It has been listed as an Asset of Community Value

A Cambridgeshire town community centre could soon be put up for sale. Fenland District Council has confirmed that the owner of Whittlesey Youth and Community Centre in Scaldgate intends to sell the property.

The community centre has been listed as an Asset of Community Value (ACV). This means the building’s main use has recently been or is presently used for the local community and could do so in the future.

Due to this, an interim moratorium period has been triggered and will last until July 29, 2026. During this time, community interest groups can bid for ownership of the group centre.

In a statement, Fenland District Council said: “During this period, a community interest group may request in writing (in the format specified by the relevant legislation) to be treated as a potential bidder for the asset.

“Should such an application be received (which complied with the legislative requirements) the full moratorium period specified by the legislation will expire on 28 November, 2026.”

A Community Interest Company, Phoenix Youth Provision said they “don’t want the council to sell it for housing, we want it to return to its original purpose, a youth centre for our young people”.

If no bids or expressions of interest are submitted by the deadline, the ACV will not stop the sale and the owner can look to sell the property on the open market.

The University of York has applied to install 198 solar panels on the roof of the sports centre in its Heslington campus.

Its application lodged with City of York Council stated the panels would generate an estimated roughly 91 kilowatt-peak (kWp) in power.

Solar panels would be installed on the roof of York Sports Centre, in James Way, if the council approves them.

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They would mostly be flat and would sit at 25cm above the roof at their highest point.

The panels would feature anti-reflective coating to help increase the amount of light absorbed into the cells.

Each bifacial double glass module solar panel would be capable of generating up to 590W.

Plans for the panels follow a separate application from the university to install eight welcome signs at key locations across its West and East campuses.

Plans showing solar panels of the roof of York Sports Centre, in James Way, at the University of York’s Campus West in Heslington (Image: University of York/City of York Council planning portal)

The university stated the signs were designed to reinforce campus identity and improve wayfinding but its plans have been withdrawn following their submission in January.

Council planning officers stated in early June they would take no further action on the plans.

An application lodged by the university to install a sculpture by a 20th Century British artist in its grounds was approved in April.

The university applied to put Michael Kenny’s work Original Sin in its campus grounds between Derwent College and Heslington Hall.

BEAVER, Utah (AP) — Wildfire activity has intensified across the western United States, as consecutive days of hot, dry and windy weather have fueled flames in Utah, Arizona and elsewhere as new fires popped up across the region.

The largest blaze, the Cottonwood Fire, was burning in rugged terrain in southwest Utah. It ballooned Saturday to more than 144 square miles (373 square kilometers) after marching through canyons and mountainsides, destroying part of a ski resort and other summer cabins along the way.

Authorities in Beaver County began working with fire teams on Saturday to assess the extent of the damage, but no estimates were immediately available. Gov. Spencer Cox in a post on social media called it bleak, but he thanked crews for what he called “several miraculous stops and saves.”

The cliffs and steep slopes have made the job even harder, said Alyssa Mason, a spokesperson assigned to the fire.

“It’s hard to get dozers and other heavy equipment into that. It’s hard to get engines into that,” she said. “It doesn’t make it impossible to firefight, but it does just kind of slow things down.”

Hundreds of firefighters have been arriving in the arid state to battle new starts as well as those that have been growing because of what forecasters called critical fire weather — dangerously low humidity levels, warm temperatures and gusty winds.

The danger is even higher this year because of Utah’s record-low snowpack and its warmest winter on record. Much of the West is grappling with similar conditions, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.

From Alaska to Florida, crews worked Saturday to corral dozens of fires, including three dozen that were classified as large and uncontained.

Nationally, nearly 3 million acres (1.2 million hectares) have burned since the start of the year. That is more than the 10-year average.

The conditions in Utah were critical enough for Gov. Spencer Cox to declare an emergency earlier this week and clear the way for the state to ban fireworks ahead of the July Fourth holiday. The order comes as Utah is experiencing one of the most severe wildfire seasons in recent history, fueled by historic drought conditions.

Newly elected MSP Kirsten Osward handpicked by Swinney for top team despite involvement in raft of SNP scandals.

John Swinney’s appointment of a woman embroiled in a catalogue of scandals to a top ministerial job has been slammed as “disgusting and insulting” by whistleblowers.

Newly elected MSP Kirsten Oswald was given the role of minister for victims and community safety by the First Minister shortly after the Nationalists won May’s Holyrood election.

But we can reveal that ex-SNP deputy Westminster leader Oswald, 53, was at the heart of multiple claims of whistleblowers being shut down and bullied.

• As chair of party’s ruling body she presided over a pile-on against fellow NEC member Allison Graham when she tried to sound the alarm on SNP finances.

• At Westminster she shut down a young party worker who complained about sexual harassment by ex-MP Patrick Grady.

• Prior to becoming an MP, she was head of HR at South Lanarkshire College as a shocking scandal around fraud, theft and systematic bullying allegations began to unfold.

Graham, who resigned from the SNP’s Finance and Audit Committee over accounting concerns in 2021, has said she is “absolutely disgusted” at Oswald’s appointment.

She told the Sunday Mail: “She is supposed to be the ‘victims’ minister’ and whistleblowers have got to have confidence that she has their back.

“But she has demonstrated that her intent was to close things down and to allow a vile attack. She not only didn’t step in, she joined in.

“It’s an absolutely appalling judgment call from John Swinney. From a leadership point of view, you would distance yourself from that NEC. You would not promote them and bring them into your government.

“He’s telling everybody he solved the problem while surrounding himself with the ones that caused it.”

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Graham, a business analyst, was part of a wave of reforming candidates elected to the SNP’s ruling committee in 2020 to improve governance and transparency.

Former treasurer Douglas Chapman asked her and two others, Cynthia Guthrie and former Edinburgh Lord Provost Frank Ross, to join the party’s Finance and Audit Committee (FAC).

But she has told how she was blocked by embezzler CEO Peter Murrell, Sturgeon’s husband, from scrutinising SNP finances at every turn. It led the trio to resign from the FAC in March 2021, followed two months later by ex-MPs Chapman and Joanna Cherry quitting the NEC.

Graham wanted their resignations properly recorded so read out their statement at an infamous virtual NEC meeting attended by Oswald, Nicola Sturgeon and others – and was met by a vicious pile-on.

After former Highland councillor Ian Cockburn launched a furious rant against Allison for reading the statement out, Sturgeon posted in the group chat, “Well said, Ian.”

Other NEC members then “clambered over themselves” to slam Graham, with Heather Anderson. who is also now an SNP MSP, suggesting a “new hashtag I’mwithIan”.

When Graham tried to defend herself, saying she had only sent the written statement to Oswald, the future minister bit back: “Well Alison you have just read it out to the whole NEC so that is neither here not there [sic].”

Sturgeon then spoke on the call angrily warning officials to be “very careful” suggesting any problems with party finances in bombshell footage first revealed by the Sunday Mail.

It came two months before police began their five-year Operation Branchform probe into SNP finances, which led to Murrell’s conviction for embezzling £400,000 from the party. On Tuesday, he was jailed for five years.

Oswald then failed to properly record the resignation statement in the official minutes from the meeting.

Allison said: “It was like a fight club – what happens in the NEC stays in the NEC. The way Kirsten spoke to me was as if she was slapping me across the knees.

“Saying ‘that’s neither here nor there’ to three members of your audit committee basically saying there’s a problem with the CEO – that was her response?

“Now Nicola is saying she wasn’t told about the embezzlement. Well, we weren’t Columbo.

“This was the First Minister of Scotland. We told the NEC there was a problem and it was their job to address it. They should have authorised a forensic accountant to come in and demonstrate there wasn’t a problem if they thought there wasn’t.

“That’s what the police did. Everything the police did in May, the SNP could have done in March – and they would have saved the public purse £2million out of a police investigation.

“They didn’t just allow Peter to continue his crimes, they emboldened him.

“Because he had just watched as somebody had finally clocked on – and then everybody else protected him. He was bulletproof, he was Teflon at that point.”

