It was a tale made for Hollywood: a young family escaping oppression and bigotry, crossing the ocean to ‘find freedom’ and a new beginning.

‘I fled my home country with my wife and my son, fearing for our lives,’ Prince Harry told his friend, ITV journalist Tom Bradby, in early 2023.

No matter that – with an £11 million mansion in Montecito, an astonishing story to sell about racist royals freezing out a suicidal American princess and media giants brandishing mind-blowing cheques as they fought for the right to tell it – the Sussexes hardly constituted the traditional rags-to-riches American Dream.

Sadly for them, however, Hollywood soon woke up to the fact that the couple had only one story to tell and negligible talent in finding a new string to their bow. 

In fact, it’s hard not to conclude that if things had worked out better for them in the Golden State, they surely wouldn’t be having to swallow their pride by returning to the country that they say ruined their lives.

It once all looked so promising. The US media, so instinctively sympathetic to the Sussexes, lapped up their sob story – at first. 

Their explosive chat show interview with Oprah Winfrey, in March 2021, as was surely intended, laid down a marker of what they were willing to say – stunning suggestions of racism in the Royal Family and the failure to support a suicidal Meghan – if they were approached with lucrative TV and publishing deals.

They weren’t long in coming, with a $100million five-year deal with Netflix, followed by a reported $20million multi-year deal with Spotify to produce and host podcasts.

In 2023, the pair were savaged in an episode of the acclaimed animated sitcom South Park titled ‘The Worldwide Privacy Tour’

Within months of the death of Queen Elizabeth in September 2022, the Sussexes let rip with more damaging claims about their time in The Firm with Harry & Meghan, a six-part Netflix documentary – in which they provided a predictably one-sided account of their split from the Royal Family – and Harry’s ghost-written memoir, Spare, which detailed his troubled relationship with them.

Though it was a bestseller (1.43million copies worldwide on its first day), many critics were unimpressed, scenting that the Sussexes were running out of things to say beyond settling scores with the Royal Family.

They were right. Subsequent programmes to justify that eye-watering figure from Netflix were relentlessly worthy, mind-numbingly dull or, too often, both.

They included Live To Lead, a series of interviews with liberal-minded ‘thought leaders’ such as Greta Thunberg and Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Polo, a five-part series about Harry’s favourite sport, earned an embarrassing critics’ score of 25 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes.

This summer, the couple’s first jointly produced documentary about America’s Girl Scouts, Cookie Queens, fared so badly on its opening weekend in US cinemas that it was beaten by a compilation of silly cat videos.

The Sussexes’ output for Spotify was even more unimpressive, leading to the company ending the deal – officially by mutual agreement – early in June 2023 after they’d made just 12 episodes of their only show, Archetypes, in which the Duchess interviewed friends and celebrities including Serena Williams and Mariah Carey. 

Bill Simmons, a Spotify executive, branded the Sussexes ‘f***ing grifters’ on his own podcast.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex in their Netflix documentary Harry & Meghan in 2022

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The couple’s first jointly produced documentary about America’s Girl Scouts, Cookie Queens, fared badly on its opening weekend in US cinemas 

The media deal with Spotify in 2023 ended after one season of Meghan’s podcast Archetypes

But the show which perhaps had the biggest impact on the couple’s image is one they didn’t produce.

In February 2023, they were savaged in the acclaimed animated sitcom South Park. The episode, titled The Worldwide Privacy Tour, mocked the couple’s plea for privacy and introduced Meghan as a ‘sorority girl, actress, influencer, victim’ – a devastating blow to their carefully curated image. 

It was time for change. Insiders said Meghan had always seen herself following in the footsteps of the original domestic goddess Martha Stewart. 

So, in March 2024, she unveiled American Riviera Orchard. 

The brand’s unveiling was widely ridiculed as Meghan sent numbered jars of jam to famous friends – with no official launch to follow.

The following February, the brand’s name was changed to As Ever. Products eventually hit the shops and some sold out (although nobody seems to know how many were on sale in the first place), but she was no Martha.

