Two very different tribes gathered in Carlow, a market town just over an hour’s drive south of Dublin, last night.

One was there to mourn Alex McCarthy, a 16–year–old member of a Traveller family, who was one of five young men killed in a car crash in the early hours of Sunday morning. 

He was being laid to rest at St Mary’s cemetery, opposite the local Gaelic Athletic Club.

The other group was attending an evening vigil at St Clare’s Church, in the town centre, to pray for three women and a young child who were seriously injured in the same incident.

Each wore contrasting uniforms. McCarthy’s clan, dressed to the nines, followed a white, horse–drawn carriage carrying his grey and silver coffin.

The crowd at St Clare’s was more understated. They held candles and arrived by foot.

This divide was more than simply aesthetic. For the two groups are on opposite sides of an increasingly furious public debate.

It follows what happened at 3.04am on Sunday, when McCarthy and four teenage friends decided to drive a high–performance BMW at 75mph southwards on the north–bound lane of the M9, near the eastern outskirts of Carlow.

Sisters (l-r) Ella Hendricken, Niamh Kinsella and Alma Kinsella continue to fight for their lives after a BMW driving the wrong way on the M9 hit them. Niamh and Alma remain in a critical condition while Ella was also seriously hurt in the collision 

Alex McCarthy, 16, was one of the five teenagers in the high–performance BMW. He died at the scene after the vehicle collided head–on with a Hyundai on the M9 

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Tragedy ensued. The group in the BMW, who were trying to flee the Gardai (the Irish police), were involved in a head–on collision with a Hyundai, which was carrying three sisters – Ella Hendricken and Niamh and Alma Kinsella – along with Alma’s seven–year–old son Yemi.

All five of the teenage boys, aged between 15 and 18, who were wearing black balaclavas, died at the scene. 

The four passengers in the Hyundai, who had been driving to the airport to attend a wedding in Britain, were taken to hospitals in Dublin. They remain critically ill.

It was a terrible waste of life. But in the ensuing days, the tragedy has become an international talking point.

At issue are the deeply unsettling circumstances in which it came to pass and the thorny question of who is to blame.

And to appreciate why, one must first understand that McCarthy and his associates were not your everyday hoodlums. Instead, they were ‘content creators’.

Specifically, they were members of the Lucky Dip Gang, a group of between 60 and 100 Irish youths who have achieved a dystopian sort of social media fame through the reckless driving which led to their deaths. 

The gang, made up of teenagers and first identified by police in 2022, drive extremely dangerously in stolen vehicles then post the footage on TikTok and Snapchat.

The more reckless their behaviour, the more clicks it tends to generate and the greater kudos they enjoy. So–called ‘Lucky Dippers’ are said to be responsible for at least 300 crimes in the past year, including burglaries and car thefts.

Irish government officials have blamed platforms like TikTok for algorithmic incentives and slow content moderation, raising the prospect of billions in fines. Pictured is the scene after the crash

A Gardai spokesperson said the incident occurred at 3am on the morning of August 16 when one of the cars was travelling in the wrong direction

They and a growing number of copycat groups are thought to be partly responsible for a rising crimewave – the number of vehicle thefts in Ireland has almost doubled since 2021, from 3,951 to 7,893 cases per year. 

According to leaked law enforcement figures, the 11 most active gang members, whose average age is 16, have now been arrested and charged with a total of 427 crimes. That is an average of 39 charges each.

Yet almost none of them have been imprisoned – and their sense of impunity seems astonishing.

In the minutes leading up to Sunday’s tragedy, for example, McCarthy and his chums filmed themselves driving at high speed away from Gardai patrol vehicles, with blue emergency lights flashing in the background.

Several clips of these exploits are now doing the rounds online, having been posted by associates by way of a grotesque tribute.

One bears the message: ‘Ur last spin boys. To hear your voices in this boys has me in a pain that can’t be described.’

Another shows a man in a black balaclava in the BMW’s passenger seat, along with the caption ‘I love ya brother’ and ‘Gonna be missed boys’.

A third, addressed to McCarthy’s 18–year–old fellow passenger Kamil Pustkowski shows a man performing dangerous manoeuvres in a vehicle with the comment ‘This one’s for you, Kamil’.

Most of these grisly tributes offer no sympathy at all to the four innocent victims of the gang’s criminal behaviour. In fact, they appear to celebrate it. And that has sparked public anger.

