I read with some surprise the piece by Amy Kazmin and Susannah Savage about coffee price hikes (“Italians in a froth over cappuccino bill after coffee bean prices hit record high”, Report, FT Weekend, September 14) and would like to highlight a few points.

When it is stated that Italians drink “some of western Europe’s least expensive coffee”, it should also be emphasised that in bars, Italians — or at least the majority of us — consume very low-quality blends from untraceable lots, often prepared with dirty, poorly maintained machines, leaving only a burnt aftertaste on the palate.

It’s worth noting that every year there are numerous police interventions imposing fines and sanctions on the owners of these “convivial coffee bars” for irregularities in coffee management.

This is to say that paying €1.20 for a cup of this type may certainly be a fun way to start the day, but it represents a price that is completely out of line with the intrinsic value of the product being consumed.

Alessandro Lusi
Helsinki, Finland

A MAJOR high street discounter has apologised for closing a branch after it was open for just one year.

The store in Maidenhead, Berkshire will close permanently next month due to issues surrounding the lease of the building.

2

2

Advertisement

Poundland’s store on Maidenhead High Street had already closed temporarily earlier this week after water damage caused part of the ceiling to collapse.

Despite this being fixed, the budget retailer has confirmed that the store will shut its doors forever in mid October.

A spokesperson for the company said: “I’m afraid we’ve been unable to secure an agreement with our landlord that would enable us to keep the store trading in Maidenhead.

“We know this will be disappointing to customers and we’re sorry we’ll be closing on 18 October. 

“It goes without saying we’ll be doing all we can to look after colleagues that work there.”

Poundland had moved in to the building last year after the company stepped in to take over a number of Wilko shop leases, following the latter’s collapse.

Maidenhead High Street has also seen other casualties in the losses of both its Clarks and Barclays stores.

Clarks shut its doors on the street in June this year while the Barclays branch closed for the final time in May.

Poundland had undergone an expansion last year when it took over 71 ex-Wilko stores after the retailer fell into administration.

Since then however, several have closed down, including in Ellesmere Port, Galashiels, Scotland, and the Sailmakers Shopping Centre in Ipswich.

On top of this, in August a Poundland store in south Macclesfield closed for good.

A month before that, the discounter pulled down the shutters on a store in Altrincham, Greater Manchester, after taking it on from Wilko.

Despite this, earlier this year the retailer pledged to revamp 150 stores by end of August with new signage, flooring, lighting and ranges.

It also aimed to have staff areas made over to make them better places to work.

ISRAEL has been in conflict with Hamas since it was attacked on October 7, 2023, but now tensions have been raised even higher in the region.

The threat of greater conflict with Iran-backed Hezbollah has cast doubts about whether UK nationals should be travelling to Israel. Here’s everything you need to know.

4

4

Advertisement

Is it safe to fly to Israel right now?

Several flight companies, including easyJet, have stopped flights to Tel Aviv in light of the conflict between Israel and Lebanon. 

“Safety is always our top priority, and we’re contacting customers to advise them of their travel options.”

Ryanair has cancelled flights to Israel until at least October 26 while easyJet has cancelled them until March 2025.

United Airlines has cancelled all flights to Israel until further notice, while American Airlines has cancelled them until at least March 2025.

On September 17 and 18, 2024, thousands of pagers and hundreds of walkie talkies belonging to members of Hezbollah exploded. 

Several sources blamed this on Israel, who sent strikes into Lebanon in the following days. 

As a result of this increased tension, travel against Israel is not considered completely safe. 

4

Advertisement

4

What’s the latest government advice about travelling to Israel?

The UK government has advised travellers against travelling to Israel, due to conflict in the region. 

This includes travel to Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, with Hezbollah launching a missile at Tel Aviv on September 25, 2024. 

The missile was intercepted by the IDF. 

Even before this event, the UK Foreign Office has warned against the threat of exchanged rocket fire between the two countries. 

