Parents Are Forced To Pick Up Their Children From The Roadside

Furious parents had to collect their children from the side of the road after a bus driver quit in the middle of their journey home.

The students from Kingston Maurward College and the Dorset Studio School were travelling from Dorchester to Bournemouth when the driver decided she had enough and walked out on her job, pulling over near a depot in Poole.

Parents following their children on an app saw that the bus, which had already broken down on the journey and had been replaced by another, had stopped at approximately 6.30 pm on Wednesday.

One concerned mother said her son told her the students had to disembark onto a busy road, prompting safeguarding concerns from parents.

The service for the two schools has been run by transport operator Kura since September but has had a number of teething problems.

A parent said it was the third time this term that the bus had broken down and the driver said she quit because of concerns about the vehicles.

She said she never left any children unattended. Some parents came to collect their children while others boarded another vehicle sent to the scene after she alerted a manager she did not want to work for the company any longer.

She said she waited with the remaining children until all of them had been picked up by their parents and that she did not abandon any of the children.

She added that as far as she was concerned, they were her responsibility until they’d all been picked up whether or not she worked for the company at that time and there was no way she would have left any young child on the side of the road.

A concerned mother said that this was the third time this term that the 703 bus had broken down and it made her wonder whether the buses were fit for purpose.

She said that when she called Kura to ask them what the problem was, they said they didn’t even know, but the buses were breaking down left, right and centre.

Kingston Maurward College principal Luke Rake said the driver pulled over near the closest bus depot and the manager at the depot raced down to replace the driver.

He said that 95 per cent of the routes ran like clockwork but admitted there had been problems with the 701 and 703 services.

The bus driver had enough and quit. She never endangered the children, and if the parents weren’t happy they should have driven their own children to school, especially if the school was outside of their district because sometimes as parents we have to pick up the slack.

The driver should have, however, continued her journey until the end and then quit her job, rather than quitting her job midway through the journey. However, I can understand why she was utterly fed up with the buses breaking down, which has been admitted by the company.

The school should also realise that the cheapest contract winner is not always the best, and cutting corners usually means cutting quality as well.

Air Canada Slammed For Disconnecting Disabled Woman’s Ventilator

Air Canada has come under increasing fire in recent months, with the beleaguered airline now accused of disconnecting a disabled woman’s ventilator on a flight.

Bosses at the privately owned airline were hauled in front of the Canadian federal government to answer questions on a raft of reports of inadequate treatment of disabled passengers.

Alessia Di Virgilio, a disabled woman who uses a wheelchair to move and a ventilator to breathe, was filmed having her breathing device disconnected on an Air Canada trip in an undercover CBC report. A lift was also dropped on her head by attendants at the firm, whose CEO was paid $9 million USD in 2022.

Another wheelchair user, Rodney Hodgins, was forced to drag himself off an Air Canada flight over a mix-up. And Harish Pant, 83, died following a flight after suffering medical distress. His daughter claims Air Canada refused to divert, then flew on for nine hours to their planned destination.

After three separate recent incidents, including the case of Rodney Hodgins, Air Canada admitted it had violated Canadian disability laws. Canada’s minister of transport, Pablo Rodriguez, said the airline must do better.

He wrote on X that all Canadians must be treated with dignity and respect. Full stop.

And it isn’t just disabled flyers who are complaining with hundreds of passengers, including a film star, slamming Air Canada over its lousy service.

Air Canada told a newspaper outlet that it was taking drastic action to improve the experience of disabled flyers and highlighted multiple customer service awards it’s recently won.

Airline staff should be trained for such things as a person who has a ventilator, but also a disabled person should be accompanied by someone who is also qualified in its use.

The question is should wheelchair users be allowed on an aircraft because, in the event of a major evacuation, this could cause significant loss of life to passengers. However, disabled or not, they’re entitled to travel like everyone else because we’re not allowed to discriminate.

