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An outline planning application has been submitted to build up to 138 homes in a Cambridgeshire village

Plans to build up to 138 homes in Hardwick have faced backlash from people living near the proposed development site. Neighbours have shared concerns that the new homes would cause “irreversible harm” to the village and its community.

The homes are proposed to be built on land south of St Neots Road in Hardwick. Of the 138 homes, 40% are proposed to be made available as affordable housing. The proposals also seek to develop a new site access, internal access roads, parking, drainage, and public open space.

Developer Pigeon said its proposals would aim to create an “inclusive community through the provision of a variety of tenures and dwelling types to suit all stages of life” and a “sustainable movement strategy where walking and cycling opportunities are integrated into the heart of the development”.

The planning statement says: “The proposals provide for a high-quality, landscape design-led, sustainable scheme including the provision of up to 138 new homes, comprising both market and affordable homes, along with public open space, biodiversity enhancements and associated infrastructure.”

The outline planning application has seen local backlash, with more than 15 objections lodged so far. One objector said: “The A428 junctions are already under pressure, and additional traffic will worsen queueing and accident risk. The proposal does not demonstrate that the increase in traffic, altered flow and the effect on junction function have no adverse impact on safety and capacity.”

The objector also highlighted that Hardwick is a rural village with a “distinct character defined by open green spaces, low-density housing, and a strong sense of community”. They added: “The proposed development is overdevelopment, inconsistent with the village’s scale and form, and it erodes the rural setting and landscape character, and does not respect local character or protect the countryside.

“The proposal would fundamentally alter the village’s identity.” They said “the application should be refused” because it would “result in significant and irreversible harm to the village and its community”.

Another concerned resident said that the proposed access road into the new development would create an “increase in vehicular traffic”. They said this would “cause congestion” and “more importantly at the junction of the road joining the main curved road to the road-about”.

A similar concern was raised by another objector. They said that the western roundabouts, which serve as a key access point for Hardwick and nearby villages via St Neots Road, “already experience substantial congestion, particularly during peak commuting hours”.

They said the development would “introduce a significant increase in vehicle movements onto a road network that already appears close to capacity”. They added that local services “already appear to be under considerable pressure” and up to 138 homes could “significantly increase demand on already stretched services without clear evidence that the necessary supporting infrastructure improvements will be delivered”.

Hardwick itself does not have a GP surgery. Residents use nearby surgeries including in Comberton and Bourn.

Harry Styles’ tour team have said that they are reviewing staging at the singer’s world arena tour following complaints that fans were unable to see the pop star during much of his set.

The “Watermelon Sugar” singer kicked off his Together, Together tour in Amsterdam on Saturday (16 May), with the show’s stage featuring a giant square of walkways allowing Styles to move closer to audiences in different parts of the arena.

But following the show, a number of fans – including those who had played for premium tickets – took to social media to complain that the raised bridges in the walkways had prevented them from seeing the main stage.

“I’m sorry but wtf is this??? I’m at the barricade and I can’t even see the main stage anymore????? I want my money back. This is not okay,” one fan wrote on X.

On Wednesday (20 May), official representatives responded to the backlash, saying: “A small area of the staging in specific floor positions appears to have had a restricted sightline.

“Those areas are being reviewed carefully and adjusted where possible in compliance with all safety restrictions.”

The officials said that the layout was meant to encourage a “free-flowing floor experience” in keeping with the dancefloor theme of Styles’s latest album Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally, rather than a fixed viewing angle.

However, many fans of the former One Direction star – who kicks off a 12-show residency in London’s Wembley Arena in June – will join the queue for the concert hours, if not days, early with the sole intention of getting as close to the stage as possible.

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These were the fans who shared the most disappointment on social media, with one claiming that the “massive” stage meant she “sometimes didn’t see Harry for a whole song”.

“Barricade is not worth it. Do not bother queueing. This was the back of GA (general admission) left and we couldn’t see him for 20+ minutes, I can only imagine how much people at the front missed,” wrote another.

”The bridges are massively obstructing, especially when he spends so much time in the middle. Seats will have the best view without a doubt, then the rear two pits.”

