While weather warnings have now been lifted, authorities are advising the public to ‘remain vigilant’

While the worst of Storm Dave has passed, the aftermath continues to disrupt life across the UK this Easter Sunday.

Utility crews and transport officials remain in a race against time to restore services after the storm lashed the country with hurricane-force winds and unexpected snowfall. Although the Met Office was able to lift several yellow weather warnings earlier than expected as conditions stabilised, the trail of destruction left in the storm’s wake remains a significant hurdle for households and people on the move.

The sheer power of the storm was most evident in North Wales, where a peak gust of 93mph was recorded at Capel Curig.

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Other regions felt the brunt of the gales as well, with Yorkshire, Cumbria, and Aberdeenshire all clocking wind speeds well above 70mph.

These fierce conditions resulted in localized blackouts, particularly in Scotland. Engineering teams from Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks are currently deployed across Skye, Caithness, and coastal Aberdeenshire to reconnect a small number of homes that remain without power following a turbulent night.

Infrastructure and transport networks are still reeling from the impact. On the west coast of Scotland, Caledonian MacBrayne ferry services faced significant cancellations, while motorists across the north struggled with blocked roads caused by fallen trees.

Rail travel was also hit hard. Network Rail Scotland managed to lift most speed restrictions by mid-morning, but passengers in the north west of England were forced onto replacement buses between Manchester Piccadilly and Chester.

In East Yorkshire, the Humber Bridge was temporarily closed to high-sided vehicles before eventually reopening as the winds subsided.

Adding to the seasonal confusion, the storm brought a wintry chill that turned rain into snow across much of Scotland. Residents in Glasgow, Skye, and Inverclyde woke to snow flurries on Easter morning, creating treacherous driving conditions even as the wind warnings were deactivated.

Met Office spokesperson Marco Petagna noted that while the storm pulled away faster than originally predicted, the cold air left in its wake will keep temperatures below the April average for the northern half of the country.

“Storm Dave will clear north east on Sunday morning, leaving sunshine and widespread showers across the UK,” he said. “Northern areas will see the heaviest blustery showers and feel cold, while temperatures elsewhere stay closer to average for early April.”

As the afternoon progresses, the focus has shifted from wind damage to the risk of rising water.

Despite the return of some sunshine, one flood warning remains in place for Scotland, while England faces a combined 18 flood warnings and alerts.

Authorities are advising the public to remain vigilant near coastal areas and riverbanks, as the combination of heavy overnight rain and lingering blustery showers continues to threaten localized flooding.

The Saltburn to Boulby line serves the potash mine at Boulby and the British Steel site at Skinningrove, both major employers in the area.

While the majority of the route is some way inland, it hugs the coast at Huntcliff, Saltburn with only a coastal path, forming part of the Cleveland Way, separating it from the sea.

At a recent Redcar and Cleveland Council climate and environment scrutiny committee, members warned of “cliff instability near rail assets” and questioned officers over the approach being taken.

They also called for better communication with the likes of Network Rail, which maintains rail infrastructure assets, suggesting a “structured forum” should be established with the body and other interested parties to develop current and future strategy.

Saltburn councillor Philip Thomson, a member of the committee, said the line was “very close to the sea”.

Saltburn ward councillor Philip Thomson. Picture/credit: Ian Cooper/Teesside Live. Free for use for all LDRS partners.

He said: “The challenge is monitoring these things.

“The clear lay evidence is that this part of the coast, particularly coming around Huntcliff, has a large question about its longevity.

“The service to the potash line and British steelworks at Skinningrove requires a forward plan, not waiting for further slippage to be planned on the assumption it is going to happen at some time.

“I asked the question [about a forward plan] and the answer came back saying we will just move the path to the other side of the railway line.

“That is all very well if the railway is not to be jeopardised as well.”

Cllr Thomson said Network Rail’s (NR)position was unclear and he had asked the council’s highways department to make a formal approach to NR with a view to a report being brought back to the committee.

Philip Chisholm, from Redcar, a former councillor with Langbaurgh Borough Council – Redcar and Cleveland’s predecessor – contacted the Local Democracy Reporting Service  with his concerns earlier this year.

Philip Chisholm. Picture/credit: Supplied. Free for use for all LDRS partners.

He described how the freight line “clings to the cliff edge” with the Cleveland Way being “squeezed into a narrowing space” between the railway and the sea.

Mr Chisholm also described how last year sections of the walking route had been closed after rock falls.

