Southend-on-Sea City Council has unveiled a major step forward in its climate and transport strategy, confirming a long-term partnership with charging infrastructure provider Zest to install thousands of new public electric vehicle (EV) charging spaces across the city. Under a 15-year agreement , Zest – a certified B Corp – will deliver more than 3,000 EV charging bays in a variety of locations, using a mix of lamp post chargers, fast chargers and rapid charging hubs. The sc

12 Nov 2025 LTC have Royal British Legion Industries’ social enterprise, Britain’s Bravest Manufacturing Company (BBMC), as a signage partner for the project. This partnership also builds on BBMC’s work producing signage for the Lower Thames Crossing Skills Hub, which helps local people access training and careers in construction. The project aims to recruit almost half of its workforce locally and spend a third of its construction budget with small businesses, leaving a las

Rail safety education becomes mandatory in PSHE curriculum in England from September 2026 Switched On rail safety website relaunched with enhanced, age-appropriate resources for school pupils from ages 3 - 16 New materials added including resources to help tackle the influence of dangerous social media trends and peer pressure encouraging bad behaviour on or near railways All school children across England are to receive life-saving rail safety education when the subject beco

Work to deliver a £1m project to improve safety along the M602 in Salford, Greater Manchester will begin next week. National Highways, which operates the M602, is providing the improvements to three bridges over the motorway at Eccles and Weaste. Langworthy Road, Derby Road and Weaste Road bridges, between junction 2 and junction 3 of the motorway, will each benefit from new safety fencing with the installation of 1.8 metre high parapets capped with protective ‘steeples’.  Th

Residents in a Greater Manchester town without a direct transport link to the city centre could zoom into town very soon, transport chiefs say. Those living in Golborne, in the furthest reaches of the region on the Wigan-Warrington border, have no direct rail, tram, or bus connection to Manchester city centre 15 miles away. However, they could see trains stop in the town for the first time in 60 years from 2027. The former colliery community saw its railway halt close in the

The Woodhead Pass between Greater Manchester and South Yorkshire has reopened after overnight snowfall closed it to traffic. National Highways said the A628 was closed in both directions between the A616 for Hollingworth and the A57 for Flouch, as a number of heavy goods vehicles were struggling in the wintry conditions and required assistance. Drivers using the road, which passes through Derbyshire, had been advised to use the M60, M62 and M1 as an alternative route. Snowfal

Liv Garfield, one of the UK’s most prominent business leaders and the longest-serving female chief executive in the FTSE 100, is preparing to step aside after more than a decade at the helm of Severn Trent. The water and wastewater giant confirmed that Garfield will leave the top job at the end of December, concluding an 11-year tenure that has reshaped the company’s operational and environmental performance. The board has chosen internal candidate James Jesic —currently the

Global programme delivery specialist Mace Consult has strengthened its leadership team with the appointment of Zoe Price as Managing Director for Europe, a move that signals the firm’s intent to accelerate its growth strategy and sharpen its delivery performance across the region. Price will oversee regional priorities, operations and performance, drawing on more than two decades of senior experience in the built environment. Her background includes leadership roles at ISG, W

Kent County Council has appointed Ringway, a Vinci-owned highways specialist, to take over the county’s long-term road maintenance and improvement programme in a contract valued at around £1bn. The new highways term maintenance agreement will go live in May 2026 and will run for 21 years, marking one of the longest commitments of its kind in local government. Ringway will succeed Amey, which has operated the service since 2013. According to the council, the appointment follow

East West Rail has substantially reworked its blueprint for the Oxford–Cambridge line, revealing an enlarged package of station proposals and service changes as the £7bn project approaches the Development Consent Order (DCO) stage. More than 80 revisions have been incorporated across the route, with the Marston Vale Line seeing the most dramatic transformation. The current nine small and outdated stations on the stretch will be swept aside in favour of four larger, modern rep

From a distance, there seems to be a lot of options when it comes to field operations software – but frequently the choice is clinched by unexpected benefits that go beyond the initial wishlist. Back when the team at ATV Contract Services – a leading UK landscaping contractor operating across rail, highways, housing, and general landscaping – started looking at digital field management, their old systems were slowing them down and making visibility of sites difficult. Their p

A new extension to the bus lanes in Manor Royal has officially opened, helping buses beat the traffic and get passengers where they need to go faster.  Delivered through West Sussex County Council’s (WSCC) Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP) and funded by the Department for Transport, this latest upgrade to Manor Royal completes the improvement works started in 2021. Through BSIP, the council was awarded £17.4 million over three years to improve bus journeys within the county

Kier Transportation is the first company to be awarded the Platinum level accreditation by Social Value Quality Mark CIC (SVQM CIC). This level requires 2 years of evidence and is currently the highest independent award for social value excellence in the UK.  Achieving Platinum has been a 3-year process which has seen Kier Transportation awarded with Bronze, Silver and Gold consecutively. At each stage, the organisation has gone further to transform culture and drive benefits

Households living in Wigan will be given access to essential supplies to help them stay warm during winter thanks to the delivery of winter packs from Groundwork’s Green Doctor programme. The packs have been designed as an emergency intervention to those who need it most and are eligible for those living in fuel poverty. Funded through the Cadent Foundation, the packs include essential items such as hot water bottles, gloves, scarves, hats and blankets. Now in its sixth year,

United Utilities has achieved a UK first at Blackburn Wastewater Treatment Works by successfully trialling a groundbreaking technology to extract naturally occurring glucose from sewage. The technology captures toilet paper from the untreated sewage and processes it to break it down into a glucose substance which could be used as a lower carbon product in industrial processes. The trial has also demonstrated that the technology also has potential to improve the efficiency of

Barnet Council has announced that it will scrap the £1 million bus lane project on Regents Park Road in Finchley, which was funded by Transport for London (TfL). The scheme, intended to improve journey times for multiple bus routes, came under scrutiny after safety concerns were raised following work that began earlier this summer. In response, the council conducted a full review of the project. Cabinet Member for Environment and Climate Change, Cllr Alan Schneiderman, confir