and within earshot of the rude hoi poloi. I would leave the next day. Fit-in sight-seeing as a detour before I hit that awful motorway once more.

[a-innomaticsresearchlabs]

Uses of Data Science in Different Industries

Within Business Intelligence, the role of Data Science is starting to gain ground. Data Science is the collection of all available data, which coordinates with each other and ensures that it can then be visualized. It, therefore, differs from the traditional BI, because it is much broader and data come together that may not have the same structure at all.

 Big data comes first for many companies

 New technologies such as the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, or block chains have an ever greater impact on the competitiveness of companies. This is the result of a representative survey of managers in 604 Indian companies with 20 or more employees, which the digital association Bitkom carried out in 2020. As a key result data science comes first among the planned or already implemented technologies up to 57 percent.

 Big data - large amounts of data - is obtained from almost every business context and is increasingly being used strategically by companies. The amount of data is usually large, unstructured, and complex. This data pool contains e.g. B. Data from customers and employees, such as click rates or social media activities, records from monitoring systems, and data from manufacturing processes of networked production systems.

 Data Science is more effective, smarter, and faster through larger amounts of data

 Raw data becomes information. Knowledge arises from the information. Knowledge from data analysis creates value for companies. The goal: to be able to record, harmonize, structure, and ultimately analyze large amounts of data (with high data quality) from many different sources. In the course of digitization, almost unlimited storage space, cloud computing as “infrastructure” and faster computing speeds offer the ideal breeding ground for profitable evaluations. Data has therefore become an important part of business capital. In particular, the systematic approach in the field of data science offers companies a wide range of analysis options. For example, unknown patterns are searched for in large databases to open up new opportunities for business activities. In addition, a multidimensional perspective on one's own business model should be made possible. Data, therefore, form the basis for finding knowledge. These discoveries extend into the future of a company or entire industries. The systematically elaborated forecasts of modern software solutions, such as so-called “prescriptive analyzes”, are only used by 15 percent of companies in India. And Almost 64% of people are includes existing employees under another stream and newly entire students are search for best data science course in Hyderabad to build career very effectively.

 Is it possible to design innovative products, services, or business processes for the future in the past? Are future challenges and opportunities foreseeable? That sounds like a promising solution. However, so far only a few companies in India have used the latest analysis tools, for example for customer data. Possible losses inefficiency and a lack of customer orientation can be the result. This leaves many opportunities unused to use data in the company to advantage. For innovative product development and targeted marketing measures, however, customer data can be valuable for a high degree of customer-centricity.

 How companies of different sizes use data science

 This section covers the following segments: small, medium, large, and very large companies worldwide and in India. The number of employees in a company serves as the basis for this type of classification:

 ●        Small businesses (1-100 employees).

●        Medium-sized companies (101-1,000 employees).

●        Large companies (1,001-5,000 employees).

●        Very large companies (more than 5,000 employees).

 Benefits of data science for different Industries

 Data science has applications in all sectors and organizations where significant amounts of data are present. Because this is the case in almost every organization these days, data science is relevant for everyone. This sounds a bit silly, but it really is.

It is undeniable that Big Data analytics has a major impact on our economy. Some industries have been completely transformed by the widespread adoption of this technology. Here, we describe many industries that have been completely changed by Data Science.

Sports Industry

 Data science has found its way into the training field in most top sports. In different football teams, the movements of players on the field are analyzed with advanced pattern recognition software. With this data, training and competition strategies can be optimized. Within the NFL, players are observed by sensors in their shoulder pads. And it was an analysis of rowing patterns that earned the British Olympic gold. Analyzing images is as old as the video camera itself, but since the advent of Big Data analytics, coaches can analyze individual movements on a large scale and compare them with historical data and external factors. This has changed training and competition preparation forever.  

        Hotel industry

 The hotel industry is also making good use of this technology. It is the way to measure and analyze customer behavior and customer satisfaction on a large scale. In addition, they have more insight than ever into market movements and can target their marketing much more specifically. Think of hotels with special honeymoon packages that only advertise this to people who are (just) engaged using Facebook. Or hotels that use the many data that Google collects about consumers. Via Google Ads, they can advertise when consumers “not from place X” show interest in “place X” and are therefore probably planning a trip.

      Government and the public sector

 Different cities are becoming smarter by collecting information about residents and visitors on a large scale. For example, there are municipalities that have streamlined their recycling to ensure that an unnecessary number of half-full cars do not have to drive through the municipality. Bus lines are also being optimized based on usage and stops. Various governments also use Data science to regulate traffic. The more data that is collected, the better the traffic flows can be regulated. Think of opening and closing rush-hour lanes, planning for widening motorways, and opportunities to optimize public transport even more.

    Agricultural sector

 The agricultural sector also continues to innovate and benefits greatly from the Big Data revolution. For example, the right time to feed, fertilize, plant, harvest, inseminate, and milk is now all measured and analyzed to ensure that the available resources are used efficiently. Matters such as the weather and the market price of products are also included in various analyzes. A pest may not be controlled with data, and a bad harvest cannot be completely prevented. But by using Big Data in the right way, farmers now have insights that they did not have in the past. This makes it possible to respond more quickly to these risk factors and reduce crop loss due to weather conditions or vermin.

  Financial sector

 Major steps have also been taken within the financial sector by Big Data analytics. Consider, for example, the KYC / CDD working method in fraud departments. Many accounts can be analyzed in a short time by means of analytics and machine learning. Suspicious behavior is then tagged, after which employees can zoom in on the case. By subsequently also feeding the results of these studies back to the algorithm, the systems become smarter and more work can be done with fewer people. We previously wrote about predicting bitcoin prices through Big Data and machine learning in data science. But this way of forecasting can of course also be used outside of bitcoin. This way, trends can be recognized at an early stage and, for example, stock traders have more knowledge to optimally serve their portfolios.

 Retail

 Within retail, both e-commerce and traditional stores benefit from Data science. Walking patterns and average basket value are analyzed in physical stores. By experimenting with supply, offers and impulse products, an optimal store layout is then realized. In addition, individual purchasing behavior is also measured by, among other things, loyalty programs. With this knowledge, retailers can purchase the right products at the right time and make personalized offers to different target groups within their customer base.

 Data science may have an even greater impact in e-commerce. Data is the driving factor in online marketing. Who sees which version of the website and who sees which ad on social media is all based on results from data analysis. The more data, the more conversions marketers can get from their ads.

 Both also discover interesting patterns through Big Data. For example, unexpected products that are often purchased simultaneously can reveal new cross-selling opportunities. And by also collecting external information about their customers, they discover new characteristics of their ideal customers. This in turn opens doors to new forms of advertising and personalized offers.

 Transport

In addition to the government using Data science to improve the infrastructure, transport companies also use this to optimize their time on the road. The routes and resources are optimized through large-scale data analysis. For example, routes can now be adjusted in real-time based on traffic, historical reception ratios, and packet order.

 Healthcare

 Medicine data science and analytics also enables cheaper healthcare. For example, complex DNA analysis can be carried out more quickly to predict the occurrence of diseases and proactively suggest countermeasures. The data analysis even makes it possible to develop group-specific drugs for people with very similar DNA structures.

Science and Research

 In science and research, too, data science can lead to greater efficiency, for example by evaluating the data from an experiment. For example, the Geneva research center CERN generated 40 terabytes of data per second during an experiment with a particle accelerator. This amount of data is not a problem for big data analytics, but unfortunately, it is for us humans.

 Product development and production

 Data science can already bring a decisive advantage during development. For example, the evaluation of social media channels or customer ratings can reveal social trends and market gaps at an early stage. As production is getting smarter and smarter, it's not surprising that big data also plays a major role here. The numerous processes are monitored by sensors and generate large amounts of data. This data can be used to ensure preventive maintenance and prevent production delays or downtimes.

 Distribution and logistics

 Sensors are also increasingly being used in the supply chain, for example to measure fuel consumption or to record the position data and the condition of wear parts. The structuring of this data means that costs can be sustainably minimized by planning transports promptly, changing routes and loads, or minimizing downtimes and maintenance costs.

 Marketing and Sales

 Through data Science, you can greatly improve the relationship with your customer. Because you know the needs of your customers more precisely and can even address each individual customer directly with personalized offers.

 Conclusion - Discover your opportunities

 With this blog, we have only discussed a fraction of the impact of Data Science. It is the force behind innovations in various industries and the backbone of emerging technologies and methods. Do you want to discover the opportunities within your organization, or are you looking for a good data scientist? Please contact us for a no-obligation consultation by filling in the contact form below. We will contact you as soon as possible after receiving this form to discuss the possibilities.

[newstfionline]

Campaign to Drive Out Migrants Slams Beijing’s Best and Brightest

By Chris Buckley, Sui-Lee Wee and Adam Wu, NY Times, Dec. 11, 2017

BEIJING--With coding skills, a foreign degree, fluent English and an apartment barely big enough for his espresso maker and two cats, Si Ruomu thought he was the kind of go-getting young tech worker that Beijing needs to thrive in the 21st century.

That was before the police arrived at his apartment building and ordered him and hundreds of others to vacate within 48 hours. Like most of his fellow tenants, Mr. Si had come from elsewhere in China to find work in the capital, which often treats migrants virtually as second-class citizens.

“One minute you’re drinking espressos, the next you’re being evicted,” said Mr. Si, 28, a bespectacled programmer who grew up in northern China and studied computer science in New Zealand. “I’m starting to think whether people like me have a future in Beijing.”

As Beijing has launched its most aggressive drive in decades to rid itself of unwanted migrants, the brunt of the crackdown has fallen on laborers from the countryside. But it has also hurt a different kind of migrant: educated and ambitious white-collar workers drawn to the city’s new economy of tech, finance and hospitality industries.

Beijing is a cultural, technological and commercial capital as well as a political one, and the tenements on its outskirts are home to tens of thousands of hopeful young college graduates who have moved here seeking better jobs and better lives.

These job seekers are treated as migrants in their own capital, because China’s biggest cities are fortresses of official privilege, especially Beijing. The government gives residents with permanent residence permits, called hukou, more generous access to housing, schools and health care. But migrants must pay more for many services, and many live on the edges of Beijing, where rents are lower.

Now whole swathes of these neighborhoods have been emptied out and in many cases reduced to rubble as the authorities condemn buildings as unsafe or illegal and order migrants to leave.

That has ignited debate about how Beijing can function without the blue-collar migrants who serve as its cooks, cleaners and vendors, but there are also worries the campaign might harm the city’s fast-growing tech sector, which employs armies of migrants who work for relatively low pay.

“You can find this new displaced class in nearly every sector and business in the city, including manufacturing and I.T.,” said Wu Qiang, a researcher in Beijing who has written about the expulsions. “The growth of a marginalized, unprotected work force is a global phenomenon, but in China it’s especially found in so-called ‘villages in the city’ where migrants live.”

When the authorities arrive with eviction orders, many migrants search for newer, safer homes even further from the city center. Others say they may abandon Beijing to find work elsewhere.

“This will certainly change my impression of this city. I don’t really want to stay in Beijing,” said Zhang Mi, 25, a web application developer from Hebei, the province surrounding the capital, as he crammed his bags into a van after being evicted.

Most migrants in Beijing are manual laborers but a growing number are college graduates--nearly 30 percent, according to a 2015 study. Another study found that the city’s software and information technology sectors employed about 346,000 migrants.

“To young tech workers like me, there’s really no option--only the big cities like Beijing have more opportunities,” said Hu Xianyu, 22, an intern at Baidu, the internet search giant, who moved to Beijing from the northern province of Shanxi and was forced out of his apartment last month.

“Tech workers for the bigger companies can get help from them,” he said. “But for those working for small companies or start-ups, the evictions can be disastrous.”

Migrant workers have often reacted to the eviction orders with angry resignation. But small confrontations have flared up, and the largest and most organized protest broke out on Sunday, when hundreds of people in a neighborhood in northeast Beijing scheduled for clearance gathered and chanted “violent evictions violate human rights.”

The effects of the crackdown are already evident in Beijing’s booming e-commerce sector, which relies on legions of couriers--nearly all of them migrants--to deliver packages and meals on electric bikes.

Last month, five delivery companies warned of delivery delays following the expulsions.

Gan Wei, secretary-general of the China Electronic Commerce Logistics Industry Alliance, said the companies represented by her group would have to raise delivery prices in Beijing by about 20 percent.

“Why is takeout food so cheap in Beijing? Because of all the cheap labor from the countryside,” said Jia Dayong, 43, a stringy courier from the northwestern province of Shaanxi who was being expelled from Banjieta Village, a migrant neighborhood in northern Beijing.

“Nobody cares whether we have a place to live,” he said.

Beijing launched the eviction drive in late November, citing worries about cramped, substandard housing after an apartment fire killed 19 people, all but two of them migrants.

The government says a population of 21.7 million residents, 8.1 million of them classed as migrants, has put too much strain on city. Urged on by China’s president, Xi Jinping, Beijing wants to cap its population at 23 million by 2020, and clear out gritty neighborhoods that do not fit its aspirations to become a spick-and-span capital of monuments, malls and broad motorways.

“If they keep clearing out like this, Beijing will suffer a drought of employees next year,” said Wang Le, 29, a hotel manager from the eastern province of Jiangsu.

She was one of about 100 tenants--most of whom worked in finance, technology and hospitality--living in steel shipping containers that had been converted into small, brightly painted apartments. They were being torn down on government orders.

In an attempt to slow the influx of job seekers, Beijing has cut the numbers of university graduates from other parts of China receiving the hukou permits that confer privileged status and benefits. But they have kept coming.