He said: “The underlying geology has been unstable for decades, but climate change, heavier rainfall, and accelerating coastal erosion have turned a long-term issue into an immediate risk. 

“The question is no longer whether the railway is vulnerable, but whether we are prepared to act before it is lost.”

Mr Chisholm said the rail link was a “working artery” supporting East Cleveland’s industrial economy and freight access was “vital” to both the steelworks at Skinningrove and the Boulby potash mine.

He said: “The loss of the line would ripple through supply chains, employment, and regional competitiveness.

“Despite the scale of the risk, there remains no clearly articulated, publicly visible strategy that convincingly secures the railway’s future.”

Mr Chisholm said essential infrastructure investment could secure a solution in the form of engineered coastal protection and “cliff stabilisation”.

He said: “These are not optional extras. If this line were lost to the sea, the cost of rebuilding – if rebuilding were even possible – would dwarf the cost of acting now.”

Network Rail did not respond to a request for a comment.

A Redcar and Cleveland Council spokeswoman said the coastline in question was subject to a shoreline management plan (SMP) – as with other areas of the UK – with councils and the Environment Agency working together to make assessments as part of regional coastline groups.

She said: “The main purpose of SMPs is to identify long-term policy options to manage the shoreline in a sustainable way.

“The [current] policy is no active intervention…and not to encourage new defences.”

The Tees Valley Combined Authority, which previously set money aside for a feasibility study looking at the potential of passenger services being reinstated to the line, also did not respond to a request for comment.

Last year Redcar and Cleveland Council said planned engineering works to divert a cliff top road at Cowbar, near Boulby, were being brought forward after coastal erosion forecasts were updated and identified a much greater risk of collapse than previously thought.

It has continued to list the issue among several ‘red risks’ included in its corporate risk register, which is reviewed twice a year.

John Packer Musical Instruments, one of the UK’s largest specialist brass and woodwind retailers and manufacturers, has confirmed the acquisition of Richard Smith Musical Instruments, based in Sheriff Hutton, North Yorkshire, and the company behind the Smith-Watkins brand.

Smith-Watkins is internationally recognised for its handcrafted cornets and trumpets.

Rob Hanson, managing director of John Packer Musical Instruments, said: “It’s a huge honour to welcome the Smith-Watkins brand to the John Packer Musical Instruments family.

“With his groundbreaking acoustic research, Dr Richard Smith was a pioneer and the result has been outstanding musical instruments which light up concert halls, recording sessions and military parades all over the world.”

The company is now part of a family that includes other respected names such as JP Musical Instruments, Rath Trombones, Taylor Trumpets, Sterling Musical Instruments and Rudall Carte Woodwinds.

Smith-Watkins instruments will continue to be manufactured at their facility near York.

Mr Hanson said: “These beautiful instruments will continue to be handcrafted in the UK, helping strengthen the future of UK brass manufacturing, and ensuring musicians all over the world can enjoy playing Smith-Watkins for generations to come.”

The acquisition marks the latest chapter in a long-standing relationship between JP Musical Instruments and Richard Smith Musical Instruments, who began collaborating in 2008 on the popular JP Smith-Watkins range of trumpets and cornets.

Smith-Watkins brass instruments are used worldwide in jazz, chamber music, big bands, orchestras, and studio recordings.

The brand has a particularly strong reputation within military music.

Smith-Watkins instruments are played by bands in the British Army, Royal Marines, and Royal Air Force.

Their fanfare trumpets have been used at high-profile events including the Grand National, the 2011 wedding of the Prince and Princess of Wales, the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in 2012, the London 2012 Olympics opening ceremony, and the 2018 wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.

Dr Richard Smith, who founded Richard Smith Musical Instruments, is a prominent figure in the world of brass instrument design.

He completed a doctoral thesis on trumpet acoustics before spending 12 years at Boosey and Hawkes as chief designer and technical manager.

During his time there, he was responsible for the Besson brass range.

His designs include the original trumpets played by Derek Watkins (906) and John Wallace (907), trombones used by Roy Williams and Don Lusher (937), and the Sovereign/Besson 928 cornets, which remain popular in brass and military bands worldwide.

Dr Smith said: “Seeing Smith-Watkins instruments performed on the world stage has been an honour, and it gives me great pleasure knowing they are the choice of many of the world’s leading trumpet players.

“I have known Rob Hanson for many years, and with his drive, passion and inimitable business acumen, I know he will help ensure the company can thrive and continue to reach new audiences all over the world.”

