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Court of appeal rules assessment to determine age of young refugees is unlawful Child asylum seekers are suffering abuse due to the Home Office and local authorities wrongly classifying them as adults, the Guardian has learned. Evidence of children being physically attacked, neglected or abandoned when wrongly treated as adults, puts further pressure on the Home Office after a court of appeal ruling last week found the department’s assessment policy to determine the age of young asylum seekers was unlawful. The Home Office has been ordered to scrap the policy and devise a new one. Continue reading... from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2Wq0iph

Lewis Capaldi, rappers Dave and Octavian and the Proclaimers among the acts joining headliners Stormzy, the Killers and the Cure The Glastonbury organisers have announced the full lineup and stage times for this year’s festival. Among the names joining the bill are UK chart-topper Lewis Capaldi, UK rappers Dave and Octavian and Scottish cult heroes the Proclaimers. Stormzy, the Killers and the Cure will headline this year’s festival, which takes place from 26-30 June. Headlining the Other stage are Tame Impala, Chemical Brothers and Christine and the Queens, while Jon Hopkins, Wu-Tang Clan and Janelle Monáe helm the West Holts stage. Atop the John Peel stage are Interpol and the Streets with one more act tbc, while Cat Power, Hot Chip and Rex Orange County lead on the Park stage. Continue reading... from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2IawwvE

How do you build the perfect town? You send for Public Practice, the initiative that’s tempting architects back into the public sector “Developers keep looking at me as if I’m a total nutter,” says Ione Braddick. “I’ve got into the habit of asking them if people would feel joy when walking around their developments. I ask them to think, ‘Is this going to be a joyous place?’” Braddick is an urban design officer at Epping Forest council in Essex and her nuttiness is important. Her question is one that is rarely asked in the making of new places, when the forces of finance often trump any interest in the quality of the streets, buildings and spaces being created. And it is particularly crucial in this part of Essex, where a new “garden town” of 10,000 homes is currently being planned around Harlow – a scale of new development not seen there for a generation. Continue reading... from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2Wt5PLH

After 40 years of awarding contracts to the private sector, insourcing is now the way for local authorities to cut costs and improve quality Chris Morgan got a job as an electrician repairing council houses in Stoke-on-Trent just over five years ago. Although he enjoyed his job, Morgan, 36, says he did not always feel he could raise issues with his line manager. “Our supervisors weren’t always in the trade we were in,” he says. The city council had outsourced its housing repairs service to Kier group in 2008. But since the council brought the work in-house last year, Morgan says he feels happier. “I know my supervisor knows what I’m on about. It makes me more confident,” he says. “We have had extra talks, health and safety training. They have put in a new canteen and showers, so the facilities are better too.” And with a £1,000 pay rise, plus an extra £500 for doing asbestos work, Morgan is also a bit better off. Now all repairs, maintenance and home improvements to the council’s hou...

Plans to repurpose these rusty old trains isn’t even a bad joke. Where’s the focus on decent rail services in northern England? It was one of those press releases so silly I had check I wasn’t about to fall for some ridiculous prank: could the department for transport (DfT) really be heralding an “exciting” new plan to offer northern towns the chance to bid for a knackered old Pacer train to turn into “a community space, cafe or new village hall”? I refreshed my browser, checked the URL didn’t include the second level domain joke.uk, and gasped. It was real. Rail minister Andrew Jones really had said: “Through this competition we can ensure that the Pacer can be transformed to serve a community near where it carried passengers in an entirely different way. What we need now are creative and exciting proposals from the public, alongside ideas from businesses keen to support this competition, as we say goodbye to Pacers on our railway.” Continue reading... from The Guardian http://b...

By ASTEAD W. HERNDON from NYT U.S. https://nyti.ms/2QzetCX

By LISA LERER from NYT U.S. https://nyti.ms/2YQJepZ