Category: Leicester

A section of the A610 Nuthall Road is to remain closed into next week after a diesel spillage damaged the road surface.The inbound carriageway remains closed from Cinderhill Island to Bar Lane following the spillage, which affected the stretch from the Tesco garage to Llanberis Grove.The closure was first put in place after diesel was found on the highway on Wednesday 1 July, prompting highways and cleansing teams to work overnight to clear the site.Following an assessment of the damage, the council said the road surface now has “unacceptably low skid resistance” and that the spillage could have both immediate and longer-term effects on the structural integrity of the road.The council said it had no option but to resurface the affected stretch to make it safe for motorists.Resurfacing work is due to begin this morning and is expected to continue into next week. The road will remain closed while the work takes place.A further update is expected early next week.

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TheBusinessDesk.com is bringing its next networking mixer to Roxy Ball Room in Leicester for an evening of friendly competition, relaxed networking and new connections.
Join fellow professionals from across Leicester and the wider Midlands on Thursday September 10 for a social event designed to make networking feel a little less formal – and a lot more fun.
Your ticket includes access to a series of games to help break the ice, including American Pool, Shuffleboard and Tech Darts. And yes, there will absolutely be bragging rights up for grabs.
Wondering what we mean by “young professional”? Let’s just say we’re not checking ID.
Tickets cost £30 + VAT and include:
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🎯 Unlimited gaming access – enjoy American Pool, Shuffleboard and Tech Darts throughout the evening.
Whether you’re looking to expand your network, catch up with familiar faces or simply enjoy an evening out with the Midlands business community, The Leicester Mixer is the perfect opportunity.
So, chalk up your cue, grab a drink and get ready to play. We’ll see you there – get your tickets here.

A Leicestershire MP says it is “utterly unacceptable” that a convicted people smuggler, once described as the “godfather” of French migrant camps, is living in the county and believed to be seeking asylum while working illegally.A BBC investigation traced Twana Jamal to Blaby and found two mini-marts linked to him. South Leicestershire MP Alberto Costa, whose constituency office is next door to one of the shops, said he had contacted Leicestershire Police to ask what the force intends to do with the information and would be raising the issue with the Home Office.”Let’s be clear this man should not be in Blaby, should not be in this country,” he said.The Conservative MP has urged the people of Blaby to stay away from the shops linked to Jamal.”He is a convicted human trafficker and the fact that he’s come to our home, to Blaby, in our local community, and is exploiting the system by working apparently illegally because he doesn’t have any settled status here, is utterly unacceptable,” he said.”The fact that he’s actually opened a business next door to a member of parliament’s constituency office speaks volumes about the character of this individual.”

A robbery at a convenience store in Leicester has been linked to a raid on a bookmakers a few days before.Police were called to the store near Sansom Road in New Parks at 07:08 BST on Thursday following a report two masked men had entered the premises, threatening staff with a suspected pistol and striking one on the head, slightly injuring him.The men made off on foot towards Samson Road with a quantity of cash.Detectives said due to similarities, they were investigating potential links with an armed robbery at a betting shop in Glenfield on Sunday evening.Det Insp Graeme Baxter said officers had conducted a forensic examination of the store and were reviewing CCTV.”We continue to investigate an armed robbery at a bookmakers on Sunday evening in Glenfield and believe due to the similarities and proximity to both incidents, that they could be linked.”I would like to appeal to anyone who may have seen something connected to this incident to please get in touch. “Did you see two men in the area beforehand acting suspiciously? Did you see where the men went when they left the store?”Footage from doorbells, dashcams or CCTV may have also captured something so please if you live locally, please check your devices,” he said.

1 July 2026

The earliest evidence of spiders’ fangs has been identified in a 518-million-year-old fossil by scientists at the University of Leicester and Yunnan University.
From the infamous Black Widow spider to the radioactive spider that gave Spider-Man his superpowers, the arachnid’s bite has been a key part of its enduring image and chilling reputation.
Now, the evolution of the powerful fangs that make spiders such formidable hunters has been traced back to its earliest known appearance in the fossil Urokodia, detailed in a new study for the journal Nature published today (1 July).
Spiders, along with scorpions and ticks, form part of a group of invertebrates known as chelicerates, currently comprising over 100,000 described species. They have jointed limbs and external skeletons but are particularly noted for the specialised limbs called chelicerae at the front of the animal which are used as pincers or fangs for stabbing prey.
The fossils of Urokodia were recovered from the famous Chengjiang fossil site of Yunnan Province in southern China and this latest study is published on the 42-year anniversary of the discovery of the site. Urokodia was quite small at around 2-3 cm long with large eyes protruding on stalks from the front, a segmented skeleton and jointed limbs strung from the underside of its slender body. At first glance, it doesn’t resemble the spiders and scorpions that are its modern-day descendants.
Using X-ray analysis, the team of scientists at Yunnan University, China, and the University of Leicester probed the rock in which the fossil was entombed, revealing that most of its soft anatomy was still mummified after hundreds of millions of years. 
Their analysis also revealed two pincer-like limbs emerging just behind its eyes that are the beginnings of chelicerae. Urokodia also shows some features on its legs that suggest they were acting as book gills for breathing, similar to modern aquatic chelicerates like the horseshoe crab. 