His research has been published widely in scientific journals, and he has presented papers at international conferences.

He has also worked with leading symphonic and session musicians across Europe, the US, and Japan.

In 2000, Dr Smith’s ‘The Soloist’ cornet was awarded Millennium Product Status by the UK Design Council.

The instrument, which features interchangeable leadpipes for varied playing conditions and genres, was recognised as a prime example of British design and innovation.

John Packer Musical Instruments has twice received the King’s Award for Enterprise in International Trade, most recently in May 2025.

Emergency services were called to the abandoned Stoneywood Mill building after the alarm was raised at around 5.20pm on Sunday, March 29.

Three youths have been charged after a major fire erupted in a derelict building in Aberdeen.

Emergency services were called to the abandoned Stoneywood Mill building after the alarm was raised at around 5.20pm on Sunday, March 29. The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) mobilised four appliances, as well as a high reach vehicle and a number of other vehicles to Stoneywood Terrace.

Crews battled the blaze for a number of hours before it was finally extinguished, with the SFRS leaving the scene at 8.30pm. Police launched an investigation and officers have now confirmed that three male youths have been charged in connection with wilful fire-raising.

The trio have been reported to Youth Justice Management. No one was injured in the fire but cops urged the public to avoid the area and residents to remain indoors and keep doors and windows closed.

Pictures showed smoke billowing from the building as fire crews battled the inferno. Paper production factory Stoneywood Mill permanently closed its doors in 2022 and has lain empty ever since, falling into a derelict state.

A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “Three male youths have been charged in connection with wilful fire-raising in Aberdeen. Around the 5.55pm on Sunday, March 29, police received a report of a fire at a disused building on Stoneywood Terrace. The youths have been reported to Youth Justice Management.”

An SFRS spokesperson: “We were alerted at 5.21pm on Sunday March 29 following reports of a fire affecting a derelict building in the Stoneywood Terrace area of Aberdeen.

“We mobilised four appliances, a high reach vehicle, and other vehicles with crews working to extinguish a significant fire. There are no reported injuries.”

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At around 10.30am, damage to the overhead electric wires between Bolton and Preston was reported, with trains instantly cancelled throughout the morning and afternoon.

The route, via Chorley, was shut in both directions, leaving many passengers facing major disruption to their Easter Sunday travel plans.

Replacement bus services between Bolton and Preston were organised for affected passengers, with the cancellations affecting trains moving between Blackpool North station and Manchester Airport.

The train line faced further disruption in the afternoon when an object was caught in the overhead wires between Blackpool North and Preston, leading to more cancellations.

The incidents were part of many across the UK’s railway network which took place in the wake of Storm Dave making landfall overnight.

At 13:24:59 Central Standard Time on December 19 1972, the Apollo 17 command module splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, about 350 nautical miles south-east of Samoa, concluding the last mission to the Moon.

During his career, Apollo 17’s commander, Eugene A. Cernan, logged 566 hours and 15 minutes in space, of which more than 73 hours were spent on the surface of the Moon. Cernan was the second American to have walked in space, and the last person to leave his footprints on the surface of the Moon.

The conclusion of the Apollo 17 journey marked not only the end of a mission, but the close of an era. Between 1969 and 1972, 12 astronauts walked on the Moon over the course of six separate landings.

Half a century later, Nasa is preparing to return under its Artemis programme. For the Artemis II mission, set to launch on April 1 2026, four astronauts will travel in a loop around the Moon in Nasa’s next-generation Orion crew capsule.

More than 50 years is a long gap, and it is only natural to ask if Americans could reach the Moon routinely in the early 1970s, why did it take so long for them to try to go back?

The answer is not simple. It has little to do with technology and much more with how politics, money and global support work. The place to start is with Apollo itself: its model of exploration was not built to last, and was clearly not sustainable.

On May 25 1961, before a joint session of Congress, President John F. Kennedy committed the US to the goal, before the decade was out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth.

After Kennedy’s assassination in 1963, President Lyndon B. Johnson ensured that this Moon landing goal was met. But rising costs from the Vietnam war and domestic reforms reduced his appetite for further space investment.

In fact, Nasa’s budget peaked in 1966 and began falling even before Apollo’s success, undermining prospects for sustained exploration. Further funding was declined, planned missions were cancelled, and Apollo ended in 1972 – not because it failed, but because it had accomplished its task.