Any doubts on that score were settled by an accompanying TV series for Netflix called With Love, Meghan in which she shared her recipes for ‘single-skillet spaghetti’, crudites adorned with daisies and the perfect ‘fluffy’ scrambled eggs made with a ‘splash’ of sparkling water. 

If they weren’t making programmes and podcasts, at least Harry and Meghan could be doing good works for charity.

With Love, Meghan premiered on Netflix in January 2025

Jams, teas and tins of flower sprinkles are among products sold by As Ever

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But here was another record of under-achievement. 

In early 2022, it was revealed that the Sussexes’ US charity, the Archewell Foundation, had told the IRS – America’s taxation body – that in its first year of existence in 2020, it had raised ‘less than $50,000’ – £36,681. 

While its donations did improve, the couple’s philanthropic pretensions were further undermined by revelations that, while speaking at climate change conventions, they were travelling in private jets.

The Sussexes weren’t just failing to make money; they were also failing to keep Americans on their side. 

In January 2023, a poll for Newsweek revealed that in the month Spare came out Harry’s popularity plunged 45 points among the US public, with Meghan suffering a 36-point fall.

This slide was all too apparent in the US media, initially so smitten with the theme of a mixed-race American refusing to be crushed by British racism and snobbery but over time losing faith (and interest) in a rich and entitled couple’s endless victimhood.

In 2022, New York magazine’s The Cut website interviewed Meghan and mocked the ‘marshmallowy’ splendour of their lives, writing that the Duchess talked like she had a tacky reality TV producer ‘directing what she says’.

In 2023, even the usually supportive New York Times described Harry’s battles with his critics in Spare as ‘tiresome’. 

By the end of that year, the Hollywood Reporter included the Sussexes in its list of Hollywood’s ‘biggest losers’, criticising their Netflix series and Harry’s memoir as ‘whiny’ and describing the couple’s brand as a ‘sanctimonious bubble just begging to be popped‘.

Vanity Fair delivered the coup de grace in its January 2025 edition. Seven years after running an adoring piece about how Meghan – ahead of her marriage to Harry – was a breath of fresh air, the magazine royally trounced the Sussexes in a long investigation headlined ‘American Hustle’.

Its many criticisms ranged from the couple having antagonised their Montecito neighbours with all the attention they brought to the area, to a representative of the Duchess allegedly discussing the potential for a ‘post-divorce’ book deal in the event she splits up from her husband, though this was strongly disputed.

According to the magazine’s sources, some of Meghan’s underlings in her podcast venture found her so difficult that they ended up leaving early or even needing therapy.

The Duchess, who has vehemently denied bullying staff, ‘would be warm and effusive at the beginning,’ said the magazine, but ‘When something went poorly, often due to Meghan and Harry’s own demands, Meghan would become cold and withholding toward the person she perceived to be responsible.’

One might have assumed from their celebrity-packed 2018 wedding at Windsor Castle, that the Sussexes had plenty of A-list friends to make their California exile bearable.

Yet although guests at the nuptials included Oprah Winfrey, Serena Williams, James Corden, David and Victoria Beckham, and George and Amal Clooney, it soon became clear that many of them barely knew the couple.

According to sources, some – including the Clooneys, the Beckhams, plus Barack and Michelle Obama – distanced themselves from the Sussexes in embarrassment over their relentless attacks on the Royal Family.

Meghan and Harry did make the guest list of reality TV star Kris Jenner’s glitzy James Bond-themed 70th birthday party last November but even this ended in unhelpful headlines after Kim Kardashian (Jenner’s daughter) revealed that she had been asked to remove photos of the couple from her Instagram page.

So the Sussexes are heading back to a country where – to borrow the lyrics of The Mamas & The Papas’ hit song California Dreamin’ – all the leaves will be brown and the sky grey.

Will they also soon succumb to wistful memories of the sunny days they’ve left behind?

And so, after all the drama and recriminations, the brickbats hurled and grievances aired; after all the glossy deals that have come – and gone – a remarkable royal U-turn hovers on the brink of completion.

Reverse Megxit, a manoeuvre once thought to be as likely as pigs taking flight, would appear to be just a couple of short weeks from completion.

