Eco Chamber

Every week, the ENDS team enters the ECO Chamber to discuss the UK’s biggest green news stories, and bring you up to speed on the latest developments in environmental policy.

This week, ENDS journalists discuss:

• The Treasury’s action plan to cut the administrative burden of red tape and what it means for environmental regulation
• Sir Keir Starmer’s attack on the “watchdog state” where “distinguished jumping spiders” are holding back the development of whole new towns

Plus, we explore how excess phosphates have stung development within a Welsh special area of conservation (SAC), discuss the government’s new reforms to the bathing water regulations, and look at the start of work to clean up plastic nurdles following the collision of two ships last week in the North Sea.

WATCH NOW > LEGACY: How the Environment Act was made – and what its architects think of it now, which is free for a limited time only.

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Every week, the ENDS team enters the ECO Chamber to discuss the UK’s biggest green news stories, and bring you up to speed on the latest developments in environmental policy.

This week, ENDS journalists discuss:

• An exclusive on why the Environment Agency (EA) is struggling to recruit staff to regulate England’s most hazardous sites.
• The big announcements laid bare in the government’s new Planning and Infrastructure Bill, including its new nature levy.

Plus, how Walleys Quarry owes the EA £600,000, the government's big plans for the North Sea transition away from fossil fuels, and the North Sea tanker collision.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Every week, the ENDS team enters the ECO Chamber to discuss the UK’s biggest green news stories, and bring you up to speed on the latest developments in environmental policy.

This week, ENDS journalists discuss:

• The infamous Walleys Quarry landfill that has entered liquidation.
• The beavers about to be legally released into the wild for first time since their extinction in Britain. 

Plus, COP16 ends with agreement to raise funds for nature recovery, the NFU (National Farmers Union) calls for ‘food impact assessments’ on all planning applications, and the key take-homes from the latest report on agriculture and land use by the government’s climate change advisers.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A toxic scandal runs through a small town in North Yorkshire - if you pull the thread, where will it lead? In the second part of God’s Own Dark Waters, the team turn the lens on those who were supposed to be protecting Bentham – and find out what’s happened to those living in the shadow of the Angus Fire factory.

For more than a year, award-winning ENDS Report journalist Pippa Neill has been unearthing the toxic truth of how a small Yorkshire market town and its residents found themselves at the centre of a chemical scandal.

Last year, an ENDS Report investigation exposed how the market town of Bentham in North Yorkshire is the most known PFAS-polluted place in the UK. The main employer in the town – a firefighting foam producer called Angus Fire – sits at the heart of the pollution. 

In the second episode of this two-part podcast special, she joins the ECO Chamber podcast’s regular presenter James Agyepong-Parsons to turn the lens on those who were supposed to be protecting Bentham – and find out what’s happened to those living in the shadow of the Angus Fire factory.

Listen now to hear from:

• Bentham residents who say they feel ‘trapped’ after finding out communal gardens nearby the factory are contaminated with PFAS
• Lawyers at the law firms Leigh Day and Mischon de Reya, who are acting on behalf of residents in Bentham to explore potential legal action against Angus Fire
• Campaigner George Monbiot who says that the government is failing to effectively regulate 'forever chemicals'

Read more ENDS Report PFAS investigations:

• God's own Dark Waters? How Bentham became the most PFAS polluted place in the UK 
• Poisoned Pastures: Exposing the chemical russian roulette being played on English farmland
• Chemicals in the Cotswolds: Would you build a primary in the toxic hotspot? 
• ENDS briefing: The PFAS files

God’s Own Dark Waters: Exposing a chemical scandal is an ENDS Report production

Series Producer-- Jamie Carpenter 

Series Producer -- Tess Colley

Producer, Presenter and Researcher -- Pippa Neill

Producer, Presenter and Editor - James Agyepong-Parsons

Artwork -- David Robinson

Studio engineer -- Til Owen

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A toxic scandal runs through a small town in North Yorkshire - if you pull the thread, where will it lead? ENDS Report investigates.