Sustainable exploration (in space as on Earth) requires stable political commitment, predictable funding, and a clear long-term purpose. After Apollo, the US struggled to maintain all three at once.

Policymakers began to ask what direction Nasa should take next. In 1972, President Richard Nixon directed the space agency to begin building the space shuttle. It would lead Nasa to shift its focus away from deep space exploration towards operations in low-Earth orbit.

Marketed as a reusable “space truck”, the space shuttle was intended to make orbital access routine and affordable. However, it would turn out to be a vehicle of incredible complexity, marred by technical failures and human tragedies – the Challenger and Columbia accidents in which 14 astronauts’ lives were lost.

Eight years into the shuttle programme, some in the space community believed it was time for the US to once again set its sights on the Moon – and the tantalising prospect of a landing on Mars. On July 20 1989, the 20th anniversary of Apollo 11’s first Moon landing, President George H.W. Bush announced the Space Exploration Initiative (SEI).

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The plan aimed for a long-term commitment to construct Space Station Freedom, return astronauts to the Moon “to stay”, and finally send humans to the red planet.

However, the high estimated costs of SEI, reaching hundreds of billions of dollars, led to its downfall. Weak support in Congress along with other factors led to its cancellation under Bill Clinton’s presidential administration.

During the 1990s, the International Space Station (ISS) project cemented low-Earth orbit as the priority for human exploration. The space shuttle was the US’s means of building the station and transporting crews to and from the orbiting outpost.

The ISS became a symbol of scientific cooperation and technical prowess. Experiments carried out on the station generated valuable insights into everything from medical research to materials science. However, it also soaked up resources that might otherwise have supported deep-space exploration.

The Columbia disaster in 2003 – in which a space shuttle broke up over Texas with the loss of its crew – led to another rethink of America’s direction in space. As a result, President George W. Bush announced the Vision for Space Exploration.

The aim of this proposal, which would give rise to what was known as the Constellation programme, was to rebuild Nasa’s capability for reaching the Moon, with Mars as its longer-term goal. But independent reviews warned that costs and schedules were unrealistic. Congress never really gave full financial support to Constellation, leading to its cancellation in 2010 during Barack Obama’s presidency.

This repeated cycle of cancelled space projects exposes some inherent limitations to the system for funding lunar exploration. A sustainable Moon programme needs strong multi-sector commitment, and mechanisms in place for guaranteed multi-decade funding.

But such large programmes must compete each year with defence, healthcare and social spending. Electoral turnover and shifting committee leadership in the US further weaken the prospect of continuity.

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Lunar exploration has also suffered from an unresolved strategic question: why go back at all? Apollo’s purpose was largely geopolitical, and after the cold war no equally compelling justification really emerged.

Scientific returns from human space missions are limited compared with robotic exploration. Commercial prospects remain uncertain, and prestige alone rarely sustains or secures large budgets.

Maybe a more fitting question is: why does Artemis appear to have escaped the pattern? Well, Nasa argues that sending astronauts back to the lunar surface – and in particular, establishing a sustained presence there – will help researchers learn “how to live and work on another world as we prepare for human missions to Mars”. That is true, up to a point.

Nasa also emphasises that Artemis will be built through commercial partnerships and international cooperation, creating the first long-term human foothold on the Moon.

The programme seems to sit at a carefully crafted intersection of US government leadership, commercial launch capabilities, and a broad coalition of international partners brought together under the Artemis Accords. The accords are a set of common principles regarding the use of the Moon and other targets in outer space, agreed between the US and other countries.

The main difference from previous promises to return to the Moon is that this, at least in theory, spreads risk and widens the base of political support. In practice, though, Artemis remains costly and exposed to shifting budgets and priorities.

There is also a cultural dimension to this question. Apollo created a powerful – albeit fragile – myth of swift, heroic technological advance. Artemis is building its large technological base in societies and democratic contexts where investments and commitments tend to evolve slowly, shaped by negotiation, compromise and
competing interests.

If Artemis succeeds, it will be because all the political, economic, societal and scientific incentives have finally aligned in a durable way. But until that alignment is proven, the 50-year gap between Apollo and Artemis is less an engineering puzzle than a reminder of how difficult sustained exploration is for modern democracies.

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President Donald Trump began his Easter Sunday with another blustery warning to Iran and claimed that U.S. forces would begin a series of strikes against Iranian civilian infrastructure targets in two days.