Chelicerates are one of the most successful groups to live on the land and in the sea. On land they have become remarkable hunters and the fossil record shows that their ancestors have been doing this for hundreds of millions of years.
But while monster movies such as Arachnophobia portray spiders as a horrifying threat to humans, most spiders are completely harmless to us because their bites and venom are designed for much smaller prey.
The study was led by Professor Yu Liu of Yunnan University who is also a Visiting Professor at the University of Leicester.
Professor Liu said: “We were using x-ray tomography analysis of these fossils to reveal their soft anatomy buried in the rocks for hundreds of millions of years, when suddenly we noticed the pincer-like limbs at the front of the animal. We knew immediately that this was a very exciting fossil and indeed a distant ancestor of living chelicerates like scorpions and spiders.”
Co-author Professor Mark Williams from the University of Leicester School of Geography, Geology and the Environment said: “Urokodia was part of an ancient ecosystem of over 200 different types of animals living in the seas over 500 million years ago. These spectacularly preserved fossils provide real insights into how life was evolving on our planet at the very dawn of animals.”

This study was supported by a grant from the Department of Science and Technology of Yunnan Province (202401BC070012) to Professor Yu Liu, who is further funded by the Yunnan Revitalization Talent Support Program.

A fire at a Leicester landmark building that led to a number of city centre streets being closed was accidental, an investigation has found.Fire crews were called to Alexandra House in Rutland Street at about 10:00 BST and found an area on the fourth floor alight.No injuries were reported and the fire was found to have been caused by an electrical fault which then spread to nearby clothing, the fire service said.Alexandra House is a highly ornate four-storey Victorian warehouse, built for Faire Bros Ltd, who were at the time one of the largest boot and shoe lace manufacturers and exporters in the world.

County council leader Dan Harrison said: “This new primary academy will help meet demand for places and give local families greater choice.”The council said it was inviting academy trusts to bid to run the school when it opens.It said there were five further primary schools nearby but all were popular and had a high demand for places.”Broadnook shows how house builders can help fund the infrastructure communities need as Leicestershire grows,” Harrison said.The Reform UK county council said it planned to build 45 new schools for about 26,000 more pupils over the next decade.Managing director of Davidsons Homes James Wilson said: “We’re delighted to see work begin on the new Broadnook primary school, which will become a real focal point for the community. “It’s fantastic to see another key piece of the vision for Broadnook becoming a reality.”

Plans to empty bins earlier and get bin men to work on bank holidays are being considered by waste bosses.Officials at South Kesteven District Council (SKDC) are considering getting refuse collectors to start emptying bins at 7am instead of 7.30am across the district.Residents can put out wheelie bins and sacks from 6pm the evening before collection day and should take them back by 6pm after their collection.Bins could be emptied earlier under new plans. Photo: South Kesteven District CouncilWhen the weather is particularly hot, the council said it may collect bins before 7am but stressed this would be communicated to residents beforehand.Bosses are also planning to get staff to collect bins on bank holidays instead of emptying bins a day later as is the case currently.Cabinet member for environment and waste, Rhys Baker (Independent – Bourne Austerby) told members of SKDC’s environment overview and scrutiny committee on Tuesday that the earlier start times for bin collections were aimed at improving staff wellbeing. Coun Baker said: “This is largely to acknowledge some of the challenges we are seeing, particularly in the summer where things are getting very hot.Coun Rhys Baker. Photo LDRS“But it also allows for vehicles to move when traffic patterns can become a little more predictable.”Coun Baker also said that the council is planning to get staff to empty bins on bank holidays and pay them extra for working on these days. The costs of doing this have not yet been worked out. Under the plans, collections which fall on Easter Monday, early May bank holiday, spring bank holiday, and summer bank holiday will take place on the usual collection day and not be re-scheduled to accommodate the Bank Holiday.Coun Baker added: “We’re also suggesting that there are changes to the bank holiday working – whereas at the moment, we tend to delay our collections by one day.“Everything gets knocked along one. We are proposing that we do not delay our collections on bank holidays. “It has a number of wellbeing benefits for our staff, not least that they haven’t had an extra day or sometimes two days, if they have a later in the week collection worth of mass just to pick up – these things get heavy.“It also means that we don’t have to put any word out to see if anybody wants to work extra shifts on Saturday. It is a better deployment of council resources. It is more efficient.”Officials are also considering introducing communal food waste bins for residents who live in flats above shops.Kay Boasman, head of waste management and market services at SKDC, said: “The pilot options for flats above shops include communal food waste bins on the streets. “So, these look a bit like litter bins and it’s for residents who don’t have capacity to store a caddy to use.“There have been some issues with that just around marking and stickers and signposting – which we’re working on.“It is a pilot project. We want to get it right for those residents. We’re collating feedback and improving that as we go.”She added that the proposal would help to improve the efficiency and effectiveness” of the council’s food waste collections.A final decision on these proposals will be made at a later cabinet meeting.

