Saffron Cole-Nottage fell headfirst into sea defence rocks as the tide was coming in

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An inquest heard ‘guidance was not followed’ after a mother tragically drowned. It was claimed that if ambulance service had alerted the fire service more quickly, it’s “possible” she might have survived.

Saffron Cole-Nottage, 32, was walking her dog with her daughter along The Esplanade in Lowestoft, Suffolk, on February 2 last year. The Mirror reports how she fell into sea defence rocks and became stuck headfirst as the tide came in.

A girl called 999 at 7.52pm and, within the first 30 seconds of the call, told an ambulance service call handler that Ms Cole-Nottage was “caught head down in the rock” by the “seafront”. At 7.57pm and 7.58pm, the caller referred to Ms Cole-Nottage “screaming”, before saying at 7.59pm that she was “in the water now”.

Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service was the last of the four emergency services to be alerted, with the first contact to the fire service made at 8.04pm. Firefighters arrived at 8.22pm and freed Ms Cole-Nottage in “less than half a minute” after first hands were placed on her at 8.29pm, Suffolk area coroner Darren Stewart said.

She was declared dead at 8.44pm.

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Recording a narrative conclusion on Friday, the coroner said Ms Cole-Nottage “died from drowning which has come about due to accidental circumstances”. He said the East of England Ambulance Service “didn’t immediately contact the fire service”.

He continued: “Had the Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service been immediately alerted to the incident … it’s possible that Saffron would have been extricated from the rocks sooner and survived. However, it’s not probable she would have done so.”

He described Ms Cole-Nottage, who worked as a cleaner, as a “loving mother completely devoted to her children”. The coroner noted that Ms Cole-Nottage “had been drinking” on the day of the accident.

The inquest previously heard that rescue efforts to try to save Ms Cole-Nottage did not follow guidance. Professor Richard Lyon, a consultant in emergency medicine, told the inquest on Tuesday that a “clock” should start on 30 minutes of rescue efforts once a responder arrives at the scene and confirms a person is submerged.

Prof Lyon, who holds roles with NHS Scotland and the University of Surrey, said: “I do not think the guidance was followed in this case.”

He said: “The guidance is quite clear that the clock starts when the responder arrives on scene … and submersion is confirmed.” He questioned “how sure the responders could be that Saffron was actually confirmed submerged when that decision [at 8.13pm] seemed to have been made from above the railings when she [Ms Cole-Nottage] was down in a difficult situation”.

Prof Lyon said it was “important to have an absolute time that everyone is working to and that time is sure and that’s definite”. “That’s why the guidance is very clear that the time should be from the arrival of the first rescuer – there’s no ambiguity about that time,” he said. “The whole purpose of the guideline is to maximise the chance of a lifesaving rescue.”

The inquest also heard that two men had tried to pull Ms Cole-Nottage out by her legs, which were the only part of her body visible. Ian Jones described her as “screaming and panicking”, while Alex Singleton-Dent said it had “felt like ages” before emergency services arrived.

Prof Lyon estimated Ms Cole-Nottage’s window for “probable survival” was around five minutes after submersion began. He added that being upside down would have made breathing “harder”.

The inquest was earlier told that a level of 271 milligrammes of alcohol per 100ml of blood was recorded for Ms Cole-Nottage. The legal limit for driving in England is 80 milligrammes of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood. Ms Cole-Nottage’s partner, Michael Wheeler, said in a statement read to the court that she had gone for a meal earlier in the day. He did not believe she was drunk and said she was not slurring her words when she set off on the walk.

Prof Lyon said the effect of the alcohol is “most relevant in terms of it would make her more likely to stumble, more likely to trip”. He said Ms Cole-Nottage’s “protective reflex would have been diminished”, meaning she may not have put an arm out as she fell. “When she was between the rocks her ability to move … and try to push herself out would have been impaired as well,” he said.

Prof Lyon said: “For Saffron to have had a probable survival, she would have needed to be rescued within five minutes of submersion and, if required, for CPR to start within that time.”

He said that “survival was possible up until about the 15-minute mark”, but she may have sustained a brain injury. “In my opinion, beyond 25 minutes, survival would not have been possible,” he said. “I should stress, all of these numbers are a best possible expert opinion,” he added.

The competing countries in the grand final will be Albania, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Lithuania, Malta, Moldova, Norway, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Sweden, Ukraine and the UK.

With northerly winds across the UK, the temperature has been around 4-7C below average this week.

Showers, thunderstorms and hail have also featured widely with some questioning what has happened to spring.

Thunderstorms and hail are actually quite common features of the weather this time of year as the extra daylight and warmth helps grow bigger showers that bring hail.