The U.S. president wrote early Sunday morning on Truth Social that Tuesday would be “Power Plant Day” and “Bridge Day” for American forces selecting targets in the region, adding: “Open the F***in’ Strait, you crazy b*****ds, or you’ll be living in Hell.”

“Praise be to Allah,” Trump concluded his Easter Morning statement to Americans.

U.S. forces continue to conduct strikes within Iranian airspace as the president has vowed to unleash a more devastating salvo of attacks if the key waterway which serves as a crucial passage for a large fraction of the world’s oil traffic is not opened up by Iranian forces. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has caused global oil prices to spike past $100 per barrel.

There’s little sign that Trump’s threats have been effective, however, and Iranian officials maintain that peace talks are not happening in any meaningful sense. The issue has angered the president, who has spent the past week making sequentially angrier and more severe threats to Iran’s military and civilian population. Like other messages Trump has sent recently, Sunday’s indication that Trump is considering targeting Iranian civilian infrastructure is a suggestion that the U.S. military could violate international law by expanding to include non-military targets.

On Saturday, he wrote that he’d “reign down hell” on Iran if the Strait wasn’t opened, his latest messaging flub as the White House and broader administration hope to sell the president’s expanding war to a skeptical American public and Congress, where the Pentagon is asking for billions to fund the war effort.

Trump and his allies continue to insist through all of this bluster that the war is actually won already, and that Iran’s military might has been devastated.

“Never in the history of warfare has an enemy suffered such clear and devastating, large-scale losses in a matter of weeks,” Trump told Americans during a primetime address last week, before claiming that the U.S. was “winning and now winning bigger than ever before”. That address ripped largely from his Truth Social posts.

Even so, the downing of a second American fighter jet and the continued inability of the U.S. to say it has reached its military objectives — either pertaining to the Strait of Hormuz, Iran’s ballistic missiles, or other factors — cheapens that view.

A U.S. airman was rescued from Iranian territory late on Saturday after being shot down in an F-15 days earlier, with Trump making that announcement shortly after midnight Sunday morning. The crew member had been missing since Friday.

The Strait’s closure has become a central point of the war as the president’s critics question why the administration did not plan for Iranian forces mining the area and shutting down sea traffic indefinitely. With the war now in its second month, U.S. predictions of a timeline for ending the conflict seem inaccurate and Trump’s own angry messages suggest that the White House is largely out of ideas to that effect.

The president separately claimed on Saturday that another U.S. strike had killed a number of senior Iranian military commanders. And in an interview Sunday with Fox’s Trey Yingst, he simultaneously claimed that Iran was on the verge of surrender and would accept a deal with his administration “by tomorrow.”

On NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday, Sen. Tim Kaine reacted to the president’s threat and called it “juvenile.”

“I hope the White House – I doubt the president will – but please dial back the rhetoric, because you don’t need to put people like these pilots more at risk,” said the Democratic senator from Virginia. He added that he didn’t believe the threat, or others to bomb Iran “back to the Stone Age” were effective, labeling them embarrassing.

“It’s people trying to act like they are puffed up and tough when what we really see from this administration is the absence of a plan, the absence of a clear rationale, no effort to get our allies onboard, and thus deep unpopularity of this war with the American public,” Kaine added.

Anna spends most of her workday typing on her laptop. After a few hours, she starts rubbing her wrists as her pain sets in. A glance at her desk reveals the painkillers that she uses to ease her discomfort. And for John, his neck pain sets in every time he listens to the news about a potential economic crisis and his stress levels start to rise.

These experiences of pain are not unique. Nearly 35% of people worldwide experience pain every day, and in the UK alone, almost 20 million people live with it.

Pain used to be thought of purely as a symptom of a physical problem: you break a leg, experience pain, see a doctor and the injury is treated. However, research has shown that pain can arise not only from physical injuries but also from emotional or psychological circumstances. This suggests that people can experience pain even in the absence of a physical injury.

In light of this understanding, other research conceptualised pain as something that can be related to a person’s socioeconomic situation, their thoughts and their behaviour. This perspective suggests that pain does not simply originate and stay in the body but influences and is influenced by other aspects of people’s lives.

For example, one study I was involved in found that people living in countries with higher unemployment rates reported greater levels of pain than those in countries where there was less joblessness. This was true regardless of an individual’s own employment status. It indicates that pain can be shaped not only by someone’s circumstances but also by broader social and economic environments.

One possible explanation is that being surrounded by higher levels of unemployment triggers feelings of financial and job insecurity, which in turn can exacerbate pain. This is consistent with evidence suggesting that stress can contribute to inflammation, and increase physical pain.