Without permanent residency, they are forced to live precariously. Trying to save money, many find cheap apartments in the same run-down neighborhoods as migrants working menial jobs.

“Even if the industry I’m in is very high-level, as far as the government is concerned, I’m also a peasant worker, a migrant worker,” said Zhang Xingwang, 24, who studied automation in college and came to Beijing from Hebei Province seeking work as a software programmer.

He had to find new housing after his old apartment near where the deadly fire broke out last month was demolished. “I thought Beijing would be relatively fair and tolerant, and the government would behave better,” he said. “But after this happened …”

China’s big tech firms have refrained from criticizing the migrant crackdown, perhaps out of fear of angering the government. Alibaba, the online commerce giant, said the overall impact on its business “hasn’t been significant.”

But some experts have warned that by choking off the flow of migrants, Beijing risks losing entrepreneurial energy.

Even before the recent expulsions, Yin Deting, a demographer who advises the Beijing city government, warned that heavy-handed clearances of migrants would accelerate the aging of the city’s work force.

“If we place our hopes for reducing the population just in demolishing illegal buildings and low-grade markets, the actual outcomes may well be contrary to what is hoped for,” Mr. Yin wrote earlier this year.

Mr. Si, the programmer who studied in New Zealand, eventually found a place to stay on the eastern edge of Beijing where he could keep his cats. He said he was weighing whether to move to a more tolerant Chinese city, or leave the country again to resume his studies.

“I don’t think this will ever work,” Mr. Si said of the crackdown. “There are job opportunities in Beijing, and government policies can’t stop people moving to get jobs. If you do, the city pays a heavy price.”

[vacationsoup]

New Post has been published on https://vacationsoup.com/choo-choo-choose-the-churnet-valley-railway/

Choo-Choo-Choose the Churnet Valley Railway!

When on holiday exploring the beautifully serene Staffordshire Moorlands and surrounding Derbyshire Dales, it is easy to overlook all of the other things going on outside of  ‘screaming if you want to go faster’ at the world-famous Alton Towers Resort. If you delve a little deeper, you will find a plethora of other things to do. Whatever you decide, make sure to explore this next destination for a few hours (or a day, if you fancy a tasty cream tea!).

A railway might not be at the top of the list of places to visit on holiday. However, this is Staffordshire; a place you may once have overlooked. After visiting the Churnet Valley Railway, you'll never look back!  In ways you could never imagine, this place may surprise you if you open your eyes and take it all in.

Surely Not a Question - To Train or Not to Train

When visiting Staffordshire just for the day, a weekend, or even longer, you might ask yourself the dreaded question, ‘what shall I do today?’ Trying to figure out what do to in a place that you have only been in for a matter of hours can be tricky, and this is what makes the Churnet Valley Railway even more attractive to visit. A few minutes’ drive from The Laurels, there is virtually no reason for you to not get a taste of the countryside. Experience this picturesque branch line whilst travelling in style in a beautifully restored carriage. Be sure to transport yourself back in time and revel in the engineering of some of the trains built during the war. But don’t worry if locomotives aren’t your thing, the railway also offer a wide variety of activities and special events throughout the year!

The Churnet Valley Railway boasts an eleven mile return trip through the part of Staffordshire known as ‘Little Switzerland’.

There are a huge variety of reasons to choose the CVR as a destination to tick off your list. From watching the world go by on a standard operating day to partaking in their locally famous Rail Ale Trail, it is guaranteed to make your time in Staffordshire literally fly by!

Wait, Staffordshire?

Yes, we are certainly located in a landlocked bit of the country, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing to do!

Staffordshire is one of those places which many people have heard of but never visit. As a consequence of literally being positioned in the middle of nowhere, it would be easy to overlook this countryside gem. In fact, Staffordshire has a lot more to offer than its motorway and Alton Towers Theme Park; all it takes it a little bit of exploration. This is what makes the Churnet Valley one of those unique treasures - you literally wouldn’t expect to find it. With one station only accessible by canal, it really gives you the chance to get away from the hubbub of the city and allows you to take life at a more enjoyable pace.

Perfect on a warm summer’s day or even more exciting during their special events dotted throughout the year! This is a must-visit for anybody wanting to explore what makes Staffordshire a magical place to visit.

You may think that it’s like any other trip on a train. Think again! Take life a little slower and your perspective on life will totally change. What if I said that one section of the line is the steepest (and highest) of any heritage railway in the UK? What about the fact that one station was prevented from being knocked down by someone standing in front of a bulldozer? How about the fact that Staffordshire weather is always the best?* Yes, this part of the countryside is full of surprises!

Whisk Me A(rail)way to Times Gone By...

Certainly not a boring place to spend the day, each station along the line offers something different. Kingsley & Froghall station consists of a large tea room and is where a lot of the magic happens! Consall station is a cute, picturesque part of the line which is supplied by a popular pub and busy canal. Cheddleton station is overlooked by beautiful hills and possesses a train shed for you to explore. Leek Brook transports you out of the leafy confines of the rest of the track and makes you feel on top of the world. Not to mention the scrummy food you can eat aboard the train too, this place really offers an experience you shouldn’t miss when out and about in Staffordshire.

In 2019, the Churnet Valley Railway was featured in the Telegraph Travel Magazine. Amazingly, the attraction was placed in 9th place for the ‘Best One-Day Rail Journeys in the World’.

Like many heritage railways, the Churnet Valley Railway is no different when saying that this is an ongoing project. Cheddleton Station was the first to open in 1996. Two more stations consequently opened in the years following, with Kingsley & Froghall being the most recent. Today, we find what we have today - that being a heritage line which really does showcase what the best of what the local area has to offer. Furthermore, the scope which this railway has now and in the future is hugely exciting. Rare for a heritage railway of this kind, the CVR could expand North, South, East or West. Exciting for the local area, this could bring transport links back to locals or tourists alike. However, unlike many other railways, it feels like this all doesn’t matter because the whole experience here is just magical.

What’s There To Do?

What isn’t there to to?!

With trains running all day, you are guaranteed to explore what every stop has to offer! We’d recommend that you start off your trip in Kingsley & Froghall, have lunch at Consall and then grab a coffee at Cheddleton. Afterwards, you must take a leisurely stroll down the canal towpath to see the night away.

On standard operating days, visitors are able to travel about at their own leisure. With the constraints only being your imagination, there is so much you can do with your day at the Churnet Valley Railway. Feel free to hop on and hop off as many times as you like. On these days especially, speak to anybody and they will certainly tell you to go the Black Lion pub where you can relax on the canalside with a nice pint of beer in your hand.

Visit on certain days and you can book dining experiences. Many people use this as an opportunity to celebrate birthdays or anniversaries. Others use this as an excuse to taste the delicacies that Staffordshire has to offer!

At specific dates in the year, the railway also host events for you to take your visit to the next level. There are options for everybody to and this is the best opportunity for you experience true Staffordshire hospitality. For the kids, the ‘Paw Patrol’ team brings adventure and fun to the Moorlands. For the rail enthusiast, there are too many train galas to count. Maybe you enjoy a tipple (or two) - the various alcohol themed weekends will certainly quench your thirst. In fact, the annual 'Gin and Trains' event is so popular that it attracts local attention from the press.

With something for everybody, you truly will not want to leave. Who said that railways could be boring?

The People Are Great Too

Volunteers make this railway. Be that for setting the trains off on time to operating the stations - each and every volunteer is there to make sure that you enjoy your day to its full extent. Full of local knowledge, feel free to talk to them. They are more than happy to give you the low-down about all things rail related. In fact, a lot of the people there have been a part of the CVR for many years. All of the volunteers do it for the love of the railway. These people are a true inspiration and dedicate a lot of their free time to making your experience memorable. Not to mention they will probably motivate you to do the same when you get back home.

Hop on for the ride, enjoy a cream tea, or drive the train. With everything for you to have a fun-packed day out, there are so many opportunities to entertain everybody at the Churnet Valley Railway.

Have we tickled your tastebuds or instigated your inquisitiveness for more? For people of all ages, this little place tucked into the Staffordshire countryside is a must-visit. These establishments rely on visitors and volunteers to preserve the rich history; the CVR’s is certainly no different. Make sure to put the Churnet Valley Railway down on your ‘to-do list’ on your next break. All you need to do is sit back, relax and enjoy the ride!

Kingsley and Froghall Station, Froghall, Cheadle, Staffordshire, ST10 2HA Tel: 01538 750755

*Okay, let’s just say, this might be a bit of an exaggeration. It doesn’t matter about the rain, it’s always liquid sunshine around these parts.

[tenroseforeverandever]

Home for the Holidays: Chapter 2

Chapter 1

A @dwsecretsanta​  gift for @chocolatequeennk.

Characters:  Ten x Rose; Jackie Tyler; Pete Tyler; Mickey Smith; Jake Simmonds; Donna Noble; Empress of the Racnoss; Lance Bennett

Rated: General (rating may change)

Tags: Doomsday Fixit; Runaway Bride rewrite; Angst; Hurt/Comfort; Separation; Eventual Christmas fluff; adventure

Summary: A Doomsday Fixit that also follows the events of the Runaway Bride.

Despite having the victory of the Battle of Canary Wharf behind them, Rose remains resentful that the Doctor tried to send her away after she promised she’d never leave him.

Chapter Summary: Rose begins to make a life for herself on Earth, working for Pete at Torchwood, but on Christmas Eve, when she investigates some low grade alien activity at the securities company, H.C. Clements, she stumbles into much more than she was prepared for.

Notes: Once again, massive hugs and thank-yous to @hellostarlight20​ and MrsBertucci for their brilliant beta services. That being said, all the mistakes are my own, and always will be (I keep finding weird redundant commas and the like! I mean, honestly! The number of times I’ve reread…)

Any recognizable dialogue comes from the Doctor Who episode, The Runaway Bride.

WARNING: No Doctor in this chapter. This is not the chapter reunions are made of… not in the least! We have a little while to go yet before the Doctor and Rose are reunited. And even then, our babies have a lot to work through.

Also read at: AO3; FF.net; Teaspoon

Home for the Holidays: Chapter 2

Christmas Eve, 2006 (Afternoon /Evening)

Rose had been recruited to Torchwood by Pete almost immediately upon her abrupt arrival back on Earth, and she had been quick to take him up on his offer, wanting to keep her mind thoroughly occupied so thoughts of the Doctor couldn’t torment her. Pete had had his work cut out for him in the aftermath of the Battle of Canary Wharf, and he’d had no reservations about turning to her for help. “I need someone I can trust by my side,” he’d told her. “You have a way with people, and you think fast on your feet. And all that knowledge from your travels with the… well… You’re clever, Rose.”

One of Pete’s primary concerns had been the restructuring of Torchwood personnel, and dealing with the extensive repairs to the Torchwood building. He had also spent a great deal of effort re-establishing relations with the team at Torchwood 3, in Cardiff,  who steadfastly held their little corner of the company to the kind of ideals he envisioned for Torchwood 1, and he was apparently making headway in gaining the trust of the bloke in charge there.  

Rose, however, worked primarily in the field, and welcomed the extensive workload. The large amount of alien activity, in the form of Daleks and Cybermen, had of course, attracted other aliens, and had encouraged those already living on Earth covertly to come out of hiding. Responding to the outpouring of alien sightings, both authentic and fabricated, by a nervous public, and training new field operatives had given Rose more than enough to keep her busy and helped distract her from her thoughts of the Doctor.  

If she was being honest with herself, she missed him… acutely. Despite how outraged she had been at his attempt to pack her off to the parallel universe, now he was no longer at her side, she missed the infectious exuberance that had emanated from him, the loving glances across the table, the delightful kisses and warm hugs he had once bestowed upon her. In hindsight, she was able to admit that she had been wrong to push him away the way she had.  She should have opened up to him more, encouraged him to explain why he had done what he’d done and tell her what he’d been feeling when he’d tried to send her away. And she should have told the daft alien how much his actions had hurt her. Instead, she had closed herself off and allowed her resentment to go unresolved. Now she was living with the consequences.

While she missed the Doctor and the exciting life she had led, racing through time and space with his hand in hers, Pete was right: her experiences had provided her with a great deal of valuable knowledge, and Torchwood needed all the help they could get. Working for Torchwood also provided her with a renewed sense of purpose back on Earth, and she would never again need to scrape by, working in a dead-end job. Which was just as well: after everything she had experienced, she couldn’t imagine ever having to return to that smaller-on-the- inside life she had once led.

Her new job had kept her hopping, but things had been surprisingly quiet in the week leading up to Christmas, and Rose had convinced Pete to take a few days off so he could celebrate properly with Jackie. And her parents were taking full advantage, attacking their short opportunity at a bit of domesticity with gusto. That morning, they had gone out early and brought home a Christmas tree. Now, full of Christmas cheer and listening to Christmas music, they were decorating it.

Rose was not celebrating. She felt like a bit of a scrooge as she sat brooding over the Doctor, her legs draped over the arms of an armchair, hugging a cushion tightly to her chest.

“’Ere are the rest of ‘em, Jacks,” Pete announced, setting a box of Christmas baubles down at Jackie’s feet.

“Aw, ta, love. Mmmmwwwwah!” Jackie blew a big, noisy kiss at Pete, who immediately drew her into his arms, to get a proper kiss.

Rose rolled her eyes with a loud sigh. “Would you two get a room?”

“Oi, missy!” Jackie snapped, but softened again almost immediately at the sight of her daughter. “Look, ’ow ‘bout you ‘elp me decorate, sweetheart? You used to love puttin’ up the tree w’en you was little. Couldn’t keep you out of it!” She laughed fondly. “Do you remember, Rose?”