Six years after they packed their bags, turning their backs on royal life in pursuit of the American dream (and freedom to reap the American dollar away from the confines of the Royal fold), Prince Harry, his wife Meghan and their children Archie, seven, and Lilibet, five, are, apparently, ready to return to Britain.

They are expected to arrive in the UK to begin their new life within a fortnight, ahead of the start of the school term, which typically spans the first two weeks of September.

That such a move was on the cards was exclusively revealed by this newspaper last month, in the wake of the family’s flying – but seemingly very successful – visit to meet with the King and Queen for tea at Highgrove. It was coupled with a visit to Harry’s Spencer roots at Althorp, the stately home in Northamptonshire where his mother Princess Diana grew up and was buried.

‘What is absolutely crucial is that Harry never fell out of love with Britain – he fell out of love with the circumstances he found himself living in, and those are very different things,’ Harry’s friend Alex Rayner, who went with him on a charity trek to the North Pole in 2012, and remains in regular contact with him, told the Daily Mail.

Others speak of ‘an increasing and significant shift in sentiment, a feeling the American dream might not be all it was cracked up to be’.

And it’s not a one-sided sentiment either: ‘This is coming from Meghan as well as from him. I hear that Meghan is all for rekindling with and reconnecting with Harry’s English side. She is fully behind it,’ a friend said.

‘Harry has never stopped being British or feeling British.’ 

Lilibet walking behind her brother and father as the family visited Althorp amid rumours the Sussexes visited Princess Diana’s grave during their visit to Britain this summer

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Not that the move back should be seen as a whim, however. Although the pace of the shift took everyone by surprise (the King, we are told, only learned of his youngest son’s plans on Sunday), everyone insists it’s a serious – and permanent – move.

‘It’s a significant return and I think a forever return if I’m being brutally honest,’ the friend added.

That’s quite an about-turn. And that July visit to the UK was, it is understood, pivotal to decisions being made – and to schools being visited – although plans were actually being made as long ago as May.

The family enjoyed their time, however brief, with the King and Queen at Highgrove and are understood to have loved being with the family of Harry’s mother, Diana, Princess of Wales.

The children, for whom the UK must feel a distant place that Daddy talks about, may not have caught up with their uncle William (a sibling froideur yet to be addressed), nor with their cousins Princes George and Louis and Princess Charlotte, but they did apparently meet their aunts, uncles and cousins on their father’s mother’s side.

The visit to Europe also included time – documented by Meghan on Instagram – in Portugal where, in 2023, they were reported to have paid £6.3million for a holiday home in a fashionable corner of the country, known as the Iberian Hamptons, where Harry’s cousin Princess Eugenie also lives.

Indeed, we are told that so advanced are the couple’s plans they have been looking at property ‘at quite a serious level’ and have been looking at schools for the children since before they broke up for the summer holidays.

As a source close to the prince tells us: ‘They started to talk seriously about it at the beginning of the year and come May started to look at schools.’

Prince Harry, of course, like his brother Prince William, began his own prep school experience as a boarder at Berkshire prep school Ludgrove, aged eight, later proceeding to Eton.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex at the ESPY Awards in California on July 11, 2024

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry visiting a QuestScope Youth Centre in a refugee camp for displaced Syrians in Jordan

It is, however, unlikely that Archie, just a baby when his parents moved to California in March 2020, will be boarding anywhere any time soon.

The little boy, who speaks with an American accent and is sixth in line to the throne, will be, we are told, a ‘day boy’ at a mixed preparatory school and Lili, as she is affectionately known, will enter pre-prep at the same school.

As our source says: ‘This is a natural moment as Archie will start prep school in year one.

‘Harry knows from his time at Ludgrove that you want to start at the same time as everyone else; there is bonding and camaraderie.

‘Archie is really, really keen on sport and will play rugby and cricket which will be new to him. Harry has been throwing a rugby ball with him in the garden in Montecito; it’s a pretty strange concept if you have grown up with the NFL!’

The location of the chosen school has not yet been revealed, but it is understood that it is not in London. It is highly likely to be somewhere in the Cotswolds, a location long favoured by the couple.

