Rubbish charges: from £96 for garden waste to £1.50 for a toilet

Tempers fray around the UK over high recycling fees – which some say are encouraging fly-tipping

In Dundee, Hartlepool and Fife, some residents are furious at £35 charges for collecting brown bins that come into force next year. In Richmond upon Thames, the council halted a £41 charge for household rubble due to begin this week after an angry backlash.

But these are just the latest skirmishes in a war over rubbish rumbling across the UK. Nowhere is the phrase “postcode lottery” more applicable than in rubbish collection. In Harlow in Essex, residents must pay £96 a year if they want their garden waste collected from the brown bin. Ten miles up the road in Bishop’s Stortford, there is no charge.

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A guide to buying land: 10 top tips Nottingham Estate Agents

If you’re a first time land buyer, the process of buying the right plot can be quite a daunting task. OnTheMarket.com suggests top tips on what to consider when looking for land. Buying land can be far more romantic than buying bricks and mortar. You feel as if you are acquiring your very own share, […]

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Estate agents | 9 top tips for working with your estate agent Nottingham Estate Agents

Your property is going on the market and, having chosen and instructed your estate agent, it is time to start working with them to find the right buyer. This top tip guide from OnTheMarket.com is designed to help you work effectively with your estate agent to achieve this goal as smoothly as possible. Work as […]

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What does the M&G property fund own?

Shopping centres in Glasgow, Maidstone and Bridgend are among the fund’s holdings

• M&G suspends £2.5bn property fund

M&G, which recently split from its parent Prudential, has temporarily suspended dealings in its property portfolio. It said Brexit-related political uncertainty and structural shifts in the UK retail sector had made it difficult to sell commercial property to meet demand from investors to have their cash returned.

M&G’s top holdings at the end of October 2019 were:

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M&G suspends £2.5bn property fund blaming retail crisis and Brexit

M&G Property Portfolio bans withdrawals after investors demand their money back

One of the UK’s biggest property funds, which owns shopping centres across the country, has alarmed investors by banning withdrawals and blaming both Brexit and the retail downturn for its problems.

The £2.5bn M&G Property Portfolio was suspended after “unusually high and sustained outflows” – demand from investors for their money back – prompted by “Brexit-related political uncertainty and ongoing structural shifts in the UK retail sector”.

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Country diary: smelly berries are off the menu even for hungry fieldfares

Wolsingham, Weardale: Haws make a feast for birds that give the scarlet fruits of the guelder rose a wide berth

The fieldfares (Turdus pilaris) descended on the hawthorn like garrulous gatecrashers at a genteel cocktail party, scaring away two blackbirds. About 30 eventually settled, cackling to each other as they began to strip haws from the twigs. These assertive winter visitors from Scandinavia and Russia are wary, flighty birds. I have rarely been able to watch their feeding technique from close quarters, but today the nearest was barely 10 feet away.

First, the intense gaze focused on a hawthorn berry. Then a lunge, a tug and a twist to wrench the prize from its stalk, a brief pause with the haw in its beak, and finally a deft toss of the head to send it down the gullet. Seven fruits in less than a minute. At this rate the local berry crop, heavy this year, would be exhausted well before Christmas.

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Country diary: smelly berries are off the menu even for hungry fieldfares

Wolsingham, Weardale: Haws make a feast for birds that give the scarlet fruits of the guelder rose a wide berth

The fieldfares (Turdus pilaris) descended on the hawthorn like garrulous gatecrashers at a genteel cocktail party, scaring away two blackbirds. About 30 eventually settled, cackling to each other as they began to strip haws from the twigs. These assertive winter visitors from Scandinavia and Russia are wary, flighty birds. I have rarely been able to watch their feeding technique from close quarters, but today the nearest was barely 10 feet away.

First, the intense gaze focused on a hawthorn berry. Then a lunge, a tug and a twist to wrench the prize from its stalk, a brief pause with the haw in its beak, and finally a deft toss of the head to send it down the gullet. Seven fruits in less than a minute. At this rate the local berry crop, heavy this year, would be exhausted well before Christmas.

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