Police are required to attend and investigate ALL domestic burglaries in England & Wales.

 

Now ongoing until 1700

 

Amongst local facilities/services lost to my home town of Evesham in the last 25 - 35 years that come immediately to mind:

Hospital services including Casualty and Maternity; Magistrates Court; County Court; Driving Test Centre; Ambulance Station; Police Station.  All centralised "to reduce costs and improve service"  The NHS even had the gall to sell off for housing a hospital that was not their property but held by a trust on behalf of Evesham people.

I am not alone amongst residents of what was once a lovely town that has lost so much who have seen neither a reduction in cost or a better provision of services

From my perspective, we've lost what's gone because the organisations concerned have looked too much into their own processes and empire building, and not enough at doing what they are handsomely funded to do

Before 1967, there was Worcestershire Constabulary.  That was merged with Shropshire and Herefordshire to form West Mercia Constabulary.  The new set up has seen nothing but reductions in police stations and police presence, year after year.  Have a burglary, and the best you can expect is a crime number to go on an insurance claim form.  The only place there isn't a shortage of police is at the doughnut counter of Lidl

Further merging police forces will save not a single penny, and will probably cost a fortune in reorganisation cost one-offs that will become permanent.

My father in law was a village bobby who retired after a lengthy career when he saw the deluge of paperwork that centralised "efficiency" seemed to produce and riot training became mandatory.  "Not what I joined for" he would say

 

So, not just the comedian's comedian then? [Image from here is not available to guests]

 
It would appear that we have a few frustrated cartographers here. [Image from here is not available to guests]

One of the jobs I wanted to do when I was a kid. Along with the obligatory 'train driver'.

 
Barrier and drain repairs are continuing on the M5 southbound between J28 (Cullompton) and J29 (A30, Exeter) as of midday 28/01/2026. Only one lane open.

As I found out this morning driving to IKEA in Exeter. Took nearly 45 minutes to get through the bottleneck. That was after abandoning my journey to IKEA Bristol yesterday.

I do now have the table I needed for my latest project...

[Image from here is not available to guests]

 
The Penzance bound sleeper was somewhat understandably 75 minutes late into Penzance. The London bound was at one point in the journey that late but made up a lot of the time to arrive 30 mins late.

 
Severe flood warning issued for Christchurch in Dorset (BCP in modern parlance):
Severe flood warning for Lower Stour at Iford Bridge Home Park https://check-for-flooding.service.gov.uk/target-area/111FWFSTOL819

Might be best not to plan a Christchurch to Poole run this Saturday.

 

The original Stanfords in Covent Garden before it was it modernised/improved had a fascinating and slightly hidden basement. It was run by two extremely knowledgeable gentlemen and stocked Military Survey and other specialist official maps. Too much of my money went there, and the staff added considerably to my mapping knowledge. Bad timing meant that I missed out on the detailed Falkland Island survey material. On the announcement of the task force MoD went and "recovered" the entire stock.

 
Ah, another good reason to re-equip bare-bones infrastructure provision at terminii. Newquay now on the destination list.

Mark

https://railway200.co.uk/Inspiration/

 
Delays to services between Reading and Newbury

Due to a points failure at Reading West disruption is expected until 13:30 28/01.
Train services between Reading and Newbury may be delayed.

 
Ten days ... and here from the White Horse News



This is a - developing - story ...

 

My recollection is that it became a rather vague travel/exploration-themed bookshop, not much different to the travel department in a larger Waterstones. There wasn't much of a compelling reason to go there.

Stanfords in Covent Garden, on the other hand, is a proper map and guidebook shop. I could spend days (and most of my savings) there.

The independent Map Shop in Upton-on-Severn is still going, and still wonderful: https://www.themapshop.co.uk/

 

Unlike JayMac's bete noir (aka the second steam engine to reach 100mph) The Modellers Den always had a definite atricle (but no apostrophe!) and used 'TMD' in its advertising.

 
From Devonlive: line along the Devon coast closed overnight 28/29th to make good what looks like a blowhole.

Mark

https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/main-train-line-devon-close-10780136

 
Who else remembers Verrechia's ice cream parlour..that predated Fairfax Street. It was my reward for not making hay with the pic and nix in Woolworths.....

 
Mark as usual being as up front as you would expect of him,an excellent interview by Richard Bowker.

 

And ... on our 19th birthday so we are entering our 20th year

 

England, (and possibly the whole of the UK) is over due for a National Police Force.  The current disjointed approach is out dated with different Forces taking the lead on key National tasks eg MET antiterrorism.

A National Force obviously needs needs accountability this would be the Crown ie Parliament, to fill the void locally maybe we should go back a few hundred to the ancient English roll of Sheriff  and have local Sheriffs, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheriff#:~:text=A%20sheriff%20is%20a%20government,England%20where%20the%20office%20originated.

 
at Yazykove in North Western Ukraine.

https://newsukraine.rbc.ua/news/tragedy-in-kharkiv-region-death-toll-rises-1769548551.html

 

My thanks also, to members of the Coffee Shop forum who have voted here.

I, too, can see the way the vote is going: please, if you haven't done so already, do cast your vote, with appropriate comments.

 


It would make sense.   I can really the route as a former user - very busy crossing too, must have been around 35 years ago.  In those days there were also routes from Harwich to Scandinavia - all gone too, and the case may well be there for a revival of one of them.  It is a very long way from the Netherlands, which is where the most northerly crossings that take passengers run, to Norway.  There are freight boats from Immingham ....

 
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That's an Iceland van, I think, not my Waitrose one, by the way. [Image from here is not available to guests] [Image from here is not available to guests] [Image from here is not available to guests]

 
Reading down through the military ranks, I think we may also have General Confusion, Major Disaster, Corporal Punishment and Private Parts to be recorded here. [Image from here is not available to guests]

 
When I heard the line was closed between Taunton and Exeter, I instantly assumed it was at Cowley where the problem was.

Looking at the photo of Hele and Bradninch, that doesn’t look good at all.

A major incident now being declared in Somerset. Not surprising really:
 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvgpzl87v8xo

 
It'd be good to know how Cowley is faring (and will fare over the next couple of days). Does anyone know?

Mark

 

Sir, I am Capt Halfwit's brother "Private Halfwit" because I read the item in exactly the same way.