“Yeah, I remember. You go ahead, Mum.”

“C’mon. You sure? It would cheer ya up. Get your mind off… things, yeah.”

“Mum…” Rose sat up, an undercurrent of irritation in her voice. “Look, you and Dad ‘ave fun decoratin’. I should go… I need to follow up on some leads at work, anyway. I should be ‘ome by supper. All right?” She stood and walked into the front hall, grabbing her coat.

Jackie shook her head. “Sweetheart, don’t you think you should try to–”

“Mum!”

“Oh, all right, off you go. Not that I could stop you even if I tried.”

Rose forced a smile to her lips. “See ya later,” she called over her shoulder as she pulled the front door shut behind her.

Standing on the front steps, Rose drew in a deep breath of the cold, damp December air, letting it fill her. It felt good to get out of the house. It had been five months since the Battle of Canary Wharf, and while she was thrilled her mum had got a chance at a happily-ever-after with Pete, she couldn’t help but wish her own story had also come with a fairy-tale ending.

But, Rose told herself, there was no point in wishing her life away. She had work to attend to. She had been planning to follow up on some low grade alien activity she had been sweeping under the proverbial rug for the last couple of months. Although it likely wasn’t anything hostile, it had been nagging at the back of her mind for some time now. And today would be a perfect day to look into it.

She made her way to Torchwood and settled into her little office. Tossing her phone and wallet on the desk, she turned on her computer. A number of alerts immediately flashed up on her screen: strange occurrences at a wedding in Chiswick; exploding Christmas baubles at the reception; the TARDIS sighted, bouncing off the roofs of cars along the motorway; and reports of a woman in a wedding dress jumping into the TARDIS from a car. Well, the appearance of a bride couldn’t be a coincidence, not considering the strange occurrences at the wedding earlier in the day. But, it seemed the Doctor was on the case, and Rose would just as soon let him attend to it and not get involved. Besides, seeing him again would just open up old wounds.

Wounds that hadn’t even begun to heal, if the pounding of her heart was anything to go by.

It occurred to her, it might not even be her Doctor: it could be an earlier regeneration or even a future one, one who had spent hundreds of years without her. Tears prickled behind her eyes at the thought of him moving on without her. With crushing clarity, she realized how devastating it must be for him to allow himself to become attached to his companions; how much he must suffer when they grew old or died, and he was left to travel on his own, with two very broken hearts.

She had, of course, come to these conclusions well over  two years ago in her linear time (she would never admit to her mum just how much time had actually passed between her visits back to Earth), when they had met Sarah Jane Smith. But in the heat of her blossoming romance with the Doctor after the events of Krop Tor, she had shoved these thoughts to the back of her mind and had selfishly embraced the unstinting affection and love the Doctor had offered her.

She shook her head, fighting down the emotions roiling just below the surface. She returned her attention to the alien activity she had actually come to investigate: the activity that seemed to be emanating from around the company H.C. Clements.

With a little digging around, she discovered H.C. Clements had been owned by Torchwood since 1983. That really didn’t come as a surprise. Pete was finding Torchwood had extended its subversive reach to many different companies around the city and beyond. And Torchwood’s involvement at H.C. Clements would explain, in part, the presence of alien activity. It was probably just some piece of alien technology that had been integrated into their infrastructure. The real question was why?  H.C. Clements was a securities firm. Why the hell was Torchwood involved with securities? They had to be concealing something if they had chosen “whatever-it-was” to not be housed at the Canary Wharf building… and that meant it wasn’t likely to be anything good.

She checked the time. It wasn’t too late yet. She could pop over there (it wasn’t far away), do a little investigating, and still be home in time for a late Christmas Eve supper. Her mum would keep something warm for her. Besides, investigating would keep her mind off the Doctor, specifically, keep her mind off the fact that her heart had broken anew when she had discovered he had been so close by today.

Rose spent the next little while doing a more thorough investigation of H.C. Clements. Being owned by Torchwood, their computers were easy to hack. Torchwood had always liked being able to keep tabs on their various projects and the companies that concealed them. Even with Rose’s limited experience, she was able to access their system with a short series of override passcodes. An hour later, after discovering little of interest, she arrived at the business’ front door. Using the sonic wrist-watch she had discovered three months earlier, buried and uncatalogued in the archives at Torchwood, she opened the locked doors of H.C. Clements, neutralized the security alert, and slipped in undetected. An initial survey of the ground floor didn’t reveal anything amiss. Not that she had expected anything to be obvious, but sometimes it was the little things in plain sight that triggered suspicion… Like that button on the elevator that led to a sub-basement she certainly didn’t remember seeing on the floor plan; the one that needed a key to be accessed; the one that her sonic watch could activate in an instant.

--oOo--

Rose stepped out into the dismal, green lighting of the damp sub-basement, looking around in consternation. There was nothing obvious to attract suspicion, and didn’t that just sum up Torchwood to a T? Determined to track down the source of the alien activity, she broke into a jog along the corridor, noting with alarm, the Torchwood logo emblazoned on every one of the heavy, metal doors that appeared at regular intervals. Torchwood had definitely been up to something, and based on the length of the sub-basement corridor, both in front of and behind her, it was something big.

After jogging for about five minutes, she was startled by the sound of raised voices and panicked shouts coming from somewhere up ahead. Breaking into a run, she reached the end of the corridor, and was met with a set of glass doors: the entrance to Lab 003, judging by the placard. The voices seemed to be coming from somewhere in there. Glancing in through the doors, she saw huge, convoluted systems of pipes and machines, and what looked like water bubbling through a series of enormous glass tubes. Oh, the Doctor would have had a field day with this lot, she mused, the fond thought briefly distracting her from her mission.

“Noooooo!” The yelp of fear from beyond the doors jerked her back to the task at hand. She pushed the doors ajar, allowing her to hear the voices much more clearly.

One voice had a strange hissing quality. “Drink the particles! Become the key!”

The panicked voice was male. “You can’t do this! We had a deal! Look, she can’t have gone far! I’ll find her! I’ll bring her back!”

Rose carefully pushed into the laboratory and ducked behind some of the bubbling pipes, gasping at the sight before her. Where the back wall of the lab should have been was a vast, gaping cavern of a room.  And on a metallic platform toward the back of the room was a gigantic, red… spider, for lack of a better word. Looking more closely, the creature did indeed look very much like a spider, but where a spider’s head would have been, was a humanoid torso, topped with a crested head and a face with many large, black eyes. There were even webs cast across the ceiling of the chamber.

The spider hissed, its voice harsh and gravelly. “Oh, my little Lance, so disrespectful to your beautiful bride. You shall now be the one to awaken my children, though I don’t believe you truly appreciate or deserve the honour!”

Rose crept closer to the scene, crouching down and darting between large pieces of gurgling equipment. Beside the spider was a man dressed in formal attire, struggling to escape from the grip of two cloaked figures, his head forcibly tipped back, while one of the cloaked figures poured water down his throat from a huge jug.

As the water emptied, the man, weakened, pleaded with the spider, again. “No! Stop! Don’t do this!”

“Silly, little, human fool!” the spider admonished. It then turned its attention to one of the cloaked figures, its tone commanding: “Hurry! Hurry! Bring more Huon particles. We need more. The rate of catalysis has not yet reached the critical level; there is still not enough Huon energy to waken my children. I long to greet them. I have suffered alone for too many years.”

Rose hunkered down, concealing herself, as one of the cloaked figures entered the lab with the empty water jug.  Its face was gold and metallic and it walked with a stiff gait. A robot of some kind? Rose pondered. It began to fill the jug from a spigot on the side of one of the pieces of equipment.

A flurry of thoughts raced through Rose’s mind as she tried to process what was happening before her. She fought her instinct to run into the spider’s lair and demand the release of its hostage. A closer look around showed her many more of the robots lined up on gangways, high up on the walls of the room, holding long rifles of some kind. A huge, circular pit, just beyond the point where the laboratory ended also drew her attention: there was no way she would get around that without being spotted.  The space was wide open, with no hiding spots. No, she needed to make a proper plan and not go running in on instinct, all hot-headed and full of righteous indignation. That sort of behaviour had landed her in hot water too many times, and this time, she was alone: no Doctor; no Torchwood team; no one to know where she was.

As the robot moved to return to the spider with the water, Rose searched her pockets for her mobile to call Pete. It wasn’t there. With a groan of frustration, she pictured where she had left it on her desk at Torchwood.  She really was on her own.

Helplessly, she watched as the man had more water poured down his throat. No, not water… erm, what had the spider called it? Hoo-on particles or something? When the jug had been emptied, the man began to emanate a yellow glow.

“My wonderful key,” the spider crooned. “Now… bind him!”

The man whimpered as he was shoved forward, into the clutches of the spider. It grasped him with long appendages that jutted out from its torso like arms, while it curled its swollen abdomen forward underneath itself. Silk spurted from the end of the abdomen as the spider spun the hapless man around, wrapping him in silk so he could no longer move his limbs. Once he was immobile, it positioned him face-down, and strung several ropes of silk, extending from his body to the webs on the ceiling above the circular pit, and began to winch him gradually upward.

Rose felt powerless, listening to the man gasping out pleas of mercy as he was raised higher and higher. Every inch he was lifted made it even more impossible for her to assist him. She was frantically running through possible rescue options when the spider spoke again.

“Oh! Oh, but now I have a surprise for you, something to look forward to, my funny little Lance,” it jeered. “I have devised a way to reunite you with your bride, and her foolish physician friend. Activate the recall sequence. At arms!” it hissed to the robots, who responded instantly, raising their guns. “I want no mistakes this time! The Doctor must be neutralized!”

Oh my God! Rose’s brain went into overdrive. The Doctor was here… with the bride. The bride! From the wedding, from the motorway! So this Lance was… the groom!

“You never needed me at all!” Lance whinged, casting his gaze around desperately as he continued to be winched upward.

“Oh, foolish little man! This has always been your destiny.” The spider spat with laughter. “My children will be just so hungry. And if something should go wrong and the bride is lost to me again, you need not worry. You will still make a tolerable key.”

Lance wriggled furiously in a vain attempt to free himself as he was finally raised all the way to the ceiling and secured to the webbing, directly over the pit. The spider only laughed harder. “Return them to me! The bride shall join her groom!” the spider crowed. “What a wedding there shall be!”

Rose’s eyes widened as the TARDIS began to silently materialize in a strange, smoky vortex, only a few yards away from where she hid, just within the laboratory space, in front of the circular pit. Then just as suddenly, it began to dematerialize with its familiar (beloved) wheezing, grinding noise.

“Noooooo!” the spider cried.

Hearing the TARDIS’ rematerializing sequence from the hallway, Rose bolted from the laboratory, the sound of the spider ordering her robots to action ringing in her ears as the doors swung shut behind her.

“She is close, the holy bride in white! Find her! Find her!”

Rose didn’t hesitate. Hope filling her heart that the Doctor was close, she sprinted in the direction of the sound of the TARDIS, silently vowing to Lance she would try her best to rescue him. Before she had run more than a few minutes, she was brought up short by the sound of heavy footfalls and struggling coming from directly ahead of her around the curve of the corridor. She rushed ahead to one of the heavy, metal doorways. The words “NO ENTRY” on a bright yellow field glared at her from above a hatch wheel.  “Sounds like an open invitation,” Rose quipped to herself, directing her sonic watch at the latch mechanism. As soon as she heard the clunk of the latch releasing, she spun the wheel, tugged the door open, and stepped into the space behind it. She pulled the door closed just enough so it remained slightly ajar, still affording her a decent view of the passageway. The sounds of struggling continued, approaching rapidly.

Rose took a quick look around her cramped hiding spot. Using her sonic watch as a torch, she held her hand up into the dark heights of the narrow space where she stood. It was built of industrial brick. A ladder extended up a long way, leading to a portal in the ceiling. A few feet from the top, there seemed to be a maintenance corridor that extended to one side. Rose recognized it as being similar in height to the walkways surrounding the spider’s lair where the cloaked robots stood guard. Was this perhaps another way into the spider’s lair? Weak glimmers of a plan flittered through her mind and gave her a little burst of optimism.

Just then, the frantic noises from the hallway grew louder, and Rose peeked out to see the bride being hauled along by one of the cloaked robots, thrashing and kicking with every step, her indignant, muffled curses coming from beneath the robot’s hand that was clamped over her mouth. Rose smiled in admiration. This fiery red-head wouldn’t go down without a fight. With that knowledge, Rose’s plan became firmer in her mind, and she tugged the door fully closed, poised to leap from hiding into action, as she listened for the sounds of the bride and her captor passing by.

Suddenly, the door swung open in front of her, revealing the robot and the bride. The latter stared at her with wide, startled eyes.

“Hello!” Rose chirped, affecting nonchalance, though her heart was in her throat. Without a second thought, she raised her wristwatch to the robot’s chest, activating a sonic burst. The robot slumped to the floor, releasing its hostage, and Rose expelled a heavy breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. “Well, glad that worked,” she remarked with a shaky grin, waggling her watch at the stunned bride. “Little trick I learned from a friend of mine.”

“Oh, thank God!” The bride automatically straightened her dress and hair as she stepped back from the body of the robot. “Wait! Who the hell are you?”

“Hi.” She gave the bride a little wave. “I’m Rose. Rose Tyler.”

“Donna. And I can’t tell you how happy I am to see you!”

“The Doctor? Is ‘e with you?”

“Was until this one showed up.” She jabbed with her thumb in the direction of the robot’s crumpled form. “Bloody idiot was so busy running his gob so much he didn’t even notice.”

“Sounds ‘bout right.”