The website currently warns: “Your travel insurance could be invalidated if you travel against advice from the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO).”

Do I need to cancel my flight to Israel?

As mentioned, several flight companies have already cancelled flights to Israel. 

If your flights are still planned to go ahead, you should get in touch with your airline or tour operator about your options if you want to cancel your flight.

Regarding John Burn-Murdoch’s Data Points column “Young women are starting to leave men behind” (Opinion, FT Weekend, September 21), it’s hard to deliver a narrative about a complex and important issue in less than 900 words, so I realise why it’s told through the singular lens of gender.

The reality is much more nuanced than a straight “girls vs boys” discussion, which is reductive and zero sum in nature.

Educational achievement is also affected by geographic disparities, culture and upbringing, and social class. For example, working-class, white native British boys tend to do worst — male children from other cultures tend to do better — according to a 2021 education committee report entitled “The forgotten: how White working-class pupils have been let down, and how to change it”.

Finally, the education deficit has been going on for decades, particularly in areas where there has been historically low educational attainment and employment opportunities. There is a clear correlation between communities let down for decades by all political parties and educational underperformance.

The main political parties have chosen to abandon these communities as a matter of tacit policy and I don’t see that changing in the future.

Gearóid Carroll
London E3, UK

THE corner shop known as Arkwright’s in hit TV comedy Open All Hours is being auctioned for £150,000.

The classic BBC sitcom starring the late Ronnie Barker as stuttering shopkeeper Albert Arkwright and Sir David Jason as his long suffering errand boy Granville.

2

2

Advertisement

Beautique salon in Doncaster, South Yorks, acted as the backdrop for the show which ran from 1976 to 1985 and had 17 million viewers a week at its peak.

Legendary actor Sir David, 84, reprised his role as shopkeeper Granville for sequel Still Open All Hours in 2013 and again the shop was used.

But the series, which also starred Johnny Vegas, Tim Healy and Sally Lindsay, was axed during Covid in 2020.

Auctioneers now hope that the property’s TV history will attract plenty of bidders when it goes to auction on October 16 with a guide price of £150,000.

The hairdressers – which was saved from demolition in 2007 after campaigners fought off council plans to bulldoze it – comes with two self-contained flats on the upper floor and boasts an annual rent of £16,440 when fully let.

Film crews moved in for weeks at a time for each series of Open All Hours and the end-terrace on Lister Avenue in Balby, less than a mile from Doncaster city centre, became a tourist attraction over the years.

Francesca Perry’s piece “The cities soaking up the future” (House & Home City Living Special, FT Weekend, September 21) explained the need to address the problem of increasing rainfall through better design of our streets and public spaces — and in doing so, highlighted some great projects. But the article also gave the impression that “sponge” approaches to absorbing rainwater are still on the fringes, rather than now being required practice across England.

The shift, driven in a large part by water companies refusing to allow stormwater from new development into their already overloaded mains sewers, means developers are now required to store and manage rainwater on almost every site, with only minimal run-off permitted.

This “SuDS” approach (Sustainable Drainage Systems) may now be virtually mandatory, yet is bedevilled by the challenge of getting highways authorities to approve designs, a risk-averse attitude to the dangers of public access near ponds and other bodies of water, and the difficulty of assigning long-term maintenance responsibility to the right organisation.

Often the only design that can get over the many hurdles is either plastic attenuation crates buried below the ground — where stormwater can be retained until it is slowly absorbed by the ground — or attenuation basins which, too often, are sterile mown grass areas surrounded by railings rather than the biodiverse, lushly planted and attractive features they can be.

To see the best design approaches become normal practice, we need to see national design standards that are mandatory and that override local highways authorities. This needs to appropriately balance safety concerns with the reality that our parks and rural landscapes are full of beautiful ditches, ponds and lakes, unguarded by railings and allowed to grow wonderfully wild.

Hana Loftus
Chartered Planner; Director, HAT Projects
Colchester, Essex, UK