Tech

Hundreds of people gathered to watch a celebrity football match that raised money for dementia prevention, treatment and care.

Reality TV star Calum Best and This City Is Ours actor James Nelson-Joyce were among those who played at Southampton's St Mary's stadium on Thursday.

The team captained by actor and presenter Joe Swash won the match 9 – 5 in front of about 700 fans.

All proceeds from the event have gone towards the charity Alzheimer's Research UK.

Charlie Quirke took part in the charity game and said: "It's an absolute privilege to be involved in such an important cause."

The actor, best known for playing Travis Stubbs in the ITV sitcom Birds of a Feather, and son of actress Pauline Quirke, added: "Alzheimer's affects so many families across the country, and when you have the opportunity to use your platform to make a real difference, you simply have to take it.

"The fact we can do this at the iconic St Mary's Stadium makes it even more special."

Drivers have been warned to beware of a network of rising bollards in Leicester city centre after six vehicles were hit in the space of a fortnight.

Leicester City Council has replaced existing bollards and installed new ones in 18 locations surrounding the pedestrian zone in the city centre over the last few months.

Since they were reactivated two weeks ago, six vehicles have collided with the bollards, five of which were damaged.

A council spokesman says CCTV has shown all the vehicles hit had tailgated others and issued a reminder for motorists to follow the rules when passing through the rising barriers.

In the latest incidents, two vehicles collided with the rising bollards in High Street in quick succession on Thursday morning.

The first, a silver Mitsubishi SUV was left with a blown out tyre, while the second, an Audi A6, appeared to be more seriously damaged, with debris and electrical wires left on the road after the impact.

One eyewitness, who did not wish to be named, said: "The bollards are really sturdy, like they're an anti-terrorist measure.

"They've not been working for a long time and a lot of people don't know what to do when they drive up to them.

"If people drive up to them when a car is already going through, they don't realise they need to stop."

A Leicester City Council spokesperson pointed out there were red signs at the bollards warning drivers not to tailgate others.

He said: "There have been six incidents of vehicles colliding with the new automatic bollards since they came into operation two weeks ago, resulting in damage to five of the vehicles.

"In each case, CCTV evidence shows that the driver was tailgating, and that the warning light was on red.

"We are content that the new system is working as intended. Signage is in place warning drivers to be careful and avoid tailgating at each of the sites, along with stop and go lights and audio warnings.

"Around 800 to 900 vehicles will enter the city centre pedestrian zone through the new automatic bollards on a typical weekday."

However, extra yellow temporary signs warning motorists not to tailgate were put in place at the bollards in High Street on Friday afternoon.

The council has issued the following directions and guidance for all motorists in relation to the rising bollards:

• Only residents, businesses and drivers making deliveries are allowed to pass through and need to use a PIN code to gain entry outside allowable hours.
• The allowable hours are 05:00 to 11:00, except on Saturdays when the hours are reduced to between 05:00 and 09:00.
• One-time use PIN codes can be issued to those with legitimate reasons for accessing the zone outside of the allowable hours.
• The automatic bollards rise immediately after a vehicle has entered the pedestrian zone to prevent tailgating and warning signs and red lights are in place to alert drivers of the risk.
• The bollards will only allow one vehicle through at a time.
• After entering the code to retract the bollard, every driver should wait for the green light and must not chance it by tailgating the previous vehicle.

A fire has spread across the back gardens of three homes on the Isle of Wight, destroying an aviary and several garden sheds.

Hampshire & Isle of Wight Fire & Rescue Service said the fire in Elm Grove, Cowes, began on Friday at about 21:30 BST.

Crews from three stations – Newport, Cowes and Ryde – were sent and the fire was put out shortly before 23:00.

The fire service said officers had found the cause of the blaze was believed to be an electrical fault.

The parents of nearly 4,000 Oxfordshire children have pledged to deny them a smartphone until at least the end of Year Nine.

It is part of the "parent pact" launched by campaign group Smartphone Free Childhood.

The group warns that mobiles "can cause a whole host of problems, from triggering anxiety and eating disorders, to opening the door to cyberbullying or sexual predators".

It comes alongside calls to ban mobiles in all Oxford schools, though studies are mixed on whether that would make a difference to grades and behaviour.

The idea behind the pledge is to have enough parents withholding phones that their children are not left out as only one in their classes without a device.

So far, students at 270 schools in the county have been signed up, with Europa School UK in Culham garnering 204 pledges.

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The group's spin-off campaign Smartphone Free Schools said that a ban on devices during learning hours would "boost learning, protect mental health, improve behaviour, create safer spaces [and] protect childhood."

Will Orr-Ewing, who runs the Oxfordshire branch of the campaign and works in education, said that having mobiles in lessons was extremely distracting.

"The average child in the UK receives 237 notifications per day. If you scale that to a class of 30 kids, that's a phone pinging every few seconds," he said.

"It's now known that smartphones are heavily implicated in the catastrophic decline in young people's mental health over the past decade.

"If young people can access inappropriate content and apps during the school day then, unintentionally though it may be, schools are neglecting the welfare of their students."

Meanwhile, schools across Oxfordshire are introducing policies to restrict phone access.

Students at Aureus School in Didcot have to stow their phones in a lockable pouch every day before they enter the school.

Reflecting on the change it has made, head teacher Kirsty Rogers said: "It's incredible. The lack of disruption to lessons now is huge."

The school's previous policy was to confiscate phones when they were spotted in lessons, but Mrs Rogers said teachers were wary of doing this "through fear of what was going to happen".

"Students are absolutely addicted to these phones, and so you don't know how they're going to react to you when you say you need to confiscate them," she said.

The lockable pouches were unpopular when they were first introduced, but many students have now said they have got used to them.

"People used to get sad and angry because of something on their phone," one student said. "But now their presence of mind is in school and they can study better."

"When I'm studying, I feel more comfortable leaving it out of my reach and focusing on my education more," another added.

Studies are divided on whether prohibiting phones in schools helps studying, however.

Research by the Policy Exchange found that children at schools with an effective ban achieved GCSE results one to two grades higher than those at other schools.

But a University of Birmingham study found such bans were not linked to better grades, mental wellbeing, sleep or classroom behaviour.

Importantly, though, they noted that spending longer on smartphones and social media in general was linked with worse results for all of those measures.

The conclusion of lead author Dr Victoria Goodyear was "those bans in isolation are not enough to tackle the negative impacts".

"We need to do more than just ban phones in schools," she said.

'Everyone is on side'

Currently, there is no legislation enforcing a phones in school policy. It is down to individual head teachers what they do.

But for Oxford City councillor Jo Sandelson, that is not enough.

She has put forward a motion to the council calling for it to support an outright ban on smartphones in all Oxford schools for under-16s.

Though the council has no powers to enforce such a ban, she said "key messages coming out from the city would really show everyone is on side".

"Everyone is saying the same thing. These children are better off without the distraction of smartphones at schools," she said.

"What Eric Smit, the ex-boss of Google, says is why would we run such a large, uncontrolled experiment on the most important people in the world? Which is the next generation."

In March, the government said it believed head teachers already had the power to ban phones in schools, with its official guidance saying "schools should develop a mobile phone policy that prohibits the use of mobile phones" during lesson time.

A peregrine falcon chick has successfully hatched after its parents' first set of eggs – known as a clutch – was destroyed by a vandal.

The chick is the first to hatch this year at St Albans Cathedral, with the new baby seen on a live webcam.

Eggs belonging to the birds of prey were deliberately smashed in April, but the pair of falcons were not deterred and laid a second clutch.

"We're delighted to see the wonderful comeback these birds have made, demonstrating just how resilient they are," said Lea Ellis, engagement manager at Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust.

The peregrine is a species of large crow-sized falcon and can travel at more than 200mph (320 km/h), making it the fastest diving bird in the world.

The falcon pair – who were named Alban and Boudica after local historical figures – captured the public's interest since producing chicks every year since 2022.

