No police investigation after evacuation in Eastbourne
'Superb response'
Ch Insp Simon Yates told BBC Radio Sussex the 85m (280ft) cordon around the house on Hyde Road was a "precaution taken to a [suspicious] package"."It was just an odd circumstance," he said. "Public safety is a priority for us," he added, thanking people and businesses for their support and "swift response" to the incident. Shopkeeper Raj Kasippillai told BBC Radio Sussex on Monday he had lost "so much" money due to a road closure.
Eastbourne Borough Council (EBC) leader Stephen Holt praised emergency services and council staff for their "superb response" to the "major incident". Properties on Hyde Road, Camden Road, Calverley Road, West Terrace, Bath Road, and parts of Grove Road and York Road were evacuated, with the local authority setting up a rest centre for affected residents. All those evacuated, including nine dogs, a cat and a rabbit, were able to return home early in the afternoon, according to EBC.
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The Sun
20 minutes ago
- The Sun
Bitter neighbours in ‘ridiculous' 7-year row over garden tap between homes as pensioner forks out £280k for court battle
BITTER neighbours are in a "ridiculous" seven-year row over a tiny gap between their homes, with a pensioner forking out £280,000 for the court battle. Christel Naish and her doctor neighbour Jyotibala Patel have been fighting a court war over an inches-wide strip between their houses that is too narrow for someone to comfortably walk down. 3 3 Ms Naish complained that Dr Patel's garden tap and pipe were "trespassing" on her property in Ilford, east London, sparking an expensive legal battle. Last year, after a trial at Mayors and City County Court, Ms Naish was left with more than £200,000 in lawers' bills for the case when the judge ruled in Dr Patel's favour. But Ms Naish fought on - in what High Court judge Sir Anthony Mann branded a "ridiculous" dispute - only to have her case thrown out this week at the High Court. Rejecting her appeal, Sir Anthony said the disputed strip of land between the houses is "dead space, and one would have thought it was not worth arguing about." The court heard Ms Naish first moved in as a teenager with her parents and, although she moved out, frequently returned as she worked from there in the family's tarmac business. She eventually moved back permanently after the death of her father in 2001, with Dr Patel and husband Vasos Vassili buying the house next door for £450,000 in 2013. The couple's barrister, Paul Wilmshurst, told the judge that the dispute began due to Ms Naish repeatedly complaining that a tap and pipe outside their house trespassed on her land. Due to her " terrorising" them with her "petty and vindictive" complaints, they felt forced to sue due to the "blight" on the property's value caused by the unresolved row, he said. At the county court, they claimed the tiny gap between the houses, created when the previous owners of their home built an extension on a previously much wider gap in 1983, was theirs. They insisted that the boundary between the two properties was the flank wall of Ms Naish's house and not the edge of her guttering hanging above, as she claimed. Your kids are breaking law if they kick their ball over neighbour's fence, High Court rules after couple sued next door After hearing the trial, Judge Hellman found for Dr Patel and Mr Vassili, ruling that Ms Naish's flank wall was the boundary and meaning they own the gap between the houses. However, he found against them on Ms Naish's counterclaim, under which she sought damages for damp ingress into her conservatory caused by them having installed decking above the level of her damp proof course. The judge found that, although the damp problem was already in existence, the installation of the decking screed was a 20% contribution to it, and awarded Ms Naish £1,226 damages. However, because he had found against her on who owns the gap between the houses, he ordered that she pay 65% of her neighbours' lawyers' bills - amounting to about £100,000 of an approximate £150,000 bill - on top of a similar six-figure sum she ran up herself. Concluding his judgment, he said: "Now that the parties have the benefit of a judgment on the various issues that have been troubling them, I hope that tensions will subside and that they will be able to live together as good neighbours." However, Ms Naish continued to fight and took her case to the High Court in May, which Sir Anthony blasted as bringing "litigation into disrepute" since Ms Naish no longer has any problems with the tap and pipe, meaning the row is over "dead space." The court heard the legal costs of the appeal process itself would add more than £30,000 to the total cost of the case. "Hundreds of thousands of pounds about a tap and a pipe that doesn't matter," Sir Anthony told Ms Naish's lawyers during the appeal hearing. "You don't care about the pipe and the tap, so why does it matter, for goodness' sake, where the boundary lies? "It seems to me to be a ridiculous piece of litigation - on both sides, no doubt." Appealing, Ms Naish's lawyers argued that Judge Hellman had considered the issue of where the boundary lies in the wrong way, without taking notice of the fact that both houses were already built when crucial conveyancing documents were drawn up. Hilarious moment bumbling cops struggle to break down door as mocking neighbours shout 'go on… knock it!' The judge should have looked at the houses and decided that a reasonable buyer would expect the boundary to lie a few inches past Ms Naish's wall so that her overhanging guttering was over the land. Giving judgment, Sir Anthony said he disagreed with Judge Hellman's reasoning, but had come to the same decision - that the boundary ran along the line of Ms Naish's house