The Amos report also heard from staff across the trust, who said shortages across midwifery, medical, nursing and support roles “affected their wellbeing and the care they could provide”.It said: “They described starting shifts short-staffed, missing breaks, working beyond their contracted hours and struggling to protect training time, which contributed to exhaustion, sickness absence and difficulties in staff retention.While Holland said she was “absolutely” concerned to hear about staffing pressures, she felt it could “be easy to be hoodwinked slightly” into the narrative that problems with maternity services in Leicester were “all about” insufficient staffing levels.Holland felt hospital bosses did not learn from cases where babies had died or suffered harm and that learning bulletins given to staff were often “inadequate”.”It’s half-page, there is no measuring whether staff have read it and staff have reflective conversations,” she said.”That is absolutely inadequate, that is inappropriate when you have caused in some way the death of a child.”Julie Hogg, chief nurse at University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, said: “We have made important progress in recent years to improve our maternity and neonatal services, including strengthening how we listen to families, increasing staffing, improving triage and introducing digital systems to support safer care.”We know there is more to do, and we are continuing to work closely with partners to ensure women, babies and families experience these improvements consistently in the day-to-day care.”We will continue to listen to families and colleagues, act on what we hear, and ensure learning translates into meaningful and lasting change.”

Organisers of an Armed Forces Day event say they wanted to strike a balance between community and military attractions.The Stamford branch of the Royal British Legion staged an event at the Recreation Ground on Sunday to recognise the role of the Armed Forces.A programme of live music ran from 11.30am until 6pm with contributions from Bomber Country Pipe and Drums, The Alibi, The Vintage Singers, Ellie James, Cottemore Military Wives Choir and the Huntingdonshire Concert Band.Chris Tasker, Ian Field, Ross Smith, Paul Ampleford and Mo Gout represented the Royal British Lgion. Photo: Iliffe Media/Chris LowndesAlso keeping the crowds entertained were craft and trade stalls, community stands, a bar, refreshments, fairground rides, military displays and circus skills workshops.The refreshments tent was manned by Legion volunteers while Stamford Action hosted a Pimms bar. Young people from Stamford and Ketton Explorers and 4th Stamford Christchurch Guides were raising money for camping trips with a selection of games while 2nd Stamford Scouts offered the chance to make a stamped leather keyring.Stamford and Rutland Cancer Support, Stamford Prostate Support Group, the Men’s Shed, Hero Paws and Blesma, The Limbless Veterans also held promotional stands.Explorer scouts manned a human fruit machine to raise money for a trip to the World Scout Jamboree. Photo: Iliffe Media/Chris LowndesA Hurricane flypast also proved popular with the crowds. Event organiser Matt Wade, secretary of the Stamford branch of the Royal British Legion, said: “The idea was to bring the community together for Armed Forces Day. We felt that Stamford was worthy of a celebration because of its close links with military bases.“We also wanted to make sure everyone who wanted to join us was able to attend so there was no charge for stallholders.“There was good football during the day and everyone seemed to be pleased with the activities and the range of live music.Bomber Pipes and Drums performed throughout the day. Photo: Iliffe Media/Chris Lowndes“We would like to thank all those that supported Armed Forces Day. Special thanks to all the community groups and traders, to the fantastic music groups that performed, to all the helpers and contractors but most of all to those that came and supported the event. We hope they enjoyed it as much as we did organising it.”The Vintage Singers. Photo: Iliffe Media/Chris LowndesThe branch committee will now decide whether to make the event a regular feature in Stamford’s calendar.