“Wait! You know the Doctor?”

“Used to travel with ‘im.”

“Pinstriped beanpole with the weird, blue spaceship?”

Rose’s breath caught in her throat. It was him, her Doctor! “Yeah… and some really, really great hair…”

“Well, yeah, I suppose…” Donna screwed up her face in distaste.

A shaky giggle tumbled past Rose’s lips. “Yeah, that’s definitely ‘im.”

“Well, he’s not here now. Typical man! Now, what are we supposed to do?”

Rose quickly gathered her thoughts. “I hope you’re ready for a bit more adventure,” she told Donna, laying a sympathetic hand on her arm. “We don’t ‘ave much time. Your fiancé? ‘Usband? Is about to be… well, I’m not sure exactly what’s goin’ to ‘appen to ‘im, but there’s a huge spider thing–”

“The Racnoss.”

“W’at?”

“The Racnoss. That’s what she’s called, the spider. Big, ugly, red thing with lots of legs?”

Rose nodded, bemused. “That sounds about right.”

“Yeah, that’s the Empress…”

“The Empress?”

“…of the Racnoss.”

“Well, the Empress’s got Lance up in her web. She filled ‘im with some sort of liquid: hoo… hoo…”

“Huon particles?” the bride supplied.

“Yeah, those. She’s completely bonkers, she is! Goin’ on ‘bout her children. And those particles, in Lance, they’re important somehow: she said she needed the Huon energy to awaken her children.”

Donna’s eyebrows scrunched together in confusion. “Oh, that must be it!” Her face lit up with pride as she supplied the information. “That’s what’s at the centre of the Earth. The Racnoss ship. Her children. More Racnoss!”

“Wait! The centre of the Earth? There’s a Racnoss ship at the centre of the Earth?”

“The Doctor took us back to the beginning of the Earth. Still can’t believe it! But I saw it happening.”

Rose fought down a pang of jealousy and a desperate longing to be traveling with him again. Now was not the time. “But how’s she goin’ to get Huon particles down there. That makes no sense.”

“I don’t know…” Donna’s face scrunched in concentration, but her eyes quickly widened in realization. “Oh! The hole! That huge flippin’ hole! Right in the middle of the floor? Did you see it?”

Rose nodded, trying to pull all the bits of information together in her head.

“The Doctor said it goes all the way to the centre of the Earth… where the Racnoss ship is!”

“And somehow,” Rose spoke slowly and deliberately, making sense of it all, “she has to get the Huon particles down there. Lance! She’s gonna…”

“But, but… I’m filled with them too. That’s why she needed me. She was going to…” Donna’s eyes suddenly filled with fearful tears.

“Well, she hasn’t got you. Not anymore,” Rose asserted.

Donna’s lip trembled. “That’s not all, though. The Doctor… he said they’re dangerous, the Huon particles… deadly,” she murmured. “Promised he’d save me, but now… I don’t even know where he is.”

“Hey.” Rose squeezed the bride’s hand. “Don’t worry. If ‘e said ‘e’d save you, ‘e will.”

“How do you…? Tell me something. Do you trust him?” Donna peered into Rose’s eyes intently, searching for something there.

“Yeah, I do. And ‘e won’t let you down. I promise.” Rose swallowed thickly, all of her adventures with the Doctor rushing through her mind: those many times she had feared for her life and he had done everything in his power to protect her. “’E’ll do w’atever it takes to keep you safe,” she spoke with conviction. “’E may not be right ‘ere, but I know ‘im. ‘E’s close by, workin’ ‘ard to save us all. That’s what ‘e does, an’ we ‘ave to do whatever we can to ‘elp. And rescue your ‘usband.”

“My fiancé,” Donna corrected, her expression turning hard. “My bloody ex-fiancé, at that! Let the Empress have him, I say!”

Rose recalled the Racnoss’ reprimand to Lance, about how he had been disrespectful to his bride, and offered Donna a sad, sympathetic smile.

Regret passed over Donna’s face. “I didn’t really mean that. Well I sorta did. After what he did to me! He’s the one was poisoning me. For six months! With these bloody Huon particles. Brought me coffee every morning, and me being so stupid… I mean, who brings the secretaries a coffee?”

Rose’s heart sank for the red-head. “I’m sorry about what ‘appened, I really am. But, Donna, listen to me. You are not stupid. An’ I’d love to ‘ear the whole story, yeah, but right now, we need to ‘urry. I’ve got a general sort of plan… but I’ll need your ‘elp.” She squeezed Donna’s hand again. “It’s going to be dangerous…”

Donna huffed, rolling her eyes, a trace of a sardonic smile on her lips. “Doesn’t that just sum up my life today! Got nothing to lose at this point. Go on, then.  Let’s do it.”

“Right!” The heady exhilaration of adventure filled Rose and she gave Donna a manic grin. Bending down, she tugged the cloak off the robot, swinging it over her own shoulders. Removing the face plate, she slipped the strap around the back of her head and settled the mask over her face. Finally, she pulled the hood up over her head. “Won’t fool anyone for long, but it might just get us close. And, look, a gun! A machine gun, I think!”

Donna’s mouth dropped open in surprise. “A machine gun? Isn’t that a bit dangerous.”

“Yeah, I ‘ope so.” She took the rifle from the robot’s body, and slung it over her own shoulder. She struck a pose. “W’at d’ya think?”

“You’re loony, is what I think! Have you ever shot one of those before?”

“Well, no. I don’t really like guns,” Rose answered awkwardly, thinking of how the Doctor would disapprove of her carrying the weapon. “But I think it would be silly to leave it be’ind. Never know w’en it might come in handy.”

“You’re jus’ like that bloody Doctor! You’re jus’ makin’ this up as you go along, aren’t you?”

“Maybe I am.” Rose beamed at Donna. “So are you ready?”

“As I’ll ever be, I suppose.”

“So, think you can climb in that dress?” Rose gestured up the ladder.

“I guess we’re going to find out.”

“Right then! Allons-y!”  

[littleparadisegoldcoast]

Find a Valuable Commercial real estate for sale

Do you know where to buy a commercial property instead of the city? A suburb especially it is Palm Beach. It is a popular site with a host of tourist destinations, the beach, thriving businesses, and lucrative properties. Don’t believe me? Have a look at the details of some of the commercial real-estates for sale in the suburb.

Local Icon with DA Approval

Want to become the owner of a developed commercial real estate for sale in Palm Beach, Gold Coast? Then consider buying this fantastic building of 526sqm with 12 rooms and modern amenities. This site is situated on the arterial Gold Coast Highway providing access via the Palm Beach Avenue. This is a lucrative property to own because of it is

·         6kms from the Gold Coast International Airport

·         Less than 200m to beachfront

·         15kms north to Surfers Paradise

·         Less than 2km to Pacific Motorway

The estimated daily traffic around the site is of 49,000 cars and pedestrian footfall is high as well. Considering all this, the location of the property is extremely desirable and beneficial.

The quoted price for this commercial real estate is $1,450,000!

https://www.commercialproperty2sell.com.au/details/local-icon-with-da-approval-for-sale-cheshire-cat-motel.php

Calling All Investors! - Tenanted Palm Beach CBD Property

Grab this opportunity to own a 63sqm office in the Palm Beach CBD to either run a successfully business or retain the tenant to keep earn a rent of $24,840 per annum. The property is on the first floor of '8th Avenue Plaza' on the Gold Coast Highway – what better site to have a property?

The features of this commercial real estate for sale in Palm Beach, Gold Coast are mentioned as follows.

·         Modern building with structural integrity

·         Fully renovated with fit-outs

·         A reception area

·         Glass walled boardroom

·         Multiple segregated offices

·         Functioning kitchen

·         Separate toilets

·         Air Conditioning

Buying this property will be lucrative because it is at an awesome location and surrounded by various other commercial businesses. The quoted price for this commercial real estate for sale in Palm Beach, Gold Coast is $329,000.

https://www.commercialproperty2sell.com.au/details/professional-cooperative-work-space-palm-beach-cbd.php

The Bottom Line

Both these properties will be great investments and their appreciation value will keep increasing in the future due to their excellent positioning. If you want to buy any of them then make your move fast. These properties are available for visitations and inspections.

If you want to look at more commercial properties for sale in Palm Beach, Gold Coast –visit this site

https://www.commercialproperty2sell.com.au/real-estate/qld/palm-beach/

[bestforeignjobs-blog]

Jumpstart Confidence In Business Presenting

Here's one of finding out about your future, that consider want think about. You probably spent the best days of one's childhood, youth, and early adulthood relaxing in a row of uncomfortable desks bored out of the mind. Everyone did that dutifully to ensure some day we would qualify to invest the rest of our lives entrapped a great office -- bored the actual our minds -- for your rest individual lives immediately after once we had been old we'll retire and still have our opportunity. After a nasty relationship breakup, it was time start off completely over and move far from home, to rid myself of my crazy ex. Not having a large budget to work with, I sold my bulkiest items, and placed the rest of my belongings in storage right prior to going. A few weeks prior, I'd stayed researching locations that would be much better suited to my will need. The city I was essentially means was industrial and fairly rural, offering me little Local Job Opportunities . I'd moved from my hometown to be around my ex, who turned into totally wrong for me on all levels. So, it was time hitting the motorway. Once you finish the 60 days training course you adequate knowledge to your own business, we will find you need addition Job Vacancy in Sri Lanka help to get started with the process. Running a travel job opportunity is a lot from being easy. Quite a few individuals do it because belonging to the pride and also the endless volume benefits in order to get all of them. You have have confidence and faith in yourself maintain to chance a business safely and effectively. The next mistake truth people begin to doubt him or her self. Mistakes will be made, but you need to be prepared make another move after your failures to have success with a travel job opportunity. Benefits are another thing that independent contractors engage from home have to protect on incredibly own. From retirement to medical, is actually possible to up a person to find plans help make the arrangements Jobs Sri Lanka . There are many businesses that cater to people that are self employed. You can do specific searches on Google or even check out suggestions on your favorite home work forum. Choosing work in nursing can really be confusing because of all your options that there is to choose from. It has risen to you whether beneficial compared to are employed a practical job, continue studying or perhaps in become familiar with. Nursing is a work which provides job security to utilizes taking upward. If a nurse leaves a job, she are usually sure that another job will b e available for her. Aus Vacancies does n't want to bother with it. The pay is good for nurses which basically the proper amount for the support that they offer. If process you've chosen is tailored to your strengths, the result is that no-one else really is as qualified for that job as you are: that's what finding your niche is all about. Basically, you are taking a 'long tail' approach to the project of marketing yourself to employers. The long tail strategy to marketing is founded on on uniqueness, and one does this program that by finding a niche market where your uniqueness is important or appreciated, your product will advertise. By focusing on this niche, should avoid dedicated to the wider spectrum a person can waste a regarding time, money, and energy on a market that does not need you, or merely even possess interest inside you. There's a lot less competition in a creek (your niche) vs the ocean (the entire job market).

[cynthiabryanuk]

6 crucial questions addressed as 180k brand-new houses required in Leicestershire

Council bosses will spend the coming months grappling with the challenges of where to build tens of thousands of new homes across Leicester and Leicestershire.

Officials say some 96,500 new homes need to be built by 2036 to cope with population growth estimates – and then a further 90,500 by 2050.

The massive scale of the development will change large parts of the city and county beyond recognition and have been set out in a newly revised ‘strategic growth plan’ (SGP).

The SGP is a vision drawn up by the city and county council as well as the seven Leicestershire district authorities intended to best manage the major changes that lie ahead and guide key decisions.

Each authority will be asked to approve the SGP meetings they will hold between now and Christmas.

Here we look at 6 of the key questions.

1) Where exactly will the houses be built?

Put simply, it is not yet known. The SGP anticipates building will continue in pockets around Leicestershire but gives some broad directions as to where major development should be concentrated by councils in the future up to 2036.

The revised strategic growth plan

Map key

A46 Expressway Corridor

The whole plan is underpinned by the creation of a southern by-pass for Leicester – otherwise called the A46 Expressway.

No exact route has been given for the road – which has been described as a key part of future national transport infrastucture – but broadly it would begin at the Hobby Horse roundabout at Syston and loop round the east and south of the city joining the M1 somewhere near Countesthorpe at a new motorway junction.

While the aim of the road is to relieve congestion on the M1 near Leicester and the A46 north of the city some 38,000 homes could be built along the corridor it would create.

poll loading

Do you think the A46 Expressway is a good idea?

0+ VOTES SO FAR

Leicestershire International Gateway Corridor

This is a large area along the M1 to the north of Coalville and north west of Loughborough.

It incorporates East Midlands Airport, Loughborough University, the proposed Toton HS2 rail hub and large industrial parks.

It is envisaged some 11,000 homes could be built here along with large amounts of office and industrial developments.

The A5 Improvement Corridor.

The A5 runs along Leicestershire’s south west border with Warwickshire.

The aim is to upgrade the A road to expressway status making it more like a motorway.

Some 5,000 homes and employment sites would be built along the improved road between the M1 and the M42.

Source – Leicestershire Strategic Growth Plan

Have you seen these key planning applications?

Melton Mowbray

The revised SGP designates the town as key centre for regeneration and growth after the Government recently approved the £63.5 million construction of an eastern by-pass.

The plan says: “The recent approval for the Melton Mowbray Relief Road provides the catalyst for change.

“It will remove congestion in the town centre and open up land for development to the north and east of the town.

“Similar investment in highways to the south of the town could increase this further.

“New growth will support town centre shops and services and provide the opportunity for people to live close to where they work. The new A46 expressway and improved connections to it, will also improve connectivity to Leicester, the M1 and the Leicestershire International Gateway.”

