
Roxwell pub to reopen thanks to £600k fundraising effort
The fundraising by the Roxwell Chequers Community Benefit Society (RCCBS) earned the venture a national "pub saving award" from the Campaign for Real Ale.The fundraising included a £276,000 grant from the government's Community Ownership Fund.The new tenants have run five pubs together in the past, including the Foresters Arms in Loughton where the pair met."We fell in love, what a pub. We made our decision and the rest is history," said Ms Davies.The duo have plans to keep the old-fashioned pub events alive such as karaoke, Christmas grotto and curry nights.RCCBS management committee member Emma Drakeford said: "After everything the community has achieved to get us here — from forming RCCBS, to raising the funds, to restoring the building — we can't wait to see The Chequers thriving once again."
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Daily Mail
20 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Why Aston Villa are missing Marcus Rashford and Marco Asensio - and how Newcastle exploited their dire need to sign new players by shackling Youri Tielemans, writes JAMES SHARPE
Just before the hour mark, Aston Villa midfielder Boubacar Kamara collected the ball inside his own half, picked his head up, and spotted the run of Morgan Rogers ahead of him. Kamara tried to dink a little cross-field pass towards his Villa team-mate only to miscue it, caught it fat as a golfer would say, and like so many of his team's passes on the opening day of the new Premier League season, it ended up at the feet of a green shirt. He flung his head back and turned away in disgust. Seconds later, he brought down Anthony Gordon and found himself in Craig Pawson's notebook. Kamara's moment of frustration encapsulated Villa's goalless draw with Newcastle and made one thing abundantly clear: they need to sign some players. The problem is: they can't. Everyone knows Villa are locked in PSR's handcuffs. They have had to weaken their squad to keep in line with regulations. They are about to sell Jacob Ramsey to Newcastle for £40million but can't spend a penny of it. It was little surprise to hear Villa spend much of the second half voicing in musical form their opinion that the Premier League is 'corrupt as f***'. Villa last season could call on the precision of Marco Asensio and the speed and directness of Marcus Rashford, but not anymore. Villa are keen to get Asensio back on loan from Paris Saint-Germain and, boy, do they need him. 'We are ambitious, trying to respect the rules and trying to get the best players possible, trying to play the way we are: to be contenders for Europe and to compete like we did today,' said Emery afterwards on the current state of Villa's transfer window. 'We are not going to rest in case we can have some options in the transfer window.' In his programme notes, Emery had written that 'financial control rules came to football to avoid bankruptcies and payment defaults, with a good purpose. But as professionals we should review it, for this good tool will become a limitation for the clubs that are doing good management, who will never be allowed to dream and get higher goals.' Before kick-off, a huge display of Emery was hoisted into the air with a sign that read: 'No limits to our dreams'. There were plenty of limits to their team and to their play. The current state of Villa's squad meant that Emery started Youri Tielemans in the No10 role behind Ollie Watkins with Kamara and Amadou Onana behind them. It left Tielemans completely unable to dictate the game for Villa like he so often did last season. Whenever Villa had the ball, Newcastle sat deep in a 4-5-1 and the hosts just could not find a way through. They had no one to pull the strings. Kamara and Onana are both combative ball winners, and good at it, but neither possess the ability to pick locks like Tielemans – Newcastle's Bruno Guimaraes was the only Premier League midfielder to complete more passes between the lines last season. It left Villa producing one of their sloppiest passing performances in front of their own crowd in a long time, even if the result means it is now a full year since they last tasted league defeat at home. They mustered just three shots and none in the first half. The last time they faced Newcastle at home, back in April, they had 23 and won 4-1. That day, Tielemans picked out Watkins' run with a splitting pass for Villa to take the lead inside a minute. There was none of that here. Tielemans was so often too high up the field, surrounded by green shirts, happy to let his team-mates behind him pause and ponder. Villa Park's 73 per cent pass competition was their lowest in a home fixture since December 2023. Villa have only had less than the 41 per cent possession they had here in a home game four times since the start of 2023. The only time Tielemans moved into a deeper role was when Ezri Konsa became an early contender for Most Obvious Red Card of the Season for pulling back Anthony Gordon when clean through on goal. While Villa found it impossible to play through Newcastle, without the likes of Rasmey and Rashford they offered little width to go around them either. Rogers drifted centrally to support Watkins, as he usually does, on the few occasions Villa managed to get into decent areas while it was John McGinn tasked with staying wide down the right but had little impact on the game with little support from Matty Cash at full-back. It made you wonder what Donyell Malen had to do to earn a start, having scored twice and set up three goals during pre-season. He did eventually come on in the 84th minute and had attempted one Villa's three shots by the 86th. Watkins, who'd bagged five goals in pre-season, endured a difficult afternoon too. His first shot of the game came after the hour and only on a handful of times was able to burst into space, on one occasion pulling a ball back into the six-yard area and pulling his shorts up in frustration, Fabien Barthez-style, when there was no one there to get on the end of it. Much of Villa's goalscoring hopes rest on Watkins' shoulders, a player who has not always found it easy to hold Emery's trust with Rashford and Jhon Duran often rivalling him for minutes while at the club despite only Erling Haaland and Mo Salah scoring more Premier League goals than Watkins since promotion in 2020. There were still some positives for Emery to take from the game, their year-long unbeaten milestone aside. Villa battled well and kept their shape after going down to 10 men. For all the possession Newcastle had, they were still unable to fashion many clear-cut chances. And whenever they had one in the first half, debutant goalkeeper Marco Bizot was on hand to keep them out. The 34-year-old, one of few summer signings, beat away an early strike from Anthony Elanga before tipping Gordon's effort around the post. His antics late on to run the clock down, including pretending to roll the ball to every defenders in front of him before booting it upfield before his eight-second time-wasting counter had ticked down to zero, suggested the spirit of Emi Martinez still lives on between the Villa sticks.


BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Bedford council pulls out of buying Lloyds Bank building
Plans to buy a bank building have been scrapped by a Borough Council says it will no longer purchase the Lloyd's Bank building in High Street, citing financial pressure and ongoing uncertainty over the viability of a major town centre regeneration decision, signed off by Mayor Tom Wootton, reverses key parts of a resolution from last year which approved the £1.375m building was earmarked for inclusion in the proposed Mayes Yard development, but progress in appointing a developer has been slow, and concerns remain over the project's financial feasibility. According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, the council stressed it remained "fully committed" to regenerating Bedford town centre and could still intervene in the property market in future to support the could include negotiating a private sale or using compulsory purchase powers – a move the council's executive backed in principle last set aside for the purchase, stamp duty, legal fees and essential maintenance – more than £1.5m – is now not required. Follow Beds, Herts and Bucks news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.


Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
Mirror and Express targeted for takeover that would sack a third of journalists
The Mirror and Express newspapers are being targeted for a cost-cutting takeover that would result in more than 850 journalists losing their jobs. Documents seen by The Telegraph show that veteran newspaper executive David Montgomery is reviving a swoop on Reach that would allow the 76-year-old to wield the axe in a programme of 'radical' cost-cutting at the publisher. The £400m plan, dubbed 'Project Glass', includes a proposal to slash more than 850 journalists – more than a third of Reach's editorial workforce of 2,300 – and 100 employees in printing and production. In an unfinished draft of a presentation to investors backers, Mr Montgomery signals plans to lean more heavily on artificial intelligence instead, via 'automated content gathering'. Further cuts would be implemented in back office functions including HR and finance, while Reach's commercial headcount would be increased by 40 roles. Other plans outlined in Project Glass include 'sweating' the group's declining print newspaper titles, restructuring and ring-fencing its costly pension deficit, and embarking on an acquisition spree of other news brands. Another mooted £100m acquisition target is Yell, the digital marketing and online directory business that was formed out of the Yellow Pages in 1996. It comes less than three years after Mr Montgomery, long ago nicknamed 'Rommel' by journalists on the grounds that 'Montgomery was on our side', mounted an unsuccessful takeover bid for Reach, which owns a stable of regional titles including the Manchester Evening News and Liverpool Echo. That approach came via National World, the local newspaper group he led at the time. However, the veteran executive was ousted from National World this year after being defeated in a power struggle with Malcolm Denmark, the Irish newspaper tycoon and racehorse owner. Mr Denmark, who was National World's largest shareholder, has now taken it private. Alongside that row, Mr Montgomery mounted an unsuccessful bid for The Telegraph. He was in discussions with Todd Boehly, the chairman of Chelsea Football Club, over a complex transaction that would have used National World as a vehicle for the deal. Mr Boehly has experience as an entertainment industry publisher via his shareholding in the company behind The Hollywood Reporter and Rolling Stone. Mr Montgomery's presentation claims the backers of his Telegraph bid are ready to help bankroll a takeover of Reach with £250m of equity, alongside £150m of debt. Eldridge Industries, Mr Boehly's investment firm, was contacted for comment. Mr Montgomery may also seek to use his own cash following the £65m buyout of National World, which owns The Scotsman and The Yorkshire Post. He held a stake of 7pc, putting him in line for around £4.5m. His latest comeback bid comes at a torrid time for Reach, which has been left chasing dwindling advertising revenues amid a sluggish transition to the digital age. The company last month said it would begin trialling a paywall across its titles amid fears new Google AI tools will dent reader numbers. Reach has slashed hundreds of jobs in recent years in successive rounds of job cuts that have bruised staff morale. It has also faced criticism for its 'clickbait' stories and the deluge of adverts flooding its websites. The company's share price has declined by more than a third this year, leaving its market value at around £220m – a fraction of its £5bn peak in 2005. In the documents, Mr Montgomery criticises Reach's 'underperforming business', saying the circulation of its print newspapers – which still account for more than half of overall revenues – was dropping at a faster rate than those of rivals such as the Daily Mail. He also takes aim at Reach bosses, saying the company's 'pattern of decline has not been met with a tactical or creative response' and that acquisitions and pension top-ups worth more than £1bn over the last decade have 'all been squandered by lack of any organic plan'. Jim Mullen, the former gambling executive who oversaw more than 800 job cuts during his tenure, stepped down as chief executive of Reach earlier this year. He was replaced by Piers North, a former journalist who joined the company in 2014. Mr Montgomery claims his programme of heavy cost-cutting would save £65m per year and help increase profits by 50pc. He outlined plans to boost revenue by transforming Reach into a new digital marketing services giant – a move that he says would generate £200m in new revenues in four years. The strategy also includes a plan to expand Reach's events offering, based on the Pride of Britain brand, and generate half a million subscribers paying £5.99 a month by the end of 2027. Mr Montgomery began his career as a journalist and rose to become the editor of the News of the World before leading Mirror Group Newspapers. He established a foothold in UK regional newspapers in 2012 with the establishment of Local World, which he sold to Reach – then known as Trinity Mirror – three years later. Mr Montgomery then formed National World after snapping up titles from collapsed publisher JPI Media.