'Take climate change seriously' warning as Lancashire braces for fifth heatwave

Lancashire typically gets the blunt of a heatwave where the south gets the sharp - but impacts on the county are starting to show

Hello and welcome to The Lancashire Lead.

In 2026 there have technically been fewer wildfires in Europe - or periods of burning - than in 2025. It’s a piece of information that reads as good news until you see that both years are dramatically up on the rolling average.

But that doesn’t mean the information isn’t being leapt on by climate-sceptics as evidence that talk of climate change is just fear-mongering.

They are having that conversation as most of the UK sits in a drought, the countryside is at regular risk of fire and the fifth heatwave of the summer bears down on us.

One reader recently told me: “It’s just summer” over on that reliable barometer of public opinion Facebook.

The purpose of coverage of climate change - beyond pointing out that it’s going to be sunny where the majority of analysis is focused - is not to alarm people. It is instead to raise the point that this is something that it is impacting us now - and it’s going to become more severe as the years progress and the younger population of Lancashire grow old.

Lancashire briefing

🏠 A major housing estate will be built in rural Preston after a government-appointed inspector reversed a local decision to refuse permission for the project.

Developer Wain Homes last year lodged plans for a 167-dwelling development on land off James Towers Way in Broughton.

However, members of Preston City Council’s planning committee rejected the proposal in December – on the advice of the authority’s planning officers – after hearing it would eat into a buffer zone designed to prevent the village from merging with the northern part of urban Preston.

The 10.3-hectare site – west of the Broughton bypass and south of Whittingham Lane – also lies in an area designated as open countryside, where local policy dictates any developments should usually be small-scale.

But the housebuilder appealed to the Planning Inspectorate, which has now overturned the refusal after concluding the scheme would do more good than harm.

During the meeting at which they debated the application, councillors on the committee were confronted with an uncommon quandary. While they were told by town hall planners that they should reject the development, they learned local opinion was largely in favour of the blueprint – a rare reversal of the usual situation faced by planning committee members.

Broughton Parish Council strongly supported the scheme, because of the new infrastructure that Wain Homes had promised would accompany its housing. That included a community centre, care home, allotments and more car parking space for an expanding local primary school.

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⚽ Supporters of Burnley FC may soon be able to use a new ‘vomitory’ when they are watching a home game, after the Clarets’ plans were signed off by the council.

This planning approval is just the latest improvement planned for Turf Moor, with recent months also seeing the club also reveal its intention to put up new LED signage around the outside of their stadium on Harry Potts Way.

That is in addition to the controversial traffic scheme that would allow Burnley FC to shut down a number of roads around the stadium at-will to better manage the flow of fans, which left groups from the clergy to the cricket club concerned about access.

This new vomitory will also be a radical alteration to how fans use the stadium. Though, despite what the name might suggest, this new addition is not for stomach-churning moments, like the Clarets recent 4-3 win against Notts County on penalties.

Vomitories are large staircases that help fans to enter or exit the stadium, in this case allowing better access to the Barnfield stand. This comes from the Latin for ‘to spew forth’.

In addition to providing a quicker access route for fans heading to the top of the 4500-capacity stand, this new stairway will also improve fan safety as it doubles as a fire escape.

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🫣 Reform UK home affairs spokesperson Zia Yusuf has been caught in a war of words on the former-Twitter with former Conservative defence secretary Ben Wallace.

Wallace, once MP for Lancaster and Wyre and Wyre and Preston North, criticised Reform UK’s pledge to deport foreign nationals from jails to countries such as El Salvador. In response, Yusuf called him a moron and a traitor.

It was beyond the pale for even Nigel Farage, who promised to give him a ‘ticking off’.

Andrew Snowden, Conservative MP for Fylde, told The Lancashire Lead: “Zia Yusuf, a former banker, calling Ben Wallace, a former Army officer who was mentioned in despatches for gallantry, a ‘moron, says far more about Reform’s leadership than it does about anything else.

“Reform tells people what they want to hear, without any credible plans to actually deliver. When challenged, its leaders resort to lashing out and trading insults rather than answering serious questions.”

‘Take climate change seriously’ warning as Lancashire braces for fifth heatwave

Low water levels at Roddlesworth. Credit: The Lancashire Lead

By Luke Beardsworth

Climate change needs to be taken more seriously as Lancashire braces for further impact on hospitals, farming and other services this week.

An amber heat-health alert has been issued by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) which says that significant impacts are likely across health and social care settings due to high temperatures.

Lancashire is expected to see temperatures reach as high as 31C on both Wednesday (12 August) and Thursday (13 August) during the fifth heatwave of the summer. The spell of weather will not be as prolonged or intense as previous ones, but there will be an impact.

Almost three-quarters of England is now experiencing drought conditions that are expected to worsen until significant rainfall comes - and it is not expected to in the near future.

And for one senior Green Party councillor, it is disappointing to see how little attention the matter is getting.

Cllr Gabie Lowe, who leads the Greens at Preston City Council, said: “We really need to start taking climate change more seriously. The weather is only going to get more extreme.

“People are dying and, rather than seeing climate change as the public health crisis that it is, people are seeing it as a means of political point scoring. It is a priority for everyone. If we carry on the way we are, food insecurity is only going to get worse, and that will increase the cost of living.

“It feels as though our future is being sold to the highest bidder. The best thing for the government to do is to invest in our renewable energy infrastructure which, not only is predicted to bring over 100,000 jobs to the North West, but will increase our fuel security, and be a major step in slowing climate change.”

But renewable energy projects in Lancashire continue to see strong opposition from sceptics along with Reform UK and some Conservative politicians.