Headlines: Low water levels and flash flood damage
Here's our daily pick of stories from across local websites in the West of England, and interesting content from social media.
Our pick of local website stories
A medieval bridge is to get new protection as part of a £150,000 flood protection scheme, Somerset Live reports.The Tarr Steps on Exmoor, near Withypool has had to be rebuilt four times in the last 13 years.Swans and their cygnets are getting caught in a silt trap at a pond in Saintbridge, according to Gloucestershire Live.Low water levels caused the birds to get stuck when they were foraging for food.The building of the former Lloyds Bank in Burnham-on-Sea is up for sale, the town's news site states.The bank closed the branch last autumn due to "declining use".Pictures of Exmoor National Park after heavy rains swept away a footbridge features on ITV West Country.The footbridge over the Danesbrook near Hawkridge was scattered as far downstream as Dulverton.
Our top three from yesterday
What to watch on social media
A bat survey in the Avon Gorge recorded 54,000 calls from 11 different species.The research was conducted to determine what kind of lighting to install on the Clifton Suspension Bridge to ensure it has the least impact on the environment as possible.Carla Denyer, Green MP for Bristol Central, has been snapped with Queen guitarist Brian May as part of a campaign to end the culling of badgers to tackle TB in cattle.In a post on X she accused the Labour government of reneging on a pledge to end the cull.A campaign to save old fashioned ironmonger WH Mogford & Son in Westbury-on-Trym is popular in the neighbourhood's Facebook group.We Love Westbury on Trym is urging locals to use the store to prevent its closure.Rumours Bristol City are close to appointing Austrian Gerhard Struber as new head coach abound in several Bristol City fan groups.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Sky News
4 hours ago
- Sky News
UK weather: Up to 40mm of rain could fall in two hours amid thunderstorm warning
A yellow warning is in place for "potentially intense" thunderstorms in large parts of the country - and some places could have up to 40mm of rainfall in less than two hours. The Met Office said there could also be "frequent lightning, large hail and strong winds". The alert lasts until 3am on Sunday and covers parts of North East and North West England, the Midlands, Yorkshire, northeast Wales and the Scottish Borders. The Met Office urged those in the warning areas to consider if their location is at risk of flash flooding and to prepare accordingly. Forecasters have said the heatwave in parts of England and Wales provides "perfect conditions" for thunderstorms. On Saturday, the UK had the hottest day of 2025 so far, with a temperature of 33.2C (91.7F) recorded in Charlwood, Surrey. And thousands of people watched the sunrise over Stonehenge in Wiltshire to celebrate the summer solstice, marking the year's longest day. Met Office meteorologist Jonathan Vautrey said "hot and humid air is being dragged up" from parts of continental Europe. "But we also have low pressure out in the Atlantic, and that is driving weather fronts across the UK, providing instability in the air and the perfect conditions to start sparking off some thunderstorms as that hot and humid air rises rapidly," he added. The east of England, including London and the South East, could experience a "tropical night", although most of the country will see "a lot cooler" and "a lot fresher" conditions, Met Office forecaster Dan Stroud said. "In one or two spots, that could potentially be a tropical night, which is where the overnight minimums actually fail to drop below 20 degrees (centigrade)," he added. Sunday will see a day of "sunny spells and showers" with highs of around 27C and 28C, Mr Stroud said. An amber heat-health alert for all regions in England remains in place over the weekend. The alert, issued by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), has warned that significant impacts are likely during the alert period across health and social care services, including a rise in demand.