Leicester

It has been broadly accepted Leicester will not be able to find enough space for the new homes needed to meet its growing population so its share of housing will spill out into neighbouring council areas.

Homes will however continue to be built in the city.

What’s happening in politics?

2) When will the building begin?

Again, it isn’t clear at which point between now and 2036 each component of the SGP will be developed.

The plan is a guide rather than a strict schedule and local councils will be responsible for approving – or not – each element of it as firm proposals are drawn up.

3) What consultation has there been?

The team behind the SGP ran a consultation on its initial proposals from January to May this year.

Nearly 600 responses were received – 80 per cent of them from residents and the rest from businesses, developers, land owners and organisations like the police.

Large numbers of new homes are needed in Leicestershire. Where will they go?

4) What happens next?

The Strategic Growth Plan will now be considered by the local councils which developed it, with the aim of having the plan approved by mid-December.

Then each council will look to build it into their local plans.

5) What do the politicians say?

Coun Trevor Pendleton is chairman of the SGA members advisory group.

He said: “We need to work together to manage development, focusing it in key areas, so that our city and county can grow and prosper.

“This plan will also help us bid for national funding, which is essential to get the sort of infrastructure improvements that will help to ease congestion and drive growth.

“The plan will influence more locally-made decisions on planning and development. It gives more control over planning matters back to local authorities and will inform the Local Plans that each authority develops, which set out in more detail how they will allow and encourage future growth.

“We know that some of these proposals are controversial.

“They are not easy decisions but we need to be strategic about how we manage future growth so that it is focused, sustainable and of benefit to the people who live and work here.”

Sir Peter Soulsby

Leicester mayor Sir Peter Soulsby said: “The future prosperity of our city and county is a key priority for all the partners who have shaped this plan.

“Thinking ahead is vital to ensure we get the best possible deal for Leicester and Leicestershire, particularly when it comes to getting funding for infrastructure improvements.

“We are all committed to protecting the environment and heritage that make our city, county and market towns so special.

“We also have ambitious plans and a strong shared vision to ensure that we get the best possible deal for Leicester and Leicestershire.

“Together, our voice is stronger.”

Leicestershire County Council leader Nick Rushton added: ““I really welcome the production of the plan, it makes the area a real trailblazer in terms of the rest of the country.

“From our perspective, there’s now a long-term vision which helps us to better plan for the future. That’s particularly important in bidding for Government funding towards the transport infrastructure needed to support further growth.”

6) Is everyone so enthusiastic about the plans?

No – quite the opposite in fact.

The Leicestershire branch of the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE) have described the SGP as ‘ environmentally destructive, car dependent, low density green field sprawl’

Harborough MP Neil O’Brien

Harborough MP Neil O’Brien’s constituency is likely to be most affected by the proposed A46 Expressway and he said he had huge concerns about the plan.

He said: “I support the principle of a long term plan for the county, but unless local councils come up with some kind of plan B, with alternatives to the expressway, then this process is doomed to fail

“There is absolutely no point saying we will consult with people on a proposal for a major new road and extra housing, but then not publishing a map of where the road is supposed to go. How can people comment on something if they don’t know where it will be?

“What analysis that has been published so far suggests is that the proposed expressway won’t solve the key problem of congested routes into and out of the city.

“In fact, because it proposes unbalanced growth with so much new development on the south and east of the city, the traffic study suggests it would cause the traffic on the southern part of the city to grind to a halt.

“We need to see some proper alternatives developed so we can see some alternative options. Unless that happens I can’t possibly support this expressway bid.

“A joint plan is a good idea – but without some alternative options that can work it will be a waste of time.”

Source

https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/leicester-news/6-key-questions-answered-180k-2066906

from http://taxi.nearme.host/6-crucial-questions-addressed-as-180k-brand-new-houses-required-in-leicestershire/

from NOVACAB - Blog http://novacabtaxi.weebly.com/blog/6-crucial-questions-addressed-as-180k-brand-new-houses-required-in-leicestershire

[kevingbakeruk]

6 crucial questions addressed as 180k brand-new houses required in Leicestershire

Council bosses will spend the coming months grappling with the challenges of where to build tens of thousands of new homes across Leicester and Leicestershire.

Officials say some 96,500 new homes need to be built by 2036 to cope with population growth estimates – and then a further 90,500 by 2050.

The massive scale of the development will change large parts of the city and county beyond recognition and have been set out in a newly revised ‘strategic growth plan’ (SGP).

The SGP is a vision drawn up by the city and county council as well as the seven Leicestershire district authorities intended to best manage the major changes that lie ahead and guide key decisions.

Each authority will be asked to approve the SGP meetings they will hold between now and Christmas.

Here we look at 6 of the key questions.

1) Where exactly will the houses be built?

Put simply, it is not yet known. The SGP anticipates building will continue in pockets around Leicestershire but gives some broad directions as to where major development should be concentrated by councils in the future up to 2036.

The revised strategic growth plan

Map key

A46 Expressway Corridor

The whole plan is underpinned by the creation of a southern by-pass for Leicester – otherwise called the A46 Expressway.

No exact route has been given for the road – which has been described as a key part of future national transport infrastucture – but broadly it would begin at the Hobby Horse roundabout at Syston and loop round the east and south of the city joining the M1 somewhere near Countesthorpe at a new motorway junction.

While the aim of the road is to relieve congestion on the M1 near Leicester and the A46 north of the city some 38,000 homes could be built along the corridor it would create.

poll loading

Do you think the A46 Expressway is a good idea?

0+ VOTES SO FAR

Leicestershire International Gateway Corridor

This is a large area along the M1 to the north of Coalville and north west of Loughborough.

It incorporates East Midlands Airport, Loughborough University, the proposed Toton HS2 rail hub and large industrial parks.

It is envisaged some 11,000 homes could be built here along with large amounts of office and industrial developments.

The A5 Improvement Corridor.

The A5 runs along Leicestershire’s south west border with Warwickshire.

The aim is to upgrade the A road to expressway status making it more like a motorway.

Some 5,000 homes and employment sites would be built along the improved road between the M1 and the M42.

Source – Leicestershire Strategic Growth Plan

Have you seen these key planning applications?

Melton Mowbray

The revised SGP designates the town as key centre for regeneration and growth after the Government recently approved the £63.5 million construction of an eastern by-pass.

The plan says: “The recent approval for the Melton Mowbray Relief Road provides the catalyst for change.

“It will remove congestion in the town centre and open up land for development to the north and east of the town.

“Similar investment in highways to the south of the town could increase this further.

“New growth will support town centre shops and services and provide the opportunity for people to live close to where they work. The new A46 expressway and improved connections to it, will also improve connectivity to Leicester, the M1 and the Leicestershire International Gateway.”

Leicester

It has been broadly accepted Leicester will not be able to find enough space for the new homes needed to meet its growing population so its share of housing will spill out into neighbouring council areas.

Homes will however continue to be built in the city.

What’s happening in politics?

2) When will the building begin?

Again, it isn’t clear at which point between now and 2036 each component of the SGP will be developed.

The plan is a guide rather than a strict schedule and local councils will be responsible for approving – or not – each element of it as firm proposals are drawn up.

3) What consultation has there been?

The team behind the SGP ran a consultation on its initial proposals from January to May this year.

Nearly 600 responses were received – 80 per cent of them from residents and the rest from businesses, developers, land owners and organisations like the police.

Large numbers of new homes are needed in Leicestershire. Where will they go?

4) What happens next?

The Strategic Growth Plan will now be considered by the local councils which developed it, with the aim of having the plan approved by mid-December.

Then each council will look to build it into their local plans.

5) What do the politicians say?

Coun Trevor Pendleton is chairman of the SGA members advisory group.

He said: “We need to work together to manage development, focusing it in key areas, so that our city and county can grow and prosper.

“This plan will also help us bid for national funding, which is essential to get the sort of infrastructure improvements that will help to ease congestion and drive growth.

“The plan will influence more locally-made decisions on planning and development. It gives more control over planning matters back to local authorities and will inform the Local Plans that each authority develops, which set out in more detail how they will allow and encourage future growth.

“We know that some of these proposals are controversial.

“They are not easy decisions but we need to be strategic about how we manage future growth so that it is focused, sustainable and of benefit to the people who live and work here.”

Sir Peter Soulsby

Leicester mayor Sir Peter Soulsby said: “The future prosperity of our city and county is a key priority for all the partners who have shaped this plan.

“Thinking ahead is vital to ensure we get the best possible deal for Leicester and Leicestershire, particularly when it comes to getting funding for infrastructure improvements.

“We are all committed to protecting the environment and heritage that make our city, county and market towns so special.

“We also have ambitious plans and a strong shared vision to ensure that we get the best possible deal for Leicester and Leicestershire.

“Together, our voice is stronger.”

Leicestershire County Council leader Nick Rushton added: ““I really welcome the production of the plan, it makes the area a real trailblazer in terms of the rest of the country.

“From our perspective, there’s now a long-term vision which helps us to better plan for the future. That’s particularly important in bidding for Government funding towards the transport infrastructure needed to support further growth.”

6) Is everyone so enthusiastic about the plans?

No – quite the opposite in fact.

The Leicestershire branch of the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE) have described the SGP as ‘ environmentally destructive, car dependent, low density green field sprawl’

Harborough MP Neil O’Brien

Harborough MP Neil O’Brien’s constituency is likely to be most affected by the proposed A46 Expressway and he said he had huge concerns about the plan.

He said: “I support the principle of a long term plan for the county, but unless local councils come up with some kind of plan B, with alternatives to the expressway, then this process is doomed to fail

“There is absolutely no point saying we will consult with people on a proposal for a major new road and extra housing, but then not publishing a map of where the road is supposed to go. How can people comment on something if they don’t know where it will be?

“What analysis that has been published so far suggests is that the proposed expressway won’t solve the key problem of congested routes into and out of the city.

“In fact, because it proposes unbalanced growth with so much new development on the south and east of the city, the traffic study suggests it would cause the traffic on the southern part of the city to grind to a halt.

“We need to see some proper alternatives developed so we can see some alternative options. Unless that happens I can’t possibly support this expressway bid.

“A joint plan is a good idea – but without some alternative options that can work it will be a waste of time.”

Source

https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/leicester-news/6-key-questions-answered-180k-2066906

from TAXI NEAR ME http://taxi.nearme.host/6-crucial-questions-addressed-as-180k-brand-new-houses-required-in-leicestershire/ from NOVACAB https://novacabtaxi.tumblr.com/post/180160338526

[novacabtaxi]

6 crucial questions addressed as 180k brand-new houses required in Leicestershire

Council bosses will spend the coming months grappling with the challenges of where to build tens of thousands of new homes across Leicester and Leicestershire.

Officials say some 96,500 new homes need to be built by 2036 to cope with population growth estimates – and then a further 90,500 by 2050.

The massive scale of the development will change large parts of the city and county beyond recognition and have been set out in a newly revised ‘strategic growth plan’ (SGP).

The SGP is a vision drawn up by the city and county council as well as the seven Leicestershire district authorities intended to best manage the major changes that lie ahead and guide key decisions.

Each authority will be asked to approve the SGP meetings they will hold between now and Christmas.

Here we look at 6 of the key questions.

1) Where exactly will the houses be built?

Put simply, it is not yet known. The SGP anticipates building will continue in pockets around Leicestershire but gives some broad directions as to where major development should be concentrated by councils in the future up to 2036.

The revised strategic growth plan

Map key

A46 Expressway Corridor

The whole plan is underpinned by the creation of a southern by-pass for Leicester – otherwise called the A46 Expressway.

No exact route has been given for the road – which has been described as a key part of future national transport infrastucture – but broadly it would begin at the Hobby Horse roundabout at Syston and loop round the east and south of the city joining the M1 somewhere near Countesthorpe at a new motorway junction.

While the aim of the road is to relieve congestion on the M1 near Leicester and the A46 north of the city some 38,000 homes could be built along the corridor it would create.

poll loading

Do you think the A46 Expressway is a good idea?

0+ VOTES SO FAR

Leicestershire International Gateway Corridor

This is a large area along the M1 to the north of Coalville and north west of Loughborough.

It incorporates East Midlands Airport, Loughborough University, the proposed Toton HS2 rail hub and large industrial parks.

It is envisaged some 11,000 homes could be built here along with large amounts of office and industrial developments.

The A5 Improvement Corridor.

The A5 runs along Leicestershire’s south west border with Warwickshire.

The aim is to upgrade the A road to expressway status making it more like a motorway.

Some 5,000 homes and employment sites would be built along the improved road between the M1 and the M42.

Source – Leicestershire Strategic Growth Plan

Have you seen these key planning applications?

Melton Mowbray

The revised SGP designates the town as key centre for regeneration and growth after the Government recently approved the £63.5 million construction of an eastern by-pass.

The plan says: “The recent approval for the Melton Mowbray Relief Road provides the catalyst for change.

“It will remove congestion in the town centre and open up land for development to the north and east of the town.

“Similar investment in highways to the south of the town could increase this further.

“New growth will support town centre shops and services and provide the opportunity for people to live close to where they work. The new A46 expressway and improved connections to it, will also improve connectivity to Leicester, the M1 and the Leicestershire International Gateway.”

Leicester

It has been broadly accepted Leicester will not be able to find enough space for the new homes needed to meet its growing population so its share of housing will spill out into neighbouring council areas.

Homes will however continue to be built in the city.

What’s happening in politics?

2) When will the building begin?

Again, it isn’t clear at which point between now and 2036 each component of the SGP will be developed.

The plan is a guide rather than a strict schedule and local councils will be responsible for approving – or not – each element of it as firm proposals are drawn up.

3) What consultation has there been?

The team behind the SGP ran a consultation on its initial proposals from January to May this year.

Nearly 600 responses were received – 80 per cent of them from residents and the rest from businesses, developers, land owners and organisations like the police.

Large numbers of new homes are needed in Leicestershire. Where will they go?

4) What happens next?

The Strategic Growth Plan will now be considered by the local councils which developed it, with the aim of having the plan approved by mid-December.

Then each council will look to build it into their local plans.

5) What do the politicians say?

Coun Trevor Pendleton is chairman of the SGA members advisory group.

He said: “We need to work together to manage development, focusing it in key areas, so that our city and county can grow and prosper.

“This plan will also help us bid for national funding, which is essential to get the sort of infrastructure improvements that will help to ease congestion and drive growth.

“The plan will influence more locally-made decisions on planning and development. It gives more control over planning matters back to local authorities and will inform the Local Plans that each authority develops, which set out in more detail how they will allow and encourage future growth.

“We know that some of these proposals are controversial.

“They are not easy decisions but we need to be strategic about how we manage future growth so that it is focused, sustainable and of benefit to the people who live and work here.”

Sir Peter Soulsby

Leicester mayor Sir Peter Soulsby said: “The future prosperity of our city and county is a key priority for all the partners who have shaped this plan.

“Thinking ahead is vital to ensure we get the best possible deal for Leicester and Leicestershire, particularly when it comes to getting funding for infrastructure improvements.

“We are all committed to protecting the environment and heritage that make our city, county and market towns so special.

“We also have ambitious plans and a strong shared vision to ensure that we get the best possible deal for Leicester and Leicestershire.

“Together, our voice is stronger.”

Leicestershire County Council leader Nick Rushton added: ““I really welcome the production of the plan, it makes the area a real trailblazer in terms of the rest of the country.

“From our perspective, there’s now a long-term vision which helps us to better plan for the future. That’s particularly important in bidding for Government funding towards the transport infrastructure needed to support further growth.”

6) Is everyone so enthusiastic about the plans?

No – quite the opposite in fact.

The Leicestershire branch of the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE) have described the SGP as ‘ environmentally destructive, car dependent, low density green field sprawl’

Harborough MP Neil O’Brien

Harborough MP Neil O’Brien’s constituency is likely to be most affected by the proposed A46 Expressway and he said he had huge concerns about the plan.

He said: “I support the principle of a long term plan for the county, but unless local councils come up with some kind of plan B, with alternatives to the expressway, then this process is doomed to fail

“There is absolutely no point saying we will consult with people on a proposal for a major new road and extra housing, but then not publishing a map of where the road is supposed to go. How can people comment on something if they don’t know where it will be?

“What analysis that has been published so far suggests is that the proposed expressway won’t solve the key problem of congested routes into and out of the city.

“In fact, because it proposes unbalanced growth with so much new development on the south and east of the city, the traffic study suggests it would cause the traffic on the southern part of the city to grind to a halt.

“We need to see some proper alternatives developed so we can see some alternative options. Unless that happens I can’t possibly support this expressway bid.

“A joint plan is a good idea – but without some alternative options that can work it will be a waste of time.”

Source

https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/leicester-news/6-key-questions-answered-180k-2066906

from TAXI NEAR ME http://taxi.nearme.host/6-crucial-questions-addressed-as-180k-brand-new-houses-required-in-leicestershire/

[ukresinboundsurfacing]

How can Councillors deliver streets for people?

Councillors attend our event on Tuesday 12 June

Panellists take questions, from L-R, Cllrs Kevin Davis, Adele Morris, Clyde Loakes and Feryal Demirci

On Tuesday 12 June we welcomed councillors from all four corners of London to the New London Architecture (NLA) at the Building Centre to hear about what they could do to create streets for people. Below we share some of the key takeaways.

There is major potential for active travel in London

The capital might be big, but the journeys Londoners are making are not. For example, half of all the car trips made by Londoners could be cycled in just ten minutes and more than a third of car trips could be walked in under 25 minutes. There is clearly enormous potential for active travel in every borough of London.

Boroughs have opportunities to fund streets for people

With around two billion pounds set aside for their Healthy Streets Portfolio, Transport for London are making sums available to boroughs. Both through partnership projects such as Liveable Neighbourhoods, Strategic Cycle Routes, Quietways, Safer Junctions and Cycle Superhighways and through the direct borough transport funding, known as Local Implementation Plans.

London has tried and tested examples to learn from

Each of these funding streams for boroughs above can draw on some of the best practice approaches that that capital is fortunate to be home to. The North-South Cycle Superhighway in central London, for instance, whose cycle counters clocked one million users after five months or the Walthamstow Village scheme that halved traffic in the area, shedding 14,500 vehicles a day from neighbourhood streets. Visiting these schemes to experience them in real life is highly recommended. 

Delivering requires collaboration and communication with communities

A clear emphasis of our speakers was on the importance of dialogue with communities, of which four themes stood out:

1. Collaboration and engagement:

Community collaboration over the design and further measures is vital. It gives ownership of elements a scheme to local residents and businesses. But primarily it makes sure that designers identify problems people want solving.

2. Language:

While two-way communication is important, the language is too. Instead of ‘cyclists’, ‘motorists’ and ‘pedestrians’, talk about people cycling, people walking or people driving and focus on the benefits of the schemes, not the mode of transport behind the funding.

3. Determination:

Changing streets and how people can use them requires determination. Delivering real change means confronting everyday behaviour that we take for granted – and this can be uncomfortable, heated and emotive. In the midst of this councillors should stick firmly with the evidence available, not fears of what might happen articulated by those who shout loudest.

Trials and temporary arrangements help to test these assumption in real life. You can always revisit schemes to improve them further. After schemes settle in you’ll also find the noise subsides and those who were against might even end up in support or even pleased with the results. Indeed, mini-Holland boroughs Enfield and Waltham Forest, returned increased majorities at the local elections in May.

The results are worth it

Councillors are elected to act in the best interests of the communities they represent. Only a third of Londoners' journeys are made by car, yet all Londoners suffer from exposure to illegal levels of pollution and dangerous traffic that hinders active travel for all ages and abilities.

Streets for people already exist in London. In parts of Waltham Forest and Hackney, children are able to walk, scoot or cycle to school and even play out in streets free of through-traffic. In Kingston, Camden and on new Cycle Superhighways in Southwark and Westminster, families have the option to cycle thanks to the protection and separation from traffic and crossings that have been vastly improved along the way making our urban motorways a little more accessible to people walking.

For councillors and officers, the knowledge and experience is available on how to deliver them, so it’s time to get cracking. We plan to put to host more learning opportunities for councillors in the future.

Be the first to hear about more learning opportunities for councillors - sign up to our monthly newsletter for professionals

Liveable cities

Policy

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8239590 https://www.sustrans.org.uk/blog/how-can-councillors-deliver-streets-people via IFTTT

[runningtrackcontractors]

How can boroughs deliver streets for people?

Councillors attend our event on Tuesday 12 June

Cllr Feryal Demirci, London Borough of Hackney Deputy Mayor, addresses the audience

On Tuesday 12 June we welcomed councillors from all four corners of London to the New London Architecture (NLA) at the Building Centre to hear about what they could do to create streets for people. Below we share some of the key takeaways.

There is major potential for active travel in London

The capital might be big, but the journeys Londoners are making are not. For example, half of all the car trips made by Londoners could be cycled in just ten minutes and more than a third of car trips could be walked in under 25 minutes. There is clearly enormous potential for active travel in every borough of London.

Boroughs have opportunities to fund streets for people

With around two billion pounds set aside for their Healthy Streets Portfolio, Transport for London are making sums available to boroughs. Both through partnership projects such as Liveable Neighbourhoods, Strategic Cycle Routes, Quietways, Safer Junctions and Cycle Superhighways and through the direct borough transport funding, known as Local Implementation Plans.

London has tried and tested examples to learn from

Each of these funding streams for boroughs above can draw on some of the best practice approaches that that capital is fortunate to be home to. The North-South Cycle Superhighway in central London, for instance, whose cycle counters clocked one million users after five months or the Walthamstow Village scheme that halved traffic in the area, shedding 14,500 vehicles a day from neighbourhood streets. Visiting these schemes to experience them in real life is highly recommended. 

Delivering requires collaboration and communication with communities

A clear emphasis of our speakers was on the importance of dialogue with communities, of which four themes stood out:

1. Collaboration and engagement:

Community collaboration over the design and further measures is vital. It gives ownership of elements a scheme to local residents and businesses. But primarily it makes sure that designers identify problems people want solving.

2. Language:

While two-way communication is important, the language is too. Instead of ‘cyclists’, ‘motorists’ and ‘pedestrians’, talk about people cycling, people walking or people driving and focus on the benefits of the schemes, not the mode of transport behind the funding.

3. Determination:

Changing streets and how people can use them requires determination. Delivering real change means confronting everyday behaviour that we take for granted – and this can be uncomfortable, heated and emotive. In the midst of this councillors should stick firmly with the evidence available, not fears of what might happen articulated by those who shout loudest.

Trials and temporary arrangements help to test these assumption in real life. You can always revisit schemes to improve them further. After schemes settle in you’ll also find the noise subsides and those who were against might even end up in support or even pleased with the results. Indeed, mini-Holland boroughs Enfield and Waltham Forest, returned increased majorities at the local elections in May.

The results are worth it

Councillors are elected to act in the best interests of the communities they represent. Only a third of Londoners' journeys are made by car, yet all Londoners suffer from exposure to illegal levels of pollution and dangerous traffic that hinders active travel for all ages and abilities.

Streets for people already exist in London. In parts of Waltham Forest and Hackney, children are able to walk, scoot or cycle to school and even play out in streets free of through-traffic. In Kingston, Camden and on new Cycle Superhighways in Southwark and Westminster, families have the option to cycle thanks to the protection and separation from traffic and crossings that have been vastly improved along the way making our urban motorways a little more accessible to people walking.

For councillors and officers, the knowledge and experience is available on how to deliver them, so it’s time to get cracking. We plan to put to host more learning opportunities for councillors in the future.

Be the first to hear about more learning opportunities for councillors - sign up to our monthly newsletter for professionals

Liveable cities

Policy

from Blog https://www.sustrans.org.uk/blog/how-can-boroughs-deliver-streets-people via IFTTT

[2bhkbudgethome]

Furnished Office Space Gurgaon

Fully Furnished Office Space Gurgaon

If we think of furnished office space in Gurgaon there are very few sellers that we rely on the reason being is the differences between what is promised and what it delivered some unique Office Space in Global Business Park Gurgaon are really difficult to trace that the client is often confused as to which in turn dealer he should trust in. Since the property has no set benchmark and the prices happen to be rough estimations taking into account with the last sale made in this area, it's always a difficult activity. There was a right time when Gurgaon was a small village trying to find the attention of the Realtors. Despite to their proximity with Gurgaon it absolutely was lagging the Infrastructure that is essential to be considered to become next Real estate destination. Following your exploding population scenario in Delhi and saturation pertaining to Realtors since there was room left in Delhi had been Realtors could make huge mass residential and commercial real estate. Haryana Government took some striking step sand Gurgaon originated slowly. The Centre sanctioning the Delhi Gurgaon Motorway and Maruti setting their plant there was the going stone for the Industrial and Developmental of Gurgaon.

The Social People Of Gurgaon

Gurgaon has been agriculture primarily based village society from since the beginning, the soil was abundant and the farmers sowed seeds. The Haryana government would be tried to some extent popularize cultivation in Gurgaon but following your development of the new Metropolis has not been able to divert the lender's mind towards agriculture. At this point since major population with the rural Gurgaon has received much from selling all their lucrative land to the company, it has entered into other businesses. Haryana who's once saying was "Haryana jahan milta hai doodh ka khana" is now progressing towards the fresh cultural shift that is property. Nooks and corners of Gurgaon has seen the spurting up of small real estate agents that neither provides the experience of real Estate neither they understand the finer information of the Best Office Space in Gurgaon.

Small Office Space Gurgaon

According to recent reports, it has been proposed which the population of this small local area would soon reach. your five crores and it would get a parallel city to Gurgaon. Assuming that the speed at with basic infrastructure is growing by Gurgaon, it will add more strain to the already crippling infrastructure rapidly. There have been studies of clashes between the two different realities of Gurgaon. One is the developing Corporate and business City and the other is an older rustic root. It can be seen that how Small Office Space Gurgaon would evolve as a fresh city of thousand dreams. Since it is said "like people oftentimes countries has their own lives often, Gurgaon too had to heal its way into a true representative of Modern India. The modern-day economic theory has offered that after some point of saturation people do glimpse outside for new avenues to learn, Delhi has its flow with the destiny, so comes with Kolkata now its Gurgaon's turn. 

Best Office Space in Gurgaon

Like raising Arizona from the ashes and taking a new birth, a lot of full-day Gurgaon also would rise from his past and reach for the glory of future. How can it happen it is to be viewed soon? And realtors have their own gaze stuck to that, it's in their blood to produce hey while the sun does well, the radar is open achievable business opportunities always, and history is evident that first movers have attained immensely always, remember what DLF has gained in setting its foothold inside the lucrative real estate world of Gurgaon. Kaushal Pal has great belief in the potential of Gurgaon and its vision for future years of it. Forgetting a good deal is a lot like extracting diamonds from the skin; KP Singh himself settled and negotiated family disputes to be able to spread his empire. Now we have entered into the domain of Furnished Office Space Gurgaon that is attractive due to the various options that it delivers to its buyers.