If a disabled person with a ventilator boards an aeroplane, it’s pretty self-explanatory that the ventilator should not be disconnected because they wouldn’t be able to breathe, but then I didn’t say the airline had any common sense, in fact, clearly, they didn’t have any common sense.

Air Canada should have refused to fly the passenger, once they have taken on the responsibility…. the responsibility is theirs.

If Air Canada didn’t want to deal with a passenger who had a ventilator and wheelchair, then they should have simply said NO and not taken on the responsibility, but they did and thus once they were on the aircraft they took responsibility, or not in this case.

They should have at least had some inkling as to know not to disconnect the ventilator. That being said, we humans appear to have a long history of being totally unprepared to deal with disabled individuals.

This does not, however, explain why the airline didn’t land early for the elderly man who evidently was having severe medical problems but remained on course for their destination.

If a person is not satisfied with an airline they’ve used frequently, then they should make arrangements to use another airline if they can. You know the saying, ‘Once bitten, twice shy’.

Honestly, you would think that these airlines were big enough to have nurses on hand to be assigned to disabled passengers. An airline nurse could be trained for special issues regarding the safety of moving passengers to and from the aircraft.

The Gangsta Gran of Middle England

A coke-dealing granny was found to have £8,500 of a Class A drug concealed in her semi-detached home following a police raid.

Julie Cobley, 62, lived a desirable middle-class lifestyle in the village of Deanshanger in Northamptonshire, financed by the little wraps of white powder she would distribute from the doorstep of her £400,000 home.

It then emerged that Ms Cobley had been leaving packages of drugs by her bins and in small bags taped just outside her letter box for her clients to collect, dropping off notes of cash in exchange.

A court heard how neighbours in the peaceful, leafy street initially took Ms Cobley at face value but, eventually, at least one grew suspicious at the steady stream of visitors who would turn up at any time of night and approach her house, but never rang the bell or went in.

An anonymous tip-off to police led to a raid that recovered 16 individual wraps of cocaine in a safe along with more of the drug in three clear plastic bags and a green plastic container.

A mobile phone and a bundle of cash were also seized from the property following the swoop on July 27, 2022.

Ms Cobley was charged with possession with intent to supply a Class A drug.

She was sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment, which was suspended for 12 months, fined £187 and ordered to pay £230 in court costs at Northampton Crown Court.

Northampton Police hailed the community for supplying them with important details.

Neighbouring Policing Sergeant Josh Ellard, who conducted the investigation, said that the warrant was executed as a direct result of community intelligence and information from members of the public who were worried about drug-related issues in their area.

He said that tackling and preventing drug harm was a matter of priority for the Force and that they will continue to act on the concerns of their communities to disrupt drug dealers, who prey on the most vulnerable people in society and bring misery to others.

He added that this was a prime example of how they can work together with their partners and residents to take positive action against issues affecting them and he would urge anyone who has concerns about drug dealing within their local communities to keep reporting suspicious activity to them.

When a newspaper outlet tracked her down, Ms Cobley was carrying a pricey designer bag and sporting knee-length boots and a faux fur trimmed coat, getting into her stylish estate car with personalised plates.

To be honest, nobody can live on a state pension, so drug-dealing Grannies probably aren’t that uncommon, and I’m guessing she’s not much of a role model for her children and grandchildren if she has any, but let’s face it, she’s hardly a kingpin is she?

Waiting Lists Reach A Record 7.8 Million But…

Hundreds of thousands of pounds are being spent on teaching NHS personnel how to be more courteous to each other, as waiting lists reach an all-time high.

A newspaper outlet revealed that doctors and nurses are being sent on ‘civility courses’ to learn how to sidestep personality conflicts and have a better working relationship with coworkers.

It’s aimed at lowering the cost resulting from workplace bullying and harassment in the NHS, which a study by Middlesex University London Business School has put at £2.3 billion a year.

However, some staff question whether public money should be spent on politeness classes at a time when waiting lists for routine treatment have struck a record 7.77 million.

NHS England (NHSE) said that the training by management consultants thought to cost thousands of pounds a day, was necessary for ‘complex culture change’.