The Sun
5 hours ago
- The Sun
Five cheap ways to keep your garden green and gorgeous
THE hot weather can play havoc with our gardens. Turning on the hose pipe wastes water and adds to bills, but there are other ways to keep your garden green and gorgeous. 7 WATER WISELY: Use a watering can, rather than a hose and douse plants early in the morning or in the evening to stop water evaporating before doing its job. Aim the spout towards the thirsty roots rather than the leaves. Adding wood chips, straw or compost can help lock in moisture. SLOWLY DOES IT: Make a home-made watering spike by taking an empty plastic bottle and carefully poking around five holes in the cap. Cut the bottom off the bottle and dig a hole around 10cm away from the plant you want to water. Put the bottle into the hole, cap side down, and fill it with water. It will slowly drip-feed the soil through the holes in the cap. LEAVE YOUR LAWN: Keeping your grass green using sprinklers will cost your purse and the planet. Experts recommend leaving your grass to go brown. It may not look its best, but it is dormant rather than dead. As soon as the rain returns, so will your green lawn. POOL RULES: Paddling pools can block sunlight and flatten the grass. which will struggle to recover. Kate Turner, gardening expert at Evergreen Garden Care, advises shifting the paddling pool around to allow sunlight to reach the grass. I transformed my garden patio into summer haven for less than £100 with cheap B&M buys including gadget to keep bugs out 'When it's time to empty it, avoid dumping all the water in one spot. Spread it around to prevent waterlogging and muddy patches.' PRE-LOVED PUDDLES: Re-use household water in your garden. So-called 'grey water' from washing vegetables, washing up and even showering is fine. Shampoo, soaps and washing-up liquid are generally harmless to plants. Don't use grey water on vegetables and avoid washing-up water with food bits that may attract vermin. All prices on page correct at time of going to press. Deals and offers subject to availability Deal of the day COOL off with homemade ice cream in under half an hour with the mini digital ice cream maker from Lakeland, down from £19.99 to £14.99. SAVE: £5 Cheap treat 7 GIVE your lippy and brushes a spin – and tidy up – with the rotating cosmetic organiser from B&M, £5. What's new? HOW To Train Your Dragon is captivating kids at the cinema, and you can get the Toothless and Hiccup figure set for £11.25 at Argos, down from £15. Top swap 7 COOL off in the Bestway 7ft rectangular paddling pool, £20 from Argos, or the TP giant paddling pool from £12.49. Shop & save BAG an eight-pack of Oral B precision clean electric toothbrush heads, down from £31 to £15.50, at Boots. SAVE: £15.50 Hot right now MEMBERS of Co-op can get £10 off when they spend £40 or more until Wednesday – as a thank you following the store's tech issues. PLAY NOW TO WIN £200 7 JOIN thousands of readers taking part in The Sun Raffle. Every month we're giving away £100 to 250 lucky readers - whether you're saving up or just in need of some extra cash, The Sun could have you covered. Every Sun Savers code entered equals one Raffle ticket.
Scotsman
6 hours ago
- Scotsman
'Sweat on the floor' - Freddy Douglas on Scotland U20s' plan to beat the heat at World Championships
Squad for searing temperatures and high class opposition as they return to top table Sign up to our Rugby Union newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Playing rugby in a heatwave is a tough proposition for a bunch of peely-wally Scots but the national under-20 squad have been preparing for such an eventuality with the help of some high-end technology at the University of the West of Scotland. The players have been training in a heat chamber ahead of the World Rugby U20 Championships which begins in Italy next Sunday. Scotland face a fiendishly difficult draw - they're up against England, Australia and South Africa in the group stage - and it will be made even tougher by the fact that the games kick off in the afternoon when temperatures are expected to be around 35 degrees. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The bespoke chambers at the Lanarkshire campus replicate environmental extremes, from heat and humidity to altitude, and the young Scots have been sweating it out on exercise bikes to prepare for their opening match against defending champions England in Verona. Freddy Douglas scored a stunning try for Scotland Under-20s against France in the U20 Six Nations match at Stade Jean-Bouin in Paris in March. | SNS Group / SRU 'You're basically in this wee room with watt bikes, and the temperature is raised to about 35, 40 degrees and then you just go through this gruelling watt bike session, and I've never sweated so much in my life,' said Freddy Douglas, the Edinburgh prodigy, who has been named Scotland's co-captain for the tournament alongside Glasgow's Johnny Ventisei. 