She added: “Nicola was clearly content that Kirsten would manage the meetings the way she wanted them to be managed. It was completely controlling and toxic.

“On the finances, the behaviour was so bizarre that it was a clarion call which said there’s something seriously wrong here and we couldn’t understand why nobody else was doing anything about it.

“I’ve worked in governance and strategy and I was genuinely appalled. It was like pulling the curtain back and finding the organisation which runs the government was held together by sticky-back plastic and pipecleaners.”

Caroline McAllister, who was SNP women’s convener at the time, said the bullying she witnessed was the “straw that broke the camel’s back” for her as she quit shortly afterwards.

She said: “I wasn’t prepared at all for it. I was concerned about the contents of Allison’s statement, but the response afterwards really shocked me. If I’m really honest, it left me reeling.

“It was just the force of verbal aggression aimed at an elected official who had raised very worrying concerns, but in a very calm and measured way.

“I was an SNP councillor and I’ve sat in many committees and boards, and that level of aggression would not be tolerated. I’ve never operated within such a toxic environment.

“When I saw the bullying of Allison, I just thought, I can’t be party to this anymore. It’s a regret I will always carry with me that I didn’t interject in Allison’s defence.”

McAllister also highlighted the mistreatment of an SNP Westminster staffer who raised a complaint against shamed former MP Patrick Grady.

She said: “What’s really distressing and disgraceful is John Swinney’s attitude and the fact that Kirsten Oswald is sat in that Parliament.

“It’s almost like she’s got a reward for being a good little gatekeeper. And then to make her the minister for victims is just crass.

“I couldn’t help but think that was John signalling to the public, I really don’t care what you think. I don’t care that Kirsten Oswald has this terrible reputation.

“It wasn’t just the fact that she allowed the attack on Allison and joined in the pile-on.

“She’s also caught up in the scandal involving Patrick Grady. Jordan Linden was another one that was swept under the carpet. Kirsten Oswald is no friend to victims.”

It emerged in 2022 that Oswald threatened disciplinary action against the young staffer who raised complaints about Grady. The victim was just 19 when the then-SNP chief whip harassed him at a night out in 2016.

Ian Blackford, the SNP Commons leader at the time, tried to deal with the incident informally in 2018 when told about it.

Three years later Ms Oswald, then Blackford’s deputy, warned the staffer he could be sanctioned if he did not “desist”. The man’s parliament email account was also locked. A year later Commons sleaze watchdogs found Grady had touched him inappropriately.

McAllister added: “It was utterly disgraceful to me the way that young man was treated after Patrick Grady’s sexual harassment.

“My heart goes out to him. He had the courage to stand up and then he was absolutely ostracised and isolated.”

Oswald was MP for East Renfrewshire from 2015 to 2017, then again from 2019 to 2024 where she lost her Westminster seat to Labour.

She was selected as the SNP’s candidate for Eastwood at Holyrood this year, defeating ex-Tory leader Jackson Carlaw to gain the seat in the election on May 7. Just two weeks later, Swinney appointed her to his ministerial team.

Oswald has also never answered for what she knew of a historic fraud and bullying scandal that engulfed South Lanarkshire College, involving claims of staff using teaching materials and stolen equipment to remodel their homes.

She was the college’s HR boss for 12 years up to getting elected to Westminster in 2015. Whistleblower concerns around theft and fraud first emerged in 2013.

Former Tory-turned-Reform MSP Graham Simpson, who spoke out about the college scandal at the time, said: “Kirsten Oswald has faced serious questions for years. Her name has repeatedly surfaced in connection with some of the SNP’s most damaging controversies, yet many of those questions remain unanswered.

“It is astonishing that someone who has faced allegations of shielding the SNP establishment from scrutiny has been handed responsibility for victims and community safety.“John Swinney must explain why he believes this appointment is appropriate. Now that Ms Oswald is at the heart of the SNP government, she must address these concerns directly with a full public statement.“Victims and whistleblowers deserve answers, transparency and accountability. Not another SNP cover up.”

Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie said: “There remain serious concerns about Kirsten Oswald’s handling of complaints made about Patrick Grady while they were both SNP MPs.

“However, rather than addressing these concerns, John Swinney has not only chosen to stand by her during the campaign, he has now appointed her as a minister. What makes it even worse is that Swinney has named her as a minister for victims. This is the ultimate insult to victims.

“How can any victim of heinous wrongdoing have any faith in someone who attempted to silence the person who made complaints to her about Patrick Grady and shut down whistleblowers raising concerns over Murrell and SNP finances.

“Swinney has shown, yet again, his appalling judgement, and victims deserve better. He must urgently explain why he thought that Oswald was the right person for this position, and set out whether he is content with how she handled the complaints about Grady and the NEC whistleblowers.”

An SNP spokeswoman said: “These allegations are utterly inaccurate.“As business convener, Kirsten Oswald was committed to transparency and she took many steps to improve accountability and governance within the SNP.“The criminal wrongdoing of Peter Murrell was uncovered by a complex and extensive Police investigation years after the events in question. The SNP was the victim of that wrongdoing.”

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Several UK businesses have entered administration in recent weeks, including 150-year-old furniture maker. Here’s the latest news you need to know about.

Over the past while, a number of UK firms have sadly fallen into administration. This has become an increasingly frequent scenario in 2026, with thousands of businesses confronting this challenge throughout the year.

Among the companies that have recently been forced to seek help from administrators are a furniture manufacturer, which had been trading for 150 years. Additionally, a housebuilder and a party organising firm have also entered administration.

Here’s a summary of all the recent developments.

Airsprung

This manufacturer, which produces mattresses and beds for leading retailers, has been in operation for 150 years. Unfortunately, it has now fallen into administration following difficult trading circumstances over recent years.

The Wiltshire-based firm had investigated various options in an attempt to rescue the situation, but ultimately had no alternative but to appoint administrators.

While 71 employees were made redundant, those remaining were kept to assist with the company’s continuing operations. It is still trading for the time being.

Groupia

This stag and hen party organiser has entered administration after initially launching in 1999. The firm specialised in arranging group holidays for stag and hen party celebrations.

It has now stopped trading, and new bookings cannot be taken.

Groupia representatives did confirm trips scheduled to depart on or before August 31 would be fulfilled, and that refunds would be issued for any arrangements from September 1 onwards.

Devonshire Homes

The housebuilding firm, which had been operating for more than three decades, has gone into administration. Previously trading as Langworthy Construction before changing its name, it carried out work throughout Devon, Cornwall and Somerset.

Since 2008, it constructed over 2,000 properties across the South West, focusing on traditional rural homes with thatched roofs, modern flats and new-build houses, and even renovated Grade II listed properties.

Ardmore

Following a significant High Court judgment in April, this construction firm has also entered administration. Contractor Ardmore’s construction group, which was established in 1974, encompasses Ardmore Hotels & Commercial, Ardmore Major Projects, Ardmore Fitout, Landmark Facades and Ardmore Regeneration.

The company had approximately 77 employees, and attributed its problems to a partly finished timber-frame scheme that ended up being far more expensive to complete than expected.

BMB Logistics

The UK-based food distribution firm has gone into administration after only three years of trading.

Headquartered in Tonbridge, Kent, the business prided itself on its facilities designed specifically for “temperature-sensitive goods,” according to its website.

It also stated its commitment to “providing a cost-effective, highly efficient service” that enabled them to fulfil their customer’s individual needs. The reason behind the appointment of administrators remains unclear.

Most of them walked in through the north door, admired the nave, looked at the tomb of St Cuthbert and left.

Here are the surprising secrets they may have missed.

It contains the world’s first structural pointed arch

Before Durham, every great building in Europe used rounded, Roman arches.

The cathedral’s builders, working on the nave between 1093 and 1133, were the first in the world to use a structural pointed transverse ribbed vault, the architectural invention that made Gothic cathedrals possible.

Without the engineers who worked out the geometry in this building in the north of England, there would be no Notre Dame, no Chartres, no Westminster Abbey as we know them.