One NHS worker who attended a course said that the training was telling them basic stuff, such as the importance of being polite and patient with colleagues. The NHS worker said that they weren’t sure if this was a good use of taxpayer’s money and that training was given by consultants in their 20s and 30s who had probably never worked in the NHS and that it could sound a bit patronising if a younger person is telling older staff how to behave.

One of the hospitals piloting the project, St George’s in Tooting, London, has spent £20,000 on external management consultants. The hospital trust’s management says this was a one-off cost so that it could train its staff to run in-house courses.

A spokesman said that while they expect their staff to always be respectful, whether they receive training or not, this would give them the skills to cope with pressured situations, ensuring they can continue to provide the best possible care for their patients.

A national programme to reduce staff bullying and harassment has cost £660,000 to date, according to figures provided by NHSE. From 2021 to 2023, it financed 440 places on a course titled Principles and Practice of Restorative Just Culture.

Plans for further national training are on hold during a consultation period, but NHSE says individual trusts can book training directly with Northumbria University. Yet Health Secretary Steve Barclay has said he wants to see far less taxpayers’ money being paid to outside consultants.

NHSE said that there’s considerable evidence that promoting civility and respect improves patient outcomes by ensuring staff can freely share views regarding a patient’s care.

This type of expenditure is why the NHS is an abysmal crater, with more non-contributors arriving every day.

Perhaps if we weren’t treating the entire world and its extended family this wouldn’t have happened, and they should also get rid of the managers who manage managers who are all overpaid.

The problem is as long as the elite and politicians can afford to go private nothing will change, because they just don’t care, and it’s mind-boggling what they spend our money on. It’s also a blatant theft of public funds and there should be a full and transparent inquiry into this while there are people that are sick and can’t get any support.

Politeness costs nothing and should be part of everyday life, but unfortunately, there are too many self-entitled people who think nothing of being disrespectful and offensive with no repercussions. One should put their brain into gear before opening their mouth, something that is sadly lacking these days.

Listed For Sale

It was hailed as Britain’s flagship ‘megalab’, a £1.1 billion cutting-edge diagnostic centre to counter COVID-19 and protect the country against future epidemics.

Announcing the project in November 2020, then-health secretary Matt Hancock said the laboratory ‘confirms the UK as a world leader in diagnostics’, capable of carrying out 300,000 tests a day.

However, three years later, the Rosalind Franklin Laboratory, named in recognition of the famous British scientist, stands empty, a monument to waste and incompetence, and up for sale on the property website Rightmove.

Industry insiders claim the government is now attempting to offload the world-leading facility for a fraction of its cost to taxpayers, who were forced to finance almost twice its initial £588 budget.

Instead of being at the forefront of the fight against COVID, the project opened six months late, encountered problems with equipment, staff and construction and typically processed only 11,500 tests a day before closing 18 months later.

Desperate estate agents are now offering packages that will see the custom-built facilities at Leamington Spa in Warwickshire broken up to attract ‘start-ups, scale-ups and small and medium-sized enterprises’.

MP Matt Webster stormed that he was told last summer that irrespective of COVID they would be utilising the facility.

“They said for other diagnostic purposes, for cancer, cardiovascular and metabolic disease.

“UKHSA said the UK needed that facility.

“Now they are abandoning it – why? What are they proposing as an alternative?

“So many jobs have been lost

“I was originally told the cost was £1.1bn, they’ve now said half of that which I find hard to believe.

“I asked honest questions in the chamber but no one would tell me what the cost was.”

Real estate agent Avison Young is trumpeting the sale as an ‘unmissable opportunity’, but casual browsers on the property website may be confused by features including ‘facial recognition access’ and ‘dirty and clean’ corridors.

Experts have told a newspaper outlet that there’s no demand for the 236,231 sq ft site, which was once lauded as the largest testing facility of its kind in Europe.

Jon Curtis, a leading expert in the field of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing DNA samples that he couldn’t see any private companies taking this on as a whole, only a government would.

