The 22-acre site would deliver homes with up to five bedrooms, including bungalows

A developer is hoping to build up to 180 new homes in a town near Cambridgeshire. Bellway Strategic Land is seeking outline planning permission to Central Bedfordshire Council for the development of land north of Myers Road on the edge of Potton.

The proposals for the 22-acre site would deliver a range of homes with up to five bedrooms, including bungalows. Of the 180 homes, 30 per cent of the properties would be offered as affordable housing for low-cost rent or shared ownership.

The site would provide public open space, children’s play areas, and new walking and cycling routes. According to Bellway Strategic Land, the development could also support expanding the Potton Green Wheel, which aims to connect publicly accessible routes and green spaces around the town.

Matthew Gransbury, strategic land and planning associate for Bellway, said: “There is a significant and growing need for new housing in Central Bedfordshire. Our proposals for the site at Myers Road would help to address this identified shortfall across the district whilst also meeting the recognised demand for smaller-sized properties for first-time buyers and downsizers within Potton itself.

“With almost 3,000 households on the district’s housing waiting list, the need for affordable homes is particularly acute. This development would provide 30 per cent affordable housing in line with the council’s policy requirements.”

Before submitting a planning application, Bellway Strategic Land, part of Bellway, conducted an extensive consultation process which involved engagement with the local planning authority, ward councillors, Potton Town Council, and residents.

Mr Gransbury said feedback received during this process was “integral in shaping the proposals to balance the requirement for new housing with the need to respect the countryside setting”.

As a result, the maximum number of homes proposed has reduced from 200 to 180, allowing for more green space between the development and existing properties on Myers Road. Proposed allotments have been changed in favour of more tree planting and community orchards.

The development would provide 10.5 acres of green space, including children’s play areas. A new priority junction would be created to allow vehicles to access the development from Everton Road, while a second emergency access would be provided from Myers Road.

The proposals would also see highway improvements at the Myers Road and Everton Road junction, alongside enhanced pedestrian and cycle connectivity through to Potton Primary School.

If outline planning permission is granted, a reserved matters application will then be submitted to determine the exact number and mix of homes to be built.

So far 10 people have been jailed following the demonstration involving 1,000 people

A man who hurled a frying pan at police during violent clashes in Southampton has admitted taking part in the disorder that erupted after the murder of student Henry Nowak.

Ryan Atkinson, 36, from Highcliff Avenue, became the 22nd person charged over the chaos as he pleaded guilty at Southampton Magistrates’ Court.

District Judge Henry Gordon said Atkinson had “picked up a large frying pan and launched it at police” as tempers flared. He remanded the defendant in custody to be sentenced at Southampton Crown Court on June 29 and told him: “I find there are substantial grounds that if I granted you bail you would commit further offences.”

So far 10 people have been jailed following the demonstration involving 1,000 people which started outside Southampton Central Police Station on June 2 before hundreds moved on to the Portswood area where Mr Nowak was killed and where the violence started.

Anger had erupted after police body-worn video was released showing Mr Nowak being placed in handcuffs moments before he became unconscious and subsequently died. Vickrum Digwa, 23, who lived in a nearby road with his family, was jailed for life to serve a minimum of 21 years for his murder.

The court hearings have been told that 13 police officers and a police dog were injured in the protest and a member of the public suffered a broken jaw.

The police operation involved 100 officers from nine different areas with a cost of £443,000 and a clean-up cost to the local council of £7,000, the court heard.

Four more men are set to be sentenced at Southampton Crown on Friday for their parts in the disorder.

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The trial of a man from Bridgend who killed his wife is entering its fifth day on Friday. Michael Davies, 57, is on trial at Newport Crown Court accused of murdering his wife Tracey Davies, 48, at their home at Bryn Terrace, Cefn Cribwr, near Bridgend, on April 18 last year.

He denies murder but accepts that he killed her, and has told police he did so by strangling her between 7.30am and 8am that morning.

On the fourth day of the trial, the court heard details of his police interview in which Davies outlined how he killed his wife.

Davies told officers he didn’t have control of what he was doing, saying: “I loved her to bits but I didn’t seem to have any understanding over my hands. I’m not sure what I was even doing. I just wanted to keep strangling her.”

Tracey was found dead on a bed in one of the bedrooms. The defendant had cuts to his throat and leg and was found slumped behind the bedroom door.

