AN English village is often overlooked by a famous seaside resort nearby – and locals want to keep it that way.

Felpham is right next to Bognor Regis.

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But Felpham has its own place in history, being where the poet William Blake lived.

He once called Felpham the “sweetest spot on earth” as well as saying: “Away to sweet Felpham, for heaven is there.”

Despite being a small village, it has a long beach with both sand and shingle.

People have raved about the “lovely” beach, which has a long promenade next to it as well.

One wrote: “Great time just sitting watching the boats, brings back memories of when we used to go crabbing when the kids were a lot smaller.”

Another called it their “favourite local beach”.

The Boat House cafe on the beach is also popular with visitors as well as dog-walkers in the winter months.

But Felpham is lesser-visited and locals might want to keep it that way.

The Felpham website states: “Felpham is a secret we like to keep to ourselves.

“Why would we want to share our beautiful beaches and parks, our great pubs, restaurants, hotels and shops and so much more?”

However, they added: “I guess we have to let others know how lucky we are. Just make sure you don’t spoil it please.”

While there are no celebs who call it home, there are a number of famous faces who have backed the village.

Bill Nighy recently visited to support a local campaign to keep Felpham’s Post Office open.

And Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson is a patron of The Blake Cottage Trust, which protects William Blake’s home.

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Despite being a small village, there are a number of pubs, restaurants and hotels to choose from.

There is The George Inn, The Thatched House and The Fox Inn, all within walking distance of each other.

Otherwise the beachfront The Lobster Pot has both sea views and seafood on offer.

And of course, a seaside village is nothing without a fish and chip shops, with the Felpham Chippy highly rated.

You won’t find any major hotel chains in Felpham – unless you head over to Bognor Regis – although there are B&Bs as well as the seafront Beachcroft Hotel, with rooms and beach huts to stay in.

Still want to go to Bognor Regis? Here is the new £15million attraction opening at the town’s Butlin’s.

And one mum has been visiting Butlin’s for 40 years – here’s how she thinks it has changed.

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‘Doom loop’

BRITISH health tech firm Zoe, championed by celebrities including Davina McCall, has launched a second round of layoffs in six months.

Last year Zoe was deemed one of the fastest-growing firms in the country as health fans signed up to wear its bright yellow blood sugar sensors on their arms.

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However, in April the firm admitted that it had overexpanded its workforce and had to cut costs by 20 per cent.

The Sun can reveal it is now making further job cuts while insiders claim sales are faltering.

Sources said staff had been told via a video call there had to be further changes and redundancies were required.

A consultation with staff is now ongoing, a legal requirement for companies making cuts of more than 20 people. It has refused to confirm the scale of the job cuts.

One worker said: “There is a terrible atmosphere.

“Everyone is scared and we don’t know whether we will have jobs at the end of this four-week window. It’s just looming over us.”

Co-founder Professor Tim Spector, who started the firm seven years ago, has been credited for pushing public awareness about “gut health”.

Zoe’s cheapest starter package costs £299 and charges users a further £25 a month for recipe guides and diet tips.

The brand has a deal with Marks & Spencer to produce mini “gut shots” of fermented milk for £2 and also a cereal range with Waitrose.

The business raised £11.5million in July to fund its expansion.

The firm said: “We are restructuring our teams to continue on our ambitious mission of transforming the health of millions.

“We are dedicated to keeping our employees engaged and informed in the coming weeks.”

A RECORD HIGH FOR UK MUSIC

RAYE, Dua Lipa and Ed Sheeran helped push the value of British music exports to a record high of £775million last year.

However, intense competition from artists from Latin America and South Korea is biting into business, figures from British music industry body the BPI show.

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Last year’s 7.6 per cent rise in exports was just half the 2022 rate of growth, it said.

Britain accounts for about 10 per cent of global music streaming, with timeless tunes from the likes of Elton John, The Beatles and Queen still proving popular.

BPI chief executive Jo Twist said: “It is encouraging — but we can and must do even better in the face of fierce global competition.”

CELEBS’ AD QUIZ

TWENTY social media influencers are being quizzed under caution by the City watchdog about their illegal promotion of financial products.

The Financial Conduct Authority said there had been a rise in so-called “finfluencers”, who promote foreign currency exchanges, crypto and complex trading to users.

The FCA says they are not authorised or qualified to give financial advice.

It charged nine stars this year, including Love Island’s Eva Zapico and Towie’s Lauren Goodger, for plugging dodgy investments on social media.

TEN-PIN’S A WIN

HOLLYWOOD BOWL is striking record levels of cash after tempting ten-pin fans to spend more on its snacks, drinks, and arcade games.

The bowling alley chain, which has 72 locations in the UK and 13 in Canada, saw a 7.2 per cent rise in annual revenues to £230.4million.

UK sales rose by 4 per cent to £200million, but were flat once new openings were stripped out.

The firm has benefited from families looking for low-cost indoor entertainment in the unpredictable weather.

RATES CAUTION

ONE of the Bank of England’s rate-setters says she favours a “cautious” approach to lowering interest rates, despite some economists’ predictions of hefty rate cuts next year.

