The government has confirmed it will not centrally support proposals for 400,000 new homes in the East Anglian countryside, prompting strong reader reaction

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Readers of Cambridgeshire Live have been voicing strong opinions on proposals for a vast new city near Cambridge and the Government’s response to them. Commenters raised concerns regarding water supply, agricultural land, existing new towns, and whether housebuilding efforts should be directed elsewhere.

A housing minister has confirmed that the Government will not centrally back proposals for 400,000 new homes in the East Anglian countryside. Matthew Pennycook stated that the proposal for Forest City 1, situated east of Cambridge, did not qualify for Labour’s flagship new towns programme as it failed to meet “the deliverability objective”.

He also told the Commons: “The Government are not exploring creating a development corporation to take forward this speculative proposal.” Nevertheless, Mr Pennycook indicated that developers could seek to advance their plans through local planning channels, without the backing of Westminster.

One reader praised the outcome, as Calumen Nomen commented: “I rarely have a good word to say for Pennycook or his miserable government, but this is welcome news. Pleased to learn he has shown this pair of chancers the door.”

Garyblowpants adds: “Just plant a forest. No need for more houses, there’s hundreds of thousands of vacant ones up and down the country plus there’s no more water for any more here. There’s 750,000 houses vacant in the UK with 300,000 long term vacant.”

Banallbikes disagrees: “So you want people to live in trees, do you? Maybe that’s what you want, but other people don’t. Have you got the facts to back up your claim about vacant homes, or is it more wishful thinking yet again?”

Over on our Facebook page, Jo F comments: “Great idea on farmland. How are all these people going to be fed? Oh, and not forgetting we have a shortage of water in this area already. Great plan!!”

Alan T believes: “Pie in the sky – you will need 2 new reservoirs for that lot! After all, we are talking about one of the driest parts of the UK.”

Emma B says: “But we’re already building 2 new towns, Northstowe and Waterbeach. Cambourne is still building too!”

Daniel C writes: “If you’re going to build a new city, for goodness sake, build it up north. With summer temperatures of 40 degrees in decades to come, nobody will want to live down here; everyone will be migrating northwards.”

Gillian U feels: “Cambridge is big enough as it is, as for public transport is the pits, as it is!”

Pete W adds: “So many houses have gone up in recent years around the county. Cambourne, St Ives, plus more near Houghton planned, St Neots, Alconbury, Ramsey, Chatteris, Ely, Huntingdon and numerous villages like mine. One site completed, one nearly, and two more planned. In a small village nearly 300 + houses and no increase in infrastructure or services.

“It’s utterly depressing, having heard and seen nothing but construction lorries and noise every day from the sites. There are jams every day with vehicles trying to go through the village along the High St, as parking is allowed on one side of it and it has bends in it which can’t be seen past, with cars blocking the sight line.”

Do you welcome the news that these houses will not have government backing? Comment HERE or below to have your say.

Columbia’s National Unit for Disaster Risk Management (UNGRD) said Moises was buried under about 3m (9.8ft) of debris, and the rescue team spent six hours conducting “high-precision work” on Saturday to reach him.

Reuters reported that a rescuer was overheard on a walkie-talkie saying the young boy was found near his sister and mother, who had both died.

Hours later, Delcy Rodríguez posted a video on X, purportedly showing the rescue of the second 11-year-old boy in the town of Caraballeda.

“In these hours, every life is hope for Venezuela,” she wrote.

Officials said the coastal region of La Guaira, where Caraballeda is located, has been hit the hardest.

Rescuers’ efforts have been hampered by aftershocks, which are in turn terrifying residents.

“To be honest, it makes you feel kind of nervous. Any little noise… horrible,” Jesús Andueza, a 64-year-old bus driver told BBC Mundo.

Thousands of people are living in their cars or camping at places like the airport and golf course, away from buildings that could collapse.

The golf course in Caraballeda has become an epicentre for the emergency response.

Its green lawn, which used to be perfectly manicured, is now a makeshift hospital and donation centre, where residents who have lost everything are sifting through piles of donated clothing and boxes of humanitarian aid.

In another part of the golf course, next to a small lagoon, a strip of land has been set up as a landing pad for helicopters arriving with supplies and emergency personnel from within Venezuela and abroad.

In the area surrounding the golf course, Caraballeda’s streets – cracked and covered in rubble – are marked by dust and silence, interrupted only by heavy machinery and those searching among the remains.

“In a matter of moments, everything we had worked so hard to build was gone.”

A Co Tyrone salon owner has said she is heartbroken after her business was destroyed in a fire.

The owner of Courture Hair Omagh has said she is devastated following the fire which was reported at 3.24am on Sunday, June 28, at the premises on Market Street.

In a statement on social media, owner Joanne said she was heartbroken about what has happened to the salon but also thanked her customers and friends who have reached out to offer support and kindness.

She said: “We are still trying to come to terms with what has happened. We are heartbroken to share that the salon has been completely destroyed following a fire in the premises above.

“In a matter of moments, everything we had worked so hard to build was gone. Our salon, our tools, our products, and so many memories that meant the world to us.

