'Modern day highwaymen' target M20 drivers
Four conmen who posed as police officers, stopping cars on the M20 and tricking them into handing over money have been jailed.
Four conmen who posed as police officers, stopping cars on the M20 and tricking them into handing over money have been jailed.
Over the past eight years The People's Millions have awarded more than £27.8m to 523 community projects across the UK.
Around 2,500 jobs are to be axed at holidays group Thomas Cook after it revealed plans to close 195 of its high street travel agencies.
Flybe is to axe all of its Gatwick flights, having sold its arrival and departure slots at the London airport to easyJet for £20 million.
It announced to the London Stock Exchange this morning that it will pull out of the airport, from where it has operated for 22 years, at the end of March 2014.
It will mean the loss of flights from the London airport to Belfast City, Guernsey, Inverness, the Isle of Man, Jersey, Newcastle and Newquay.
Southern Water has unveiled plans to manage our water supplies over the next 25 years. The company says it is facing increasing challenges - including climate change and an increasing population.
Nearly £100million has been earmarked to pay for schemes which include treating and re-using waste water, and making greater use of sea water.
Earlier, Sangeeta spoke to Meyrick Gough who is Southern Water's strategy manager.
The aircraft carrier Ark Royal began her final voyage yesterday as she left Portsmouth bound for a Turkish scrapyard.
Thousands of people gathered to say goodbye to the Navy's glorious past - the Ark ignominiously pushed and pulled to her grave by tugs.
But back on dry land thousands of people are working on the future of the fleet as two new aircraft carriers, the biggest ships ever built for the navy, are beginning to take shape. Richard Jones reports and speaks to Paul Bowsher of BAE, Portsmouth.
Passenger numbers edged up at Gatwick last month.
A total of just more than 2.73 million people passed through the airport in April 2013 - a 0.4% rise on the April 2012 figure.
But last month's total included a dip of 11.4% in European charter traffic, with bosses of the West Sussex airport warning of "challenging" European economic conditions.
European scheduled traffic, which makes up a big slice of Gatwick's overall operation, was up 3.2% in April 2013.
And although north Atlantic traffic dipped 15.1% last month, other long-haul traffic rose 8.7%.
Gatwick's chief financial officer Nick Dunn said: "It is pleasing to see the trend for long-haul growth continuing, with several key carriers expanding their frequencies and routes.
"While April 2013 also saw growth in scheduled European services... it is also important to note that economic conditions in Europe remain challenging and we expect this trend to continue for the immediate future."
A foodbank charity based in Salisbury says it's seen the biggest ever rise in people using its service.
The Trussell Trust says over fifty nine thousand people in the South West have received at least three days emergency food from its foodbanks during the last 12 months, almost twice the number helped in the previous year.
It runs three hundred and forty foodbanks across the country, with nearly all the food donated by the public.
More than 2,500 town hall staff were paid over £100,000 last year, research has shown.
Despite the number earning in six figures falling by 11% between 2011 and 2012, 103 councils were still employing more staff on that level than before, the TaxPayers' Alliance said.
It added that one executive was handed almost £600,000.
Figures from the TaxPayer's Alliance have shown that more than 2,500 town hall staff were paid over £100,000 last year.
Read the full storyA Local Government Association spokesman has defended a report listing the highest paid town hall staff.
They said pay for senior staff has to provide "good value for taxpayers while ensuring the recruitment and retention of staff with the right skills".
– Local Government Association spokesmanLocal government is showing wage restraint as the 11% fall in the number of staff on more than £100,000 a year shows. There has been no national increase in senior pay for five years, including in 2013/14. Incoming chief executives are also receiving salaries that are on average 8% smaller than their predecessors.
Local authorities work hard to ensure salaries are set at appropriate levels and have created the E-Paycheck system to allow remuneration committees to compare their pay rates with similar councils in other parts of the country.
A Chatham-based syndicate which nearly lost out on a £79,000 lottery win have celebrated receiving their cheque. The group were misled into believing they had only won £10 after they handed the ticket in for checking at Moores Convenience Store in Mackenzie Way in Gravesend.
Today shop assistant Imran Pervais, 26, of Milton Road in Gravesend was handed a 12-month prison sentenced - suspended for two years. He was convicted of fraud by false representation by a jury in March.
Pervais was also given a 200 hour community service order and a curfew for what the judge at Maidstone Crown Court called an 'opportunistic' and 'mean-spirited' offence.
A shop assistant from Kent has been jailed for 12 months, suspended for two years - after trying to con a lottery syndicate out of its £79,000 winning ticket.
Imran Pervais, 26, of Milton Road in Gravesend paid out just £10 to the Chatham-based syndicate even though they had matched five balls plus a bonus number.
In March Pervais was convicted of fraud by false representation. In addition to the suspended sentence, he was given a curfew and a 200 hours community service sentence.