Over 12,000 premature deaths from air pollution would be presented over 10 years if England and Scotland reached their official goals to get more people to walk and cycle.

Hundreds of thousands of children and older people have plunged into poverty in the past four years, according to new research.
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) found that almost 400,000 more children and 300,000 more pensioners in the UK were living in poverty last year compared with 2012-13, the first sustained increases in child and pensioner poverty for 20 years.
The foundation warned that decades of progress were at risk of being undone amid weak wage growth and rising inflation.

Birmingham City Council’s new website has won a 2017 Plain English Award.
Each year the Plain English Campaign recognises the best and worst examples of English.
Birmingham City Council is Europe’s largest local authority and its website receives over 37 million page views per annum. In early 2016 it commissioned Spacecraft Digital to redesign its website and engage residents every step of the way.
Al of the content was rewritten with a particular focus on making it easy to read, particularly on mobile devices.

The Mayor of London wants to introduce new water fountains and bottle-refill stations to help reduce the use of single-use plastic water bottles.

Essex County Council and Southend-on-Sea Borough Council have awarded a major contract for the disposal of RDF and MSW.

Ambitious plans to restore and redevelop Essex County Hospital into more than 100 homes once health services relocate to a £6.4 million centre have been announced.

Temporary manual gates to support the existing vehicle access restrictions on pedestrianised areas of Leeds city centre have been installed.

Thousands of people across Cornwall are to be lifted out of fuel poverty and live in warmer homes following an £8 million funding investment.

The government has announced a multi-million pound package to provide additional help for children with special educational needs and disabilities.

The Community Secretary Sajid Javid has set out details of a new Rough Sleeping Advisory Panel to help eliminate rough sleeping by 2027.