“For some of us, this was our business. For others, it was our workplace. For all of us, it was our second home. Although we are devastated, we are incredibly grateful that no one was hurt. That is all that truly matters.

“To our wonderful clients, friends, and families, thank you for all the love, messages, and support you have already shown us. Your kindness is helping us through this.

“We don’t know exactly what comes next, but we’ll keep everyone updated as we take our first steps forward. Thank you for keeping us in your thoughts.”

The Northern Ireland Fire & Rescue Service said they received a call regarding a shop fire with apartments above it on Market Street at 3.24am on Sunday, June 28, with a number of crews from Omagh and the surrounding area attending the scene.

The fire was dealt with by 6.29am and is not believed to have been started maliciously at this time.

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BERLIN (AP) — France saw around 1,000 additional deaths last week at the height of its record-smashing heat wave, the country’s public health agency said Sunday, as new temperature highs sparked wildfires in Germany and Berlin police used water cannons to cool down the crowds.

Temperature records were toppled in several countries on the weekend as the heat wave slowly moved toward eastern parts of the continent.

In Germany, a new nighttime temperature record was reported Sunday in Kubschütz, in eastern Saxony, with 29.4 degrees Celsius (84.9 Fahrenheit). It came only hours after a daytime record of 41.5 C (106.7 F) in Möckern-Drewitz in Saxony-Anhalt, according to preliminary data by the German Weather Service DWD. The previous record was set a day earlier.

A new study from the World Weather Attribution, a Europe-based collaboration of scientists, reported Friday that the record-breaking heat and humidity in Europe this past week would not have been possible without climate change.

The rapid study found that the heat would have been virtually impossible just five decades ago, and is 200 times more likely today than it would have been 20 years ago.

France records surge in deaths during heat wave

France reported a surge in deaths last week at the height of a record-smashing heat wave, including a sharp increase at private homes, especially in the Paris region, the national public health agency said Sunday.

There were more than 1,200 deaths on Wednesday, when France was sweltering under its hottest temperatures, increasing to more than 1,400 deaths on each of the two following days, Public Health France said. In April and May, before the heat wave, France’s rate of deaths was about 900 to 1,000 per day.

The agency concluded that France experienced a total of at least 1,000 additional deaths during those three days alone, an estimate it cautioned is likely to increase as more data is collected, including for deaths at home.

The increase was sharpest in areas under red warnings of extreme heat, it said. Those warnings blanketed about three-quarters of the country at the peak of the heat wave. The agency said that 85% of the deaths involved people aged 65 and above.

Lightning strikes Swedish theme park

In Sweden, several people were injured when they were hit by lightning at an amusement park, the country’s TT news agency reported.

Three adults were taken to the hospital, among them a woman with serious injuries, after the lightning struck the Tosselilla Sommarland park in Tomelilla in the south of the country.

Across Europe, the extreme heat has been followed by severe thunderstorms.

Heat sparks wildfires in forests contaminated with WWII ammunition

In Gohrischheide, in eastern Germany, a fire broke out in a large forest that’s still contaminated with ammunition from World War II, which made the firefighters’ efforts even more complicated.

Similarly, a major firefighting operation was underway in southwest Germany near the village of Traisen, where the heat sparked a forest fire in an area that also contained unexploded ordnance. Firefighters had to be temporarily stop after explosions took place and an ordnance disposal unit was brought in to continuously assess the situation, German news agency dpa reported.

The big cities’ fire departments were busy sending out ambulances to people suffering from heat-related illnesses. In Berlin, an additional 500 ambulance dispatches were reported on Saturday, most of them heat-related.

Wildfires are especially challenging in Greece, which has a dry mountainous mainland and over 100 inhabited islands, prompting authorities to introduce innovative space technology to help put them out quickly.

In Denmark, which marked new temperature records on Saturday, the extreme heat was followed by heavy thunderstorms.

By Sunday morning, the Nordic country had recorded 1,156 lighting strikes, according to public broadcaster DR.

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Leicester reported from Paris.

A British man has been arrested in Ecuador after the body of a woman was found inside a suitcase in Colombia.

Matthew Ashley Foster-Smith, 46, from Bournemouth, Dorset, is alleged to have caused the death of 36-year-old Natalia Villalba in an apartment in Bogota on 18 June, local authorities said.

The Attorney General’s Office in Colombia said Foster-Smith was suspected of beating Villalba to death before placing her body in a suitcase, attempting to conceal what happened, and fleeing the scene.

An arrest warrant was obtained by prosecutors in Colombia and an Interpol Red Notice was issued, authorities said.

Foster-Smith was held at Quito International Airport in Ecuador.

Bogota’s mayor, Carlos Fernando Galan, said Dorset Police had assisted with the operation to locate him.

A Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office spokesperson said: “We are supporting a British man who has been detained in Ecuador and are in touch with the local authorities.”

Dorset Police has been approached for comment.

A man has died and another has been arrested on suspicionm of murder, police have confirmed.

A spokeswoman for Dyfed-Powys Police said the force was called to reports of an injured man in Church Street in Welshpool in the early hours of Sunday morning and that, despite the best efforts of paramedics, he died from his injuries.

One man, aged 22, has been arrested on suspicion of murder and remains in police custody.