Instead, Harrogate Town Council will pay about £5,000 for a new chain that can be worn by the mayor without fear of it being stolen.

The decision has been taken after the council got the original civic chain, which was previously owned by Harrogate Borough Council and dates back to 1894, valued.

Civic leaders have not released the value of the chain but have revealed it is worth a six-figure sum.

The decision to buy a cheaper chain was taken at a town council meeting on Wednesday.

The current Mayor of Harrogate, Councillor Chris Aldred, said after the meeting: “The chain was created at a time when they were establishing a council for Harrogate, and there were very rich people doing it who helped them to do it in a certain way.

Mayor of Harrogate, Councillor Chris Aldred, wearing the valuable chain.

“I can’t tell you the exact figure of what it is worth, obviously, but it is six figures and it’s towards the top of that six-figure range.”

Cllr Aldred said the council had been told it would cost about £12,000 to insure the chain if it was used regularly for civic events.

He added: “The quotes we got to use it on a daily basis were very high.

“We’d also maybe have to look at having some kind of additional security, so when the mayor goes out, they’d go out with a bodyguard.

“That’s not something we really wanted to get into as it would be quite extensive, so we took a decision that the actual mayor of Harrogate’s chain would have a very limited usage, of around two days a year — the mayor making ceremony and Remembrance Day, when there will be enough soldiers with guns around to stop anyone making a grab for it.”

Cllr Aldred said the council planned to put the original chain on display in the future.

He said the new chain would cost about £140 a year to insure.

After the meeting, North Yorkshire councillor for the Ouseburn division, Arnold Warneken, questioned whether a new mayoral chain was needed when the authority had mayoral robes.

“Is it in the interests of the people the town council represents to spend more than £5,000 on a mayoral chain?

“There are people who could really benefit from that money – it should go to people who need it.

“It’s progress that the council voted to put them on display, but is now perhaps the time, given the cost of living crisis and the fact that some of our community are struggling, to consider selling at least some of the family jewels?”

Rice is a cheap and versatile side dish, but it can be bland if not prepared properly. You can easily elevate it with one common ingredient instead of water

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Rice is an economical and versatile accompaniment that complements numerous meals, yet regrettably, it can prove dull and flavourless if not prepared correctly. Andrea Vaughan, founder of Homemade for Elle, has shared that the secret to transforming rice into something remarkably delicious is to cook it in chicken stock rather than plain water.

She said: “If you happen to love salty, bold, and vibrant flavours, I have a little secret to share with you. Instead of boiling your rice in water, try cooking rice with chicken broth.”

This everyday kitchen staple enriches rice with deeper flavours, as it contains additional herbs and spices, rendering it far more pleasurable and fulfilling to consume.

Beyond enhancing the flavour, chicken broth can also provide a modest nutritional advantage as it delivers protein, vitamins and minerals.

This represents a swift and straightforward method to introduce greater complexity to your rice without investing extra time in the kitchen or additional expense, reports the Express.

Should you follow a vegetarian diet or prefer not to incorporate meat into your meals, there’s no cause for concern, as you can readily employ this cooking method using vegetable broth as an alternative.

How to enhance rice flavour with chicken broth

• Place the rice in a pot of cold water, but on this occasion, add a stock cube or some broth alongside it. Bring the broth to the boil, then stir the rice thoroughly to prevent it from clumping together.
• Cover the pan and lower the heat to a gentle simmer, then allow the rice to soften.
• Be sure to follow the packet guidelines for timing, though it should take approximately 15 to 20 minutes.

It truly is that straightforward to transform rice into a far more appealing dish.

You can also incorporate butter and other taste-boosting ingredients, such as crushed garlic or rosemary, into the water.

Including a touch of butter makes rice creamier and enhances its consistency, as it envelops the grains with cooking fat, which contributes to a much lighter, fluffier result.

That said, you can be as creative as you like with additional ingredients, but substituting broth for ordinary water will ensure that rice becomes a more delicious dish each time you prepare it.