With the wind switching to more of a westerly direction over the weekend, it will start to feel warmer although the weather will continue to be quite mixed.

After a bright start on Saturday, cloud increases from the west with some rain in Northern Ireland and western areas of England and Wales.

By Sunday, temperatures will have risen to around 12-16C. This will be close to the average for the time of year. With lighter winds it should actually start to feel warmer than it has done this week.

Showers will be mostly confined to northern and western areas of the UK with sunny spells elsewhere.

Rory McIlroy feels he is “right in the tournament” after an impressive second round pulled him to within five shots of the halfway lead at the US PGA Championship.

McIlroy was furious after a four-over-par first round as his bid for back-to-back majors started in disappointing fashion.

He started his second round at Aronimink Golf Club in south-west Philadelphia eight shots off the clubhouse lead but will he enter ‘moving day’ five back from Americans Alex Smalley and Maverick McNealy after a bogey-free 67.

Only two players have shot lower over the opening two days – Chris Gotterup with a 65 and Ludvig Aberg a 66 – and it is a congested leaderboard with 15 players within two shots of the midway lead for only the third time in major history.

McIlroy labelled his open round “s***” and, asked to describe his second, replied: “Not as s***.”

He added: “At five back I do feel like I’m right in the tournament and that’s really what I wanted to do today was to just get myself back in it.

“I think this afternoon I had a better understanding of how the course was playing. I probably went out there yesterday being a little too aggressive, thinking that guys were going to go lower than they were.

“Because I certainly didn’t, in the practice rounds, see it playing as difficult as it has played.”

It was a slow pace, as is common at major championships. McIlroy sat down on the 10th tee as his group waited to play. It took over five hours to complete his round.

“It seems like the first two days of major championship golf are always going to be like that,” McIlroy added.

Aronimink has certainly proved a stiff test over the opening two days, biting back at pre-tournament claims that it would not challenge the world’s best golfers.

World number one Scottie Scheffler, who battled to a second-round 71 to sit two off the lead, said the pin locations were “the hardest I have seen on tour”.

McIlroy has mixed feelings over how the course has played, questioning the packed nature of the leaderboard.

“I think a bunched leaderboard like this, I think it’s a sign of not a great setup,” he said.

“I think when it’s as bunched as it is… because it hasn’t really enabled anyone to separate themselves.

“It’s easy to make a ton of pars, hard to make birdies, and it feels like bogey’s the worst score you’re going to shoot on any one hole.”

“I think the setup is fine, the golf course is good, the pins were tough.

“I’ve always felt like really good setups, it starts to spread the field a bit and not great setups sort of bring everyone together.

“Where they have put these hole locations, I feel like they have really tried to protect the course the first couple of days. So it seems like they have used up a lot of the really hard ones.”

McIlroy will play his third round alongside five-time major champion Brooks Koepka.

Selected round three tee times

12.45pm (all times BST): Jhonattan Vegas and Alex Noren.2.15pm: Justin Rose and Brian Harman.4pm: Rory McIlroy and Brooks Koepka.6.40pm: Scottie Scheffler and David Puig.7.40pm: Alex Smalley and Maverick McNealy.

While the Victorian railway cathedral remains from the days of steam and smuts, the £160m extension has the clean lines, sweeping shapes and the swish escalators that are more often associated with an international airport than a provincial station.

Like all good railway adventures, it has been a long journey with plenty of delays to reach the point where the station is now ready for public use. Britain is pretty poor at major infrastructure projects, but it shows that when we stick with it – rather than getting cold feet halfway through and pulling out, as happened with HS2 – we can achieve impressive results.

We live in a bitterly divided country at the moment, but this seems to be a great example of national government working with the regional mayor and the local council to achieve these results, and it was good to see yesterday the credit being shared between the Conservative Tees Valley mayor and Darlington’s Labour council leader, MP and transport minister, Lord Peter Hendy. The public always says it wants its politicians to put their party divides to one side and work together, and here we see collaboration – along with the railway company LNER – paying off. Congratulations to them all.

As the Stockton & Darlington Railway showed, if you build it, all manner of commercial enterprises will spring up alongside it, and we look forward to economic growth rippling out from the station.

But one blot on the landscape presents itself immediately the passenger steps out of the multi-million pound rotunda: St John’s Church, “the railwaymen’s church”, closed in 2023 and now looking empty and forlorn. How can it be brought back into the fold?

Truly, a regenerator’s work is never done.

The move comes amid a slowdown in the construction industry.

The company, which has 500 branches nationally, also closed a branch today in Oban, Scotland.

A spokesperson for Travis Perkins said: “We can confirm we will be exiting our Ripon branch based on Charter Road with effect from Friday.

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 “This difficult decision has been made following a recent review of branch performance and operational priorities.