If it were in the frame, there would be a significance in that particular location on multiple fronts.

Before their wedding, Harry and Meghan signed a two-year lease on a £2.5million Grade II-listed farmhouse on the 4,000 acre Great Tew Estate, also home to the Beckhams’ country house and location of trendy private members’ retreat Soho Farmhouse, where many of Meghan’s UK-based friends hang out.

Secondly – while far removed from Kensington, where Harry and Meghan once lived in ‘cosy’ Nottingham Cottage, Harry’s two-bedroom bachelor pad in the grounds of Kensington Palace and from Frogmore, the Grade II-listed home on the Windsor estate, on which they splashed £2.4million on renovation and lived in for less than a year – this well-heeled territory is within easy reach of Althorp, where his uncle, Earl Spencer resides.

Could it even be that Althorp serves as a staging post for the family?

Perhaps.

Call it hedging their bets or merely an abundance of caution, it does appear they will keep their Montecito mansion, although the local luxury property market was abuzz with speculation yesterday. What broker wouldn’t want that sale?

In the UK, we are told that, ‘initially, they are staying with someone’. But ‘they are looking to buy at a quite serious level which is a big commitment to putting down roots,’ says our source.

So much has unfolded since their bombshell announcement in 2020 that launched what became known as Megxit.

Since their bombshell exit from the UK, famously dubbed ‘Megxit’, there have been grievances aired and wounds opened after the couple’s interview with Oprah

Prince Harry’s memoir and the couple’s Netflix documentary are said to have strained relationships with the Duke and his family

Prince William and Princess Catherine (pictured on September 10, 2022) with are said to feel deeply betrayed by the revelations made in Spare

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There have been grievances aired and wounds opened after Oprah (the interview) and Spare (the memoir) and Harry & Meghan on Netflix (the documentary). Relationships between Harry and his own family became strained, to say the least, indeed Harry and his brother are not thought to have spoken for years.

The Prince and Princess of Wales are said to feel deeply betrayed by the revelations made in Spare and in various interviews.

There has been precious little opportunity for rapprochement.

Harry, meanwhile, has pursued a legal challenge over the decision to remove his taxpayer-funded police protection, arguing that his family’s security arrangements require reassessment.

Until July’s visit, Meghan (who swept in privately with the children for tea with the in-laws after yet another kerfuffle over security arrangements), had not visited the UK since the Queen’s funeral, in September 2022.

The children, meanwhile, had not been here since the Platinum Jubilee, three months earlier, during which visit Lili celebrated her first birthday and met her paternal grandfather for the first time.

Friends say the Sussexes plan to visit the US regularly, where they have endeavoured to build commercial portfolios free from the shackles from life as working royals.

Harry currently earns money from business coaching company BetterUp and sustainable travel firm Travalyst and is also trying to expand the couple’s production company Archewell.

He is reportedly keen to spend more time supporting charities including WellChild, Scotty’s Little Soldiers and, of course, the Invictus community he founded with the first Invictus Games in 2014.

Meghan, meanwhile, runs her own lifestyle business, As Ever. The former Suits star recently appeared as a guest judge on MasterChef Australia, having hosted her own cooking and lifestyle show on Netflix and dipped her toe back into the world of acting for the first time in nearly a decade, with an upcoming cameo in the film Close Personal Friends, which also stars Lily Collins and Brie Larson.

How this all stacks up with a return to the UK remains unclear.

It was, of course, the late Queen who said Harry and Meghan could not maintain a ‘half-in, half-out’ approach to royal duties while also pursuing commercial opportunities.

Coincidental or not, there is certainly some business acumen in the timing of the Sussexes return.

‘Good to see Harry and Meghan achieve six full tax years of non-UK residency to manage the ‘temporary non-resident’ rules for capital gains tax,’ said accountant Nimesh Shah, CEO

of accountancy firm Blick Rothenberg on X. ‘They have clearly had some good tax advice and the timing of their move back to the UK is immaculate.’

The HMRC rules mean that if you leave the UK and come back within five years, you’re still liable for capital gains tax, but if you stay out of country for more than five years, you are not.