For more than a year, award winning ENDS Report journalist Pippa Neill has been unearthing the toxic truth of how a small Yorkshire market town and its residents found themselves at the centre of a chemical scandal. 

In the first episode of this two-part podcast special, she joins the ECO Chamber podcast’s regular presenter James Agyepong-Parsons to tell the full story of how Bentham’s PFAS pollution problem came to light – and what happened next. 

Last year, Pippa’s groundbreaking investigation exposed how the market town of Bentham in North Yorkshire is the most known PFAS-polluted place in the UK. The main employer in the town – a firefighting foam producer called Angus Fire – sits at the heart of the pollution. 

Listen now to hear from:

• A fire brigade whistleblower who says that concerns about PFAS firefighting foams were shut down by senior management, and discusses their fears about why so many of their colleagues have died of cancer.
• Bentham residents who say they feel ‘trapped’ after finding out communal gardens nearby the factory are contaminated with PFAS.
• Lawyers at the law firms Leigh Day and Mischon de Reya, who are acting on behalf of residents in Bentham to explore potential legal action against Angus Fire.
• The Fire Brigades Union, which discusses how it is carrying out blood testing of union members to test for PFAS. 

READ MORE:

• God's own Dark Waters? How Bentham became the most PFAS polluted place in the UK 
• ENDS briefing: The PFAS files
• MAPPED: The UK sites where PFAS has been detected

God’s Own Dark Waters: Exposing a chemical scandal is an ENDS Report production

Series Producer-- Jamie Carpenter 

Series Producer -- Tess Colley

Producer, Presenter and Researcher -- Pippa Neill

Producer, Presenter and Editor - James Agyepong-Parsons

Artwork -- David Robinson

Studio engineer -- Til Owen

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Every week, the ENDS team enters the ECO Chamber to discuss the UK’s biggest green news stories and bring you up to speed on the latest developments in environmental policy.

This week, ENDS journalists discuss:

• The environment secretary's plans to rewire DEFRA's policy mainframe.  
• And the accounting trick that saw ammonia reductions reached as emissions continue to rise. 

Plus updates on nutrient neutrality in the Supreme Court, Thames Water's multi-billion pound loan and the former EA chief, Sir James Bevan appointed to the board of Welsh Water. 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Every week, the ENDS team enters the ECO Chamber to discuss the UK’s biggest green news stories and bring you up to speed on the latest developments in environmental policy.

This week, ENDS journalists discuss:

• Reports that No10. wants to review the biodiversity net gain policy in favour of growth. 
• The latest warnings from engineers on how AI may negatively impact our natural environment.
• Plus updates on a new nature-based market; the water companies price review period and Walleys Quarry landfill.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Every week, the ENDS team enters the ECO Chamber to discuss the UK’s biggest green news stories and bring you up to speed on the latest developments in environmental policy.

This week, ENDS journalists discuss:

1. The long awaited Land Use Framework 
2. Why the Heathrow expansion could ‘fly in the face’ of the country’s climate targets
3. And Steve Reed’s update on his environmental improvement plan review

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Every week, the ENDS team enters the ECO Chamber to discuss the UK’s biggest green news stories and bring you up to speed on the latest developments in environmental policy.

This week, ENDS journalists discuss:

• Prime minister Sir Keir Starmer’s declaration of war on ‘green zealots’ and the government’s latest set of planning rule changes.
• DEFRA’s rejection of toxic pesticide Cruiser SB in a win for bees, but not British sugar. 
• And what you need to know about a climate and nature bill push that has been shelved, a newly announced expert panel for the Water review, and disco scallops. 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Every week, the ENDS team enters the ECO Chamber to discuss the UK’s biggest green news stories and bring you up to speed on the latest developments in environmental policy.

This week, ENDS journalists discuss:

• The climate and environment-related actions taken by Donald Trump in his first hours as US president
• The UK chancellor Rachel Reeves’ order to environmental regulators to “tear down” regulatory barriers
• And what you need to know about the “non-legal” biodiversity net gain metric currently in circulation, how the OEP has rated the government’s progress on reaching its environmental targets, and what new US guidance on the chemicals within sewage sludge might mean for the UK. 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.