05 Aug 2026

Photo credit: Sharon Waldron   The Drinking Water Inspectorate has issued Thames Water a warning letter after finding “multiple and significant failures” in works that left a customer’s water supply mistakenly connected to a sewer in Kidlington, Oxfordshire. The letter, dated 23 July, follows the Inspectorate’s investigation into an incident that occurred on 4 March […]

05 Aug 2026

Photo credit: M. Shahri   Hungary’s only nuclear plant came within millimetres of a complete shutdown this week as the drought draining central Europe’s rivers left the Danube too low to cool its reactors. A slight overnight rise in the river bought the Paks plant a reprieve, while downstream in Romania the military has detonated […]

05 Aug 2026

Photo credit: Gio L   A group of Labour MPs and regional mayors has urged the prime minister to turn failing water companies into not-for-profit cooperatives, presenting the idea as a middle path between full nationalisation and the status quo. The proposal, set out in a report from the Good Growth Foundation, a think tank […]

05 Aug 2026

Photo credit: Darla Hueske   Britain could face food shortages if the drought continues, farming leaders have warned, after the Met Office confirmed the driest July on record and the earliest harvest since data began. England saw just 6.5mm of rain last month, 10 per cent of the long-term average and less than half the […]

04 Aug 2026

Photo by NOAA   A major new scientific review has found that climate change is already driving large-scale shifts in the plankton communities that underpin UK marine food webs, with knock-on risks for fisheries, seabirds and the ocean’s ability to store carbon. A landmark rolling review The study, from the UK’s Marine Climate Change Impacts […]

04 Aug 2026

Photo by Ben Elliott   The Marine Management Organisation (MMO) has launched a push to improve public understanding of the legal protections around Britain’s two native seahorse species, warning divers, snorkellers and film crews that intentionally disturbing them without a licence could result in enforcement action. Both the spiny or long-snouted seahorse (Hippocampus guttulatus) and […]

04 Aug 2026

Photo by Ray Harrington   Permission has been refused for this year’s guga hunt, the centuries-old harvest of young gannets on the uninhabited Hebridean island of Sula Sgeir, after NatureScot’s board concluded the cull could harm a gannet population still recovering from avian flu. The decision, confirmed on 3 August, brings to a halt Scotland’s last remaining […]

04 Aug 2026

Photo by Raul Ling   A public consultation has opened on a draft Fisheries Management Plan (FMP) for the Irish Sea’s demersal fisheries, setting out proposed measures to rebuild depleted cod and whiting stocks while reviewing how Nephrops, the region’s most valuable catch, is managed in future. A joint plan across three administrations The draft Demersal […]