And of course, pain has significant consequences in the workplace. For instance, in the UK, musculoskeletal conditions such as arthritis and back pain account for around 30 million lost working days each year.

This not only undermines the productivity of organisations, but it also affects key aspects of workers’ wellbeing. On the one hand, time lost from work can erode the sense of dignity and purpose that having a job provides, for example by limiting time spent on meaningful activities or building social relationships.

On the other, people’s capacity to earn a living may be reduced, especially in jobs where income is directly tied to the time they spend working – freelance workers, for example.

A different way of thinking about pain

More broadly, this all contributes to research into the measures used to assess how citizens in a country are feeling.

For a long time, governments have been using pure economic indicators, such as national income represented by GDP per capita to assess how well their citizens were doing. But these indicators fail to capture aspects that are key for wellbeing, including things like income inequality or air pollution.

As a result, researchers have suggested alternative metrics that can provide a more accurate picture of wellbeing. These include happiness and life satisfaction, which are typically assessed by asking people to report on these aspects of their experience.

But another strong metric that could be used to enhance this picture is pain. After all, pain can capture dimensions of the human experience that are not fully addressed by traditional economic indicators or by proposed wellbeing measures.

For instance, although measuring life satisfaction or emotions like sadness and anger can provide insights into how citizens are feeling, assessing them often requires complex evaluation and reflection.

In contrast, pain can be seen as a more direct and reliable indicator, as it is experienced in the body and does not require the same level of cognitive processing. One way to measure pain is to ask people to rate their pain from zero (meaning no pain) to ten (meaning the worst pain they can imagine).

Since everyone has felt pain at some point in their lives, this technique makes measuring it straightforward and the results relatively trustworthy.

What’s more, pain may be less susceptible to the stigma that can make people reluctant to report supposedly negative emotions like sadness or anger in certain settings or cultures.

This shows that pain may be much more than just a personal problem; it affects several domains including work and relationships. Unlike abstract numbers such as GDP or survey data, pain is something felt in the body. This can make it a powerful signal of wellbeing.

Paying attention to pain can help governments and workplaces understand what really matters for people’s quality of life – and why supporting those in pain isn’t just a health issue, but a matter of social and economic importance.

A common mistake could be making your clothes smell bad even after washing them

Washing clothes should bring a new lease of life into them and refresh any bad smells. However, sometimes when coming out of the washing machine items can smell worse than when they went in.

Clothes, sheets and towels can pick up a stale smell, despite being thoroughly washed. It can become a very frustrating issue, but thankfully there is a simple fix.

Cleaning expert Lynsey Crombie says the “nasty” smell can actually come from a common mistake people make while doing the laundry. When washing clothes, many of us reach for bottles of fabric detergent and fabric softener.

They come in a wide range of pleasant smells, which sometimes appears to vanish once the items come out of the wash. Lynsey, who shares tips and tricks on her Queen of Clean account, said: “Ever wondered why your clothes still smell even after washing?

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“The answer could be too much fabric softener.” Lynsey explained that using too much of the cleaning product can actually make items “smell stale and nasty”.

She added: “Excess fabric conditioner creates build-up instead of freshening clothes. Less is more, avoid overuse for the best results.”

Lynsey’s followers have already listened to her advice as one said: “I used to use too much now I don’t anymore.” Another added: “Don’t know that thanks for the info.” Someone else commented: “You are absolutely right!”

Other cleaning experts have also shared their concerns about using too much fabric softener. Ann Russell, who goes by @annrussell03 on TikTok, responded to another user’s video warning that fabric softener can make your clothes ‘more flammable’.

She replied: “That is why I do not recommend using fabric softener for applications which it wasn’t intended for like spraying your upholstery to make it smell good, which people do.”

Ann explained that she’s not a great fan of the product even when it is used for its intended purpose. She added: “I’m not a fan of fabric softener in general anyway. I’m not saying I never use it because I do. I use it very, very rarely.

“Three reasons, if you over use it, it can make your clothes smell. They come out and they smell of fabric softener.

“You put them away and you open the drawer and two days later it smells sour – that’s fabric softener. It builds up on clothes and when you’ve got it your clothes feel floppy, heavy, and greasy.”

Ann said: “If you use it generously in every wash you will find that your clothes get dirtier quickly, it smells funky and sour, and you can end up with weird patches on your clothes when you get them out of the machine.”