Road closure required to inspect crests on Chesterfield bridge
A road in Chesterfield town centre will be closed for most of Sunday while a survey is carried out on a footbridge across it.Chesterfield Borough Council said it needed to remove brackets holding large civic crests to the side of the bridge spanning New Beetwell Street because they had become damaged.The authority said the crests would be returned at a later date which was dependent on the survey and their condition.The road will be closed between 08:00 BST and 18:00 with traffic diverted.
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The Sun
an hour ago
- The Sun
New Tesla Model Y is a more chiselled, quieter version of mega-seller… it moves the game on for a tech-rich family motor
Rob Gill Published: Invalid Date, I'M struggling to keep up with Elon Musk and his on/ off bromance with Donald Trump. Are they buddies again? 6 6 6 Or still kicking lumps out of each other on X? One thing I do know is that Tesla sales are down eight per cent in Great Britainland. Some say it's because Musk backed Trump for President, followed by that awkward hand gesture at the inauguration. Some say it's the Chinese invasion. Maybe in part. But mostly it's due to Tesla halting production of the mega-selling Model Y at its Berlin gigafactory to tool up for the new one. Now everything is sorted and sales are likely to take off like a Space X rocket. Here are ten things you need to know about the new motor. 1. The old one was fugly. The world's best-selling car two years on the bounce, yes. But still fugly. That's sorted now. This new one is more chiselled. First glimpse at limited edition EV hitting UK in just weeks with slick new look It's like they've taken a photo of the Cybertruck to a surgeon and gone, 'This please'. The lower nose helps it slice through the air, adding a bit more range. 2. They've deleted the Tesla badge from the bonnet. Confident move. 3. But the biggest change is at the back. There's a new reflective lightbar which highlights T E S L A written out in full. Also, the rear diffuser sticks out more. So repair bills will be lower if you reverse into something you shouldn't. Which helps with insurance too. 4. The 'frunk' — front trunk — now has a plughole in it. So you can fill it with ice for summer barbecues. Or store muddy boots. 5. Cabin. The gear selector has moved to the big screen — like a Model 3. But they've kept the indicator stalk. Unlike a Model 3. The wrapround LED strip is new. The front seats will warm and cool your back. They didn't before. Other things. The seat bases are longer in the back. So they're more comfortable. There's a little entertainment screen to play arcade games. The front passenger seat moves forward at the touch of a button for limo-like legroom. 6. Sound. It's now much quieter in here which makes it feel more expensive. There's extra insulation. Acoustic glass. Redesigned door seals. All little details that add up. 7. The boot is a smidge smaller. But you'll never notice. I had to look it up. The seats now fold up and down automatically, where they only folded flat before. You had to push them back up. 8. The suspension has been tweaked so it rides better. Batteries and motors are unchanged. But improved regenerative braking tech adds more electrons. Every version should do 300 miles-plus, with the rear-wheel drive Long Range hitting 387 miles. There's talk of a bigger battery nudging 500 miles. 9. Price. The standard rear-drive Model Y starts at £45k, which is £2k more than before. Not bad. The all-singing all-wheel drive Long Range is £52k. 10. This isn't specific to Model Y but Tesla's Supercharger network blows everyone else out of the water. It's next-level good. Quick. Easy. No cards. No apps. And cheaper too. It doesn't really matter if you like Musk or not. If you want a minimalist, tech-rich family motor, Model Y moves the game on. 6 6 6
Telegraph
3 hours ago
- Telegraph
I've been caught by Britain's most prolific speed camera – it makes the road no safer
When careful motorist Norman Tate received a letter of intended prosecution for speeding, he could hardly believe it. It told the grandfather, who had had a clean driving licence for more than a quarter of a century before the incident last year, that he'd been caught doing 45mph in a 30mph zone in his Ford Mondeo by a speed camera on a busy junction on the A38 in Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire. 'I'm a straight-up person. My immediate thought was, 'I'm a senior citizen and don't do 45mph in a 30mph area',' says Tate, now 80. 