It’s unclear when any changes, if they are made, be made to the staging. Styles has eight more shows to play at Amsterdam’s Johan Cruyff Arena before his first show at Wembley on 12 June. He’ll then travel to São Paulo, Mexico City, New York, Melbourne and Sydney for the remainder of the rout, which wraps in December.

Figures released by Police Scotland under Freedom of Information show that more than 700,000 officer days off have been cancelled in the last six years.

Thousands of frontline cops had their days off cancelled last year as Police Scotland battled to cope with a rising ride of crime and disorder including a violent gangland feud.

Shock figures released by the force show that 120,148 ‘rest days’ were scrubbed last year – compared to 110,842 in 2024 – with the hard pressed officers being ordered back on duty.

The police spent much of last year tackling gangland violence across Scotland linked to a long running feud between the Glasgow based Daniel and Lyons crime families.

Their response codenamed Operation Portaledge has already resulted in more than 60 arrests and a large number of people being sentenced to length jail terms.

There was a sharp rise in the numbers of police officers days off cancelled in March last year after the violence first broke out in Edinburgh and then spread to Glasgow.

In that month 10,457 rest days were scrubbed compared to 7.825 in February.

The Scottish Police Federation (SPF) said the routine cancellation of days off is leaving cops at breaking point and a massive backlog of officers waiting for the time back.

SPF General Secretary David Kennedy added:” These figures lay bare the relentless and unsustainable pressure being placed on police officers across Scotland,

“What is particularly concerning is the scale and consistency of the demand. “These cancellations are not isolated to major events or emergencies, they are embedded within the day-to-day running of policing.

“Policing cannot continue to function on the erosion of officers’ welfare. Rest days exist for a reason. They are a critical safeguard for both officer wellbeing and public safety.

“Fatigued officers are not only at risk themselves, but cannot perform at the level the public rightly expects. These figures must serve as a wake-up call.”

Operation Portaledge was launched to investigate a series of machete attacks and firebombings targeting associates and members of the Daniel family.

The feud reignited after underworld figure Ross McGill, who has links to the Lyons family, was allegedly ripped off when a £500,000 cocaine deal was paid for with fake notes.

McGill, a former leader of the Rangers fans group the Union Bears, has blamed a crew member of Edinburgh cocaine baron Mark Richardson, who has links to the Daniel family.

Last years figures, released under Freedom of Information (FOI), show that police officers had their days off cancelled at an average of 2310 a week. In the first two months of this year 15,605 were cancelled.

A total of 400 days off were cancelled last Saturday to police the Celtic fan SPL title celebrations in Glasgow’s Trongate where there was large scale disorder and ten arrests.

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Mr Kennedy added;”Our members are committed, professional, and continue to go above and beyond. But policing cannot continue to rely on sacrifice alone.

“Enough is enough – this level of demand is not sustainable, and without meaningful intervention, the long-term resilience of the service is at real risk.”

Thousands of days also off had to be cancelled last July and August for the visits to Scotland of Donald Trump and Vice President Vance.

The same FOI figures show that 704,019 days were scrubbed between January 2020 and the end of February this year.

A quarter of all cancellations were to allow officers to attend court, even though only a small percentage end up giving evidence. The most cancelled days off were in Glasgow with 115,153 since 2020.

Police Scotland’s Deputy Chief Constable Alan Speirs said: “The Chief Constable has been clear that our priority is to strengthen and modernise our frontline to deliver efficient and effective policing.

“Officers and staff work hard to deliver for communities and keep people safe, and our workforce is under pressure from increased threats and a rapidly intensifying operational environment, which is why we have taken steps to ensure we can deploy officers from across the force more flexibly to meet those threats and demands.

“Work is also progressing to reduce the impact policing of events is having on officers and reducing the disruption to their rest days.”

” There is more to be done and Police Scotland will continue to drive improvements in this area.”

Since Police Scotland was formed in 2013, the number of officers has dropped by more than 1000 from 17,496 to around 16,416.

Chief Supt Rob Hay, President of the Association of Scottish Police Superintendents says senior officers at his rank are also having their days off cancelled on a regular basis.