'You get to the end of it, it literally looks like the room's flooded, there's just so much sweat on the floor, it's crazy.' It has been a punishing schedule but head coach Kenny Murray makes no apologies for pushing his players. Scotland are back in the top-tier tournament for the first time since relegation six years ago and there is a determination to stay there. They secured promotion last summer by winning the second-tier World Rugby U20 Trophy tournament on home turf in Edinburgh but this is a huge step up, a point Murray is keen to impress upon his players. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'It was a great success last summer winning the junior World Trophy but it's a completely different challenge now against the teams we're playing,' said the coach. Captain Liam McConnell lifts the World Rugby U20 Trophy last summer after Scotland beat USA in the final in Edinburgh. | SNS Group / SRU 'This is where we want to be. We want to be competing against the better teams in the world. We want to get tested against England, South Africa and Australia. We've worked hard to get here and now it's about going out and really experiencing it and doing our best.' The heatwave that has engulfed most of western Europe only adds to the degree of difficulty and Murray plans to use his whole squad over the course of the tournament. 'All of our kick-offs are at 3.30 in the afternoon, so that provides an extra challenge,' said Murray. 'We've got five-day turnarounds, against England, Australia and South Africa. We need to manage the squad, we need to make sure that we use the 30 players we've got available to us. Touch wood we don't get any injuries, but if we do, we need these guys on standby ready to come in. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'We've had four heat chamber sessions at the University of West of Scotland in Hamilton. We've managed to train at 35 degrees and humidity between 70 and 80 per cent. We've had our rugby training at Ravenscraig during the day then at the end of the day, we've gone to the heat chambers to do some extra fitness sessions. I'm sure we'll get the benefit of that when we get out to Italy.' Freddy Douglas training with the Scotland U20 squad. | Scottish Rugby Murray's squad will also have the benefit of being able to call upon Douglas. The openside won a full cap in the autumn, coming on against Portugal at Murrayfield to become Scotland's youngest male debutant in 60 years, but Gregor Townsend resisted the temptation to include him in his senior squad for the summer tour games against Maori All Blacks, Fiji and Samoa. Instead, Douglas will continue his education with the under-20s. He was part of the Trophy-winning squad last summer but missed the start of this season's U20 Six Nations through injury. He returned for the games against England, Wales and France, and made a sizeable contribution with three tries, including a stunning solo effort in the 45-40 defeat in Paris. Freddy Douglas is congratulated on his Scotland debut by head coach Gregor Townsend after he made his bow against Portugal at Murrayfield on November 16, 2024. | SNS Group / SRU It has been a whirlwind season for the 20-year-old who made his senior Scotland bow before he had even played for Edinburgh. He followed up his first cap with a man-of-the-match performance for Scotland A in the win over Chile before making his debut for Edinburgh in a victory over Benetton in Italy. Injury hampered his progress soon after but he came back strongly in the U20 Six Nations and that try in Paris was likened to Jonah Lomu but an excited French press. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'To be honest if someone had said to me at this time last year I'd have had this season I wouldn't believe them, it's all been a bit crazy, it all happened so fast,' he said. 'I've not really had a chance to properly look back and reflect on it all, but I'm just very happy and very proud of where I'm at at the moment.' Scotland warmed up for the U20 Worlds with an encouraging win over Ireland in Belfast but Douglas is under no illusion about the scale of the task awaiting them in Italy. 'Obviously it is a tough pool, England, South Africa are all class teams, but I think going into every game we're underdogs which is kind of, well for me anyway, a good mentality, because it means a lot of times people underestimate you,' said the local Edinburgh boy who came through the ranks at Stewart's Melville College. 'It'll be good for our mentality. It means we've got nothing to lose, we can just go full momentum.' This will be his final championship at under-20 level and Douglas intends to leave the squad in a good place. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad
