The government is planning to relax restrictions on how many parking spaces are required for new housing developments while urging councils to reduce parking charges. The new measures are due to make life easier for motorists in England and allow councils to make parking regulations that are right for their particular areas.

These changes come as motorists face increasing fuel costs, as the duty has already gone up, and prices will rise again with the hike in VAT today. Minister Greg Clark says the war on motorists is at an end. He says that councils should be able to set their own charges to attract shoppers, without Whitehall interfering. There have also been more aggressive parking enforcement and a rise in on-street parking congestion, he added.

However, Maria Eagle, the Labour shadow transport secretary, says drivers will feel conned since cuts will mean some charges could rise. Motorists won’t be fooled with this attempt to ease the double whammy of VAT and fuel duty hikes, which will drive petrol prices to record levels, she added. Conservative Cheshire councillor Stephen Wilkinson doesn’t believe parking charges will be reduced with the move, and East Cheshire Council deputy mayor Roger West agrees, as this is a form of income for councils.

Environment groups are also against the idea. A spokesman for Green Party says that this is a bad idea no matter how you look at it. This will inevitably increase traffic in residential and city centre areas, which will increase pollution, he continued. In turn, he noted, this will effect health, the climate policy, increase traffic accidents and put more restrictions on where children can safely play.

As Royal wedding fever heats up in the UK, one tour operator has taken advantage of the growing global fascination of the newest Royal couple.

Celebrity Planet, a London-based tour operator, has launched a William and Kate tour, which chronicles the courtship of the famous young couple. Using sites of significance to both Prince William and Kate’s relationship as well as the young royal’s mother and father, Celebrity Planet has designed the two-hour tour around sentiment and drama.

Newcastle University graduate James Bonney owns the London-based company and said that celebrity tours are not a new idea. He cites Harry Potter tours as an example and says that he is not concerned if others mimic is concept.

The tour begins at Bruton Street and heads to Albemarle Street stopping at sites like the jewellers where Princess Diana’s blue sapphire engagement ring was purchased. The 30-year old rock now sits on Kate Middleton’s third finger and has become a Royal heirloom in its own right.

Winding around London, the tour also shows the site of Kate’s great-grandfather’s solicitor office and a series of shops on Dover Street that outline her career trajectory. The tour even takes participants to the nightclub, where Prince William jumped on a table and shouted “I’m free” during a falling-out with Middleton in 2007.

Other stops on the tour include the site where Prince Charles celebrated his stag party just one night before marrying William’s mother Diana.

TUI Travel, the owner of travel operators First Choice and Thomson, says that they are ditching KPMG, the group’s auditor, after the accounting error that was announced in October forced the company to restate their results for the 2009 financial year. Shareholders are going to be asked at an annual general meeting to approve PricewaterhouseCoopers as the replacement.

TUI says they have a good working relationship with KPMG, but they feel that it’s appropriate, after restating their results, that new auditors be brought on board. KPMG said that relations with some of TUI’s directors had become more strained after the incident, and they aren’t confident that they could carry out an appropriate standard audit of the company in the future.

The accounting error had already cost Paul Bowtell, the chief financial officer, his job. The company had announced a £29 million writedown in August, then two months later they had to write off another £88 million. These adjustments shrank the tour operator’s 2009 operating profit by £42 million, while year-end net assets fell from £2.29 billion to £2.22 billion.

The errors go back many years, stemming from how holiday sales were booked into the company’s accounts. TUI Travel was using two separate computer systems after it merged with First Choice in 2007. One system is used by the retail division for customer bookings, and the other is used for tour operators that work for the company. The initial booking price had been recorded in both systems, but changes to holidays, like small fees and discounts, were only entered in the retail booking system.

According to officials, 3 crew members employed by Royal Caribbean Cruises have been accused of attempting to smuggle cocaine and heroin into the US on one of the company’s cruise vessels. The men are said to have been working on Enchantment of the Seas when they were caught.

The 3 crew allegedly picked up the illegal drugs in the Dominican Republic and planned to sell them when they got to the port of Baltimore, where the cruise departed and was set to return. Another crew member is said to have tipped off authorities, who then searched one of the suspects’ when the ship docked on December 18 after a Caribbean cruise. Agents say they found 300g of cocaine and 700g of heroin in his shoes and on his waistband, which is about $65,000 worth.

Department of Homeland Security agents recalled in a federal court filing that the man they had searched picked up the drugs in the Dominican Republic with the help of 2 other crew members, who were working in the cruise ship’s galley. The suspect they searched was followed to Wal-Mart by agents later that day, where they saw him going in and out of a black GMC Envoy with plates registered in Virginia to deliver the drugs for a $4,000 payment. Customs agents found $8,000 in cash when they pulled the driver over.

Agents also reported that there was a woman that had gotten out of the SUV and went into Wal-Mart as well. She was found with 300g of cocaine and 700g of heroin in her purse. The crew member that was searched and the 2 people that were in the SUV have been indicted for conspiring to import drugs.