On Tuesday, a funeral director’s online tribute page for McCarthy was taken down after it was

bombarded with critical posts. Facebook tributes from family members of the dead youths met with hostile responses, many of them criticising the Traveller community from which some of them – but not all – hailed.

The reaction has also sparked violence. Video footage on X purports to show a female relative of one of the five teenagers confronting an online critic in the street this week.

Family members film her grabbing the middle–aged woman’s hair and throwing punches.

Other online videos from the Lucky Dip gang focus on glamorising dangerous driving. Most depict youths driving the wrong way down a motorway, an activity regarded in this warped world as daring and entertaining.

One, filmed on Dublin’s M50, shows a driver making a U–turn at night–time before hurtling against the flow of traffic.

As lorries and terrified car drivers flash their headlights, the vehicle swerves from the fast lane into the hard shoulder. Another shows a car careering down the wrong side of a busy carriageway in Cork, narrowly avoiding a head–on collision with two lorries.

A third, filmed in the day in heavy traffic, shows a gang member speeding down the hard shoulder. Each video has clocked up millions of views online.

Creating such content is a full–time job and last week’s tragedy seems to have done little to discourage copycats.

In the early hours of Thursday, a car drove the wrong way up the M50 and N3 before crashing in the Dublin suburb of Ashtown.

Staggeringly, it was at least the fourth such incident logged by the authorities in Dublin in little more than a week.

Jeremy O’Brien (pictured) was one of five teenagers to lose his life in the collision

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Kamil Pustowski (pictured) was another of the five teenagers who died in the car that was driving the wrong way down the motorway 

And some have ended in devastating injuries. Earlier this month, eight teenagers – one of whom was just 13 – suffered serious injuries in a head–on crash after they drove the wrong way down the M50.

And last Tuesday, in Finglas, Dublin, a high–powered car with five teenagers in it rammed a Gardai vehicle, flipping it on to its roof. Video footage, filmed inside the stolen car, soon emerged on social media.

In other words, this is a criminal class which feels entitled to behave with absolute freedom from any form of punishment. And that is sparking heated political debate.

According to the Irish government, the main villains of this tale – aside from the youths themselves – are not lawmakers, the courts or even the police for failing to stamp out this behaviour, but the rapacious social media companies who have allowed footage of illegal driving to be shared on their platforms.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin declared that Sunday’s tragedy was the result of ‘an irresponsible and dangerous act’ which was ‘being done for likes on social media’. While enterprise minister Peter Burke said TikTok had allowed ‘very extreme [footage] … to sit there for protracted periods of time’, adding that this was ‘not good enough’.

Government sources are now floating the idea that TikTok could be fined as much as 1.5billion euros [£1.28billion], or 6 per cent of its global revenue.

Yet since Ireland’s economy hinges on its status as an accommodating tax haven for Silicon Valley firms, few believe the platform will be properly held to account.

TikTok, in particular, seems to regard itself as beyond reproach. It has turned down an invitation to explain itself before the Irish parliament’s media committee next week, claiming that such scrutiny would not be ‘appropriate’.

Cynics also point out that the Dublin government is on a sticky wicket when it comes to road safety, with two backbenchers from ruling party Fianna Fail facing recent scandals.

In January, Michael Cahill was convicted of driving at 124mph and suspended from driving for two years; Malcolm Byrne has admitted failing a roadside alcohol test but is yet to go on trial. Neither has lost the whip.

In any case, politicians seeking to blame US tech firms for a breakdown in law and order should look closer to home. Take the Gardai. It has cut the number of traffic enforcement officers from 1,046 to 645 since 2009 and no longer employs a single officer who has completed ‘pursuit training’.

Health and safety rules also mean the force now has a policy of never following vehicles travelling the wrong way down a motorway – a rule which joyriders are happy to exploit.

This appears to date back to 2021, when three gangsters died in a head–on crash while being pursued down the N1. The officer pursuing them was controversially prosecuted for ‘endangerment of life’.

On Monday, John O’Connell, head of the country’s policing union, says: ‘Our members are not going to follow [them]. We’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t.’

Even if young joyriders are eventually caught, the chances of them being imprisoned are almost zero – thanks to Ireland’s ultra–liberal law and order policies.

Ireland’s 2001 Children’s Act says that ‘a period of detention should be imposed [on any juvenile] only as a measure of last resort’, meaning many can clock up dozens of offences before being given a custodial sentence. And even then, there will almost certainly not be space in prison to accommodate them.

