You and Yours

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You and Yours: Pig backlog, National Trust parking, Telephone switchover,

Telephone switchover, Kennels closing, National Trust parking

Pig backlog, National Trust parking, Telephone switchover,

BBC Radio 4 - You and Yours, Pig backlog, National Trust parking, Telephone switchover,

Backlog of 100,000 pigs. National Trust parking charges. Phone switchover fears.

Farmers say more staff are needed to clear a backlog of pigs.
Why parking charges are rising at some National Trust properties.
The biggest telephone switchover in 50 years.

Supermarkets, farmers, hauliers and food wholesalers are warning that shelves will go empty unless the government takes urgent action to help them recruit more workers. They want foreign workers to be allowed in on special temporary visas to make up for labour shortages. They've told the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson in a letter that the food and farming sector is on a "knife edge".  We meet Meryl Ward at her family's pig farm in Lincolnshire. The industry says over 100,000 pigs are stuck on UK farms like hers because of staff shortages at abattoirs where the pigs are slaughtered and the meat butchered.

We ask why the National Trust has decided to ramp up the cost of parking at some of its properties. The charity has been inundated with complaints after changing its parking policy from charging per car to per person.  A listener tells us why she believes the change is unfair and we also hear from Andy Beer, Director of Operations and Consultancy at the National Trust.

The technology that's been used to make and receive landline phone calls in the UK for the last 50 years is undergoing huge change. In December 2025, just over four years from now, the analogue copper wire telephone system will be switched off for good. Some landline operators have already started switching customers away to an internet based connection. We've already reported on some of the problems people have experienced, including getting cut off for periods of time. After more complaints from listeners, we speak to the UK's communications regulator, Ofcom, about whether the new digital system is being rushed in without properly assessing people's needs.

Presenter: Winifred Robinson
Producer: Tara Holmes

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