Police revealed yesterday that 5 teenagers died of apparent carbon monoxide poisoning while celebrating a birthday at a motel in Hialeah, Florida. The official cause of death isn’t due to be released until autopsies are finished, but police spokesman Carl Zogby says the investigation indicates so far that the teens died because their car had a troublesome starter and was left running in a closed garage right below their room.

Zogby explained that the only person(s) that could tell them why the car was left running has died, but some of their friends have told them that the vehicle probably had starter engine problems. All the evidence is clearly pointing to carbon monoxide poisoning, he continued, adding that they didn’t find any alcohol or drugs in the room that the teens had rented at Hotel Presidente.

The spokesman also identified the 5 teenagers as 16-year-old Jean Pierre Ferdinand; 17-year-old Jonas Antenor; 17-year-old Peterson Nazon; 19-year-old Evans Charles; and 19-year-old Juchen C. Marctial. They all lived in the same neighborhood to the north of Miami. Sunday was Marctial’s 19th birthday, which they were celebrating. A hotel maid found them on Monday afternoon and called 911.

The hotel room the teens were staying in was located directly above a private garage for the occupants’ vehicle. Hialeah Fire Department Lt. Cesar Espinosa said the door from the garage to the room was open when they got to the scene. They tested the air of the room, which had a high concentration of deadly carbon monoxide, he added. Investigators are looking into if the room or garage had working carbon monoxide detectors and if the venue was required to have them, noted Zogby.

Northern Rail has had to run limited services on a number of routes while drivers participate in a strike over bank holiday pay. The Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union says that about 1,000 staff were involved in the walkout, which was due to end at midnight this morning. The union is seeking for the company to pay workers double pay to work on bank holidays.

The train operator says that they are disappointed with the strike and were able to run services yesterday between 9am and 6pm, but many between Preston, Newcastle, Manchester, Leeds and Liverpool didn’t run. Services between York, Sheffield and Carlisle, as well as those out of Stoke, were affected as well. Northern Rail says about 25% of services were operating to and from Hull and Cleethopes and Bridlington.

The RMT union says that bank holiday pay has been agreed on for several years, after the conductors traded double pay for other working benefits, which included extra yearly leave and higher salaries. However, they argue that there isn’t a pay agreement in place with the company for the additional December 27-28 public holidays.

John MacDonald, the regional official for RMT, has blamed Northern Rail for the strike. He says the dispute could have been resolved so easily, but the company didn’t have the will to solve it, which is why this is so frustrating. They haven’t had any contact with them since November 22, he added.

Northern Rail managing director Ian Bevan says that they are very disappointed that RMT is conducting the strike when not even half of their members voted in favor of the walkout. They will honor the existing agreements and are always willing to hold more talks, he continued. The company is now making passengers their priority, he added, giving them all the information they need to decide on their travel plans.

The Wales Tourism Alliance (WTA) has announced that tourist information offices could soon be obsolete as more and more people turn to online travel guides. The news comes as Monmouthshire Council in Wales becomes to latest to consider the future of the service which uses half of its entire £368,000 tourism budget.

The latest figures show that while hits on the country’s websites have almost trebled in recent years, people actually visiting offices in Abergavenny, Chepstow and Monmouth have fallen. Offices in Powy have also already been reduced from 14 to just one.

Chris Osborne is the chairman of WTA which represents more than 7,000 tourism business from 23 members. He said that while tourism offices provide a service for those who have already decided to come to an area, a significant amount of people now book their own accommodation online. He added that local authorities have to look at their expenses and assess how useful tourist information centres really are.

Monmouthshire Council said its review will start in the New Year while acknowledging that the move could be a cause for concern for some. The council pointed out that while 133,430 people visted the area’s three tourism offices in 2008/9, this number dropped to just 124,587 between 2009 and 2010.

The sour dispute between 2 of the biggest hotel groups in the world over espionage accusations has finally been settled. This came after Hilton Worldwide, which is owned by private equity group Blackstone, agreed to an injunction that will stop them from opening any ‘lifestyle’ hotels in the next 2 years.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts launched legal action against Hilton in April 2009 on accusations that the rival employed executives that used to work for them and who had stolen trade secrets in relation to the branding and design of boutique hotels. Amar Lalvani and Ross Klein are said to have taken hundreds of thousands of electronic documents when they jumped ship and were going to develop a Denizen hotel brand for Hilton using the confidential information.

Under the agreed injunction, Hilton will be supervised by monitors that will make sure this doesn’t happen again, as well as ensure that all documentation about Starwood is removed from their files. Other terms of the settlement haven’t been and won’t be detailed. A court filing said that a federal grand jury will continue looking into if Hilton and the former Starwood executives will face criminal charges.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts president and chief executive Frits van Paasschen pioneered the boutique hotel concept, which is shown in the company’s W brand. He says that they had no choice but to protect their brands on behalf of their customers, associates, owners and investors. This settlement will reinforce this protection and restore a level playing field for fair competition, he noted. Hilton Worldwide chief executive Chris Nassetta commented that they regret the circumstances of this dispute with Starwood and are pleased to bring an end to the litigation.

