Heathcliff O’Malley

Marlborough, Wiltshire – How lucky to be so prosperous and protected

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Christopher Howse travels the country talking to locals about their high street. How it’s changed and what they miss… This week Christopher explores Marlborough in Wiltshire. “Here’s a man of distinction,” said an old gentleman in a Panama hat who had been chatting to a friend – a retired colonel of the RAMC – on … Read more

From lightning to bird strikes, a flight engineer reveals how he keeps your plane safe

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Scott Foxon is a Certifying Engineer with over 12 years of experience in Virgin’s maintenance team – Heathcliff O’Malley The Virgin Atlantic hangar is hidden in a steel ring surrounding Heathrow Airport; buried behind metal fences on the east side of Britain’s largest aviation hub. It effectively takes me a week to get in, through … Read more

Labor vows to tear up planning rules to build more science labs

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Peter Kyle wants to solve scientific real estate issue, which is in the middle of a serious supply problem – Heathcliff O’Malley for the Telegraph Labor has promised to tear up restrictive planning rules and build more labs, despite Nimby complaining they could spoil opinions. Scientific real estate, like the housing market, is in the … Read more

Finally, Faversham is the town that got it right

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Faversham in Kent It was almost as thrilling to walk through Faversham recently as it was when I first enjoyed it 30 years ago. The great thing here is that one of the most beautiful medieval streets in the south of England was almost demolished, but was saved by some determined local people. The crisis … Read more

‘Like a Soviet Los Angeles’ – in search of humanity in Milton Keynes

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Founded in 1967, Milton Keynes followed a utopian vision of how people could live – Heathcliff O’Malley Milton Keynes is used to being insulted, but this week the jokes sounded more than usual. Then the city came into the spotlight EastEnders had a storyline about Bianca Jackson, played by Patsy Palmer, who lived on a … Read more

Behind the scenes with Covent Garden’s street performers whose future is under threat

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Pete Kolofsky: ‘If Westminster Council were successful the result would be the death of Covent Garden street theatre’ – Heathcliff O’Malley Daredevil unicyclists, master illusionists, knife-eating acrobats: Covent Garden’s performers are an institution. They create a crazy, Vaudevillian microcosm, gobbled up by enthusiastic tourists. But today Westminster Council has launched a public consultation on the … Read more