The tax benefits, it should be noted, would be even greater had Harry been a non-UK resident for ten consecutive tax years.

Whether Harry and Meghan are thinking about tax or business opportunities, as far as the Royal Household goes, there is said to be no interest in creating a ‘half-in, half-out’ arrangement for the duke and duchess.

The couple’s businesses will still be based in the US and the move is about something more personal. ‘Meghan has long been aware that Harry wants to ground the kids in the UK and give them the values of that particular education, to be a good loser, a humble winner and so on,’ the friend said.

There are other reasons too, he adds.

The Duke of Duchess of Sussex at a photo call where they marked their engagement on November 27, 2017

‘His father’s significant cancer also impacted on the decision; he realised the values of time and family.’

Quite how much discussion there has been between Harry and his family about the move remains uncertain.

As our source close to the Sussexes says: ‘I know that it [the move] was discussed when he came to the UK to see Diana’s grave; that visit was also about going to see schools. ‘What Harry didn’t say was that it was definitely this September, but at that point they were eyeing a move back.’

‘This is not about royal life at all; it’s about family and the children being educated in the UK.

‘Harry wants to ground his children in this country and to give them a strong understanding of where he grew up.

‘It’s not about him trying to recreate what they had in 2020, it’s about establishing their private family life.’

On the matter of family life, readers might recall that Harry has sometimes been less than complimentary about his stepmother, Queen Camilla.

She was reportedly hurt after he used Spare to describe her as ‘dangerous’ and a ‘villain’ who ‘left bodies in the streets’.

Note, then, what our source says now about his children’s step-grandmother: ‘He has a good relationship with his father – as a grandfather he is a softie, and Camilla is honestly a sweetheart.

‘Harry has been FaceTiming them since day dot with Archie and Lilibet.’

They also downplay the rift between Harry and William: ‘There is no real bad blood with his brother, and there are communications but a distance has grown between the families on either side of the Atlantic.’

As for Meghan, back in 2022, in an interview with US writer Allison P. Davis, she spoke a little about her journey and the ‘new chapter’ she was embarking on.

She made a handful of remarks about son Archie, one of them being about her fears over him attending school in the UK. She said she’d never be able to do school pick-up and drop-off without it being a royal photo call with a press pen of 40 people snapping pictures.

‘Sorry, I have a problem with that. That doesn’t make me obsessed with privacy. That makes me a strong and good parent protecting my child,’ she said.

Her fears, however, must have been allayed.

How the next new chapter unfolds remains to be seen.

The Duchess of Sussex has denied that she wanted to be a US Senator amid claims she met with California‘s governor in the hopes of being appointed to Kamala Harris‘s Senate seat.

The claims about Meghan’s alleged political ambitions, which she was said to have been pursuing shortly before the 2020 election, emerged in a story by The New York Post. It follows reports that the duchess and her husband Prince Harry are set to return to the UK after six years in the US.

Newsom’s office previously confirmed in a memorandum that the Democrat sat down with Harry and Meghan in an ‘introductory meeting’ on October 19, 2020. Exactly what was said at the meeting is not known.

Sources claimed that prior to Biden’s victory over Donald Trump, Markle wanted a meeting to be portrayed as a ‘welcome-to-California’ sit-down for the royals. 

However, they claim she was also seeking the US Senate seat that Harris was set to leave to become Biden’s vice president. 

The seat was eventually given to California’s Secretary of State Alex Padilla, who then won election to a full, six-year term in 2022.   

A source with Markle told the Post that the Duchess did not want to take Harris’ seat.

The Daily Mail has reached out to a spokesman for the Duchess of Sussex and to Governor Newsom for comment. 

Newsom’s office confirmed in a memorandum that the Democrat governor sat down with Harry and Meghan in an ‘introductory meeting’ on October 19, 2020. Exactly what was said at the meeting is not known

The Post report also alleges that the couple asked to meet Joe Biden in the Oval Office in 2021 but were shut down by White House staff. 

Biden sources claim that it was rejected on the grounds that it would have caused issues with the UK’s prime minister and the rest of the royal family. 