The Mardan Palace hotel, which was awarded the leading luxury hotel at the World Travel Awards this year, has had its power cut off due to unpaid bills. The Russian-owned venue in Turkey has 3 weeks to pay the almost 4 million Turksih lira (US$2.6 million) bill or they will have to face a bailiff court referral, threatened the AKEDAS power company.

The hotel, which has 546 rooms, is located in Antalya on the Mediterranean coast, and it cost over US$1.4 billion to build the 2 royal suites with private pools, aquariums, 10 restaurants, 11 bars and the largest swimming pool in the region. It launched last year with a gala attended by celebrities at a cost of US$35 million. That month, owner Ismailov was ranked number 61 on Forbes’ Russian rich list with a US$600 million fortune.

The staff is having to use generators to keep everything running, but legal proceedings will be launched if the hotel doesn’t pay their bill in the allotted time. A newspaper has quoted hotel manager Cumhur Ozen as saying that the problem was due to bad budgeting at the end of the year. They are a big company and have invested US$1.2 billion, he continued, adding that they won’t be beaten by small debts and will pay it.

AKEDAS general manager Ufuk Okul said that they cut off the electricity because the hotel hasn’t paid their bills. He didn’t give anymore details than that, but the hotel paid 7.7 million liras (US$5 million) in electric bills last year, according to Ozen, and a power bill can average over US$300,000 a month.

UK authorities foiled an al-Qaeda-related plot to target Christmas tourists and shoppers with a wave of suicide bombings in London. This came with a series of raids throughout Britain on Sunday, during which 12 men were arrested in Birmingham, London, Cardiff and Stoke-on-Trent.

Intelligence had discovered that a terrorist cell was in the later stages of a plan to coordinate attacks on iconic attractions, banks and shops. The raids came after MI5 conducted months of surveillance and communications were intercepted suggesting the bombers were ready to move ahead with the attacks. There were also claims from Iraqi ministers that captured insurgents said al-Qaeda was planning attacks during the holidays, with the Stockholm suicide bombing earlier this month by an Iraqi based in Britain being the first phase.

John Yates, the Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner and most senior counter-terrorism officer in the country, said the raids were necessary to ensure the safety of the public. The arrests were made in the early hours of Sunday after plans were drawn up on Friday. Yates says the operation was led by intelligence, and the men arrested are suspected of commissioning, preparing and instigating acts of terrorism. The cell is said to include British men that were influenced by the terrorist group in the Arabian Peninsula. The Yemen-based preacher Anwar al-Awlaki is also thought to have influenced them. The men are aged between 17 and 28 and will be held for questioning for 14 days.

Home Secretary Theresa May found out about the raids last week. She thanked the police and security services for working to ensure the country’s safety, as she knows they are facing a real and serious terrorism threat.

According to reports, authorities have found out that the man who fell from a Marriott Hotel on Saturday night wasn’t made to pull a stunt. The man held on for dear life to a Christmas decoration fixed to the building before falling 10 stories. However, he was alive and conscious afterward and taken to Baystate Medical Center in an ambulance.

Hotel employees had initially reported that a trespasser was on the roof at about 9pm, say police. He had been hanging on to the Christmas decorations around the 16th floor and was knocking on windows to ask people to let him in. However, the windows didn’t open, and the decoration broke, sending him 70 feet to a 6th floor ledge. The Fire Department lowered the man with ropes and a basket and into an ambulance. The man wasn’t a guest at the hotel and had to break a window in order to get to the roof, according to a spokesman for the Fire Department.

Later it was discovered that there was no foul play involved and no crime committed. Police are still trying to figure out why the man was trying to get into the Marriott hotel from the roof by hanging from an ornament fixed to the building. They also didn’t identify the man, Jose Rivera, until last night. His condition is unknown, but it is known that he sustained serious injuries from the fall. This is a very unusual thing to do, so he probably has a dumb reason for doing it.

Nick Park, the creator of Wallace and Gromit who has won 4 Oscars for animated films, says that he is talking with Blackpool Pleasure Beach about developing a ride based on the man-and-dog duo. He told Radio 5′s Desert Island Discs host Kirsty Young about the plan.

Park said that they are in the middle of talks with the theme park for a family friendly ride, not a ‘hair-raising terrifying ride’. He use to love being out of school when he was sick, because he could sit there in his bed and read old Beanos, which is where his early inspiration came from.

The filmmaker started out as a student trying to make movies cheap and wrote to Peter Sallis, the star of Last of the Summer Wine, to ask if he would do the voice for Wallace. Park could only pay the actor 50 quid at the time, but he was very kind and did it as a favor for a student. After becoming so successful, he moved to Hollywood to make Chicken Run, which is a feature-length film. However, he said that he had to stand his ground to keep the film the way he wanted it to be, which he added could get a bit tiresome.

The cheese-loving, comic characters have their own television series on the BBC right now called Wallace and Gromit’s World of Invention. They are featured on British stamps for the holiday season this year as well. Park is also known for the animated children’s series Shaun the Sheep.