Sinn Fein’s Matt Carthy, the justice committee’s chairman, tells me that this country of more than five million citizens has just one young offenders’ institution – the Oberstown Children Detention Campus. And it only has room for 46 inmates.

While Mr Carthy’s Left–leaning party champions prevention alongside imprisonment, he says that ‘people who pose a threat to communities are undoubtedly now at large because of cuts to budgets’.

Hermann Kelly, a former aide to Nigel Farage, who leads the Irish Freedom Party, takes a more old–fashioned view. ‘These criminal scrotes need less bail, and more jail,’ he tells me. ‘We also need to make parents of repeat offenders take proper responsibility for their children.’

Historically, young hoodlums who had committed petty crimes in Ireland’s working–class neighbourhoods would have been ‘sorted out’ by members of the IRA, Mr Kelly adds.

They no longer hold significant sway. Meanwhile, he argues, parliament’s proportional representation system – which makes it virtually impossible for one party to secure an overall majority – has for years forced centrist parties to form coalitions with Left–wing groups which champion liberal justice policies.

Mr Kelly is particularly scathing about powerful government–funded NGOs (non–governmental organisations) which also lobby for a soft–touch approach to young offenders.

They include the Irish Penal Reform Trust, which receives more than half of its annual budget of 500,000 euros from the taxpayer.

He says: ‘I was looking at their website and it shows that they have seven employees, all of whom appear to be middle–class white women. 

Joey Carthy (pictured) also died in the crash. Online tributes posted by friends and relatives praised the deceased teenagers’ criminal acts. These posts sparked violent confrontations and severe public backlash, leading to funeral tribute pages being taken down due to critical comments

Jack Kennedy was the fifth teenage boy to lose his life in the crash 

It’s not these people’s communities who are affected by the lawlessness their liberal policies lead to, it’s the working–class ones.’

By way of example, while I was driving to the scene of Sunday’s crash, I heard a resident of one such community, named Joanne, on a radio phone–in. She was a neighbour of one of the five boys involved and said that he and his siblings were prolific criminals who had terrorised the local streets for years.

‘When we moved into the estate in Carlow, they were smashing in our windows within the first 30 minutes of moving in,’ Joanne said. ‘He was allowed out on to the estate to do whatever he wanted along with the rest of the family.’ Commenting on his death, she added: ‘I’ve no sympathy, none whatsoever.’

The track record of the five youths certainly beggars belief. At least three had previously bragged online about driving the wrong way down motorways, with some posting videos of themselves driving at more than 120mph.

Others had posted news articles and social media appeals from victims of car thefts, alongside pictures of themselves standing on top of the stolen cars.

Only last month, McCarthy was quizzed by Gardai over a hit–and–run in Carlow on July 8. 

A motorcyclist suffered life–changing injuries after being hit by a stolen black Ford Ranger pick–up. Joey Carthy, who also died in Sunday’s crash, was also called in for questioning over the incident.

This week, a relative posted a tribute to Carthy which showed his other favourite hobby: filming himself carrying out burglaries then uploading footage to TikTok. 

Next to footage of him in the bedroom of a sleeping 87–year–old was the caption: ‘You didn’t care Joey, u walk in on top of people while there [sic] asleep [laughing emoji] you really wore the wild one rest easy living legend.’

Another alleged ‘legend’ was Pustkowski, who had a TikTok account showing himself driving stolen cars and vans. In one, he is seen driving the wrong way down a motorway with police lights in the background: ‘Tyre gone still smoked’, reads the caption.

Pustkowski was facing multiple charges for theft and motoring offences. As part of his bail conditions, he was not supposed to leave Limerick at any time – an instruction he had ignored.

Jack Kennedy, the fourth teenager to die on Sunday, was arrested in July on suspicion of car theft after an incident in which a vehicle was driven the wrong way down the M50. He was yet to face charges.

The fifth youth, Jeremy O’Brien, was a suspect in a dangerous driving incident which took place in April.

While they will no longer be joyriding, there seems to be a limitless number of admirers who are willing to take their place. And given the heroic status they are being accorded by fans, few would bet against this social media crimewave which has terrified Ireland eventually spreading to Britain.

Hayley Beckinsale, from Seaburn, launched Chapter 13 in Sunniside, Sunderland, last month after 16 years as a district nurse.