Contact us,

Shalabh Mishra Tel: +91-9212306116 Email: shalabh.mishra@gmail.com Skype ID: Shalabh.Mishra For more info, kindly visit: http://www.dwarkaexpresswaynewproject.in/commercial

[victorialefebvre-blog]

EBooks Automobile. Routine maintenance.

Joonas Laakso: Each of our games are actually inside called NCG" for Upcoming Automobile Game until they have an effective title. Miller as well as Valasek have not but exposed the particular part of the car's safety and security that allows the car to be regulated, yet they possess pointed out that they can practically regulate any kind of vehicle in the United States through simply securing the IP address of that cars and truck. Mercedes, which is Germany's oldest vehicle supplier, finds a future in a market serving folks which, while not keen on cars and truck ownership, want superior and also premium transit including limo trip. Check your customer manual to see whether you possess such a device suited to your car and to find out the best ways to activate this. Initially - and also our experts are actually talking about the upcoming handful of years - autonomous autos will possibly go no better than 'chauffeur help', from time to time pushing you along when in a slow-going visitor traffic. In spite of Google's adherence to its personal distinct design language, YouTube usuallies be actually a really good iphone resident, sustaining AirPlay. Numerous websites possess buyers' resources that can assist you to contrast one model to another within your budget: one of the greatest are actually AA's auto acquiring quick guide as well as Parker's rate guide Both evaluate secondhand and also brand new styles and will definitely likewise estimate how much your present auto costs. For the most parts from autoimmune condition, delicate and also sluggish internal cleansing is chosen as easy, intense detoxifications may aggravate signs and symptoms. Our team additionally contacted Nvidia, that called into question Apple's potential to appear a vehicle really quickly. The UK is among the European nations not to have ratified the 1968 Vienna meeting on street website traffic that designates a motorist must be in the front seat of a cars and truck. This feels like dust is actually forbidden to ever before touch the automobile or even conform the keep track of in anyhow (jumping container clipping etc). That's fantastic to see the other strategies to getting to full throttle by other cars and truck makers as well as tuners alike. Nowadays this is actually truly hard to locate a buyer which possesses all the factors operating in his or her benefit, including having excellent credit rating, or even the capacity making a large down payment, but the rental fee to possess property makes that easier for people with less resources to obtain an opportunity to purchase their aspiration properties. And if you actually wish to plunge deep right into Option 66 in a little bit of reddish Corvette, or boat trip a Camaro along the Pacific Shore Motorway, look at the fine vehicles on call off Blacktop Goodie's a well-regarded excursion as well as car-hire business located in North Carolina. Optionally available actual timber slick adorns the generous dash and unjustified leather therapies to develop an internal deserving of a high-end automobile. In fact, they really did not get round to creating cars and trucks with 4 steering wheels until the end of the 1930s. However, before entering into a private contract acquisition deal it is very important for cars and truck purchasers to consider the expense from any sort of financial deal in the lasting. This is actually a very early consider where Google's hooked up auto future is headed, and also this makes good sense to get rid of the intermediary from your phone and have Android merely merely function in a vehicle. These components presently provide us a feeling of the vehicle having the capacity to presume for itself, with the help of a bunch of radars, sensors, as well as cameras. Aside from using a really good equilibrium from text and also white space as well as a really good mix of font styles, you may use various other types of importance in your résumé. Taken autos are actually most of the amount of time, repossessed automobiles from proprietors who were actually unable to spend for the vehicle mortgage or finance coming from the government, financial institutions, or various other loan provider. Autoimmune illness is essentially your physique betraying you (through attacking you). Besides obtaining a rental payment to own home is nearly the same as renting to possess a car where the customer rents the cars and truck to discover additional concerning the automobile and also whether it satisfies his criteria or not, as well as lastly he acquires the car if it complies with the criteria. On May 25, 2016, an exclusive Reuters report stated that Apple has actually been actually contacting producers from demanding stations for electrical cars and trucks. The future generation automobile developers are taught all facets from business with corporate financed tasks as well as teaching fellowships at leading makers. You load up all the playthings, press a switch to close the trunk and jump in the auto and also repel. Having said that, you might possess incredibly various reasons for utilizing your motor vehicle through which case you should presume carefully concerning just what type of automobile will definitely assist you. Offering up 4 modes from play comprising mainly of single-player occasions, it's very clear the meat of the game resides within its occupation method. In View Canine, a very intriguing trait occurs when you fire private citizens in automobiles: Absolutely nothing. Uber as well as driverless automobiles might possess some particular niche duty in enhancing transit devices all over the nation, but as New York City research studies their very likely effect, our company can hope that the Metropolitan area follows through on making certain that they contribute dramatically to growing the public transportation units that remain the all-time champion trendsetters in battling temperature adjustment and providing reliable transportation for the majority of the population in the Metropolitan area. socwall.com/images/wallpapers/76635-290x260.jpg" alt="here" title="there (C) Unknown Artist" style="max-width:400px;float:left;padding:10px 10px 10px 0px;border:0px;">GM's IPO was actually oversubscribed because our team began getting cars and trucks at a faster clip, induced by the year's remarkable rise in vehicle advertising and marketing. If that's the latter, then you'll most likely must take that you'll should either view some advertisements or even in-app acquisitions to obtain the good things, as a lot of programmers do not want to give away their opportunity absolutely free. As its label suggests, The best ways to Excellent thinks about the trouble from merit and, as a GCSE concern could mount this, Its Area in the Modern Planet. There are 350 vehicles (and also counting) and there are actually no policies about how you utilize them. For those who have almost any questions about where by and also the best way to make use of Read More On this page, it is possible to email us from our web-page.

[lodelcar]

FROM CIRCULAR ECONOMY TO INTERNET OF THINGS: NEW OPPORTUNITIES FOR REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Picture: Restaurant with recycled furniture and decoration in old malt factory in Boortmeerbeek (Belgium)

The dichotomy between generations

I went recently to the presentation of a new strategic plan for several Balkan countries close to the Adriatic. It is hopeful and fascinating that EU-members are involving the Western Balkan countries into a supranational approach for regional development. It is also surprising that the drivers for this the supranational strategy are cities and provinces alongside the Adriatic sea[1], and not national governments. However, parts of  the proposed strategy seemed old school to me, insisting on agricultural, aquacultural and touristic collaboration. The strategy insists upon capacity building and research, and development of SMEs hoping for a transfer of knowhow between old and new Europe.

What stroke me, during my trips to Eastern Europe, but also to the rest of the world, is the fact that in certain disciplines there is no need for capacity building or for transfer of knowhow. The young generation wherever in the world, that grew up in this new and fascinating world, is eager for all novelties and technological developments, and only needs ideas and opportunities to show their acquired interest and capacities.

And those new trends are not aquaculture, agriculture or tourism. They are to be situated in the digital world, the renewable energy world, the circular economy world and the sharing economy world. Moreover, creativity in these disciplines does not necessarily need huge investments to be successful. And it can be applied to regional markets that can immediately benefit from local innovation.

So let us try to develop some ideas for the future, applicable by young entrepreneurs in the Balkans and other upcoming economies.

The digital economy: a worldwide phenomenon

The digital economy goes in many directions. Some are applicable worldwide, like Facebook or Twitter. Some are applicable locally, such as the payment app for toll booths on Romanian motorways, or even the health control bracelet for elderly people in their home linking them to local healthcare centres and keeping them at home for a longer period of time.

But this digital economy creates new jobs, for young developers, young installers, young service providers. We can find applications already in the following sectors: buildings, energy, consumer & home, healthcare & life science, industries, transportation & mobility, retail shops, security and public safety and of course IT & networks.  It appeals to 28 application groups and in 29 different types of locations. These strategies are to be developed in a close collaboration between local and regional authorities as drivers, local technical schools and universities as inspirers and local companies and start-ups as executors. And supranational, national and private funding as financial source. We are talking about applications for internet of things, applications in the sharing economy, developments in 3D-printing[2] and developments in artificial intelligence and robotisation. All this knowhow is present in many countries. Conditions, such as 4G technology are also available in European countries. But this requires local interest from town halls and regional administrations and local strategies. Because in many cases these new technologies can provide a stunning progress in public service to the population, and therefore be a proof for a well functioning local public authorities.

The circular economy: an economic opportunities or for idealists and lunatics?

The definition of the circular economy refers to the more efficient use of raw materials, existing materials, energy, water, space and food  by smartly closing usage cycles. A distinction is made between biological material and technical material. In the first one, the use of farm waste for energy purposes and others is at stake, whereas in the other one the principles of recycling, refurbishing, remanufacturing, reuse and maintenance are the principal characteristics.

Circular economy is a mind-set though, in the first place. It invites the public opinion to embrace the principle of not exhausting the planet, to go for sustainability, for reuse of materials and garbage and for avoiding waste by making the effort of re-entering used products in the consumption chain. Literally this means that people enjoy shopping in vintage clothes shops, enjoy sitting on remanufactured second hand tables in restaurants and enjoy having meetings at work in refurbished seats. It is the young generation, that loves this mind-set; that loves technical innovation in a sustainable context.

Once this mind-set is adopted by a sufficient number of inhabitants, it becomes a market. A market interested in product design innovation from existing products or even waste. A market for manufacturing and producing home made products. This provides opportunities for entrepreneurs willing to collaborate, making standard screws and nuts that can be reused, standard metal supports designed for modular applications which can be rearranged to create different configurations and variants. A market for repairing old furniture, which is dismantled and new shaped, starting a new life cycle. A market for circular shops, to which people bring in their old washing machines, that are repaired and resold at cheap(er) conditions. A market for reusing old stone benches on public sidewalks, dismantle them and brushing stones around it, creating a very modern public space.

The business opportunities in the circular economy are numerous:

·         Recycling: convert waste into a reusable material

·         Repair: Bringing the product back to the original state

·         Upgrade: improving the product with a better functionality

·         Modularity: design a product into easily detachable components

·         Durability: design longer lasting products

·         Resource trade: waste from one company serves as a resource for another company

The sharing economy: the next step in a sustainable world

The sharing economy is of all times. Public libraries are a typical example of it, existing since hundreds of years. They were created out of concern of local authorities to enable people to acquire knowledge and affordable intelligent entertainment. “Popular elevation” it was called at the end of the nineteenth century.  Several principles of rental were installed, each time there was a market: agricultural machinery rental, car rental, garden machinery rental, video rental, bed & breakfast. The principle was identical: sharing a product with others for the life cycle of the product.

Once apps were available, the principle of rental received a whole new content. Peer-to-peer accommodation enables home owners to propose a room to people, promoting it only in an app, AirBNB. Uber offers a private individual to use his own car as a taxi and to receive orders without doing promotion. The driverless car makes companies dream of car fleets that are shared among users that only order a car when they need to use one. The same can be done by companies who need personnel on a temporary basis, and that are unwilling to fill in the necessary paperwork. Online staffing applications offer companies the possibility to share staff.  The same principle is offered to restaurants who make lunches that are not consumed in their restaurant, but in the customer’s home. Delivered by bikers, in special containers. The bikers are able to pass through heavy traffic and deliver hot meals within minutes. The same bikers deliver also parcels in the framework of e-commerce.

Elderly care at home

A specific niche, requiring a thorough collaboration between public and private sector, is the sector of the elderly care. The more we travel to the east, the greater the unwillingness to put someone’s parents in elderly homes. In the first place because of the inexistence of decent and affordable facilities, in the second place because of the century-old tradition that children take care of their parents.

But the reality of the twenty-first century complicates things enormously. The younger generation works in the city, lives in an apartment, and is therefore unable to take retired parents in their homes. Or they even live abroad, send monthly money to the retired parents, but have to take care of them from a distance, through skype.

Developments of remote health control and intervention assurance are thought over and installed. Lunches are distributed, the cleaning of the house is organized. The remote control system is again an internet application. It can perfectly be installed thanks to a bracelet at the older parent’s wrist. It triggers a warning system in a control room, provided there are abnormalities or if the parent pushes the button. The lead time for the intervention should be very limited. It is up to the authorities to take initiatives and to control the quality and the price of these systems. The private sector can organise this, make a business out of it.  It requires IT-knowhow, well trained and dedicated personnel, transportation means (depending on traffic density). We are sure there is a market.

The role of the local authorities

As I mentioned, Europe is promoting the role of local and regional authorities in economic and social development. They can more easily work together, provided there is a willingness to do so and not to fight politically between regions for ideological reasons.

In the first place local authorities inspire and bring partners together from the business world, from universities and technical schools and stimulate start-ups. They fill in a strategy for internet of things applications and also offer (shop) space & look for partners in civil society for pilot projects such as FabLabs or Circular shops.  One of the crucial roles of local or regional authorities is the organisation of (separate) waste collection but not to put it afterwards in a dump but to take initiatives to reuse a large part of it. This requires a market, which does not yet exist. But local authorities can collaborate and take initiatives to create partial markets in order to stimulate circular economy. They can invite business people to invest in plastic bags recycling factories or make deals with electronic device recycling factories. They can stimulate the reuse of debris as a bottom for new roads.  Local authorities could also stimulate elements of the share economy by putting in place rules and regulations and control mechanisms. And they definitely are to examine the organisation of remote elderly care, if there is a need and a demand.  