(Image: Phoebe Abruzzese)

The walls and ceiling were originally painted in vivid colour

The pale sandstone interior you see today is not what medieval worshippers experienced.

The cathedral’s ceilings, walls and columns were originally painted in rich blues, reds and gold, and traces of the original paint survive in places if you know where to look.

The great cylindrical pillars of the nave, each 6.6 metres round and 6.6 metres high, almost certainly blazed with colour when first carved.

The Sanctuary Knocker on the north door gave murderers 37 days of protection

The bronze lion’s head on the north door is one of the most recognisable objects in the cathedral, but most people do not know what it was for.

Any fugitive who reached the door and grasped the ring, regardless of what they had done, was granted 37 days of sanctuary inside the cathedral.

Monks were stationed in a small room above the door, watching day and night, ready to ring the Galilee bell the moment someone seized the knocker.

The fugitive was given a black gown with St Cuthbert’s cross on the shoulder, housed in a small room, and fed at the abbey’s expense.

After 37 days they had to choose: face trial, or confess their crime, swear never to return to England, and walk to the coast.

The right of sanctuary was abolished in 1624. The knocker on the door today is a replica; the 12th-century original is in the cathedral museum.

It houses the tomb of the Venerable Bede

The Galilee Chapel at the west end of the cathedral is the resting place of Bede, the 7th-century monk from Jarrow who wrote the first history of the English people and is one of only two English people ever declared a Doctor of the Church.

Bede rarely left his monastery at Jarrow during his lifetime, but his remains were brought to Durham in 1022, placed initially with St Cuthbert’s relics, and moved to their permanent home in the Galilee Chapel around 1370.

There is a story that a monk tasked with composing a Latin inscription for the gravestone was struggling to find the right words, and left blanks overnight, only to find in the morning that an unseen hand had filled them in.

The Bishop’s throne is taller than the Pope’s

Bishop Hatfield, who served in the 14th century, allegedly sent representatives to Rome specifically to measure the height of the papal throne so he could order one an inch taller.

The Cathedra at Durham remains, on that basis, the highest bishop’s throne in Christendom.

It was a prison for 2,500 Scottish soldiers

During the English Civil War, worship at the cathedral was suspended entirely. Between 1650 and 1651, 2,500 Scottish prisoners of war captured at the Battle of Dunbar were held inside the building.

They burned almost everything wooden to keep warm through the winter, but left the medieval Prior’s Clock completely untouched.

The reason, according to tradition, is that a thistle, the emblem of Scotland, is carved into the clock, and the prisoners respected it too much to destroy it.

(Image: NORTHERN ECHO)

It holds the only surviving copy of the 1216 Magna Carta

Durham Cathedral’s collection contains three issues of Magna Carta, from 1216, 1225 and 1300, along with three Forest Charters.

The 1216 copy is the only surviving example of that particular issue anywhere in the world.

Three clauses from the 1225 issue remain in force in English law today.

The Prince Bishops were a state within a state

The cathedral was the spiritual centre of one of the most unusual political arrangements in English history.

From 1075, the Bishops of Durham held the powers of a sovereign ruler within the territory between the Tyne and the Tees, with the right to raise their own army, mint their own coins, levy their own taxes and hold their own courts.

This arrangement lasted, largely intact, until 1836, when the palatinate rights were finally transferred to the Crown.

The last Prince Bishop, William Van Mildert, used what remained of his wealth to co-found Durham University in 1832.

(Image: NORTHERN ECHO)

It costs £6 a minute to maintain

The cathedral holds more than 1,700 services a year and is free to enter.

Running costs stand at approximately £60,000 per week, around £6 per minute, funded entirely by donations, visitor income and charitable support.

Lionel Messi just can’t help hogging the headlines.

Even when he’s handed a rest, he still manages to go on and make himself the star of the show. Again.

For 80 minutes of this one-sided game, it looked like being a case of no Messi, no problem for Argentina. Not when someone like Giovani Lo Celso can produce the kind of goal the great man himself would be proud of. Lauturo Martinez added a second and it felt like for once, the mercurial skills of Messi were not needed.

