Latest news with #Leicester
BBC News
22 minutes ago
- Sport
- BBC News
Maguire wins 2025 Championship League
Stephen Maguire has won the first ranking event of the season, beating Joe O'Connor 3-1 in the final of the 2025 Championship League in Leicester. It is the 44-year-old Scot's seventh career ranking title from 15 finals and his first since winning the 2020 Tour Championship. The tournament, which takes place over three stages and began at Leicester Arena on 30 June, reached its finale on Wednesday, with just eight of the 128-strong field remaining. Maguire booked his spot in the final after topping Group 2 in a best-of-four frame round-robin. The 15th seed beat Matthew Selt (3-0) and Ben Mertens (3-0) before losing to China's Pang Junxu (3-1). Leicester-born O'Connor, seeded 16th, only dropped two frames to finish first in Group 1, beating Ricky Walden (3-1), Xu Si (3-1), and Tom Ford (3-0). In the best-of-five frame final, Maguire took a 2-0 lead before O'Connor pulled one frame back with a 99-point break. However, Maguire produced a match-winning 89 to secure the title with a frame to spare.
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Moment police handcuff bleary-eyed drug dealers sleeping in bed
Police bodycam captured the moment a pair of sleeping drugs dealers were placed in handcuffs while still in bed as officers executed a dawn raid. An investigation into a drugs line operating between London and Leicestershire led officers to serve a warrant on a property in Leicester on 5 October 2022, where crack cocaine with a street value of over £10,000 was found. Bodycam footage shows Miguel Figueiredo-Mendes and Jean Paul Ekombolo, both 28, being handcuffed after police breached the flat door. Figueiredo-Mendes, of Orange Grove in Chigwell, was sentenced to six years and three months after pleading guilty to conspiracy to supply cocaine and heroin, while Ekombolo, of Mast Street in Barking, was sentenced to four years imprisonment after pleading guilty to conspiracy to supply cocaine.
BBC News
7 hours ago
- General
- BBC News
Tech glitch leaves some disabled people unable to pay for care
Some disabled people have been left unable to pay for their care because of a glitch in a funding system used by councils across the technical issues mean some carers and personal assistants have not been paid for more than a woman who uses a wheelchair said it had left "vulnerable people and essential workers in limbo".The company that runs the system, Prepaid Financial Services (PFS), apologised and said it was working to "rectify the situation as quickly as possible". Many local authorities provide funds for people who qualify for support by issuing pre-paid cards, which the recipient can use to pay for disabled people use the money to hire care workers or personal assistants, which means they become employers.A Local Government Association (LGA) spokesperson said local councils are working hard to provide alternative payment added that councils are working to ensure continuity of care," especially for those with the highest levels of need". Anne Pridmore, who runs a network for disabled people called Being the Boss, employs five personal assistants for round-the-clock care at her home in care costs £11,000 a month and is funded by Leicester City Council through a pre-paid told the BBC she was worried about the consequences of not being able access the funds, since she could not otherwise afford it."If they don't get paid, my employees could take me to court," she said. "I am their employer so the buck stops with me."Ms Pridmore said she had been left frustrated and angry."This service blackout is leaving vulnerable people and essential workers in limbo, without any viable alternative". Leicestershire County Council said around 3,500 people in the county held pre-paid cards, but not all of them would be impacted by what was a "national" issue.A spokesperson for the council told the BBC it had reached out to those who were affected with "support and advice on what to do if they need to make payments urgently and to ensure that alternative arrangements are in place"."We appreciate the difficulties that this has caused and are doing everything we can to help," the statement added. Nicola from Bradford, who asked the BBC not to report her second name, is a full-time carer for her daughter who has multiple disabilities which require first noticed that she could not log in to her payment account on 14 daughter also has six other carers, and she said the thought of them seeking alternative work as a result was daunting."I will be required to stay awake 24 hours a day, which is not possible and it would probably mean that my daughter will be housebound as I'd not have support to take her out," she BBC has contacted Bradford Council for a response. Sophie Withers, a personal assistant from Morecombe who got in touch with the BBC via Your Voice, Your BBC News, is paid weekly and said she was owed £720 last week because clients had been unable to pay her."My rent was due on Saturday so I was really panicking by Thursday," she said. Ms Withers was able to get an emergency payment from her local authority, but said that was no longer an option this week as it was a one-off gesture."I hope this is resolved quickly. I don't want think about what happens if I can't get paid," she said."I need to pay for petrol which is essential for work, I need supplies like [personal protective equipment] and to pay for food and bills."A spokesman for Lancashire County Council said more than 100 councils and NHS bodies were likely to have been affected by the technical issue. "[PFS] has assured the council that they are urgently working to restore all functionality," he said."We are using our local communications to make sure that service users and their families know how to get the support available." In a statement sent to the BBC on Wednesday afternoon, PFS said "core services have been substantially restored" and customer funds "remained secure and fully protected".It said some of its programs "relied on an external payment processor" but were in the process of being moved to an "in-house processing infrastructure"."We sincerely regret the inconvenience caused and appreciate the patience and understanding shown by our customers and cardholders," it said."This decision, made under exceptional circumstances, reflects our deep commitment to protecting our customers and ensuring long-term service resilience."The LGA said the issues began after a recent platform migration by PFS, and it was aware of issues affecting a number of councils using the system for social care direct payments.
BBC News
9 hours ago
- BBC News
Armed police called to street after burglary report in Leicester
Armed officers were deployed to a residential street in Leicester following reports of a burglary in were called to Egerton Avenue shortly after 11:15 BST on Wednesday. No suspects were found inside the property, but officers discovered a number of cannabis Police said armed officers were sent "in the interest of public and police safety".
BBC News
17 hours ago
- Health
- BBC News
Abandoned Leicester care home turned into NHS facility
An abandoned care home in Leicester has been turned into a recovery and rehabilitation centre to relieve pressure on the city's first 25 beds have opened at the new Preston Lodge following extensive site is expected to be fully up and running by winter, with a total of 58 facility is designed for patients who no longer need to remain in hospital, but would benefit from a stay in the nurse-led unit before being discharged. Patients are expected to stay at the facility at Preston Lodge, in Kingfisher Avenue, for between 21 and 28 days Roberts, a head of nursing at the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust (UHL), said patients can lose muscle condition during a stay in hospital and the aim of extending their stay is "to get them back to their peak fitness".Patients will also have access to dietitians, occupational therapists, and physiotherapists. Prof Damian Roland, an emergency medicine consultant at Leicester Royal Infirmary, said: "We take patients who are sitting in an acute hospital bed and move them to a place where they get that rehabilitation."That gets the patient well more quickly, prevents them perhaps needing further care, but [it] also releases a bed so that we can release patients from the emergency department and other hospital areas."On an average day, there are about 100 patients in hospital beds in Leicester's three main NHS hospitals who are medically fit but there are issues with discharging them, according to Roland said the project is aligned with the government's 10 year plan for the NHS, which aims to move more care into the community. Rowena Harvey, a deputy chief nurse at UHL, added: "It's not going to solve everything but it's a step on that journey and it's about how we work as a system together to achieve the best outcome for our population."Preston Lodge was a city council-run care home and prior to it being used by the NHS, there had been discussions over it potentially becoming flats.