The new chick emerged on Monday from one of three eggs, with onlookers waiting to see if any brothers or sisters would hatch.

Ms Ellis said: "The hatching of their first chick this year signifies hope, and I am optimistic that we will see more chicks on the nest tray in the very near future.

"It is not unusual for the eggs to hatch hours or days apart and sometimes eggs do not hatch, as they can be infertile."

She added: "For those watching the webcam, there will be times when the parents will be out of sight, but I'd urge people not to worry about this, as they will be close by to protect the chick or chicks."

Hertfordshire Police opened an investigation into the vandalised clutch in April and previously said inquiries were "ongoing".

An NHS hospital trust that runs mental health services across Lancashire has failed to improve after struggling with staff shortages, inspectors have found.

Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust was rated "good" overall by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), but the regulator found safety and effectiveness of care needed to change.

Inspectors found there were high levels of vacancies in the understaffed psychiatric intensive care units and acute wards for adults of working age, which put patient safety at risk.

A spokesman for the trust said efforts were under way to address the shortfall in workers, which was "a concern across the NHS".

Inspectors visited 21 of the trust's adult mental health wards across eight locations including Chorley, which was specifically named.

Their visit was prompted after concerns were received about serious incidents within the service, a CQC spokesman said.

'Increased risk' of harm

Each service was judged to have "an increased risk that people could be harmed" as wards were often understaffed, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS).

But inspectors found the trust had made improvements to monitoring patients' physical health and conducting risk assessments.

They also found that not all patients had access to a psychologist.

However, the services were found to have made sufficient improvements to no longer be in breach of the regulations it had fallen foul of at the previous inspection in January 2024.

But the trust was told it must ensure it has sufficient numbers of staff and was ordered to produce an "action plan" in response to all the concerns raised.

A trust spokesman said the "safe and effective care of our patients is of utmost importance to us and we acknowledge how staffing levels, as raised in the CQC's report, does have an impact".

He said changes were under way, including the recruitment of more than 90 registered nurses throughout the past year within inpatient wards.

Thousands of islanders are set to walk across Guernsey next month, to mark 10 years of a breast cancer charity's sunset walks.

The Pink Ladies said it hoped 2,000 people would attend its event on 28 June to raise awareness and support those who had been affected by breast cancer.

It said the walk, which happens every two years, first launched in 2007 and typically attracted about 1,500 islanders, all dressed in pink.

The charity's chair, Naomi Leach, said: "As the Pink Ladies Guernsey approaches its 25th year, we are so looking forward to celebrating with friends and supporters of the charity… which is always a wonderful opportunity to celebrate life and living."

'Life turned upside down'

The event will be a first for Gemma Ainger, who was 42 when she diagnosed with an aggressive form of stage three breast cancer.

"Last year my life was turned upside down," she said.

"The hardest part of all that's happened to me is moving on from the fact that if I'd been paying attention to my body, its highly likely I would have caught my breast cancer earlier.

"I'll be walking the 10th sunset walk, a year after I discovered a lump, with so many of my biggest supporters, and I can't wait, it's going to be very emotional for me, that's for sure."

A 99-year-old D-Day veteran has told BBC Radio Sussex he lied to enlist in the army during World War Two.

Bob Piper, from Southwater, joined the Home Guard at the outbreak of fighting when he was just 14 years old.

He later enlisted in the Royal Sussex Regiment when he was underage after being told by a recruitment officer to say he was 18.

Mr Piper – soon to celebrate his 100th birthday – then transferred to the Royal Signal Regiment and arrived on mainland Europe one week after D-Day.

In the Home Guard, he said he spent time patrolling beaches, guarding airfields and looking after the Duke and Duchess of Norfolk at Arundel Castle as there was a fear at the time the Germans might try to "snatch" members of the royals.

Mr Piper's stories from Europe were among those the Ministry of Defence shared when it highlighted the exploits of the D-Day veterans on the 80th anniversary of the landings last year.

When Victory in Europe was declared, Mr Piper said he was still deployed in war-torn Germany.