Andrea said: “The chicken broth will leave your rice moist, salty, and for such a simple substitution. Your friends and family will be wondering how you made such tasty rice!”

The Netflix period drama has proved a huge hit with audiences since its arrival last month.

Bridgerton season four is captivating audiences after Netflix dropped part two recently and sent the Regency period drama soaring back to the top of the Netflix charts globally, with a whopping 28 million viewers devouring the new episodes. The new series has been adapted from American author Julia Quinn’s third Bridgerton novel, An Offer from a Gentleman, and focuses on second son Benedict Bridgerton (played by Luke Thompson) and his scandalous romance with illegitimate maid Sophie Baek (Yerin Ha).

The new series has all the pop instrumental covers, sumptuous costumes and steamy scenes we’ve come to expect from Bridgerton, however, I’ve got one big gripe: it’s too perfect. Have we finally hit peak Bridgerton? Is it going to be downhill from here on out? The stakes in season four’s love story are far higher than any that have come before it.

Daphne (Phoebe Dynevor) and Simon Basset’s (Regé-Jean Page) romance was a poignant one, given the Duke of Hastings’ tragic childhood, but it didn’t have the same gravitas as the cross-class affair between Benedict and Sophie. Meanwhile, Kate Sharma (Simone Ashley) and Anthony Bridgerton’s (Jonathan Bailey) enemies-to-lovers tale simmered with chemistry, but there wasn’t the heightened sense that their romance could be ripped apart at any point.

Similarly, Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan) and Colin Bridgerton’s (Luke Newton) friends-to-lovers romance lacked the same intensity. Even if the pair hadn’t made it down the aisle, she might have happily gone off into the sunset with Lord Debling (Sam Phillips) and continued to write Lady Whistledown in secret while becoming even richer.

But Sophie and Benedict are battling with the rigid rules of society and risk becoming outcasts for the sake of their love for one another. There’s something far more weighty and real-world about their romance that makes the previous central Bridgerton couples pale in comparison. Their love is far more intense, fragile and precious because of the obstacles they face.

Added into this, the upstairs/downstairs element breathed new life into the show with a diverse group of characters with very different struggles – there’s a reason fellow period drama phenomenon Downton Abbey is still captivating audiences to this day.

However, Bridgerton is likely to be moving away from this upstairs/downstairs angle as the lens turns to either Eloise Bridgerton (Claudia Jessie) and her romance with Sir Phillip Crane (Chris Fulton) or Francesca Bridgerton (Hannah Dodd) and her love story with Michaela Stirling (Masali Baduza).

Both of these stories very much place the focus back on privileged members of the ton and their struggles albeit with much lower stakes.

I fear this may create a void and we may lose a richness that this brought to Bridgerton.

With season five in the works, my hopes for the future of Bridgerton is that they continue to up the stakes for its characters and make us really root for the central couple in a way we hadn’t done before season four.

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This year Bridgerton also brought the grit with its first major death. For the first time in the show, audiences were shown a harsher and sombre side to the period drama.

This loss had a profound impact on each member of the Bridgerton clan in different ways, with Eloise reconsidering her decision to be left on the shelf, while Hyacinth Bridgerton (Florence Hunt) was left feeling the opposite.

She became uncertain over marriage after witnessing the tremendous heartbreak Francesca and her mother Violet Bridgerton (Ruth Gemmell) went through.

The consequences of the death was a masterstroke of genius by the writers and it felt like they had really upped their game for season four.

There’s plenty of grit in Eloise’s novel To Sir Phillip, With Love – which will form the basis of season five or six – involving grief and mental health, so I hope these will be tackled with the weight and sensitivity they deserve.

Francesca and Michaela’s romance will be another one to see play out on screen, particularly since Netflix has gender-swapped Michael Stuhlbargh for Michaela.