and so the land belongs to her neighbours. "I think that a purchaser standing with the plan in his/her hand and looking at the position on the ground is unlikely to look much beyond the obvious flank wall of the house. That would be an obvious boundary feature which fitted with the plan. "I do not think the parties would cast their eyes upwards and see the guttering and re-shape their view of the boundary to the plane of the exterior face of the guttering. That does not seem particularly plausible. "Nor do I think that the purchaser would be aware that foundations protruded beyond the flank wall - if indeed they do, there was no actual evidence of that, only a bit of speculation on the probabilities. "So the natural view of the boundary at this point would be the flank wall. It is the obvious topographical feature which bears on the question. "In my view, the judge reached the right conclusion on the position of the boundary, albeit my reasoning differs from his." The judge rejected Ms Naish's appeal and also dismissed her challenge to the decision on the damp issue, under which she was claiming extra damages. "The judge's conclusion was that 20% of the damp problem was attributable to the claimants' decking and he was entitled to reach that view," he said. "It is particularly undesirable that this already unfortunate litigation should be cluttered up by such unworthy points taken on this appeal." Ms Naish's appeal against the amount of her neighbours' costs she must pay will be decided at a later date.
Daily Mail
22 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE We live near a football stadium in one of the UK's 'most poverty-stricken areas'... Hollywood A-listers walk just miles from us
Locals in one of the UK's most poverty-stricken areas have warned that its council is 'neglecting pockets of deprivation at its peril'. Caia Park, Wrexham, is the largest council housing estate in Wales and has been plagued with 'generational' child poverty and unemployment issues for more than two decades. Despite an influx of far-flung tourists and Hollywood A-listers piling into the city every other week to watch football, many children and families are going hungry just 10 minutes from the Racecourse Ground. It is only due to the relentless work of charities and social enterprises that starving kids are staying off the streets away from the temptation of crime, drugs and violence, say many locals. But with a lack of funding from Wrexham County Borough Council and requests for grants being exhausted, the funds to keep these organisations afloat are quickly dwindling - sparking fears over the future consequences. Colin Powell, 63, has lived on the estate his entire life and now runs The Venture, a play centre at the heart of the community, which has been used as a leading example by universities and researchers of how to tackle poverty. Formed in 1978 on a 'rubbish tip', the site has now been transformed into a sprawling hub to keep more than 1000 children between five and 16 years old off the streets which for years have been ravaged by lawlessness. Now, Mr Powell has warned he is feeling the squeeze on his £300,000 per year upkeep, and has called on the council to stop using the play park as a 'political football' or that Caia Park would suffer 'the human cost of neglect'. He told MailOnline: 'The cost of one prison place would keep this place going with two staff for a year, but the public purse trying to undo the damages of poverty and deprivation would run into the millions. 'The cost of a place for a particularly challenging individual can be up to £1million a year. 'If we had that money the end result would be absolutely amazing, but we're always scrambling around to make sure our last five pence is spent wisely.' The 63-year-old, who himself grew up in poverty in the area and often had 'no food in the cupboard', has dedicated his life to The Venture and is now looking after the third generation of families he first worked with. With Mr Powell and the in-house chef plating food up for Caia Park's kids every night, he says some of them are reliant on eating at the play centre and if not for that option, they would spend their nights with an empty stomach. He added: 'One of the first things that happens with a number of kids when they come is them asking what we've got for food that night. 'Some kids rely on that and some do it as an extra to what they already have, but it relieves the pressure for parents on feeding the kids. 'The parents can then save money to buy new school shoes if their kids have worn through the last lot, so I would say it makes a huge difference to a number of families' Mother-of-five Kim Slawson, 33, has always lived in Caia Park and visited The Venture herself as a child, which she described as 'a godsend' for locals. She said: 'If they aren't open, the kids are out here causing trouble and messing about by the cars but if they're in there we don't have any bother. 'It was closed last week and the kids were outside causing chaos.' One teenager who now visits The Venture through the day was suspended from his school for 'headbutting' his teacher. But Mr Powell believes Caia Park is 'no different' from any other estate with a high rate of poverty. He said: 'Given the level of social issues and the level of non-educational attainment and the struggles and the battles that come with that, there are going to be people who are in pain. 