'I might creep over the limit by a few miles an hour, but not by that much. So I thought I'd investigate.' The chartered civil engineer, with experience of road and bridge design, analysed the signage along that stretch of road. He's concluded that it is 'not fit for purpose' – and argues that motorists should be given better warnings that they are about to enter a 30mph area. It is a view that others who have been caught by that speed camera share – and there are plenty of them. In fact, the little yellow box mounted on a pole is so prolific that it is said to be the 'most lucrative' speed camera in the country, according to a Channel 5 documentary due to be broadcast tonight at 8pm. Speed Cameras: Are They Out to Get You? says that one camera caught 17,498 speeding offences in nine months from when it was installed in August 2023 – at an average rate of 72 per day and potentially costing motorists more than £1.6 million. So, what, you might well ask, is going on with this camera in a Nottinghamshire market town to make it ranked the most prolific – and some claim the sneakiest – in the country? And what happens to all the money it generates? When we visit Sutton-in-Ashfield to meet Tate, from nearby Chesterfield, Derbyshire, he explains how, as you approach the camera from junction 28 of the M1, first there is a 70mph speed limit that suddenly turns to 50mph – with an average-speed camera overhead – then it goes to 30mph about 100 yards from the crossroads where the camera is. There is a 30mph sign as you approach on the dual carriageway and a smaller sign warning of the camera ahead and reminding you it's 30mph. But, Tate says: 'When I started looking into the signage, it became apparent that if there's a high-sided vehicle on the inside lane, there's no way you can see the 30mph sign. There is nothing on the road itself to say it's 30mph. I think there should be. It's too easy to think you're still in the 50mph zone.' (When we stopped by at a busy 4pm, motorists appeared to be driving carefully, but it was hard to tell whether it was carefully enough – the camera uses infra-red light technology, which means it doesn't flash.) The figures in the documentary come from a survey by Legal Expert, a personal injury, compensation and accident claim solicitor company. To obtain them, the firm made a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to all 43 police forces in England and Wales asking for the number of speeding fines issued in the 12 months to April 5 2024, and the top 20 spots where drivers have been caught speeding. Only 23 replied. If the 17,498 figure for the camera on the A38 in Sutton-in-Ashfield is annualised, it would be 23,331, putting it ahead of the second-placed speed camera, which was on the M25 between junctions 7 and 16 in Surrey (21,989 offences, at a daily average of 60). With speeding offences resulting in a £100 fine and three points on your licence (if they result in a fixed penalty notice and are not contested), that would mean that £2,333,100 worth of fines would have been threatened in a year, using the annualised figure for the A38 camera. A separate FOI request, not mentioned in the documentary, about the A38 speed camera was later made to Nottinghamshire Police by Gary Eyre, a heating engineer from Huthwaite, near Sutton-in-Ashfield. He found the reply 'flabbergasting': it said 41,675 motorists were punished for travelling in excess of the 30mph limit in the camera's first 20 months. 'I go into about 10 houses every day and everybody knows someone who's been done,' he said, explaining what prompted him to make the FOI request. That means at least £4.1 million worth of fines will have been threatened during that period. Nottinghamshire Police has stressed to The Telegraph that 47 per cent of those offences were resolved with speed awareness courses as an alternative to prosecution, so no fines will have been paid for those. 'I don't disagree with having speed cameras,' Tate says, 'and this one is there doing the job it should be doing and is designed to do – if the signage was correct. This is a very dangerous junction and the camera is trying to save people's lives. But if there's 23,000 people a year going through there at the wrong speed, there's something wrong – and that's the signage.' His attempts to argue his case saw him locked in what he called a 'David and Goliath' battle with the authorities. In the end, after first electing to go to trial, he pleaded guilty to his speeding offence, committed at 11.09am on February 1 last year. He did not contest the 45mph recorded by the camera but argued that the advance warning signs from the 50mph to the 30mph zone are 'inadequate' and called for a review of those signs. Magistrates gave him four points, fined him £360, and ordered him to pay a surcharge to victim services of £144 and £150 costs to the Crown Prosecution Service. In the documentary, Tate is featured with his friend Brian Staples, 76, a retired auto electrician from Papplewick, Nottinghamshire, who runs a classic car club. Staples is more dubious of the camera's intent, telling the documentary: 'They're taking those motorists to court and making them look as if they're bad drivers, and they're not. Friends that I know have been caught there are in their 80s – they're not speeding, they've just been caught out.' Staples also claims that some speed cameras are there just to collect money rather than to slow people down. Patrica Harvey, 68, a retired office accounts manager from Pinxton, Derbyshire, told The Telegraph that she has been caught speeding by the Sutton-in-Ashfield camera twice in a year, the second time around a fortnight ago. Both times, she said her speed was in the mid-30s mph. 'I was specifically looking for the sign the second time but didn't see it,' she said. 'I'm really very cautious about my speed. But one minute you're in 50mph, then it's 30mph. There's not enough signs telling you what's happening.' Judy Gascoigne, 66, a PA from Matlock, Derbyshire, was warned by a passenger in her car of the camera ahead and was trying to slow down when she was caught doing 36mph. 'I didn't see the signage,' she said. 'I did a speed awareness course and there were four or five others on it caught at the same camera.' Another motorist said: 'I got caught twice in the same week. When there's tree branches in the way and large vehicles, the signs are difficult to see.' The documentary also raises the question of what happens to the money from speed camera fines, making the point that it is common misconception that it goes to the council. In fact, it goes directly to central government, to the Treasury, and is used towards general spending rather than ring-fenced for specific areas. Motoring journalist and transport campaigner Quentin Willson told the documentary: 'If the public saw that the revenue raised from speeding fines made a visible difference, then perhaps the public would be more behind them.' It is an issue that West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner Simon Foster is campaigning on. He wants the money raised from speeding fines in his region to be spent on road safety schemes there. During a consultation in 2023, 93 per cent of the public agreed that money raised from fixed penalty fines should stay in the region. So far, however, his calls – to both this and the previous government – have not resulted in a change of policy. One argument against allowing the income from speed cameras to be retained locally is that it might incentivise regions to install cameras to make money. Nottinghamshire Police said around 37,000 vehicles go through the junction where the Sutton-in-Ashfield camera is every day, so only a very small percentage are exceeding the speed limit. There had been at least one fatal collision and a number of serious injury collisions in the years before the camera was installed. But there have been no fatal or serious injury collisions since it was installed and the rate of offences have reduced to around 60 a day. The force also said work to cut back foliage to ensure all signage was visible was done before the camera went live, and the 'unusual step' was taken of putting out proactive communication to inform people of the new camera. Inspector Simon Allen, of Nottinghamshire Police, said: 'While the 30mph limit around this junction is not set by the police, it is in place for a very good reason – including the very large number of children who use the pedestrian crossings to get to and from school each day. 'Like all safety cameras in the UK, this unit is in place to reduce speed and prevent road traffic collisions – not to catch people speeding.' A Department for Transport spokesman said: 'Fines from speeding offences help fund essential public services including health care, transport and policing in the West Midlands and across the country. 'While we keep the motoring offences and their penalties under review, we don't currently have any plans to change this system.'
Daily Mail
4 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Death of the personalised numberplate: TV star reveals why once-trendy plates are being sold for 80% less
The trend for personalised number plates has attracted celebrities from showbiz to sport and even royalty - while raking in hundreds of millions a year for the DVLA. Yet now the market appears to be stalling, with potential buyers slamming the brakes - and existing owners selling theirs off for 80 percentage points less than before. Public figures have put bespoke imprints on their motors with plates bearing such signifiers as B33 FYS for cricket legend Lord Ian 'Beefy' Botham, 100 VJ for ex-footballer and film star Vinnie Jones and OUT 3N for presenter Denise Van Outen. The Apprentice presenter Lord Sugar has gone with AMS 1 - that is, Alan Michael Sugar - while the late Queen Elizabeth II drove with an 'A7' plate dating back to 1903. Heavyweight boxer and self-styled 'Gypsy King' Tyson Fury went for 88 GK, fellow figher Chris Eubank for 1 KO - as posed upon by his son Chris Eubank Jr - as well as TV and music mogul Simon Cowell for S1 MON and Chris Evans for FAB 1. Meanwhile, Katie Price went for a bright pink car with a plate saying KPII HOT and her daughter Princess for an Audi branded with, well, PRINCESS - while TOWIE celebrity Amy Childs chose AMY 22Y and the late magician Paul Daniels MAGIC. Personalised numberplates have also lured other former footballers such as Match Of The Day pundit Alan Shearer, with AS 9, and fellow ex-England captain Wayne Rooney, nodding to his nickname as well as favoured shirt number with WAZ 8. Yet a former reality TV star has now warned that a once-lucrative movement looks like hitting the buffers, with the value of such plates plunging. James Constantinou, co-founder and CEO owner of nationwide pawnbroker chain Prestige Pawn, has told of a sharp rise in the number of clients keen to cash in on private registration plates. Mr Constantinou, who came to fame on Channel 4 's Posh Pawn, revealed: 'There has been a huge slump in the value of personalised number plates and customers are rushing to my stores to cash in on them. 'Due to financial pressures, the market is awash with people wanting to sell their plates, which were once deemed the ultimate display of wealth. 'They tended to be the last thing the rich buy and the first to sell - now the owners need to raise money and the private plates are the first thing to go.' That would suggest a significant turnaround from recent years when values appeared to be soaring - to the benefit of the Driving and Licensing Licensing Agency. The Mail revealed last October how well financially the government department that issues driving licences and collects road tax was also doing from its other duty of selling personal registrations. Freedom of Information figures showed how the DVLA made £100.2million in 2012-2013 from a combination of personalised registration sales and auctions, cherished plate transfers and assignment fees. Information secured by transport policy and research organisation RAC Foundation found the income from this surged to £260.1million in 2022-23. Some £150.5million of this was from plate sales, which accounted for 58 per cent of the DVLA's personalised registration revenues that year. DVLA EARNINGS FROM SELLING AND MANAGING PERSONALISED PLATES YEAR PERSONALISED PLATE SALES CHERISHED TRANSFER ASSIGNMENT FEES TOTAL 2012-13 £57.1m £29.3m £13.8m £100.2m 2013-14 £64.3m £38.9m £16.2m £119.4m 2014-15 £79.6m £41.1m £19.5m £140.2m 2015-16 £96.7m £43.6m £23.6m £163.9m 2016-17 £110.1m £62.8m £28.7m £201.6m 2017-18 £110.6m £67.2m £28.8m £206.6m 2018-19 £112.4m £66.2m £31.1m £209.7m 2019-20 £114.8m £62.6m £31m £208.4m 2020-21 £170.9m £62m £47.6m £280.5m 2021-22 £181m £76.4m £45.5m £302.9m 2022-23 £150.5m £72.4m £37.2m £260.1m Source: DVLA records obtained by RAC Foundation via FOI request Boxer Chris Eubank Jr is seen here posing above one of his former heavyweight champion Chris Eubank Sr's cars with the personalised plate '1 KO' Yet even these latest figures suggested a decline was under way - after earnings from private plate sales and handling had peaked in 2021-22 at £302.9million. Mr Constantinou has now said: 'Although many personalised plates remain in high demand, they are certainly not a clever investment anymore. 'In the good times early issue numbers particularly with "1" preceding or succeeding limited letters would be in high demand with values commonly between £250 and £500,000. 'But with these buyers now being extremely thin on the ground they are likely to achieve a fraction of these figures - generally values are 20 per cent of the highs seen in the pandemic.' He described personalised number plates as seeming an 'easy investment' during the Covid pandemic, when 'people had a lot more time on their hands and money which they weren't spending on holidays or activities'. He added: 'The prices of the plates skyrocketed but now the value are in freefall.' According to revenue records shared by the DVLA, it has previously earned some £2.09billion from drivers buying and transferring private plates in a decade. The agency has said all money raised is passed to HM Treasury, with a proportion of the revenue retained by the Department of Transport. This would seem to be the ideal personalised number plate for a James Bond fan (stock image) The greats of all time: the top 10 most expensive personalised DVLA plates sold at auction The DVLA currently has about 60million private plate combinations available on its searchable database, with prices starting from £250 including VAT and an £80 assignment fee. The agency also hosts several online private registration plate auctions each year. The DVLA first started selling private number plates in 1989 - and '1 A', changing hands that year for £160,000 still sits in the top 10 priciest sold by the agency. The most expensive of all is '25 O', which reached £400,000, excluding fees and taxes, on 27 November 27 2014. Various firms across the country also allow people to buy and sell private and cherished numberplates, with the industry recently valued at more than £2billion.