How Bridgerton takes on its first same-sex romance will be intriguing, given the amount of scandal Sophie and Benedict’s union nearly caused due to her lowly birthright. Perhaps Francesca and Michaela, too, will face similar challenges.

It’ll be a testament to Bridgerton showrunner Jess Brownell and her writers’ room as to whether they can sustain this high level of storytelling and break new ground with Quinn’s source material. They’ve certainly set the bar high.

Can anything top season four? This author awaits with bated breath.

Bridgerton season 4 is streaming on Netflix now

“Utility businesses are coming into the city and digging up where they need to and just filling in a hole when they leave.”

A Co Down councillor has dropped “the F word” over concerns about utility companies leaving Lisburn pathways in a poor state.

Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council’s regeneration and growth committee heard a Stormont department was now been engaged over the matter.

Companies digging up the streets to install cables and other materials have been criticised on claims of damaging the public realm with a “fill a hole” attitude.

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Downshire East DUP councillor Uel Mackin said:”I am going to drop the F word and what I mean is about footpaths in Lisburn

“Utility businesses are coming into the city and digging up where they need to and just filling in a hole when they leave. The public realm of the city is suppose to be an attraction to visitors and shoppers and they should be in a good condition.

“Something that we worked on with a good deal of pain to have a good public realm in Lisburn.

“The utility companies are now at it again on Bridge Street. Is there anything as a council we can do about this?”

A council officer responded: “We are in contact with the Department for Infrastructure.

“The difficulty is that there is an adopted area of the footpaths. I would say that it is not just utility companies, but HGV lorries coming in and off loading with the area left in a poor state.

“We will contact DfI again about this.”

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Bryonie Gawith, 29, and her children Denisty Birtle, nine, Oscar Birtle, five and 22-month-old Aubree Birtle, perished in the fire that was deliberately started by her sister’s jealous ex

A mother and her children faced several terrifying hours before they died in a blaze that tore through their family home. Bryonie Gawith, 29, and her children Denisty Birtle, nine, Oscar Birtle, five and 22-month-old Aubree Birtle, perished in the fire in Bradford in the early hours of August 21, 2025.

Today (March 6), her sister’s ex Sharaz Ali was handed a whole life term for murdering the family in a revenge attack. Prosecutors said Ali started the fire while “fuelled by drink and drugs” at the time.

He had been dating Bryonie’s sister Antonia Gawith – who was also in the property on Westbury Road when it set alight. Antonia was sharing Bryonie’s bedroom on the night after finishing a shift at Tesco.

Ali began messaging Antonia accusing her of being with another man. She told police in the interview that Bryonie had told her to ignore him and started to fall asleep.

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“I never thought he’d come and do that. Why would he do that?” she said to officers at the time. Antonia then heard the doorbell ring downstairs and anxiously headed to the front door.

That’s when she discovered her ex and another man – Calum Sunderland – had kicked the door down. “(Ali) started pouring petrol on me. I was saying ‘please don’t, I love you, I’ll come back, don’t do this’.”

But despite begging, his rampage continued. She told officers how she tried to grab the lighter from Ali’s hands before running out of the house, assuming he would be close behind.

However, when she turned to look Ali had set the staircase on fire as Bryonie attempted to protect her children by kicking him down the stairs. “I pulled the petrol off him and tried to get him out, and then he hit the lighter. I seen him set on fire, and all the stairs, and my sister,” Antonia said.

The fire erupted fast as Antonia attempted to get her sister out of the house. Antonia said Bryonie, who had rung 999 while coming down the stairs, then threw her phone out of the window and she picked it up, shouting down the line “telling them to send everybody – the police, ambulance, fire brigade”.

“I was just screaming, trying to get back in the house and I couldn’t get in. I couldn’t save them,” she said through tears.

Ali was quickly arrested as police arrived on scene, but by the time the fire service arrived it was too late to save Bryonie and her children. Antonia recalled how Ali was “controlling” throughout their relationship, and had tendencies to drink and taje drugs.