The shop, set in a converted estate agents, offers thousands of fiction titles spanning romance, thrillers, horror and contemporary fiction.

There is also a dedicated fantasy room.

Chapter 13 is designed as a peaceful place for people to enjoy a new read with a cup of tea in the tearoom or in the cosy reading snug.

The tearoom serves herbal teas, coffees, soft drinks, brownies and flapjacks.

The shop also offers greeting cards, bookmarks and a selection of gifts.

Free used books are available, and customers can purchase ‘date with a book’ bundles – pre-wrapped mystery books that come with an eye mask, tea, stickers, bookmark, pens and annotation tabs.

The shop’s name also holds personal meaning, with Hayley’s birthday being on the 13th, a birthday she shares with her daughter’s favourite singer Taylor Swift.

In an update meeting with Salford Council and the local MP at Walkden Station this week, Network Rail shared that ‘progress was being made behind the scenes’ on the project to bring a much-needed lift to the station. 

Funding for the project was first awarded in 2019. But progress on the scheme has been hampered by the pandemic and the ‘unlucky’ discovery that the station sits in a ‘high risk’ former mining area. Tommy Fleming, sponsor at Network Rail, explained that engineers will need to drill into the ground to determine how to lay the foundation, and have had to plan for ‘all scenarios’. 

Fleming added: “I’m sorry for the ongoing delay to these vital accessibility improvements at Walkden. While progress has not always been visible, we’ve been carrying out extensive investigations and technical assessments since historic mining issues were discovered beneath the station and reviewing the impact on the programme.  

“This remains a complex engineering challenge, but we continue to make progress and remain focused on addressing the mining issues and developing a safe, deliverable scheme for Walkden. These improvements will make it easier for more people to travel independently and access work, education, local services and leisure opportunities by rail.”

The building works are currently expected to begin in the summer or autumn of next year and take around 17 to 20 weeks to build. In the ‘worst case scenario’, the work could take up to 30 weeks. 

During that time, there will be periods when the station has to close and alternative transport arrangements will be in play. 

Local MP Yasmin Qureshi and councillors who attended the meeting on Thursday, August 20, shared her ‘frustration’ about the lack of visible progress. 

She said: “I know how important this station is for residents commuting to work every day, and they deserve to know why it has taken so long. Following this meeting, I will be pressing the Department for Transport to work closely with Salford Council and me to ensure the historic mine shafts causing the delay do not hold things up any further, and that the works at the station are finished as soon as possible.”

The lack of accessibility at the station has been a sore spot for the local community, with campaigners from Friends of Walkden Station (FWS) advocating for the changes for almost two decades. Locals have shared their growing frustration with the seeming lack of progress. 

FWS volunteer Andy Barlow noted accessibility was the ‘number one issue that keeps coming up again and again and again’. 

Joshua Brooks is a local councillor for Walkden South has also been on the receiving end of anger at the delays. He added: “These delays are simply not good enough. I am calling on Network Rail and all other relevant agencies to start the work as soon as possible, and ensure that passengers are kept properly informed. Accessibility should not be treated as an afterthought.” 

 AS the end of the summer holidays fast approaches, Kay Sandham is at her regular post – helping families as they queue at the window for pre-loved school uniforms.

Kay – Darlington‘s Citizen of the Year in 2022 – may be small in stature, but she’s big-hearted, and makes an enormous difference to the local community in her hometown of Darlington.

After retiring from her IT job with the railways, she began volunteering with the 8th Cockerton Scouts, and went on to be a driving force behind the Cockerton Community and Business Group.

Then, in 2020 – the year Covid swept the country – her reputation as a community campaigner led to her being asked to get involved in setting up The School Uniform Exchange.

It’s a service that’s brilliant in its simplicity. Uniforms from local schools are donated by families who no longer need them, and they are redistributed after being freshly-laundered and ironed.

The School Uniform Exchange is one of several initiatives run by Darlington Cares, a not-for-profit organisation that has been connecting local employers with community projects and charities since 2012.

This summer, Darlington Cares is celebrating a magnificent milestone, having delivered 100,000 hours of volunteering – and Kay personifies the community spirit that’s been inspired over the past 14 years.

“We all need to play our part in supporting the community, and The School Uniform Exchange fills a real need,” she says.