Both President and First Lady Jill Biden ‘didn’t want to get into a family squabble’ given their affection for Queen Elizabeth II. 

They also allegedly asked if they could fly back to the United States alongside the Bidens on Air Force One following the queen’s funeral and the source claimed they were promptly rebuffed. 

The royal couple hired consultants who had worked for both President Barack Obama and Biden, including ex-Press Secretary and current MS Now host Jen Psaki, the outlet said. 

Prince Harry‘s current chief of staff, Miranda Barbot, herself a former Obama staffer, was used as a conduit between the royals and the White House, the report stated. 

A Biden source told the Post that the pair had worn out their welcome with the Bidens, and that this was evidenced by neither of them continuing to attend Harry’s Invictus Games after 2021.

News that Harry and Meghan plan to return to Britain for an extended period and enroll Archie, seven, and Lilibet, five, in an English school suggests the couple have accepted that their American adventure has not delivered the glittering commercial empire once envisaged.

It has also been claimed that the couple asked to meet Joe Biden in the Oval Office in 2021 but were shut down by White House staff

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A Biden source told the Post that the pair had worn out their welcome with the Bidens, and that this was evidenced by neither of them continuing to attend Harry’s Invictus Games after 2021 

A lucrative Spotify deal is long gone and their original Netflix contract has ended. The duchess’s series With Love, Meghan lasted two seasons. 

Sources close to Harry briefed at the weekend that his family reunion with King Charles last month left the duke feeling ‘buoyed,’ ‘very happy’ and ‘really energized.’

Crucially, they added: ‘He wants to spend more time in the UK with his family.’

He will now get his wish. The family are expected to establish themselves in a private, non-royal residence and could remain in Britain while Archie and Lilibet complete their education.

But there will be no return to life as working royals.

The King, who is understood to have been informed of Harry’s plans only on Sunday, is said to welcome the opportunity to spend more time privately with his younger son and grandchildren.

But Buckingham Palace’s position on Harry and Meghan’s official status is understood to be unchanged.

There will be ‘no alteration’ to their roles as private individuals and non-working members of the Royal Family, in keeping with the arrangements established after their sensational departure in 2020.

Drivers making their way between Scotland and England can be forgiven for doing a double-take when they spot one particular road sign close to the border.

The sign carries the instruction “Drive on the left”, accompanied by a blue arrow directing motorists towards the correct side of the road, despite the entire Great British mainland driving on the left.

So anyone travelling south from Scotland into Northumberland, or north across the border, does not suddenly need to swap sides of the carriageway.

The ‘drive on the left’ sign at the Northumberland/Scotland border (Image: GOOGLE)

The unusual-looking reminder can appear as though motorists are being warned about a dramatic change in the rules of the road when, in reality, nothing changes at all.

But there is a perfectly sensible and simple explanation.

The signs are designed with international visitors in mind, particularly tourists who may be more accustomed to driving on the right-hand side of the road.

The sign at the border gives the instruction not only in English but also in German, Italian, French and Spanish, making its intended audience fairly clear.

And official advice from Traffic Scotland similarly stresses that “overseas visitors should remember to keep left when setting off or rejoining a road after stopping for fuel, a rest or sightseeing.”

The sign is one of the best-known routes between the North East and Scotland: the A68 at Carter Bar, high in the Cheviot Hills.

The road crosses the England–Scotland border before continuing north towards Jedburgh, while Carter Bar itself has become a popular stopping point thanks to its sweeping views and prominent border markers.

Motorists are greeted by a large “Welcome to Scotland – Fàilte gu Alba” sign when heading north, while the border viewpoint has long provided a photo opportunity for travellers.

Against that backdrop, the “drive on the left” instruction can look particularly amusing.

For British motorists, the message amounts to something close to: keep doing what you were already doing.

For visitors stepping back into a hire car after stopping at the border, however, the reminder could be considerably more useful.

Road users are advised to expect potential traffic delays in the seaside town for the duration of the fair.

Ireland’s oldest fair returns to Ballycastle for another year of trading, bargaining and a programme packed with entertainment this wekend.