He said post-COVID they should have had a low-cost, world-leading testing facility, but now it’s for sale. A legacy of failure and a vast waste of many hundreds of millions of pounds.

It’s outrageous how our government waste our money while squeezing the highest-ever taxes from us.

However, it does look like the ideal place to house all those migrants they’re letting into our country, and look, it’s already owned by the government, yet they’re too stupid in Whitehall to make use of it.

When will those who squandered billions of our hard-earned taxpayer money be properly held to account? They should be dragged into a court of law, this includes the experts who lied to us, created false models to intimidate us and wallowed in the limelight, making enormous amounts of money while destroying the lives of many and our economy for years to come.

Journalists used to investigate to get the facts, but now they just bow to their masters, never publishing the truth. Newspapers installed fear into a nation and then coerced the public to have vaccines they said were safe. Labelling those who did their research as anti-vaxers and tin foil hate wearers when they were attempting to conceal the truth.

It’s surprising how gullible the public can be, but gradually the truth is being exposed regarding COVID-19, and vaccines, and it’s been fabricated as a slow release to eventually get the public to rise up against the establishment. You only have to look at the latest bait articles on the new conflict to see how newspapers help to create division, hatred and eventual confrontation.

The Nation Remembers Its Dead

A two-minute silence was immaculately honoured by the enormous gathering at The Cenotaph.

Hundreds of military veterans constructed a square about the memorial to the war dead having arrived behind a marching band for Remembrance Day.

They were joined by cadets from the three military branches who stood in solemn honour as the Last Post sounded at 11 am, with the chimes of Big Ben in the background.

The hundreds of supporters of far-right leader Tommy Robinson gathered opposite Downing Street and observed the silence along with others assembled at The Cenotaph. Police equipped with riot helmets kept watch on the crowds who waved a Union Jack and a cross of St George flags.

As a bugler signalled the end of the silence applause followed by chants of England erupted from a section of the masses. This quickly ended as the wreath-laying ceremony began.

The only sound was that of a helicopter passing overhead.

Fights broke out earlier in the day as Tommy Robinson and hundreds of his followers arrived in Whitehall as police officers attempted to maintain a ring of steel around the Cenotaph ahead of a huge march in solidarity with Palestinians later in the day.

However, fears that far-right supporters would clash with pro-Palestinian protesters didn’t materialise at the crucial 11 am time.

There were no Palestinian activists in the crowd which stood 10 deep behind metal barriers.

As chants of ‘England till I die’ and ‘Let us through’ echoed near the war memorial, police reinforcements raced to contain the mob as they jostled to be allowed to join the enormous crowds assembled.

Dozens broke through and police could be seen striking out at those pushing through with batons, as it was reported some of those gathered hurled bottles towards police officers.

This comes as crafters marked Remembrance Day by decorating postboxes with poignant knitted and crocheted tributes which included planes, soldiers and poppies.

People from Yarn Bomb Hemel Hempstead, which has more than 900 members, 30 of whom are active, had put up around 35 toppers, both old and new, to pay their respects to those who served.

Christine Allsopp, one of the organisers of the group, alongside Paula Wright and Annette Simons, said that this would be the group’s sixth year marking the remembrance period, with everything from planes and soldiers to tanks being replicated in knitted and crocheted form.

It’s disgraceful to see that those who gave everything to a country are now in such a mess these days.

Most people have someone in their family who lost their life in a war someplace, and it’s only right that we show them some respect and tremendous respect to all who attended The Cenotaph yesterday.

There was a two-minute silence yesterday, broadcasted as families stood watching or listening, while everyone else went about shopping, but not everyone commemorates Remembrance Day, and it’s extremely astonishing how very few people wear a poppy these days.

It appears that people are afraid to show their allegiance to their own country. Numerous people give donations but decline the Poppy. Extremely sad!

The thing to remember is that we commemorate Remembrance Day and yet thousands of ex-service personnel sleep on our streets with no support or help, and this doesn’t appear to be a priority for the Home Secretary.