In the police interview, the defendant told officers that after Ms Davies came into the bedroom he put his hands on her neck and started squeezing. He said he kept the pressure on her neck but he didn’t understand what was going on, and he said he kept trying to squeeze her neck and wanted to keep strangling her.

He told officers he then had “an overwhelming feeling” to get a knife from the kitchen and said he had a feeling to put the knife into himself. He then said he couldn’t remember anything else until he woke up in the UHW.

When asked whether he had intended to kill his wife, he replied, “not at all”. Davies said his mind was so broken he didn’t know what his intention was.

So far, the jury has heard the distressing account he gave police of how he took her life, as well as evidence from the accused’s daughter and healthcare professionals.

Davies, of Cefn Road in Bridgend, denies murdering his wife, on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

The trial continues.

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Mr Hockney, who was born in Bradford, West Yorkshire, in 1937, passed away peacefully at his home on June 11, just weeks before what would have been his 89th birthday.

The artist’s publicist described him as “one of the most important figures in contemporary art in both the 20th and 21st centuries”.

A statement said: “The celebrated British artist David Hockney, one of the most important figures in contemporary art in both the 20th and 21st centuries, passed away peacefully at home on 11 June 2026, one month short of his 89th birthday.”

RIP David Hockney 🎨🕊️⁠ ⁠

The legendary British artist David Hockney has died aged 88, a representative has confirmed.⁠ ⁠

Hockney, who was due to turn 89 next month, died peacefully at his home in London on June 11th, 2026.⁠ ⁠

A spokesperson sadly confirmed, “The… pic.twitter.com/qMhMnz46kH

— Far Out Magazine (@FarOutMag) June 12, 2026

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The life of David Hockney

Mr Hockney began his training at the Bradford School of Art before moving on to the Royal College of Art in London, where he emerged as a prominent figure in the British pop art movement.

He was best known for his vibrant, sunlit paintings, particularly his iconic Los Angeles swimming pool scenes.

His wide-ranging body of work included photography, printmaking, stage design, and later, digital art.

His career spanned more than 70 years and was defined by an unrelenting sense of optimism and experimentation.

Much of his work drew on influences from the Renaissance and the abstract expressionist movement, but he remained resolutely individual in his approach, often rejecting artistic trends in favour of his own vision.

Mr Hockney’s formative years in Bradford left a long-lasting impression on his art.

He grew up in a working-class family and began drawing at an early age, despite little encouragement at Bradford Grammar School.

Sorry to hear of the death of the artist David Hockney. His self-portrait, aged 17 in 1954, hangs in the David Hockney Gallery at Cartwright Hall, Bradford, one of Yorkshire’s less-well known galleries, but a gem. pic.twitter.com/cDvkgiS2ff

— Simon Knott (@SimoninSuffolk) June 12, 2026

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With the backing of his parents, he enrolled at art college and later the Royal College of Art, where he was known as a rebellious student.

He was warned that he could not graduate – in part because he had not done enough life drawings – to which he responded by painting Life Painting for a Diploma – a bold, unconventional piece that ultimately earned him the college’s gold medal in painting.

A breakthrough came in 1961, when Mr Hockney was featured in the Young Contemporaries exhibition alongside other rising stars of British pop art.

Although associated with the pop art movement, his work also contained strong expressionist influences.

His artistic direction changed dramatically after moving to Los Angeles in 1964.

He was captivated by the Californian light and lifestyle, which became central themes in his work.

Using bold colours and acrylic paints, he created his iconic swimming pool series, including the renowned A Bigger Splash.

Iconic David Hockney https://t.co/eupjjib2fC pic.twitter.com/PRjv2AEnnt

— jen (@JenCarsonTaylor) June 12, 2026

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Mr Hockney also gained recognition for his portraits, such as Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy, and his innovative photo-collages like Pearblossom Highway.

He continued to push boundaries in later years, embracing new technology and producing art on iPads and other digital devices.

In the 1990s, Mr Hockney returned regularly to Yorkshire and began painting the local landscapes.

He eventually moved back full-time, settling in Bridlington and creating works inspired by the region’s countryside.

One of his major pieces from this period, Bigger Trees Near Warter, is a 12-metre-wide oil painting made up of 50 panels.

His Yorkshire landscapes were featured in the Royal Academy’s 2012 exhibition, A Bigger Picture, which attracted 600,000 visitors.