The Ould Lammas Fair will be held from the 22nd – 25th of August, when the town is transformed by hundreds of stalls lining the streets, as far as the eye can see.

Road users are advised to expect potential traffic delays in the seaside town for the duration of the fair. The Ould Lammas Fair will begin on Saturday morning from 11am, with a firework display also scheduled to take place at the seafront from 9.30pm that evening.

The PSNI has advised that road users can expect potential delays in the town before, during and after the display.

A spokesperson said: “On Sunday, road closures will be in place from 7pm until 11.59pm to facilitate a concert in the Diamond. These closures include Ann Street to Rathlin Road, Castle Street to Leyland Road, Market Street to Moyle Road, and Fairhill Street to Mill Street.

“On Monday and Tuesday, road closures will be in place from 8am until 11pm each day. During this time, Quay Road from its junction with Mary Street, Ann Street, The Diamond, and Castle Street to its junction with Leyland Road will all be closed. A number of adjoining roads will also be impacted, with access mainly for local residents only.”

Where necessary, signed local diversion routes will be in operation throughout the duration of the fair, with officers on the ground to assist with the large volume of visitors expected.

The spokesperson continued: “Please follow any diversions that are in place for your safety and the safety of others.

“Parking on all four days will also be very limited, and we would ask those attending to be mindful of residents living in the area, ensuring they have full access into and out of their homes.

“Any vehicles found blocking the route or residential/commercial access, will be towed where necessary. Visitors are strongly encouraged to use public transport and the park-and-ride service available. Limited Blue Badge parking is available at Market Street, the Harbour Car Park and North Street on a first come, first served basis.

“The park-and-ride facility will operate on all days of the Fair from the McQuillan GAC on Whitepark Road, at a cost of £10 per vehicle.

“All buses are fully wheelchair accessible and the service will operate from Saturday to Tuesday, approximately every 20 minutes.

“The drop off point for Saturday and Sunday is the Rathlin Road/Atlantic Avenue junction, while Monday and Tuesday’s drop off point is Leyland Road/Ramaon Road junction. We hope all those visiting the fair have an enjoyable and safe time.”

The full programme of events is available via the Visit Causeway Coast and Glens website at https://www.visitcausewaycoastandglens.com/whats-on/ould-lammas-fair

For all the latest news, visit the Belfast Live homepage here and sign up to our daily newsletter here.

Passengers are being put up in hotels for the night after the flight was cancelled

An easyJet plane due to depart Manchester Airport was surrounded by fire engines – with passengers taken off after an alert from the pilot.

Flight EZY 9143 was due to depart from Manchester to Dalaman in Turkey at 5:30pm this evening (Thursday, August 20).

However, as it was being pushed back ready for take-off, the Manchester Evening News understands the pilot reported the smell of fumes in the cockpit.

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As is protocol, emergency services, including airport fire crews, attended, but the M.E.N understands there was no fire.

EasyJet says there was a ‘technical issue’ with the Airbus A321, which meant it could not fly as planned wih today’s flight cancelled. The airline described the emergency service response as ‘a precuation only.’

Passengers were disembarked with the airline saying they have been given hotel rooms for the night and will fly on a replacement aircraft tomorrow (Friday).

The emergency service response is said to have briefly held up a small number of other flights due to depart around the same time, but did not cause any significant disruption.

Around the same time, a fire alarm is said to have sounded in the terminal, but this is believed to have been unrelated and a false alarm.

An easyJet spokesperson told the M.E.N “Flight EZY9143 from Manchester to Dalaman was unable to operate on 20 August due to a technical issue with the aircraft. The aircraft was met by emergency services as a precaution only, and customers disembarked normally.

“Unfortunately, the technical issue meant the flight could not operate as planned. Customers have been provided with hotel accommodation and meals where required and are expected to continue their journey to Dalaman on Friday 21 August on a replacement aircraft.

“We are sorry for any inconvenience this will have caused and did all we could to minimise the impact of the disruption.

“The safety of our customers and crew is easyJet’s highest priority, and easyJet operates its fleet of aircraft in strict compliance with all manufacturers’ guidelines.”