Kay Sandham is a big part of The School Uniform Exchange success story (Image: Peter Barron)

Last year alone, Darlington Cares, hosted by the borough council, delivered 11,096 hours of volunteering, equating to seven full-time employees.

The School Uniform Exchange, operating from a unit near the Beaumont Street entrance to Feethams Car Park, accounted for 1,920 hours of volunteering, helping 5,000 families, and handing out 13,000 recycled items of uniform.

Catherine McKinnell, Minister of State for School Standards, was clearly impressed because she chose the Darlington redistribution hub to make a Government announcement that, from September, school uniforms will be limited to three items with a school logo, plus a tie for secondary schools.

However, The School Uniform Exchange is only part of the story. Darlington Cares also delivered 3,051 hours of voluntary environmental work in 2025, mainly in local parks, including 642 hours of tree planting.

The Darlington Cares Busy Readers scheme contributed 3,425 hours of volunteering to support literacy and numeracy in local schools.

Back in March 2020, Darlington Cares, in partnership with Darlington Building Society and Cummins Engines, was instrumental in The Bread and Butter Thing charity choosing Darlington to provide its first service outside Manchester, redistributing surplus food from supermarkets and suppliers.

Darlington Cares continues to support The Bread and Butter Thing, providing 835 hours of volunteering to the charity and local food banks last year.

An additional 858 volunteer hours were devoted to the Darlington Cares volunteer library book delivery service, and 322 volunteer hours were used to support the council’s sheltered accommodation.

Pick, Pie and a Pint, aimed at recruiting volunteers for community litter-picks, has been another successful Darlington Cares initiative over the years.

But it’s The School Uniform Exchange where Kay has spent countless hours, and she has no doubt about the value of the service.

“It’s a great example of the value of Darlington Cares because it’s having a real impact on families, fulfilling a real need, and providing security for people,” she explains.

“It’s also removing the stigma of poverty because it operates like a shop – except that everything is free.”

Though the ongoing cost of living crisis is clearly a factor, Kay is quick to stress that lots of people also use the service because recycling clothes is good for the environment.

“All of this would go to landfill,” she says, pointing to the racks of school uniforms in the unit below the car park.

The opening hours are 10am to 1pm every weekday, and it’s 11am on Friday when I visit. The shop is a hive of activity, with Kay and her volunteer colleague, Rose Bairstow, serving a steady stream of customers at the counter.

While Kay serves a mum with three children, Rose deals with a teenage boy, who’s come in the hope of kitting out his little brother – a new pupil at one of the town’s primary schools.

He leaves with a grateful smile and a large bag, packed with trousers, polo shirt, jumper, reversible fleece and waterproof jacket, hoodie, and trainers. 

He’s also given one of  a large number of pencil-cases recently donated by engineering company, Cummins.

“Local businesses are very supportive,” says Kay, who is one of 12 volunteers at the uniform shop.

Wellies, walking boots, back-packs, water bottles, revision books, and colouring books are also on offer, along with warm coats during the winter months. 

Kay spends at least a day a week at The School Uniform Exchange, but it’s often two or three days, depending on demand.

“Sometimes, we get parents, or grandparents, turning up who don’t know which way to turn because there’s been a breakdown in the family unit and they’ve been left to cope with children.

“I remember one single mum turning up in tears and saying she felt ashamed, but we told her there’s absolutely nothing to be ashamed of.

“We also get refugees, who’ve had to leave their homes, perhaps because  of a war in their own country. Their stories are really moving and it’s so rewarding to be able to help them. It doesn’t matter who comes, we’ll always do our best to help.” 

But while The School Uniform Exchange often has to deal with hardship, volunteering with the service also has its lighter side – like the time a man arrived with his son, who’d lost his school jumper.

Hours earlier, by happy coincidence,  the same school had donated a pile of unclaimed items from its lost property box – including a washed and ironed jumper with the boy’s name tag sewn into it!

“They went home smiling – and that’s all we ever ask for,” says Kay as she moves on to another customer.

By OLIVIA CHRISTIE, NEWS REPORTER

Published: 09:07 BST, 22 August 2026 | Updated: 09:18 BST, 22 August 2026

The 74-year-old has lived in the same social housing in Little Hulton for 40 years, and in that time has spent thousands to turn the place into a real home. But for the past two years, it’s felt like anything but. 

That’s because almost every night since early 2024, she’s heard ‘scratching and scraping’ inside her walls, she says. Behind the wallpapers and galleries of family photos, she’s convinced rats have the run of the home’s infrastructure. 

