Latest news with #RotherhamCouncil
BBC News
3 days ago
- Business
- BBC News
Rotherham library and markets project goes over budget
Rotherham Council has asked for a £6.5m pound bailout after costs for a new market and library development council has approached South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority for the funding after the redevelopment of the town's markets and library complex rose to nearly £41 expected to cost about £31.7m, the council has already received £3.4m from the mayor's council said the extra funding was need to cover a sharp rise in costs following further design and survey work. 'Structural challenges' The scheme will deliver a new library, upgraded indoor and outdoor markets and improvements to public is a central part of wider regeneration efforts to transform the town centre into a more vibrant, mixed-use space as well as aiming to reduce crime and increase Council said it had identified extensive structural challenges, including reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac) and asbestos, as well as the need for utility service full business case now seeks to increase the authority's total contribution to £9.9m - around 24% of the total scheme council has defended the increased cost, saying "it reflects essential safety and infrastructure upgrades and aligns with the town's long-term economic vision".Without the additional investment, officials warned the viability of the markets, and footfall in the area, could be put at is already under way, with a planned three-year timeline. The council said it had committed to covering any further overruns and had built contingency funding into the remaining funding comes from a mix of central government grants and council investment. Listen to highlights from South Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North
Sky News
4 days ago
- Politics
- Sky News
Whitehall officials tried to convince Michael Gove to go to court to cover up grooming scandal in 2011
Whitehall officials tried to convince Michael Gove to go to court to cover up the grooming scandal in 2011, Sky News can reveal. Dominic Cummings, who was working for Lord Gove at the time, has told Sky News that officials in the Department for Education (DfE) wanted to help efforts by Rotherham Council stop a national newspaper from exposing the scandal. In an interview with Sky News, Mr Cummings said that officials wanted a "total cover-up". The revelation shines a light on the institutional reluctance of some key officials in central government to publicly highlight the grooming gang scandal. In 2011, Rotherham Council approached the Department for Education asking for help following inquiries by The Times. The paper's then chief reporter, the late Andrew Norfolk, was asking about sexual abuse and trafficking of children in Rotherham. The council went to Lord Gove's Department for Education for help. Officials considered the request and then recommended to Lord Gove's office that the minister back a judicial review which might, if successful, stop The Times publishing the story. Lord Gove rejected the request on the advice of Mr Cummings. Sources have independently confirmed Mr Cummings' account. Mr Cummings told Sky News: "Officials came to me in the Department of Education and said: 'There's this Times journalist who wants to write the story about these gangs. The local authority wants to judicially review it and stop The Times publishing the story'. "So I went to Michael Gove and said: 'This council is trying to actually stop this and they're going to use judicial review. You should tell the council that far from siding with the council to stop The Times you will write to the judge and hand over a whole bunch of documents and actually blow up the council's JR (judicial review).' "Some officials wanted a total cover-up and were on the side of the council... "They wanted to help the local council do the cover-up and stop The Times' reporting, but other officials, including in the DfE private office, said this is completely outrageous and we should blow it up. Gove did, the judicial review got blown up, Norfolk stories ran." 3:18 The judicial review wanted by officials would have asked a judge to decide about the lawfulness of The Times' publication plans and the consequences that would flow from this information entering the public domain. A second source told Sky News that the advice from officials was to side with Rotherham Council and its attempts to stop publication of details it did not want in the public domain. One of the motivations cited for stopping publication would be to prevent the identities of abused children entering the public domain. There was also a fear that publication could set back the existing attempts to halt the scandal, although incidents of abuse continued for many years after these cases. Sources suggested that there is also a natural risk aversion amongst officials to publicity of this sort. Mr Cummings, who ran the Vote Leave Brexit campaign and was Boris Johnson's right-hand man in Downing Street, has long pushed for a national inquiry into grooming gangs to expose failures at the heart of government. He said the inquiry, announced today, "will be a total s**tshow for Whitehall because it will reveal how much Whitehall worked to try and cover up the whole thing." He also described Mr Johnson, with whom he has a long-standing animus, as a "moron' for saying that money spent on inquiries into historic child sexual abuse had been "spaffed up the wall". Asked by Sky News political correspondent Liz Bates why he had not pushed for a public inquiry himself when he worked in Number 10 in 2019-20, Mr Cummings said Brexit and then COVID had taken precedence. "There are a million things that I wanted to do but in 2019 we were dealing with the constitutional crisis," he said.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Solar panels to be fitted on new markets complex
Solar panels are to be installed on Rotherham's new flagship market redevelopment. The town's council, which signed off a £350,000 plan on Monday to install solar panels on the development, said the move would slash carbon emissions, cut energy bills and bring the borough closer to its net zero targets. Construction work on the £36m town centre markets complex off Drummond Street, complete with a library, cafe and gallery, is expected to start later this month and be completed next year, according to the council. While the original markets and library redevelopment included a small solar element, budget constraints meant it was scaled back during the design stage. Now, with the £350,000 allocated from existing decarbonisation funds, the council said it intended to make full use of available roof space to increase the solar output of the site. The plans include a 58kW solar system on the library rooftop, estimated to cost just over £64,000 with a payback period of six and a half years, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service. The outdoor covered market will receive a 195kW system at a cost of about £282,000, with payback expected in eight and a half years. Combined, the installations are projected to save the council about £42,000 a year in energy costs and reduce annual carbon emissions by 3.5 tonnes of CO2 equivalent. In 2019, Rotherham Council declared a climate emergency and pledged to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2030. Listen to highlights from South Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North. Revamp of town's market complex to move ahead Image released showing new market and library Market's £36m revamp well under way - council Climate emergency declared by city's mayor Rotherham Council
BBC News
6 days ago
- Business
- BBC News
Solar panels to be installed on new Rotherham markets complex
Solar panels are to be installed on Rotherham's new flagship market town's council, which signed off a £350,000 plan on Monday to install solar panels on the development, said the move would slash carbon emissions, cut energy bills and bring the borough closer to its net zero work on the £36m town centre markets complex off Drummond Street, complete with a library, cafe and gallery, is expected to start later this month and be completed next year, according to the the original markets and library redevelopment included a small solar element, budget constraints meant it was scaled back during the design stage. Now, with the £350,000 allocated from existing decarbonisation funds, the council said it intended to make full use of available roof space to increase the solar output of the plans include a 58kW solar system on the library rooftop, estimated to cost just over £64,000 with a payback period of six and a half years, according to the Local Democracy Reporting outdoor covered market will receive a 195kW system at a cost of about £282,000, with payback expected in eight and a half years. Combined, the installations are projected to save the council about £42,000 a year in energy costs and reduce annual carbon emissions by 3.5 tonnes of CO2 2019, Rotherham Council declared a climate emergency and pledged to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2030. Listen to highlights from South Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.
BBC News
13-06-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Cafe at Rotherham country park to be refurbished
The cafe at a country park will be refurbished this summer after Rotherham Council approved the scheme and selected a scheme for Thrybergh Country Park has been funded by the previous government's Levelling Up programme and is part of a £19.9m investment aimed at boosting tourism, leisure and skills across the original plan was to replace and rebuild the café but rising costs mean it will now be refurbished and the surrounding outdoor seating and landscaping will be improved works are expected to begin in late July and be completed by December. There will be a limited cafe service while work is carried refurbished cafe will be able to accommodate around 50 people indoors and there will be a new seating area with views across the park and officers said the project would enhance the park's hospitality offer, extend visitor stays, and support community health and wellbeingThe council has not disclosed the cost of the scheme. Listen to highlights from South Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North