Megan Greene wrote in the Financial Times yesterday she was concerned about rushing into a rate-cutting cycle and cautioned a consumer recovery “could take much longer”.

It comes as many still have to refinance their mortgages at higher rates than before.

Goldman Sachs yesterday said rates could fall to 2.75 per cent by next November.

V.W. £27M TAB FOR CAR HELL

VOLKSWAGEN has been fined £5.4million for its unfair treatment of vulnerable customers, and told to pay £21.5million in compensation.

The Financial Conduct Authority found nearly 110,000 customers who suffered due to “serious failings” by the German car giant’s finance arm over six years.

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A probe by the watchdog revealed VW took cars away from vulnerable customers who were struggling to keep up with payments, without considering other options.

It also charged them the extra costs of repossessing their car, even when customers said they had no means to pay.

In one case, the firm took back the vehicle from someone with depression and who had previously attempted suicide, despite telling VW they needed the car for work.

The watchdog’s Therese Chambers said: “Volkswagen Finance made tough personal situations worse.

“The fine and redress should send clear signals to lenders they need to properly support those in financial difficulty.”

AXE SHOP TAX PLEA

MORE than 300 business leaders have called the UK’s tourist tax a “spectacular own goal” and urged the Chancellor to scrap it in the Budget.

Bosses at Mulberry, John Lewis and Shakespeare’s Globe wrote to Rachel Reeves to argue the UK is at a “global disadvantage” as the only country in Europe not to offer tax-free shopping to overseas visitors.

The tax is costing the economy £11.1billion, analysis by the Centre for Economics and Business Research says.

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Last December, a gigantic monogrammed Louis Vuitton trunk descended upon the Champs-Élysées in Paris. The structure, a façade concealing the development of a new Louis Vuitton hotel, was instantly recognisable. Trunks were the original Vuitton product and, more than 150 years after Louis Vuitton founded his label in 1854, they remain the most iconic expression of the world’s most valuable luxury brand. From the very first flat-topped canvas edition through to the stripy, chequered and monogrammed versions that followed, demand for the luxury carriers has yet to cease. You can see them with Audrey Hepburn in Love in the Afternoon (1957), Leonardo DiCaprio in Catch Me If You Can (2002) and on Instagram with Rihanna as she strolls off a plane. 

They’re very discreet and I like how they show their age

Louis Vuitton produces new models of trunks every year, priced from £2,000 for coffrets: Tyler, the Creator recently collaborated with menswear creative director Pharrell Williams on a capsule collection featuring classic brown trunks updated with a multicoloured blossom motif, while in Vuitton’s 2022 advertising campaign featuring Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, they played chess atop a brown leather trunk. Lucile Andreani, Christie’s head of handbags and accessories for EMEA, has observed a “peak” in demand for some of these more recent iterations, such as those produced by the late designer Virgil Abloh. A limited-edition green trunk from his 2020 collection recently sold on 1stdibs for $372,000.

A copper Explorer Wardrobe trunk, sold at Christie’s for €189,000

A monogram canvas library trunk, sold at Christie’s for €88,200

Yet classic, elegantly aged pieces tend to dominate the secondary market. Vuitton is “arguably the most recognisable fashion brand in the world”, says Tim Bent of vintage-luggage specialist Bentleys. “People are fascinated by its history.” For Andreani, their longstanding appeal is in their ability to “transport us back to the eras they were used in”. A wide collector base also helps keep prices up, with those looking to invest competing against buyers furnishing hotels and homes.

For Bent, antique leather pieces are the holy grail. “They’re very discreet and I like how they show their age,” he says. He’s currently holding onto a leather shoe trunk from the 1920s, which has been fitted with an English lock by Bramah, a locksmith known for its “unpickable” designs. He teases that it will be for sale, eventually.

“I try to find the best original, untouched, unrestored versions,” Bent advises. As with a vintage designer bag, a touch-up can risk depreciating the value of an item, and patina adds character and evidence of authenticity. Look out for any oxidation on the hardware or natural wear of the canvas or leather.

Establishing pedigree is essential. The now-ubiquitous LV monogram was only introduced in 1896 to battle counterfeits, and on earlier Trianon (canvas) and Damier (chequered) versions, the trademark branding is not so obvious. Elisio Das-Neves, who has been trading in the Paris Puces since 1997, explains where one should look. “Louis Vuitton trunks will always have a label inside with their unique number,” he says. “The corner studding is also all signed, as are the wooden slats found on some of the older trunks.”

A 1934 canvas trunk, sold for €81,900 at Christie’s

a c1926 canvas trunk, sold for €94,500 at Christie’s

For those in search of added panache, there are plenty of wackier models on the market. Christie’s auction house recently closed its Legendary Trunks sale, the largest collection of Vuitton trunks ever offered (it had been amassed by a private collector). The 98 lots included a copper rifle trunk (which sold for €138,600), a shiny brown alligator caviar set with gold hardware (€25,200) and a bespoke monogrammed canvas croquet trunk (€30,240). Ninety-five per cent of lots sold, totalling €2.4mn, a world record for a collection of the brand’s trunks. Currently on sale with In Luxury We Trust is an antique picnic trunk that can serve six, complete with a glass decanter (£47,000). Bent searches “anywhere and everywhere” for trunks, but the most “magical” are often discovered by chance. Online marketplace Catawiki recently auctioned off a large-format 19th-century Zinc Explorer (with hermetically sealed locks designed for travel through humid climes) after seller Chloé Panissierrare discovered it underneath a tablecloth at her mother-in-law’s home in the south of France. “Only about 50-100 of these trunks exist today,” Catawiki’s Fleur Feijen says of the model, which would have been produced to order. 