Her housing association, ForHousing, say they’ve found ‘no evidence’ of rats during several call-outs in the last few years.

The LDRS has heard recordings of the sounds taken by Christine and her neighbours in July, along with footage of the rats caught just outside their homes. 

“I’m frightened to death with it,” she said. “When it happens, I can’t sleep; I just hear this horrible scratching and scuffling sound for hours on end. It makes my skin crawl. 

“When it first started happening, I’d go and stay with my sister. It was wrong, because she was dealing with health issues herself, but I was just terrified.

“Now I’m just exhausted. It’s making me ill. I just can’t stand it anymore.” 

Her GPs have raised concerns about the impact it’s having on her health over the past two years.

Several doctor’s notes state the issue is ‘clearly exacerbating’ her stress and anxiety, as well as her physical wellbeing, and have recommended the pensioner be rehoused.  

Christine and her brother Michael, who visits her regularly, believe the rats come from the alleyway behind the row of terraced houses. A narrow path with trees and vegetation is a frequent fly-tipping hotspot, which the pair believe is attracting the pests. 

“We think they come in from outside, but they’re getting inside the walls somehow,” Christine said. “It’s worst when I have the heating on. They go mad, you can hear them scurrying and writhing. I’m dreading the winter; I really don’t know what I’ll do.”

Christine says she’s had conflicting information from building management and pest control, with some saying there were signs of disturbances on rat poison, while others disagreed.

She’s frustrated and feels her concerns aren’t being taken seriously – but ForHousing say they are working with her to figure out the problem. 

Martyn Hague, Executive Director of Customer at ForHousing, said: “We’re really sorry that this has been a frustrating and worrying experience for Christine. Over the last three years, we’ve visited her home multiple times to investigate reports of pest activity but we haven’t ever found evidence of an active infestation.

 “We’ve worked with the council and various specialist contractors to carry out treatments including bait traps, tracking powder, lifting the floorboards and installing wire meshing to seal potential gaps where pests might enter the home, and have kept in regular contact with Christine throughout.

 “After new reports of potential pests in her home this year, we arranged for a pest control company to carry out a further seven inspections. So far, they haven’t found any evidence of an active infestation. We are staying in regular contact with Christine to provide reassurance, are discussing her housing options with her, and we will continue to support her.”

The new facility would also become the new training ground for Rochdale AFC, if plans are approved

A giant new sports complex could be built on the edge of Bury and Rochdale.

The 10.7 hectare site is already home to the Bowlee Community Hub. But new plans would see that replaced by a brand new pavilion and new sports pitches, a play area and a 50-space car park.

The new complex of Heywood Old Road would also become the new training facility for Rochdale AFC, who have recently been promoted to League 2 of the English Football League.

The Dale would get a clubhouse as their base opposite the new pavilion as part of the plans. The revamped community building would include a community room with a kitchen, as well as a fitness suite; four team changing rooms; and two smaller changing rooms for match officials.

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The current facilities do a good job to support the community as it is home to a number of different sports clubs. However, the pitches suffer from water logging and the changing spaces are outdated, according to planning papers.

This proposal would improve the offer for local sports teams through significant investment in facilities, infrastructure and supporting community provision. The scheme has been devised by Rochdale council and Rochdale AFC (RAFC) to create a new Football and Community Wellbeing Hub in Bowlee, Middleton.

The idea would also allow youngsters to watch the professional team training just opposite them. It is hoped that such close proximity to elite level athletes could inspire the next generation’s Paul Scholes or Keira Walsh, who both grew up in the local area.

These proposals have been developed collaboratively with input from Rochdale Borough Council, Rochdale AFC, Your Trust, the Football Foundation, Sport England, Lancashire County Football Association and Lancashire County Cricket Club.

The new sports complex would also connect to Bowlee Community Park via a number of footpaths and cycle routes, according to planning papers. Not only is the site close to the residential community at Langley, but it will be right next to the proposed 1,550-home housing scheme.

If approved, all these homes would be delivered over several years and split into three parts – north, south and east, bisected by Heywood Old Road (the A6045). The southern parcel is expected to deliver around 800 homes, with 550 in the north and 200 in the east.

This proposal, separate from the sports complex, would also include a local centre with a primary school, shops and health facilities. This housing scheme, called Simister Bowlee, forms part of a wider plan for the region – called the Northern Gateway.