"There was no jollification," he told BBC Radio Sussex. "We were inundated with German POWs."

The 99-year-old said people who had been sent by the Germans to work in the country were trying to get home, while German civilians were also attempting to flee the advancing Russian army.

"There were thousands and thousands of people that had to be looked after," he said.

"It ended up instead of fighting everybody, you were trying to organise and feed them."

Mr Piper, who sat behind the King at VE Day celebrations in London on Monday, said he will go to a service at Westminster Abbey to mark the occasion on Thursday.

"I think about the boys that never came home," he told the BBC.

"I often say that the children today should go out and stand in the middle of a cemetery. This is the price of the freedom that we have today. It's not money, but look around at those headstones."

A beloved working men's club is to close after 122 years in operation, despite its members' efforts to keep it alive.

Ryhope Working Men's Club – known locally as Ryhope Top Club – opened in the Sunderland village in 1903, and was especially popular among its mining community.

Club members have enjoyed summer trips, Christmas parties, ballroom dancing and leek-growing contests over the decades.

But this month, the club announced it would close its doors for the final time on 1 June, citing lower custom in recent years.

"The bar is the heartbeat of any workmen's club. Unfortunately, it's died a death," said Ronnie Bates, who became a member of the club when he was 19.

Mr Bates followed in the footsteps of his father, who joined in 1926 while working at Ryhope Colliery.

The pit's closure in 1966 was the first challenge the club faced.

"It affected Ryhope in a big way – the pubs and clubs suffered," Mr Bates said.

But Ryhope Top Club survived, and remained a big part of the community.

"In the good days, in the '70s and '80s, we used to have a trip away for the kids, the families."

There used to be 12 coaches lined up, he said.

"We didn't go far – Whitley Bay, Seaton Carew, Redcar, places like that. It was a great day."

Mr Bates remembers the club often being "packed".

Monday nights saw film showings, while on Tuesdays people came "from all over" for ballroom dancing, and at weekends, "every room was full upstairs".

But customers began to dwindle after the indoor smoking ban was introduced in 2007, and the club had to compete with "cheap alcohol" available in supermarkets, Mr Bates said.

"Then Covid struck, and that really hit everybody hard, obviously. And we've just never recovered from it," he added.

Nora Whitfield, 72, started working as a barmaid at the club when she was 18.

She no longer works for the club, but has spent the last 14 years organising charity fundraisers at the venue, helping to raise money for a local maternity unit, Macmillan Cancer Support, the RNLI, and several other charities.

As well as charity fundraising, Mrs Whitfield tried to bring money into the club by hosting bingo, functions and Christmas parties.

"I've done as much as I can," she said. "It's just so sad the way things are turning out."

Mrs Whitfield and Mr Bates praised the club's steward, bar staff, and committee members, who they say "tried really hard" to keep the club going.

The site of a former factory that was burnt down by arsonists could be redeveloped into a self-storage facility.

The vacant printworks in Crewe, Cheshire, was destroyed by a fire on 9 August that caused the evacuation of dozens of nearby homes.

In court in February, two men admitted arson, with a third found not guilty of the same charge.

A planning application for the vacant site, on the corner of Catherine Street and Frances Street, proposes the installation of self-storage containers.

The development, put forward by Lock Stock Self Storage Ltd, would also include CCTV surveillance and a 6m-high electric gate.

A report submitted with the application, which has been lodged with Cheshire East Council, said the proposal represented a "practical and beneficial use of the site" and would have minimal impact on the community.

More than 350 people were evacuated from their homes as a result of the fire which damaged some of the properties.

Det Con Mike Edwards, of Cheshire Police, said the incident "ripped residents out of the comfort of their own homes" and caused "substantial strain" on emergency services.

"The fire also left officers with considerable health issues and caused them to have time off work," he said.

James Evans, 19, of Welles Street, Sandbach, and 18-year-old Justin Keeling, of Catherine Street, Crewe, are due to be sentenced on 24 April after pleading guilty to arson being reckless as to whether life was endangered.