'One of the things that we're able to do is to engage with those young people who cause absolute mayhem elsewhere and tell them to knock it off.' Wrexham MP Andrew Ranger said he would throw his weight behind a push for charities to receive more financial support as he attempts to tackle the child poverty crisis after being elected last July. After living in the region for more than 25 years, the Labour MP said amid the near-overnight transformation of Wrexham due to global interest in its football club, that Caia Park had been 'long forgotten'. He also said it was 'unfair' that organisations such as The Venture and Caia Park Partnership, who organise daily food giveaways, were doing the 'heavy lifting' in tackling poverty and crime. He said: 'I think they've done the heavy lifting for a long time in many different ways. 'There's been lots of funding in those areas in different tranches over the last 20 or 30 years but when that comes to a cliff edge or comes to a stop, then it's left to those last men standing to carry on the fight.' Mr Powell said he has not received any direct funding from the council in 20 years barring a Welsh Government initiative called Flying Start, which seeks to release some funds to assist 'disadvantaged' areas. After the latest Census data revealed 72 per cent of Caia Park residents are living in poverty, he took aim at the council for promoting Wrexham's 'children-first' focus in a bid to become the UK City of Culture for 2025, which left him with a 'sour taste'. Mr Powell said: 'We have visitors coming here [to The Venture] from around the world looking at what we do. We've got national and international recognition as being a centre of excellence, yet the local council wants nothing to do with us. 'They're happy to praise it when it suits a particular purpose. And the fact they want to celebrate the successes but actually don't contribute to it left me with a sour taste.' Caia Park resident Maria Villaca, 46, said the behaviour of Wrexham Council is 'wrong'. Local Shno Himid, 47, who lives across from The Venture, also said she would 'like to see' the council invest in the area more than they currently are. Mr Powell took aim at the council for promoting Wrexham's 'children-first' focus in a bid to become the UK City of Culture for 2025 She added: 'I know a lot of people whose kids come to play every day. It's good for the community. 'If the council can fund other things then why not fund them? They definitely should.' Locals also praised the work of the Caia Park Partnership, who donate food to residents and run free workshops for the community every day and are funded through grants and donations. Shauni Thomas, 32, is a Parenting Support Worker at the charity and says she would have struggled if it were not for their help when she was a teenage mother. Working alongside her former social worker and the Partnership's Senior Manager, Darren Richardson, 58, Ms Thomas told MailOnline how the lack of cash coming in could cause problems for the future. She said: 'We haven't got a lot, but we have got a community. 'The problem is funding. We can do as much as we can do, but without the funding we're not going to be here anymore, and then what's going to happen?' The charity was formed in 1997 to tackle crime in the area and over time has become a centrepiece to the community. Since the takeover of Wrexham AFC by Deadpool star Ryan Reynolds and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia's Rob McElhenney, Ms Thomas says the club has become more involved with the charity than ever before. She said: 'We did our first event together just before Christmas. Some of the players came down and brought food hampers. 'We did a cooking session and they had a kickabout with some of the kids from the estate. That's a massive thing for the kids of Caia. 'Now we're going to do that up to four times a year. They'll come down and we'll do some more cook and eat sessions. They're very big on trying to tackle poverty and helping however they can.' Despite holding events for children - some as young as two weeks old - the charity caters to those as old as 86, offering events for all ages. Ms Thomas is hoping they can continue to help those on the estate make 'positive choices' rather than following the dangerous path of violence and crime, so often tempting for those who grow up with what she labelled as 'bad role models'. Responding to local criticism, a Wrexham Councillor told MailOnline that child poverty was a 'complex issue'. Cllr Beverley Parry-Jones said: 'Childhood poverty is a complex issue that requires ongoing support from national governments, working in partnership with local government, communities & voluntary organisations. 'Wrexham County Borough Council recognises the challenges in specific areas across the country including Wrexham.'
BBC News
23 minutes ago
- BBC News
Strabane: Two arrested after estimated £1.4m cannabis plants seized
Two people have been arrested after police seized suspected cannabis plants with an estimated street value of £1.4m in the Strabane area. The seizure was made during a planned search operation on the seizure, police said they have dismantled what is believed to be one of the biggest suspected cannabis operations in the north west in recent years. The two people who were arrested remain in custody. Searches remain ongoing and paraphernalia connected to drugs cultivation and supply have also been seized. The operation was carried out by detectives from the Police Service of Northern Ireland's Organised Crime Branch, who are investigating suspected drugs criminality linked to the INLA. "We have dismantled a large, sophisticated suspected cannabis operation with row after row of suspected cannabis plants that filled two floors of the building," Det Insp Pyper said. Derry City & Strabane Commander, Ch Sup Gillian Kearney said: "Drugs cause misery in our communities, we have seen that far too often. We have also seen how large-scale drug operations are linked to organised crime gangs who will do anything to make money with no care for the harm they cause in our communities. "This has been a significant operation and reflects the Police Service's commitment to targeting drugs supply in Northern Ireland."