Karrie Trim regularly peruses sites such as eBay, Poshmark and The RealReal for her next find. “I’m always hoping someone will post without knowing what it is,” says the Washington-based collector. When we speak she is on the hunt for a Sharon Stone vanity case (a great place for collectors to start, Feijen advises) to add to her 21-strong archive, which dates from between 1871 and 2023. But she keeps an open mind. “Sometimes the trunks find me, sometimes I find them.” 

LABOUR’S worker reforms will cost business £5billion a year and raise the risk of higher prices and job losses, the Government’s analysis shows.

Nearly one in five companies will have to react to the cost burden by cutting their workforce.

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The overhaul by Deputy PM Angela Rayner and Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds includes changes to sick leave rights and a ban on zero-hours contracts.

One in ten employers may end up cutting workers’ pay, analysis of the Office for National Statistics data shows.

It also suggested 40 per cent would most likely raise their prices, risking a return of inflation.

The alternative is businesses losing profits by absorbing costs.

The party acknowledged smaller businesses would face a bigger hit, despite ministers arguing against exemptions.

The Government has said it would “consider mitigation”.

Analysis showed the largest annual bills could be £1billion for ending zero-hours contracts and another £1billion for improving sick pay.

Ms Rayner said yesterday: “We said we would get on and deliver the biggest upgrade to rights at work in a generation and the growth our economy needs and that is exactly what we’re doing.”

Shadow Business Secretary Kevin Hollinrake is urging FTSE 100 bosses to raise their concerns about Labour’s package of regulation.

And Neil Carberry at the Recruitment and Employment Confederation said: “Today’s impact assessment shows the cost impact will fall on firms who are already facing a wide range of other rising costs.”

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Cuba’s communist government is facing its toughest challenge since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union as days of nationwide power failures cripple an island already suffering from severe shortages of food, fuel and medicine.

The national grid has collapsed four times in the past four days, leaving most of the country, including the capital Havana, without power. Residents were reduced to carrying buckets of water from cisterns or wells to their houses and queueing longer than usual for bread and other basic necessities.

Small anti-government protests broke out over the weekend around the island, and President Miguel Díaz-Canel appeared on state television wearing military fatigues on Sunday night to warn Cubans not to take part in “vandalism”.

“We are not going to accept nor allow anyone to act as a vandal and much less to affect the tranquility of our people,” said the president, who is rarely seen in uniform.

Schools and all non-essential businesses were closed on Monday, as the authorities struggled to re-establish power. By afternoon, state-run media said about 89 per cent of residents in Havana had electricity and it was slowly returning to rural areas.

As Cuban authorities were struggling to reconnect the country’s decrepit power grid on Sunday, a category-one hurricane barrelled into the east of the island, dumping heavy rain and lashing the area with winds.

The energy crisis comes at a perilous time for Cuba, which is struggling to provide its population with vital necessities such as food, water and rubbish collection, and has been hit by lacklustre tourist demand and severe US sanctions.

“The Cuban government and Communist party are facing the worst crisis since the collapse of the Soviet Union, both economically and politically,” said Bill LeoGrande, a Cuba specialist at American University in Washington. “The government is broke, it doesn’t have the money to import enough food or fuel.”

Cubans are accustomed to power cuts but the problem has become increasingly acute, with four-hour outages a regular feature of life in Havana, while in the countryside they often last for more than 12 hours a day.

In an address to the nation last week, Prime Minister Manuel Marrero said the country could no longer afford to buy enough fuel on the international market to generate the power it needs.

Supplies from Cuba’s international allies do not make up for the shortfall. Venezuela has reduced oil shipments to Cuba considerably in recent years, and although Russia has increased deliveries of crude, they are not enough to power the island. China is installing solar panels on the island but this is a long-term project.

Meanwhile, the government has failed to maintain Soviet-era power stations and has not fully implemented promised market-oriented reforms that could help it transition to a more open economy.

The US embargo is also driving the fuel shortages. The Biden administration has left in place “maximum pressure” Trump-era sanctions, which economists say prevent billions of dollars a year from flowing into state coffers.

The reinforced US embargo has deprived the Cuban state of “the ability to do many things, including import spare parts and fuel for electricity production”, said Fulton Armstrong, a former US national intelligence officer for Latin America.

Analysts say that to secure a more sustainable power supply Cuba must replace its Soviet-era power plants, most of which are nearly half a century old.

“The solution is radical reform and outside investment,” said Ricardo Torres, a research fellow at the Center for Latin American and Latino Studies at American University.