Louis Delcart, board member European Academy of the Regions, www.ear-aer.eu

[1] http://www.adriatic-ionian.eu/

[2] We visited a nice example of 3D applications : Techno park Tbilisi https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tech-Park/925174827530434

[rupertacton]

The Oak Leaves and the Acorns

I'm currently somewhere on the southern side of the Thames Estuary. The pylons stretch for miles across the semi-marshland. I seem to be left alone here. My pursuers must have realised I have no intention of carrying on my campaign. I don't doubt that they will find me at some point but for now I am no longer a priority. This gives me a chance to think. I know there are other people resisting. Pockets of dissent. I am under no illusion though. We have lost. They have won. All I can do for now is try to explain to myself, and anyone that finds this, how we reached this point. Soon there will only be official accounts. Well presented lies on information boards. Something for The Members to file past with suitable reverence. Watched over by The Volunteers.

Like many people of my age my first encounters with The Trust were benign. Boring even. A long drive out of the city. A weekend away. My parents would exit the motorway, turn onto the A and B Roads and follow the familiar signs. A driveway, carpark, a formal garden, an impossibly huge house or castle. The sticker in the car window, the Oak Leaves and the Acorns, granted us access. A vision of how the other half used to live. An aristocracy before the democratisation of extreme wealth caused the cash poor and asset rich to gift their little slices of heaven to us mere mortals. Of course, as a child, I had very little grasp of how, and why, these buildings and their well maintained grounds became part of a very particular holiday for a very particular type of people. These endless houses, infinities of lawns, the never ending tours, were nothing but a preamble to the real action of the gift shop and cafe, an ice cream as a reward for good behaviour or to placate a tantrum. This was The Trust to me.  As well as the houses there were vast expanses of coastline, countryside, even whole villages, that we visited, the oak leaf and the acorns in the window bestowing it's privileges upon the Volvo and it's inhabitants.

At this time membership was voluntary of course. My parents were both left-leaning academics in London universities. They had a strong professional interest in the built and natural environment. As I moved into my early teens I developed similar interests but expressed in slightly different ways. Graffiti, skateboarding, breaking into the derelict social housing being decanted as London emptied itself of undesirable elements. Warehouse parties. I still sometimes had to go away with my parents.  We sometimes rented a cottage from The Trust, often out of season for the cheaper rates, I hated school so didn't mind being pulled out for a week or two. I was generally left to my own devices. Able to walk, listen to music, read, develop a deep relationship with super strong strains of marijuana. Although we were undeniably culturally middle class we were financially precarious. More like my friends whose parents worked at supermarkets and call centres than my friends whose parents worked for banks and advertising agencies. This was hidden from me but I understood. Academia was falling apart. Especially the serious, radical, unprofitable academic practice my parents were involved with. The initially stable professorships and lecturing positions they held were becoming increasingly unpredictable. The work was different. The students were now mainly extremely wealthy, often from the continent, or further afield, expecting a certain level of service for the huge fees paid by their parents. I only give this background information to contextualise what was happening before things got to where they are now. London had become a playground for the mega rich. Vast swathes of Not-London were post-industrial wasteland, stockbroker belt housing, big sheds, strip malls, badly managed farmland, grouse moors, sheep afflicted pseudo-wilderness, brick clad housing developments, dead shopping precincts, violent town centres.

I'm just old enough to remember pre-Separation Britain. The forces that shaped post-Separation Britain, or what remained, were already working their dark magic. The latent fascism, racism, xenophobia, hatred of difference, this was all here. Dormant but here. The force that really brought about what we have now, though, was the money. Large parts of the country relied on the money siphoned from The Continent, directly or indirectly. Whole counties became unsustainable. Services were slashed, central government had nothing to replace the subsidies, young and old were pitted against each other, the rural and urban, the poor and the rich. You could argue it was forever thus. You could. I'd probably agree. But there were moments of hope, consensus, belief in a better future for everyone. This was over. An almost endless wave of civil disorder, protests, street battles, increasingly violent terrorist incidents and heavy handed government clampdowns by an increasingly underfunded police force helped by an increasingly more influential military, was in motion. Life was still the same, but very different. I managed to finish school, my parents still just about scraped by on teaching jobs. I had become very active politically and had developed a taste for confrontation that would later serve me very well. Or very badly depending on your perspective.

The money ran out. Britain was broke. The government had nothing. Certain far sighted, or some would say complicit, businesses, corporations, NGO's, QUANGO's and other interested parties had seen this coming. There is circumstantial evidence that they had a lot of help from individuals within central and local government but the electronic paper trail for this is complicated and despite, or because of, numerous leaks, counter-leaks and counter-counter-leaks I doubt the full story will ever be told. From the convoluted and contradictory evidence on offer there has been some sort of narrative pieced together by people who are now dead, exiled or living like I am. I was never part of any organised resistance as such, I preferred leaderless cells, random actions, so I was never privy to the inner machinations of the various movements against The Trust but I can tell you what I think I know.

A few years before everything got very bad, when things were merely bad, The Trust appointed a new chairperson, and like most people in positions of power within The Trust, this person had a strong establishment background. As well as being a gifted academic who attended one of the ancient universities, becoming one of the foremost experts on antiquities and classical architecture and becoming something of a celebrity, they also had little side hobby. This side hobby was what the more paranoid among us called The Deep State. The Deep State, for the uninitiated, is the liminal space where the security services, the government, the Monarchy, the civil services, big business, the military and other good guys all meet. We could debate how much actual influence they really have and how much of what has happened is down to a carefully planned conspiracy and how much is down to luck and infighting but there seems to be little doubt about the fact this was key to The Trust becoming what it is today. This new chairperson realised the Trust was in a very strong position, it was financially secure, with donations rolling in from reactionary old people, progressive young people, entrance fees, holiday lets, memberships, grants from businesses, philanthropic donations, even the final dregs of pre-Separation Continental money. The upkeep of the land and buildings it owned was expensive but it's workforce was augmented by countless volunteers doing their duty to preserve the history and heritage of this great country. I can't say whether the chairperson was placed there by people who saw this, or whether it was pure coincidence, but there is strong evidence of a huge funding drive, and a massive program of extra land and property acquisition in the years leading up to the Government declaring bankruptcy and forfeiting all payments on the massive loans taken out from China, the USA, India and the World Bank. There are minutes of high level meetings between ministers, representatives of the Trust, high level military and civilian intelligence officers and various CEO's of banks and businesses, where the idea of The Trust taking over the day to day running of the country seem to be floated, with the strong backing of the Armed Forces.

Along with the extra land and property there had been a marked shift in the way The Trust was run, and the way it recruited and trained volunteers. They started to target serving soldiers, police officers, TA reservists, the Sealed Knot, various far-right affiliated groups, even football hooligans. There was still traditional volunteers, retired people, young people trying to get a foothold in the increasingly important heritage sector, history buffs etc. These two streams were kept separate. Whole portions of forest and uplands were given over to training camps for the new Volunteers. These were explained as survival courses, retraining, back to the land, outward bound, food foraging workshops. The close combat and weapons training were kept secret from the majority of Trust members at first. The recruitment drive at universities and colleges was upped, even primary and secondary schools. I was too stoned to join in with anything, and I had my own solitary wilderness pastimes that took up most of my time, but large numbers of former friends joined up. The Welfare State was falling apart, jobs were increasingly hard to come by, highly trained graduates were working nightshifts in petrol stations for minimum wage, I couldn't blame them for taking what must have seemed to them good opportunities for some kind of purpose in their lives.

As bankruptcy was declared the welfare, health and social care budgets were cut to beyond anything seen so far in the almost constant “austerity” which had been the norm since the Separation. Vast numbers of people who were already poor, hungry and angry became poorer, hungrier and angrier. Huge demonstrations were called all over the country. I went on what turned out to be the last one, in London, with my parents, countless friends, some who were Trust members, the feeling, at first, was amazing. So many people were united in anger at how things had been allowed to get to this state. People from all classes, races, backgrounds, professions, leftists, moderates, centrists, liberals, even old style conservatives, people with no political views, they were all out on the street. This lasted for most of the day, it was mainly peaceful, there were scuffles, bad policing, the treatment of protestors had got consistently worse but because of the make up of the crowd they had seemed to reign it in a bit, there were even police joining in as policing budgets had been cut and many hadn't been paid for months. This “carnival atmosphere” carried on throughout the night in cities and towns throughout the country. This was a mass shutdown, spontaneous, angry yet joyful. Some people thought that was it, the moment when “the people” were going to win. I'm a very cynical person but even I had a small amount of optimism that this had to make some kind of positive difference to the situation we were facing. I'd already been on countless demonstrations that achieved very little but this felt different.

Unfortunately for us some very important people in The Deep State thought it was very different as well. They viewed this as the start of something they couldn't tolerate. A loss of order. They had people in the crowds. In many ways they were right to be worried. A mass of people can do a lot of damage to the state, institutions that seem timeless can be torn down in hours to be replaced by who knows what. There were groups, and individuals, within the crowds who were really up for this. I'm not going to pretend I wasn't one of them. I must already have been on some files due to some actions at previous demos, even my, now elderly, parents were probably in some kind of dossier somewhere due to words they'd written. I'd not dismissed political violence, but I had also seen it's consequences, and it's not something to be entered into lightly. Some people do love any excuse for a fight, and doubtlessly there were people in the crowds who were there for that reason, and also, as an added bit of spice, the very people who so loved order had their own people there, ready to spread disorder for the greater cause of restoring it in a stronger form.

Which is what happened. There were a solid group of police and army personnel who hadn't joined in with the protests or been sympathetic in any way. There were some stand offs and violent incidents which were building in intensity as the protests lasted into a second and third day. Numbers of protestors were down but it was the dedicated and the dedicated provocateurs left. On the third day everything kicked off. A group of about 40 what I initially thought were plain clothes policeman stormed into the crowd in Parliament Square. I was there, my parents were still there. The sheer intensity of the violence was awesome. Then more and more of these people flooded the square. Armed with coshes and sticks, and obviously trained at fighting, they targeted people, some people from the crowd joined them, they were followed by the police, arresting the people who had been beaten up, subjecting to them to more brutality. I was running, confused, I lost my parents and the friends I'd spent three days with. All around me people were getting their heads cracked in. People were fighting back but the sheer speed of the attack had left everyone shocked. I got cornered and punched in the face, drawing blood, but I managed to run, and escape the square. I still feel guilty today but what could I have done then? I'd been in fights and confrontations but I wasn't used to this. These lot must have been military or something I thought. I kept running. Runners weren't pursued. The break up of the protest was the main aim. People who stayed and resisted, even peacefully, took the most punishment. Including my parents. I never saw them again. Officially, at the inquest, the verdict was open, but they were murdered. They were too old to handle that level of violence. Heart failure and a brain haemorrhage.

It was only when I'd managed to clear Parliament Square and sit down that I started to think. Every single one of the thugs that had stormed the crowd were wearing some version of the Oak Leaves and the Acorns on their clothes, whether it was a pin badge, or a knitted jumper, a scarf, they all carried that motif somewhere on them. I made some phone calls, trying to find my parents at first, then friends, then started calling people round the country, comrades on other protests, local organisers. The same thing had happened. I started asking about the Oak Leaves and the Acorns and they were everywhere. I had a sinking feeling. The rumours I'd heard, the vague murmuring on underground message boards, were they true? I thought it was the usual conspiracy bollocks at first. Deep State plans for a coup. This sort of stuff was always talked about and the wackiest one involved a well known heritage organisation, it's new Volunteers and an offer to bail out the country in return for absolute power and a return to order.

The wackjobs were right. I have a lot more respect for them now. The break up of the protests were the first in a string of favours that The Trust did for the government over the ensuing months. No one was really sure what was going on. Education workshops sprang up in every school, staffed by Volunteers, some of them clueless, teachers were happy to have the extra resources after years of being starved of funds. Outreach work was conducted, streets were cleaned, more and more people were recruited. Work was provided for the unemployed whether they wanted it or not. Groundskeeping, compulsory tea room volunteering, etc. The Trust were thanked for their benevolence by politicians who knew they were on borrowed time, who needed to make a good impression on their new masters. I was in mourning. I was now convinced The Trust murdered my parents, and now they were taking over the country. One year on from the last protest and parliament was dissolved for the last time. The Monarchy, of course, were fine with what was happening. They were to be kept on. Prime heritage assets. Everyone was issued with a membership card to The Trust. The Oak Leaves and the Acorns flag flew in every town and village. Tourists loved it. Finally the country they had seen for years on television was here. Everyone was assigned a position, from children, to adults, to the elderly. Everyone had something to do within the organisation. Everyone had to learn the official history. Heritage as a secular religion with the founders of The Trust as saints and the current board as a kind of Papal council. A Caliphate where we pray facing to the past. Of course, you probably know this already, you are probably a Member and you are probably happy. You have won. Bunting is hung from every tree and streetlight, and traitors are beheaded in the Tower Of London.

I was never happy with this and neither were a large minority of the population. We resisted. Some peacefully. Some not. Some tried to reform from within. Some people were just scared. I don't blame anyone. We all had to make our own choices. I chose to plant bombs in the same country houses I visited as a child. To wait overlooking volunteer outpost with a sniper rifle and murder Volunteers. To splatter brown signs with red blood. I'm not proud. I wanted revenge. I also wanted a country that looked to the future, that understood it's heritage, and could be honest about the good points and bad points, that wasn't perfect, but strived for something beyond conducting tours of a past that never really existed. I still hope for this but my hope is almost gone. So many of my comrades have been killed, or turned to betrayal after the worst torture, and are now guiding people around a theme park version of the country I used to love.

I'm here, out on the marshes, in a building of little architectural interest, hoping I won't be found, knowing I will be found. I know there are people sympathetic to the cause amongst this nation of Volunteers, and Members, and I hope you find this and carry on the fight to destroy Heritage, The Past, and The Trust, and avenge the blood of the fallen.

Anon, The Future, the Thames Estuary