She had left the relationship weeks earlier, with Ali seemingly blaming her sister Bryonie for being the one to sway her to call it quits. She was asked by prosecutor David Brooke KC about a message Ali had sent her in the days before the fire which said: “I’ll be gone in two days. Remember your so-called friend will not look at you again in two days and that I promise.”

Antonia was asked about another message from Ali which said: “I know who has caused this in my life, whether they meant to or not. Better start praying cos now I’m going to get involved in her life and everyone is going to feel it. I promise you one thing, they’re going to regret it.”

Antonia replied she thought the messages must have referred to her sister because they had been staying together at the time, and that she felt he “blamed” Bryonie for her part in ending the relationship.

At the sentencing, the judge said Ali was motivated by “revenge and sexual jealousy” and that he is convinced there was “substantial” pre-meditation and planning behind the murders.

Noting the defendant’s severe injuries he says his life would be difficult whether he was in custody or not. “He is the sole author of his own predicament,” he concludes. “It was part of a plan to wipe out a whole family.”

Calum Sunderland, 26, was convicted of four counts of manslaughter for his part in the crime. He had helped Ali fill up a cannister with fuel, then helped him drive to the home, before fleeing.

Representing Sunderland, who was convicted of four counts of manslaughter, Nicholas Worsley KC repeats his client’s position during the trial that he believed he had been recruited by Ali on the night in question to burn a car.

When he discovered Ali’s true intentions, Worsley says Sunderland turned to Ali and said: “Are you mad?” Noting his client knows he is facing a long term in prison, Worsley reads out a letter of apology Sunderland sent to the Gawith family.

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“There is nothing I can say to bring them back, nothing I can say or do to stop the pain or hurt you’re all feeling,” the letter says. “Kicking that door down will forever be the biggest mistake of my life.”

The family of Bryonie, Denisty, Oscar and Aubree have released the following statement: “Today, the judge sentenced the monsters who killed our beautiful family, Bryonie, and her three children Denisty, Oscar, and Aubree.

“But no sentence, no matter how long, can ever heal the pain they caused. No sentence can bring back their laughter, their hugs, their voices, their love. No sentence can bring back four hearts that should still be beating. Every day, our hearts ache with the emptiness they left behind. Every day, we feel the weight of their absence, the joy we lost, the moments that will never come. Every day, we remember them, the love, the light, the life, they gave to us so briefly, so beautifully.

“We carry them in every heartbeat, every tear, every memory, every act of love. They live in us, and through us, they will never be gone. Bryonie, Denisty, Oscar, Aubree, you are forever loved, forever ours, forever remembered and forever young.”

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The production arrives in town for one night only on Saturday, March 7 with a 7.30 pm curtain up.

Billed as a high-octane blend of precision Irish step dancing, “jaw-dropping magic”, and a sweeping, cinematic score, Celtic Illusion has built a strong following on tours across Australia and New Zealand.

International stage phenomenon Celtic Illusion will bring its high-energy blend of Irish dance and grand-scale magic to Darlington Hippodrome for one night only on Saturday, (Image: Supplied)

The show is the creation of Australian dancer and choreographer Anthony Street, a former principal dancer in Michael Flatley’s Lord of the Dance.

His vision brings together a cast of champion dancers and world-class musicians in a production that aims to appeal as much to fans of blockbuster magic shows as to lovers of traditional Celtic culture.

Producers say audiences can expect refreshed choreography, new illusions, and a contemporary soundtrack for the UK run, designed to give the familiar language of Irish dance a bold, modern twist.

Tickets are on sale now from the theatre’s box office at 01325 405405 and on its website.

Stuart Robertson, 46, was attacked by Moses Kashita, 26, with a razor blade inside HMP Shotts, Lanarkshire.

A gangland killer was scarred for life after he was slashed in a brutal revenge attack behind bars.

Stuart Robertson, 46, was attacked by Moses Kashita, 26, with a razor blade inside HMP Shotts, Lanarkshire. Robertson had been sitting with inmates when Kashita ambushed him and cut him on the cheek.

