Regen.net,
24 November 2009
News that public funds are to be used to rescue Paris' bike-hire scheme and reports of a row over Yorkshire commuters being given "hand-me-down" train carriages from the North-West feature in today's round-up.
Paris has been forced to pump taxpayers’ money into the Velib scheme, which offers bikes for hire on almost every large street corner in the city, after 26,000 bicycles were either stolen or wrecked, the Independent reports. More than 61 million Velib journeys have been made since the scheme began in July 2007, the paper reports. A Velib-style scheme is due to reach London next May.
Ministers who have been accused of leaving Yorkshire commuters to travel on overcrowded trains for years could now fob the region off with "hand-me-down" extra carriages, the Yorkshire Post reports. Greg Mulholland, Liberal Democrat MP for Leeds North West, said the idea of Yorkshire commuters receiving second-hand carriages no longer needed when the Manchester to Liverpool line is electrified would not "sit comfortably" with passengers.
This year more than 20,000 new students have joined the University of the Third Age, self-help, self-managed lifelong learning co-operatives for older people no longer in full time work, partly due to cutbacks in further education, the Guardian reports.
The UK Green Building Council says the UK could halve the carbon emissions from homes and buildings by the end of the next decade and create thousands of "green" jobs in the process, the Belfast Telegraph reports.
Planners in Doncaster are expected to approve plans today for a huge rail freight terminal in the south of the borough despite opposition from residents and countryside campaigners, the Yorkshire Post reports. The scheme, which is intended to create up to 4,000 jobs, is backed by senior council planning officers.