Yes, it might have been a lifestyle choice for these people who joined the Armed Forces, but they performed for the Monarchy. Some gave their lives in war, and those who came back from the war should be looked after, whether it was a lifestyle choice or not, and very few of them get any help for lasting mental health problems and PTSD.

Thousands Of Members Of The Armed Forces Continue To Work From Home

Nearly 3,000 members of the Armed Forces are still working from home, more than a year after the final COVID restrictions were discarded.

In total 2,832 troops from across Britain’s armed services are enjoying flexible working arrangements, figures by a newspaper outlet have shown.

The MoD has been actively trying to give its service personnel more leeway, with everyone eligible to ask for changes in their work patterns.

Troops can work at home for up to 30 days on an informal basis, and they don’t have to give commanding officers a reason why they want to do so when applying.

However, top brass say even when working from home, personnel are still liable to be deployed at short notice. Nor will those in vital front line or other operational posts have their applications approved.

Figures released following a Freedom of Information request show that in 2020 when the COVID pandemic was at its peak, 21,733 personnel were working from home, about 12.5 per cent of the Armed Forces. In 2021, 9,171 troops had taken up some form of remote or flexible working. Last year, the figure was 3,966.

Vice Admiral Phil Hally, Chief of Defence People, explained in a document about flexible working. He said that work wasn’t a place, it was something that they did, and that they continue to develop their flexible working offer to ensure it’s fit for people.

He said that he was proud of the work they have all done to mature the Armed Forces’ flexible working offer. Thousands of service personnel now enter formal flexible arrangements each year and hundreds have worked part-time.

The MoD is now actively recruiting staff on salaries up to £100,000 with one of the main advantages being that they can work from home.

Benefits available to troops include working a four-day week, job sharing and reducing their operational hours by up to 40 per cent. Such measures were introduced to encourage personnel not to leave their jobs following complaints about working conditions.

The figures come as Ministers draw up plans to force civil servants back to their desks. New guidelines are expected to limit remote working to one day a week to boost productivity.

The MoD said that they were grateful and proud of those who were ready to serve anywhere in the world to ensure the MoD meets all its operational responsibilities.

They added that they were clear about the benefits of face-to-face working, and the department was committed to having staff working in offices at pre-pandemic levels.

Everybody appears to be sleepwalking into an endless downfall towards an abysmal pit. The Army is no different and no part of society exists out there that’s not inflated and rudderless. Soon they’ll have the Army on parade via Zoom.

Numerous years ago soldiers worked 24/7 with very little sleep and when they did get time off most of it was spent sleeping because they were so exhausted, and as they rose up the promotion ladder it didn’t get any easier. Things have altered and it appears that these days soldiers are wrapped up in cotton wool.

I guess there are jobs out there that can be done from home, and I’m assuming that if they can work from home they’re likely to put in the additional hours and don’t even think about quitting. They can be closer to their families and spend more time with them. However, when making a phone call to a person who’s working from home, I can frequently hear a dog yapping in the background and children shouting, which is extremely offputting when I’m trying to explain myself.

Israeli Minister Warns Britain Will Face Terrorist Atrocities Like Hamas

A senior Israeli minister warned Britain will be next to face a terror atrocity like the October 7 attacks on his country unless it wakes up to the threat of Islamic extremists in the United Kingdom.

Amichai Chikli called on the UK to confront jihadists spewing hate speech on the streets and in mosques before it’s too late.

The minister said he was appalled by the shocking rise of anti-Semitism in Britain since the barbaric attacks last month which saw more than 1,400 Jewish people murdered by Hamas terrorists in southern Israel.

He told a newspaper outlet that it was very important for the people of Britain to understand that the ideology of ISIS, Hamas and Al Qaeda was deeply rooted in some of the radical Islamic communities.

He said that if the Government in Britain takes serious measures against these radical organisations, one by one, leader by leader if the civilised world wants to flourish, and that includes Britain, it needs to look straight into the eyes of this ideology and confront it before it’s too late.