 “We are working hard to support colleagues affected and are seeking, where possible, to redeploy and retain them within the business.

 “We’d like to thank all our customers for their support at the branch. We have a number of other branches across Yorkshire which will continue to provide the outstanding service Travis Perkins is renowned for.”

Travis Perkins opened in 12,000-square feet premises on Charter Road, at Ripon Business Park, in 2005.

In a trading update last month, the company said it “continued to experience challenging trading conditions” and declining revenue.

The first quarter update for the period to 31 March 2026 said group revenues are down 1.7 per cent on a like-for-like basis. 

In the Merchanting segment revenue was down 2.3 per cent as construction activity levels “remain subdued”. 

Zain Alabdeen Osman, 32, of no fixed address is wanted after breaching his prison licence by failing the notification requirements of the sex offenders register.

He is believed to be in the Leeds area but has connections to Scarborough, North Yorkshire Police has confirmed.

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A force spokesperson said: “If you have any information about his whereabouts, please call North Yorkshire Police on 101.”

“If you have an immediate sighting of him or know where he is now, please call 999.

“If you prefer to remain anonymous, you can pass information to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 or online via their website.

“Please quote reference 12260088052 when passing on information.”

In The Mixer’s World Cup special

Get previews of every single team at the World Cup sent directly to your inbox, featuring the players to look out for, games you shouldn’t miss and Metro’s big England predictions.

Seaham councillor Andrew Harrison and Delves Lane representative Kenny Hope were suspended pending an investigation on Monday (May 11), according to a party spokesperson.

But in a letter to constituents, Cllr Harrison claimed he and Cllr Hope had quit the party citing ‘unreconcilable differences’ with the leadership of the council.

A Reform UK spokesperson said: “Andrew and Kenny were suspended from Reform UK pending investigation on Monday morning, so not quite sure what they’re resigning from.”

The nature of the investigation is not known.

Both councillors were elected in May 2025 amid a sweeping win in County Durham for Nigel Farage’s party.

Andrew Harrison (left) was elected in May 2025. (Image: CHRIS BOOTH)

Posting in a Seaham Facebook group, Cllr Harrison said: “Today is a sad day as I have resigned from Reform UK due to unreconcilable differences with the leadership in Durham and lack of support. This has been highlighted in writing on multiple occasions and my reasoning.”

Both Cllrs Harrison and Hope served as chair and vice chair on the Economic Scrutiny and Enterprise committee at County Hall.

Kenny Hope (left) was also elected in May 2025. (Image: CHRIS BOOTH)

“We are both time served Veterans and have both resigned on the same day with similar reasoning,” Cllr Harrison said.

“Our values, integrity, honesty and principles come before everything and not [sic] negotiable.

“I will not go into any further detail as this would be unprofessional, however, I will say that I have not had any complaints by anyone disclosed to me or any other reason for my resignation. It’s simply the right thing to do.”

It leaves Reform UK with 58 councillors at Durham County Council, down from the 65 elected under the party’s banner in 2025.

Cllr Hope was contacted for comment.

Hearts are in pole position – for now. Avoid defeat at the home of Celtic, and they are SPL champions for the first time since 1960

After one of the most dramatic title races in Scottish football history, it all comes down to one game at Celtic Park.

Hearts are in pole position – for now. Avoid defeat at the home of Celtic, and they are SPL champions for the first time since 1960.

“It’s a perfect ending to a season for the league, for Scottish football, for drama and excitement,” said Hearts boss Derek McInnes ahead of Scotland’s first final-day title shootout since 1991. “It’s pure box office.

The last time the Scottish Premiership was not won by Celtic or Rangers was all the way back in 1984/85 when Aberdeen won two league championships in a row under a manager called Alex Ferguson.

Martin O’Neill’s Celtic were handed a lifeline on Wednesday when they defeated Motherwell with a contentiously awarded stoppage-time spot-kick.

McInnes branded the decision “disgusting” after his side’s victory over Falkirk on the same night, but said on Friday, on the eve of his club’s biggest ever match, that he did not want to get bogged down in talk about referees.

“It’s important now that we have that one big performance in us to try and get over the line and get the title won. The confidence I feel in the players is so strong. We have to go there with courage, with belief and be bullish,” said McInnes.

Hearts will have fewer than 1,000 supporters at the 60,000-capacity Celtic Park.

Here is everything you need to know about the game..

When is the game?

Saturday at 12.30pm

Where is the game?

Celtic Park

Is the game on TV?

Yes, the game will be shown live on Sky Sports in the UK and Ireland

Is the game being streamed?

Yes, Sky Sports will have a live stream of the game

Betting odds

Celtic 8/13

Hearts 9/2

Draw 17/5

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