The Northern Gateway looks to build around 7,000 homes; create 20,000 new jobs; improve road and transport infrastructure; and bring trams to Middleton.

A man in his 60s has been arrested after a suspected rape on a nature path near Bournemouth beachfront.

Detectives continue to probe a suspected rape in the Boscombe area of Bournemouth after reports of an attack on Wednesday evening.

It unfolded after a woman, in her 40s, and a man had met on Woodland Walk that evening.

Dorset Police said it received a report of the rape at 12.16am on Thursday night, and that the attack occurred around three hours earlier.

Now a man, in his 60s from Bournemouth, has been arrested on suspicion of rape, the force confirmed.

Detective Inspector Edmund Murray said: ‘We are continuing to support the victim and have updated her of the latest development.

‘An investigation was launched and we have now made an arrest as we continue to investigate what happened.

‘I am appealing to anyone who may have seen any suspicious activity in the area that may assist our enquiries to please get in touch.

‘Our local neighbourhood policing team will be patrolling the area and can be approached by anyone who has concerns or wants to provide information.’

Woodland Walk, a hiking path connecting the major Christchurch Road and the Boscombe cliffs, was cordoned off during the scene investigation.

Residents said the suspected attack left them concerned.

Kirsty, 50, told the Bournemouth Echo: ‘Woodland Walk has increasingly become a very unsavoury area for anyone to be on their own but especially for women.

‘I have not felt safe in Boscombe for many years and increasingly in the surrounding areas.’

She urged the council, police and local MPs to work on efforts for better protections in areas where anti-social behaviour has been reported.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.

Tottenham Hotspur have caught the attention of the rest of the Premier League with their lavish outlay this summer and travel across London to Brentford to kick off their campaign.

Spurs will field some new faces, including Marcos Senesi, Jan Paul van Hecke, Andy Robertson, Sandro Tonali and Mateus Fernandes, while their spending is rocketing towards £400m after agreeing a deal to sign Savinho for £85m and the Brazilian’s Man City teammate Omar Marmoush is also a target.

The Bees are settled under Keith Andrews and could kick on again this season after a fine ninth place finish last term.

The evening kick-off on Saturday brings plenty of intrigue with this London derby ready to deliver entertainment during the opening weekend.

Here’s everything you need to know about the match and how to follow:

When is Brentford v Tottenham?

Brentford host Tottenham at the Gtech Community Stadium on Saturday 22 August, with kick-off at 5:30pm BST.

How can I watch it?

Viewers in the UK can watch the match on Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Premier League. If you’re not a Sky customer, you can grab a NOWTV Day Pass here to watch without a subscription. Coverage starts at 5:30pm.

Team news

Sepp van den Berg and Antoni Milambo are out, but otherwise Andrews has a fully fit squad.

Jaidon Anthony, Callum Wilson and international Mamadou Sangare could all make their debuts.

Micky van de Ven and Pedro Porro are out, while Pape Matar Sarr (hamstring) will not be risked either.

New signings Marcos Senesi, Jan Paul van Hecke and Andrew Robertson could all make their debuts.

Xavi Simons (ACL), Wilson Odobert (knee), Dejan Kulusevski (knee) and Mohammed Kudus (thigh) are all out, while Dominic Solanke, Mateus Fernandes and James Maddison are all in contention.

Predicted line-ups

Brentford predicted XI: Kelleher; Kayode, Ajer, Collins, Lewis-Potter; Sangare, Janelt; Ouattara, Jensen, Schade; Thiago

Tottenham predicted XI: Kinsky; Gray, Senesi, Van Hecke, Robertson; Tonali, Fernandes; Moore, Gallagher, Tel; Richarlison

For many of us, misplacing our keys or our phone is an everyday occurrence. We would not think twice about it. But for one Welsh mum, finding herself unable to remember where she has put something brings a gut-wrenching feeling – the fear that an incurable illness has begun its slow process of taking her life.

Joanne Harrigan, 45, a mother and grandmother lives with the knowledge that one day an incurable illness will take over her life, and she will forget her most favourite memories and the people she loves most.

The disease slowly damages brain cells over many years, and this damage spreads to areas that control basic body functions like swallowing, movement, and the immune system, leading to fatal medical complications.

Joanne was told as a young mother that she carries a gene, passed down from her mother, which guarantees that she will develop early Alzheimer’s disease.

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