He was treated for a five inch scar in January 2024 while Kashita was thrown into solitary confinement and lost all privileges for a month. Kashita, now being held in HMP Kilmarnock, appeared at Hamilton Sheriff Court and admitted assaulting Robertson to his severe injury and permanent disfigurement.

Sheriff Linda Nicolson ordered Kashita, previously jailed for attempting to murder a woman, to serve 30 months but that it will run consecutively to his present 16 year term.

Depute fiscal Daisy Bentley said: “Mr Robertson was in the association area and was mingling with other prisoners before taking a seat in the shared space. Mr Kashita also entered the association area accompanied by other prisoners and walked around the area.

“Mr Kashita then walked away from his group and walked slowly towards Mr Robertson and came to a stop directly behind him. Mr Robertson was completely unaware of Mr Kashita’s presence and continued talking to the group of prisoners he was talking to and Mr Kashita then removed his right hand from the front of his trousers and lunged towards Mr Robertson.

“He drew a blade of a shaving razor across his right cheek towards his ear and Mr Robertson then broke away and grabbed for the wall.”

Lorna Clark, defending, said: “The position is that the complainer had previously assaulted Mr Kashita and was making ongoing threats of harm towards him. Mr Kashita, in fear of a man capable of serious violence, wrongly took matters into his own hands and committed the offence.”

Sheriff Nicolson said: “I have taken on board all that has been said and your position that you have put forward but against that this is a very serious offence occurring in a prison and against a backdrop of your serious previous conviction. It can only be marked by a custodial sentence.”

Robertson was jailed after blasting rival Jim McDonald to death in May 2007. The pair had been part of a long-standing drugs feud which had also claimed the lives of two other men in Pollok, Glasgow.

The feud dates back to April 2002 when McDonald’s brother Derek was fatally stabbed outside his Pollok home. Kashita was jailed after shooting Felicia Samuel in Glasgow’s Charing Cross in December 2020.

His earliest release date is in 2037.

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​Last year, North Yorkshire Police (NYP) recorded 93 crimes at or around Scarborough General Hospital, according to its data.

​Between January 2025 and January 2026, 78 per cent of the incidents recorded were marked as violence and sexual offences.

​North Yorkshire Police also recorded 175 crimes at or around York Hospital over the same period, of which around 48 per cent were violence and sexual offences.

​The York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust condemned “any form of violence or abuse” and said it actively encouraged staff to report “all incidents so they can be investigated, and the appropriate action taken”.

​It noted that “encouragingly, we are currently on track to record our lowest yearly incident figures in the past five years, reflecting our sustained focus on prevention and support, while ensuring our teams can provide care in a safe environment”.

​According to official police definitions, violence against the person includes a range of offences from “minor offences such as harassment and common assault, to serious offences such as murder, actual bodily harm and grievous bodily harm”.

​Sexual offences include “a broad category of sexual offences, including indecent assault and unlawful (under age) sexual intercourse,” the police website states.

​The 2024 NHS Staff Survey found that 14.3 per cent of NHS staff who completed the survey had experienced at least one incident of physical violence from patients, service users, relatives or other members of the public in the last 12 months. This was a 0.5 per cent increase from the 2023 results.

​A spokesperson for York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said: “Our staff have the right to come to work and care for patients without fear of verbal, physical or sexual assault, and we take any form of violence or abuse towards our staff extremely seriously. We do not expect staff, patients, or visitors to accept threatening behaviour or discriminatory language, and where appropriate incidents are reported to the police.

​“We actively encourage staff to report all incidents so they can be investigated, and the appropriate action taken. We have clear policies in place, carry out risk assessments where concerns are identified, and provide support to any colleague affected.

​“A range of resources is also available to staff as part of our commitment to reducing incidents, including enhanced training and preventative measures.”

​The NHS Staff Survey also found that 25 per cent of NHS staff who completed the survey experienced at least one incident of harassment, bullying or abuse in the last 12 months from patients/service users, their relatives, or other members of the public.

​The British Medical Association, which represents doctors, has previously said it has lobbied for increasing the maximum penalty for common assault against emergency workers, and has worked in partnership through the social partnership forum to support the development of a strategy.

​The spokesperson for the York and Scarborough NHS Trust said: “We continue to monitor incidents closely across our sites and take further steps where needed to keep everyone safe.

​“Encouragingly, we are currently on track to record our lowest yearly incident figures in the past five years, reflecting our sustained focus on prevention and support, while ensuring our teams can provide care in a safe environment.”

How do you solve a problem like Morrissey? I think there are some pretty decent tunes on his 14th album, Make-Up is a Lie. Over an eclectic jangle of genres – post-punk, chanson, soul-disco bops – the 66-year-old singer is in fine, velvety voice, crooning his classic stock of despair, defiance, devotion, disdain and drollery into a microphone he’s always seemed to love more than his fellow humans. But instead of falling face-first into music as we once did and enjoying a good old wallow in self-pity, we must now approach it as a minefield. Oh, sweetness, was he only joking when he said…?

He doesn’t make it easy. Partly out of exhaustion, I thought I might have a go at reviewing this record without getting into Morrissey’s many controversial worldviews. But that’s not what he wants. Quite the opposite: he gets straight into it on album opener “You’re Right, It’s Time”, telling us over moodily meshed guitars, swerving synths and propulsive bass line, “I want to speak up and not be trapped by censorship”. Presumably, he’s still cross that his previous label, Parlophone, didn’t release his single about the 2017 Manchester bombing, “Bonfire of the Teenagers”, in which he condemns a society he claims went “easy on the killer”.

“I cast no shadow or reflection in a mirror now,” opines the man who’s since signed to another major label imprint (Sire) and who filled the O2 Arena with adoring fans last month. But he wants more, pleading, “I wanna let somebody love me if they can…”

In many ways, this is the push-pull schtick he’s been using since the early days of The Smiths. It reminds me of an old interview in which fellow literary Eighties rock star Lloyd Cole was asked to reflect on their friendship. Cole recalled: “He kept changing his phone and then he would send me postcards saying ‘You don’t call me!’ I got a little tired of that.” And yet, like so many Mozza fans, Cole couldn’t cut the cord, hoping that he was “still Cousin Lloyd”.

What’s good about this record? Well, the title track comes laden with musical drama – pounding percussion, violins and moreish zither – and lyrics about a meeting with a Parisian woman (Simone de Beauvoir, perhaps?). It’s a nice callback to Morrissey’s classic doomed romance. Then there’s a cool cover of Roxy Music’s “Amazona”, on which Morrissey’s vocal sweeps through the rambling art-school melody with glorious, grandiose yearning. If you’ve always enjoyed his anti-love songs about the dreary compromise of real-life relationships, then the slow-mo, trip-hoppy, xylophone-dappled “Headache” is the one for you. “What God has joined together, let no headache separate…” he purrs over an acidic electric guitar solo. “I don’t even like you”.

As for the bad… Morrissey’s conspiracy theory tune “Notre-Dame” (on which he peddles a swiftly debunked claim about the fire that ripped through the Parisian cathedral) can go in the bin. That and the daft nursery rhyme “Zoom Zoom The Little Boy”, with its lines about saving “cats and the dogs and bats and the frogs and the badgers and hedgehogs”. It’s funny to hear him celebrating music criticism on “Lester Bangs” (“this nerd hangs on your word”), given our miserable efforts trying to get a review stream for this album.

“How does it feel?” Morrissey asks the dead critic. “Bloody annoying,” says this living one. It would all be so much easier if the light of his creativity had totally gone out. But at his best, Morrissey still has the capacity to scoop up your heart and arrange it like a bunch of gladioli… before stomping it to bits, of course.