He added that it was a matter of how determined we are to remove the threat, obviously it’s wasn’t the entire Muslim community, but there were radical leaders and organisations that needed to be banned and made illegal, and leaders sent to prison for incitement for promoting the jihadi ideology and anti Semitism.

He said it wasn’t just about anti-Semitism, it was far more, and that we all know that the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas and ISIS are dangerous ones and that they’re seeking to dominate the world. They’re inspired by the atrocities, that’s the sickness of their ideology.

The minister promised that Israel would hunt Hamas leaders who fled abroad before ordering the terror attacks.

He said that the leaders of Hamas and their children and families, have already escaped Gaza, hiding in fancy hotels in Qatar and Doha, and they aren’t standing with their own people. They knew they were about to bring disaster for Gazans but they made sure they escaped before like cowards.

He said Hamas senior leadership is already abroad, and Israel will hunt them just like they did after the Munich Olympic massacre where terrorists massacred 11 Israeli sportsmen.

He added that we can’t surrender to the threat of barbarism. We need to treat Hamas the same as the Nazis, they need to be hunted and destroyed.

Does this man not realise that we already know all of this and that we haven’t suffered as well? People on the streets know it may or will happen, but our Government is in denial.

All you have to do is stroll around Luton and see that there’s segregation all over. We have been sleepwalking into a disaster. Now all we have to do is wake up the Government which is in a permanent vegetative state.

The British government are like an over-indulgent parent, letting their children commit misdemeanours and burying their heads in the sand.

The Government will wait until something happens and then there will be a lot of hand-wringing and the standard garbage of ‘lessons have been learned’, but they won’t have been because the Government has no spine and believe me when I say Labour wouldn’t be able to do any better.

We the public weep, lament, and gnash their teeth. Hold candle flowers and vigils but in the end, nothing is done about it.

We as a country need to toughen up, and if our police aren’t powerful enough to do anything, then we need to bring out our army because nobody has the right to terrorise us, and if they do, then they need to feel the full force of the law.

Fierce And As Sharp As A Razor, She Is A Force To Be Reckoned With

I adore Miriam Margolyes. She’s such a comical individual and has a personality all of her own and will be remembered for that. She demonstrates time and time again that she’s rogue when live on TV, especially when she comes out with obscenities and sexual innuendos during interviews, and she certainly has no filter on that mouth of hers, but this is what makes her extraordinary.

She’s famously vulgar and direct and describes herself as ‘short, fat and curly’.

Miriam Margoyles might be one of our naughtiest national treasures but she wants to be respected for her acting, not her foul mouth.

However, she tells it straight and the older she gets, the straighter she tells it and she’s famously filthy. She’s like Marmite, you either love her or hate her.

Perhaps the most memorable story that she told on the Graham Norton Show in 2011, was of how, when riding her bike as a student in Cambridge, she stopped at the traffic lights by an open car with an American soldier inside. She said that something crazy took hold of her and she said ‘Would you like to follow me to my college and I’ll suck you off?’ Sure enough, he followed. And very grateful he was, too and after said, ‘Can I come back next week and bring my friends?’

What makes her so funny is her cut-glass, upper-class voice, which is a magnificently articulated syllable as a sharp stab. However, she just doesn’t want to be that foul-mouthed old biddy, the potty mouth as she’s so often called because she said she’s more than that.

She said that she has to say what she believes to be the truth and that she’s getting on in age now, so she doesn’t give a flying fuck and that if she wants to say something she’s going to say it.

She’s popular in a way she never expected to be and her personality is incredible.

Her performances are amazing because they’re so unexpected and she provokes outrage, but nothing is planned.

Miriam Margolyes loves to talk about her Judaism and how important the traditions are for her, how she never works on Yom Kippur and how fellow Jews regard her as a heretic because she’s so critical of Israel. She said, that she thinks North London Jews feel she should keep her mouth shut and that she’s a terrorist.

She said that she doesn’t drink and has never taken drugs because she’s not interested in something you can inhale, or take into your body that changes your mind.