But as promised, Lionel Scaloni introduced Messi on the hour mark. Which was more than enough time for him to create yet more footballing history. With his late free kick making him the first player ever to score in seven consecutive World Cup games. A run which started against Australia in the last 16 of the last World Cup in Qatar. Providing another glorious addition to his personal highlight reel from this 2026 edition in North America and ensuring Argentina won all three group games at a finals for the first time.

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Messi starting on the bench had given someone else in blue and white the chance to score a goal for their team at this World Cup. And Lo Celso took up the challenge with relish.

He thought he had scored in the opening minutes, but his effort was ruled out for off-side. Lo Celso wouldn’t be denied, however, and put Argentine ahead with a sublime free kick into the top corner.

Where was that skill when he was at Tottenham?

Martinez came close to doubling Argentina’s lead when he smashed a shot against the post. But from the resulting scramble, Marcos Senesi was kicked in the head attempting to convert the loose ball, and referee Istvan Kovacs awarded a penalty. Martinez hammered the spot kick past Yawed Abulaila to make it 2-0.

Argentina were in complete cruise control. Nicolas Otamendi flashed a header just wide and Martinez was denied by Abulaila. Scaloni’s men could sense the chance to run up a cricket score.

While Jordan’s beleaguers players could sense being able to get on the plane to leave North America. Messi got a standing ovation when he jumped off his feet to warm up.

The prospect of him going on most have sent a cold shiver down the spine of the Jordanians. This was the last thing they needed. But then something happened no one had expected.

Jordan pulled one back through substitute Mousa Altamari, who beat Emiliano Martinez from close range. Which instantly felt like a big mistake, considering Argentina sent on Messi straight after.

Within minutes he had whistled a free kick just over the crossbar. But he never makes the same mistake twice.

And with the next one, he curled it around the wall and past Abulaila, to have the final word on a night which was never supposed to be about him.

But always seems to be.

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Joe Doering was forced to leave wrestling in 2016 after he was diagnosed with a brain tumor, but sadly 10 years later he died after being diagnosed two further times

Retired pro wrestling star Joe Doering has died aged 44 after complications from brain cancer.

Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) announced Doering’s death on social media on Friday, June 26. TNA wrote: ” We are heartbroken to learn of the passing of Joe Doering. A commanding in-ring performer and a wonderful person, he will never be forgotten. We offer our deepest condolences to his fans, his friends and his family.”

His family shared in a verified GoFundMe that he died at 9:13 a.m. on June 26 after being diagnosed with brain cancer nearly 10 years ago. Mandy Banh, Doering’s sister-in-law, said that she started the fundraiser to help “alleviate some financial” burdens and raise funds for Doering’s treatment, including radiation and chemotherapy, after doctors found “a third brain tumor.”

After he had undergone brain surgery in 2022 he “developed ataxia” which “greatly impacted his mobility.” Due to this, he began using a wheelchair and walker but Banh said that the wrestler “remained determined, focused, and most of all — in good spirits” as he continued treatments.

However, Doering’s health began to deteriorate in the last few months leading up to his death after CT scans showed that his brain tumor was “growing.” In a June 22 update, they said that he was heading to “hospice,” a specialized form of medical care that focuses on comfort or patients with terminal illnesses who are nearing the end of life.

Following his death, his family wrote, “Please keep Joe’s family and friends in your thoughts during this difficult time. Thank you all for your love, support, and kindness — it has meant so much to us. We love you, Joe. You will be forever in our hearts and deeply missed.”

Following the news of his death, several pro wrestlers paid tribute to Doering, including retired WWE wrestler Adam Pearce.

“Godspeed, Joe Doering. I didn’t have the good fortune of being around you, but things my friends have said make me wish I had,” Pearce, 48, wrote on Instagram alongside a photo of the late wrestling star. “My heart goes out to his friends, family, and everyone affected. Rest well, sir.”

The GoFundMe has reached over $22,000. To find out more click here.