Despite his decades-long residence in the US, Mr Hockney always considered himself “very English.”

He declined the chance to paint Queen Elizabeth II, stating he was “too busy” painting England.

He did, however, design a stained glass window for Westminster Abbey in her honour, depicting hawthorn blossom from his native Yorkshire.

Following the loss of his hearing, he continued to paint for up to six hours a day, stating that the impairment allowed him to “see space clearer.”

Throughout his life, Mr Hockney remained a committed smoker, often wearing badges that read “End bossiness soon.”

Even in his final years, he found joy in the routine of painting, once saying: “I’m happiest when I’m painting.

“If I can paint every day I don’t care about anything else.”

Are you a fan of David Hockney’s works? Let us know in the comments.

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Thousands of music fans are heading to Cardiff this summer to enjoy live music.

With Take That and Metallica taking the stage at the Principality Stadium, as well as the return of Blackweir Live featuring Lewis Capaldi and Pitbull, and a packed summer of events at Cardiff Castle, Transport for Wales has advised that train services are expected to be significantly busier than usual throughout June and July.

TfW has strengthened capacity on key routes and scheduled later services to accommodate attendees.

Post-event queuing systems will be in place at both Cardiff Central and Cardiff Queen Street stations.

The following station arrangements will be in place:

• Principality Stadium concerts (Take That & Metallica): Passengers heading to the Valleys or to the Vale of Glamorgan will be directed to Cardiff Queen Street, while a mainline queueing system will be at Cardiff Central. Queueing will start from 9.45pm at both stations.
• Blackweir Live and Cardiff Castle concerts: While services will still be busy, Valleys and the Vale of Glamorgan passengers can use either station for their journey home.
• For all Blackweir Live concerts, Cathays station and the station bridge will close at 10pm. Passengers will be directed to either Cardiff Central or Cardiff Queen Street stations.

Pierre Gasly has been returned to third place in the Monaco Grand Prix after his Alpine team successfully appealed against a penalty for pit-lane speeding.

The Frenchman was demoted to seventh place after the race by a five-second penalty for exceeding the pit lane speed limit by 0.1km/h.

He was one of five drivers to be penalised for this during the race, an unusually high number.

A ‘right of review’ hearing requested by Alpine established that cars could legally drive a shorter distance in the pit lane than officials had used in their calculations.

The stewards accepted Alpine’s argument, backed up by data, that Gasly had never exceeded the 60km/h limit.

The decision is a blow to Mercedes driver George Russell, who was given a drive-through penalty for pit-lane speeding which dropped him from third place at the time to 13th at the finish.

Russell’s Mercedes team, as well as the teams of the other drivers who were penalised, did not object to the decisions, even though they believed their drivers had not exceeded the limit.

Gasly committed two ‘offences’. The other drivers in addition to Russell were McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton and Gasly’s team-mate Franco Colapinto.

Hamilton’s penalty did not affect his second place as Ferrari managed to serve it in a way that did not penalise him in terms of track position during a safety-car period.

Piastri, who has been dropped to fifth by Gasly’s reinstatement, lost three places in serving his penalty.

The verdict published by the stewards into the right of review hearing said that they had questioned the number of penalties for speeding when the third one occurred.

The statement said: “Race control promptly came back to the stewards stating it had made enquiries of the official timekeepers and was told that there was no issue and that the data was therefore accurate.”

The pit-lane speed limit is measured by using a series of timing loops and the time taken to travel a specific distance along the pit lane.

The report said that changes to the pit lane this year had meant that the shortest possible route between the loops was 77 centimetres less than the distance used to calculate the limit.

Five of the six offences were by cars calculated to be doing 0.1km/h over the limit. The other was 0.4km/h over.

As a result the stewards decided Gasly had not exceeded the pit-lane speed limit.

More to follow.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Independents have grown increasingly unhappy with President Donald Trump during his second term, a new AP-NORC polling analysis finds, particularly those without a college degree.

The analysis from researchers at The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows that while about half of independents without a college education had a positive view of Trump around the 2024 election, his approval with that group fell to about one-quarter this spring. That shift has erased the large education gap that existed among independents in the months before Trump took office for his second term, with independents now holding similarly negative views of the president regardless of their level of education.