He added: “It is not unusual for Superintendents to be owed 4 weeks’ worth of rest days, one colleagues was owed 10 weeks at one point last year.

“These numbers are symptomatic not only of rising demand but of the impact of falling police numbers across all ranks.”

A women’s football match between teams from North and South Korea marked the first time athletes from the North have crossed the border since 2018.

Naegohyang won 2-1 in their semi-final against South Korea’s Suwon, earning them a place in the Asian Women’s Champions League final.

The North Korean team will face Japan’s Tokyo Verdy Beleza during the final on Saturday at the same stadium. Within hours of going on sale, more than 7,000 tickets for the rare North-South semi-final at Suwon Sports Complex sold out.

But with relations between the two countries in a deep freeze, BBC Seoul Correspondent Jake Kwon looks at whether a football match could spark renewed diplomatic efforts.

FLORENCE, Ariz. (AP) — An Arizona prisoner convicted of killing another man by throwing gasoline at him and lighting a match was put to death Wednesday, the first of three executions planned this week around the U.S.

Leroy Dean McGill, 63, was pronounced dead at 10:26 a.m. PDT following a lethal injection at the Arizona State Prison Complex in Florence. McGill was convicted of murder in the death of Charles Perez, who was attacked with his girlfriend in a north Phoenix apartment on July 13, 2002.

It was the first lethal injection carried out this year in Arizona, and McGill didn’t appear to be resisting at any point during the procedure. After a lethal dose of pentobarbital began flowing, he began breathing heavily and made a snoring sound. And, about 21 minutes after the IV insertion process began, he was pronounced dead.

While the state was criticized for having difficulty in inserting IV lines during executions in 2022, it took just one attempt on each of McGill’s arms to successfully insert IVs.

“Today’s process went according to plan,” said John Barcello, deputy director of the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry. Barcello quoted McGill’s last words as: “I just want to thank everyone for being so accommodating and nice.”

Before the injection began, McGill looked at the witnesses, smiled and nodded. Media witness Josh Kelety from The Associated Press said he heard McGill at one point say: “I’m going home soon.”

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, whose office pressed for the execution to be carried out, said her thoughts were with the victims.

Media witness Sean Rice from Phoenix television station KPN said the execution was carried out smoothly.

“I didn’t see any issue at all finding a vein on either arm,” he said. Rice said he also observed a slight twitching on the right side of McGill’s head about four minutes before the inmate was pronounced dead.

Authorities said that in 2002 McGill threw gasoline at Perez and Perez’s girlfriend, Nova Banta, as they sat on a sofa in the apartment, setting them on fire. Perez and Banta had accused McGill of stealing a gun from the apartment before the attack. At the time, McGill was using methamphetamine and hadn’t slept in several days.

Banta survived, but Perez died.

Twelve people have been executed so far this year in the United States. Tennessee and Florida each are scheduled to carry out an execution Thursday.

At the Arizona trial, Banta testified that McGill had told her and Perez not to talk behind people’s backs. Before they could respond, McGill lit them on fire, authorities said.

Perez and Banta ran out of the apartment. Another man who lived in the apartment used a blanket to put out the flames on Banta, who suffered third-degree burns over three-quarters of her body. Perez died later at a hospital in extreme pain, prosecutors said.

Banta identified McGill as the attacker at trial.

Jurors deliberated for less than an hour before convicting McGill of murder in Perez’s death in October 2004. He also was convicted of attempted murder for attacking Banta, arson and endangerment of people who escaped without injuries when the fire forced them to flee the apartment and a nearby unit where flames spread.

McGill’s lawyers had argued for leniency by presenting evidence about abuse he suffered as a child as well as mental impairment and psychological immaturity. The jury ultimately returned the death sentence.

This spring, McGill’s lawyers made a last-ditch bid to get him resentenced, but a lower-court judge rejected it. The Arizona Supreme Court also declined a request from McGill’s lawyers to postpone the execution.

McGill, who declined an interview request from The Associated Press, waived his right to seek clemency.