Miriam Margolyes said that she’s changed her attitude to a lot of things in her life while her parents never did. She said that she doesn’t believe in circumcision. That was a big thing, but she hadn’t realised until recently.

She said that she doesn’t like circumcision because you’re mutilating a child, and within a beat she was on to her next sentence, saying that she didn’t think circumcision in itself was a bad thing, and that for many women it was a good thing.

She said that she’s had a lovely time on her journey and that she hopes that she’s made people laugh. She said that her approach was too scattergun, and she said within a single thought, she can rage against climate change, Brexit, factory farming and ‘that bastard Rees-Mogg who had the impudence to say the victims of Grenfell lacked common sense.

She said she’s not focused enough on one or two things, but that she hopes to go to Israel and Palestine to make a documentary and that hopefully she will be well enough, and that would mean that she would have done her duty.

A £1.5 Billion Redevelopment Of London’s Liverpool Street Station Is ‘Grossly Disproportionate’, Historic England Says 

Proposals to redevelop Liverpool Street Station will be rejected in the ‘strongest possible terms’ by Historic England, the esteemed heritage body said.

The controversial £1.5 billion plan would see the construction of a huge new high-rise edifice and the partial demolition of the station, which is grade II listed.

It would also involve rebuilding the neighbouring Grade II listed Andaz hotel, which opened as the Great Eastern Hotel in 1884. The development would be capped with a roof garden and swimming pool.

After months of talks, the formal planning application, made by the developer behind the Shard building, was presented to the City of London.

It’s already been fiercely opposed by campaigners including the Victorian Society, but Britain’s premier heritage organisation also said it would formally reject the ‘grossly disproportionate’ plans.

Historic England is preparing a lengthy response but chief executive Duncan Wilson said that the plans were ‘fundamentally misconceived’.

Liverpool Street Station opened in 1875 and is now one of London’s busiest train stations.

An estimated 135 million people passed through it each year before the coronavirus pandemic.

Network Rail, which owns the station, and transport company MTR are partnering with developer Sellar in backing the redevelopment project.

Sellar says its proposals involve more than £1.5 billion of private investment, including £450 million to double the size of the station concourse and add more lifts and escalators.

According to the company, the station ‘suffers from significant overcrowding’ as well as ‘poor pedestrian accessibility and connectivity’.

A Historic England spokesman said the proposed demolition of the station concourse extension, built between 1985 and 1992 would ‘sever the fine 1870s trainshed from the Victorian ensemble that still characterises this special place.

They added that the architectural harmony and heritage significance achieved by the last redevelopment would be destroyed, and the natural light over the concourse lost.

They said that the proposed tall buildings above were of a grossly disproportionate scale and would trample on the station and the former Great Eastern Hotel, which is now listed as Grade II in recognition of its role as an impressive station front and for its lavish interior.

They said that its picturesque silhouette and proper grandeur would be radically compromised by the scale and bluntness of the new structures forced onto and through it.

They said the proposed redevelopment of the station would severely damage the Bishopsgate Conservation Area, to which the group of fine Victorian and Edwardian buildings on Liverpool Street is essential.

Never mind Historic England, modern England should reject that monstrosity, and it’s a slippery slope if they let it happen. How long before every other historic building has an office block plonked on top?

It’s a terrible proposition, driven by money rather than need, and we should be protecting our fabulous historical architecture, but then most of the population in London doesn’t give a damn about the history of the United Kingdom.

Why does this sort of thing only happen in this country? It wouldn’t happen in Paris, Madrid, Rome or any other European city, they treasure their history.

The problem is that developers and planners have no soul or feeling for our history, all they think about is how much money they’re going to make.

Developers know the price of everything and the value of nothing. I’m with heritage preservation every time.

By doing this they run down what makes London great and actually airbrush history and what you’re left with could be any place anywhere and London’s character is destroyed bit by bit. What we should be doing is preserving our historic buildings and saying NO to soulless boxes for profit.

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