The analysis was conducted by aggregating nearly two dozen AP-NORC polls conducted between July 2024 and April 2026, allowing for a deeper look at how support for Trump changed during several distinct periods, including the last six months of 2024, the first 100 days of Trump’s presidency, the summer of 2025 when the Big Beautiful Bill passed, last fall’s government shutdown and the beginning of the Iran war.

The compiled polling shows a steady decline among independents throughout Trump’s second term. His standing has also dropped among several small but important groups that moved toward him in the 2024 presidential election, including Black and Hispanic independents.

More Americans than ever consider themselves independents, and they are among the groups that shifted toward Trump in the 2024 presidential election. Any erosion in that support could signal trouble for Trump and Republicans headed into the midterm elections, which are often seen as reflection of how voters feel about their governing party.

Tafari Torres, a senior research associate at NORC who co-authored the analysis, noted that while Democrats’ and Republicans’ views of Trump have held largely steady in his second term, independents’ opinions are still moving. “Independents are, broadly, the people who are reacting to the events and dropping in their support,” he said.

Dramatic declines during Trump’s first 100 days

Trump’s return to the White House was fueled, in part, by independent voters who saw him as the stronger candidate on key issues like the economy. The new analysis, which looks at Trump’s favorability and presidential approval ratings, shows that once he took the helm, their views soured quickly.

Independents without a college degree had a much more positive view of Trump than college-educated independents did during and just after the 2024 election, but that shifted in the first few months of his term. Positive views of Trump among independents without a college degree fell from 48% in the months before he returned to office to 31% in polling conducted during Trump’s first 100 days back in office. Those warm views declined even further, to about one-quarter, during the government shutdown and the early months of 2026.

Only about 3 in 10 college-educated independents, by contrast, had a positive view of Trump before he returned to office, making their drop to about one-quarter much less dramatic.

“The decline among no-college independents was steeper and it was greater than the slight decline in college independents,” said Sean Collins, a research associate at NORC who co-authored the analysis. “That was surprising, especially given, when you think of Trump’s coalitions, those without college degrees is usually one of the ones that that stands out.”

Hispanic, younger independents grow disenchanted

Americans without a college degree have long been a key part of Trump’s coalition. But Trump also won in 2024 by making gains among groups that tend to support Democrats, including Hispanic adults.

About 4 in 10 independent voters — 42% — voted for Trump in 2024, up from 37% in the 2020 presidential election. Independent voters without a college degree were a little more likely to back Trump over former Vice President Kamala Harris in the last election, according to AP VoteCast, and Hispanic independents were about evenly split between the two.

The picture looks much bleaker for the president now.

Nearly half of Hispanic independents — 46% — saw Trump favorably in the polling conducted around the presidential election. His approval among these adults dropped quickly in his second term, falling as low as 15% during last fall’s government shutdown before landing around one-quarter in the spring.

Younger independents also became less supportive of the president, while independents age 60 and older remained mostly stable. Other AP-NORC polling has pointed to Trump losing ground among younger Republicans over inflation concerns and Hispanic Americans growing increasingly discontented.

“The gains Trump appeared to make during the election, I don’t know if they’re sticking around. He’s experienced some significant shifts among those people,” Torres said. ”From our research, they don’t appear to be permanent gains.”

The economy is frustrating many independents

Polling suggests that the economy as at the root of many Americans’ frustrations with Trump, including independents.

About half of independents who supported Trump in 2024 said inflation was the single most important factor for their vote, AP VoteCast found, and most expressed high levels of concern about the cost of food and gas.

More than a year into Trump’s second term, inflation remains high, fueled by gas prices that remain elevated as the Iran war continues. An AP-NORC poll conducted in April found that about 3 in 10 independents were “extremely” or “very” concerned about being able to afford groceries in the last few months, and a similar share were worried about being able to afford gas.

The analysis found that Americans’ views of the U.S. economy tend to align with their view of the president. Those with negative views of the country’s economy tended to have negative views of Trump, and about 8 in 10 independents described the U.S. economy this spring as poor.

The latest AP-NORC polling from May found that only about 3 in 10 independents approve of how Trump is handling the economy, in line with the roughly 3 in 10 who said that at the beginning of his second term. The April poll found only about 1 in 10 independents — 12% — approved of how Trump was handling the cost of living.

——

This AP-NORC analysis of 4,836 independents was conducted over 21 AP-NORC surveys, blocked into five time periods before and during President Donald Trump’s second term. Independents are classified as panelists who do not select that they identify with or lean toward either the Democratic or Republican Party.