Arizona last applied the death penalty in 2025, executing Richard Kenneth Djerf for the 1993 killings of four members of a Phoenix family and Aaron Gunches for the 2002 fatal shooting of his girlfriend’s ex-husband.

The state carried out three executions in 2022 following a nearly eight-year hiatus brought on by difficulties obtaining execution drugs and by criticism that a 2014 execution was botched. In that 2014 execution, Joseph Wood was injected with 15 doses of a two-drug combination over two hours, leading him to snort repeatedly and gasp hundreds of times before he died.

The state’s current execution protocol calls for administering two syringes of pentobarbital, a powerful sedative.

With McGill’s death, Arizona now has 108 prisoners on death row. ___ Billeaud reported from Phoenix.

Katie Price shared a series of cryptic late-night posts on Instagram amid the ongoing disappearance of her husband Lee Andrews, who has been formally reported missing to the UK Government.

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Katie Price has taken to social media to share a series of late-night posts, fuelling speculation over whether her cryptic messages are linked to the disappearance of her husband Lee Andrews.

The Dubai-based businessman vanished last week, leaving former glamour model Katie, 47, and her husband’s family frantically searching for him.

In the early hours of Thursday (May 21), Katie posted to Instagram, sharing three seemingly pointed messages with her followers.

The first image read: “I’M NOT OVERWHELMED BECAUSE I CAN’T HANDLE IT. I’M OVERWHELMED BECAUSE I DO HANDLE IT. ALL. OF. IT.”

It continued: “ALL. THE. F***ING. TIME.”

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Her second post was the one that really set tongues waggig, featuring the quote: “Sometimes you just have to accept the situation and say, it’s okay, it happens, it’s life”.

Her third and final shared message read: “Focus on yourself, because nothing is more powerful than a woman who knows her worth, chases her goals, and dares to dream big.”

The trio of late-night posts were uploaded via her Instagram stories, meaning followers were unable to comment publicly. Yet, given Katie’s previous social media activity surrounding her husband’s shocking disappearance, it is clear that the public is still very much in the dark about what is actually going on.

Katie last had contact with the 43-year-old Dubai-based businessman on Wednesday evening. She sounded the alarm the following day. “Lee was trying to get through the boarder at Hatta, this is so discombobulating, his location went off at 10.03pm on Wednesday night, that’s the last contact anyone has had – his family and myself. This is the third day now,” she said at the time.

In the wake of Lee’s kidnapping claims, a number of experts and insiders have voiced doubt about his version of events. Yet despite the apparent communication blackout during the supposed abduction, it has emerged that Lee has been using his mobile phone — just not to contact Katie.

Lee’s kidnapping ordeal has raised further questions for one seasoned investigator, with certain elements of his account failing to add up for investigative journalist Mark Williams-Thomas. Mark is well known for his expert analysis of some of Britain’s most prominent missing persons cases, including the tragic deaths of Jay Slater and Nicola Bulley.

He has now shared his thoughts on the unfolding situation, and the expert investigator appears far from convinced by several elements of Lee’s story. He said: ” Katie Price says she spoke to him on Wednesday, and shortly after 10 o’clock he was in the back of a van. He says they’re coming back.

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“He had a hood over his head, his hands were tied, not by handcuffs, but he had managed to make a FaceTime call to her and didn’t tell her to phone the police. And he himself didn’t phone the police and didn’t give any more information.

“And since then, apparently his phone has gone dead, although he has, or someone has, managed to go onto his social media and delete some informational posts that are on there. So that’s slightly strange, isn’t it?”

Mark raised concerns over whether the alleged abduction had been reported to the authorities and what action was being taken. “Has this matter been reported to Dubai police? And in which case, given the information that Katie Price is saying, they’d be treating it as really serious, wouldn’t they? If it’s a potential kidnap,” he added.

Mark also accused Lee of “playing some ridiculous game” and suspects the situation is far more straightforward than an abduction. Speaking on TikTok, the investigative journalist said: “Well, has he been abducted? What’s the story behind it?

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“The newspaper says that he’s not being kidnapped, he’s in hiding, he’s ghosting Katie Price and has been doing so for the past six days. It’s got to a situation now whereby, you know, I don’t think anyone believes Lee Andrews has been abducted or kidnapped in any way at all.

“He’s obviously playing some ridiculous game, but it’s attracted the media, and it will no doubt unfold more over the forthcoming days. Clearly this is a man who’s got some serious issues.”

Lee’s whereabouts remain unknown. He has also been officially registered as missing by the UK Government, with the Foreign Office confirming it is offering support to his family after a missing persons report was lodged.

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Today, the government announced a watering down of Russian oil sanctions as fuel prices rise from Iran war.

Adam is joined by Chris and Faisal to discuss that, as well as the cut in fuel duty and Wes Streeting’s resignation speech in the House of Commons.

And Emma Pinchbeck, CEO of the Climate Change Committee, speaks to Adam about a new report on climate adaptation in the UK.

You can now listen to Newscast on a smart speaker. If you want to listen, just say “Ask BBC Sounds to play Newscast”. It works on most smart speakers.

You can join our Newscast online community here: https://bbc.in/newscastdiscord

Get in touch with Newscast by emailing newscast@bbc.co.uk or send us a WhatsApp on +44 0330 123 9480.

New episodes released every day. If you’re in the UK, for more News and Current Affairs podcasts from the BBC, listen on BBC Sounds: https://bbc.in/4guXgXd

Newscast brings you daily analysis of the latest political news stories from the BBC. The presenter was Adam Fleming. It was made by Chris Gray with Gabriel Purcell-Davis and Shiler Mahmoudi. The social producer was Joe Wilkinson. The technical producer was Mike Regaard. The assistant editor is Chris Gray. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.

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Earlier this week, England’s World Cup preparations were dealt a blow with captain Nat Sciver-Brunt’s calf injury ruling her out of this series and the following three matches against India.

They have been guilty of relying too much on Sciver-Brunt’s batting brilliance in recent years, which will add an element of added pleasure for Charlotte Edwards as she watched two 21-year-olds put together a mature, match-winning stand.

Capsey, who usually bats at number three, was opening for the first time for England in this format but stepped up seamlessly as Wyatt-Hodge awaits the birth of her child.

She played to her strengths by dismantling New Zealand’s pace attack flawlessly, including back-to-back sixes off Jess Kerr in the 15th over, while calmly negotiating the spinners with singles.

Though it remains unclear who will make way in the side when Sciver-Brunt and Wyatt-Hodge return, World Cup winner Alex Hartley says England must find a way to keep Capsey in.

“I think she is in England’s best XI, the way she’s adapted her game,” Hartley said on BBC Test Match Special.

“When she came onto the scene as a 16-year-old she set the world alight, we all knew the talent that she had then. She had a little bit of a dip in form, she was on TV more and players started to to work her out.

“But she’s adapted her game, she was brilliant in the 50-over World Cup and she got England out of a lot of trouble a number of times.”

Capsey believes her game has improved since she had the opportunity to spend time working on her skills, away from the pressures of playing.

“That three-month block at the beginning of the year was amazing, just to get some proper skills development, which I’ve probably not had for the last couple of years,” said Capsey.

“I’ve worked on quite a few different areas of my game, I feel really comfortable at the crease, really calm – I think it showed today, I think I was two off eight, and just that composure to know I can catch up and really believe that as well.”

After fellow opener Sophia Dunkley skied a catch for eight and Maia Bouchier was cleaned up by Bree Illing, Capsey added 43 with former captain Knight before Kemp injected some late energy into the chase with her 20-ball knock as the threat of rain loomed.

With the ball, the roles of England’s attack is clear. Bell continues to shine in her leadership role while Smith dominated the powerplay, claiming the key scalp of skipper Melie Kerr, who was caught at mid-off which may have contributed to the rest of the batters’ timid approach to the spinner.

However, Ecclestone was also targeted by New Zealand in the third ODI at Cardiff which could be a trend used by opposition sides at the World Cup.

Devine was immediately on the attack with those three massive leg-side blows, but the return of Gibson and Kemp to bowling after their respective back injuries ticks off another key part of Edwards’ puzzle.