The Community Barber is back on Wednesday 15 July, between 1 – 3pm!
Appointments for free short hair cuts are available for residents living in North Edinburgh.
Spaces are limited, so booking is a must.
Get in touch with the Link Up team on 07493 876 130 to book your spot.
Seven-in-10 police forces caught drivers travelling at twice the speed limit or more on 30mph roads last year, new data analysed by the RAC has found.
Findings from a Freedom of Information request made to the UK’s police forces show the truly terrifying speeds some people are prepared to drive at that put everybody at risk. One driver was caught at 89mph on a 20mph stretch of the B5129 in Deeside, north Wales; another at 114mph on a 30mph road in Aylestone, Leicestershire – the latter close to a primary school, although luckily the driver was caught in the middle of the night.
Other shocking examples of truly excessive speeds on 20mph roads in the daytime included someone clocked at 64mph at around 10.45am in Halifax, West Yorkshire, a 60mph speed recorded in Southport in Merseyside, and a driver logged at 48mph in Alderley Edge in Cheshire around 3pm. Even faster speeds were recorded in the middle of the night by forces in other parts of the country, including 72mph in Holland Park in London and 68mph on the B3122 in south Bristol.
On 30mph roads, a speed of 95mph was recorded at around 3pm by a driver in Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset and by another on a stretch of the A5 east of Leighton Buzzard in Bedfordshire. Elsewhere, a speeder was clocked at 80mph close to schools in Culcheth, Cheshire at around 3pm, and another at 79mph just after 4pm on a road in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria. Again, higher speeds still were recorded by other forces on roads at night – such as 111mph on the A3400 in Hockley Heath in the West Midlands, and 109mph on the B6145 in Bradford.
In total, across 33 UK police force areas, 271,341 drivers were caught driving at 40mph or more on 30mph roads – speeds of at least 33% higher than the posted limit – while across 28 forces 32,548 drivers were caught at 30mph or more on 20mph roads.
When it comes to the highest overall speeds last year, vehicles were recorded travelling at 161mph by police forces on the A5 in Bayston Hill, Shropshire and on the M6 southbound between Stoke-on-Trent and Stafford. Other drivers were caught at 160mph on the M6 in Cheshire, 158mph on the A14 in Suffolk and 155mph on the A38 Sutton Coldfield bypass in the West Midlands.
Speed has for a long time been one of the main factors in fatal collisions on Great Britain’s roads. Official data for 2024 – the latest year data is available – shows that speed was a factor in most (58%) fatal collisions, with drivers or riders exceeding the speed limit behind a fifth (20%) of all such collisions.
In the same year, 185 people lost their lives where breaking the speed limit played a role. Such collisions are most likely to take place in the summer months and on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.
Previous RAC research found that four-in-five drivers said they regularly see people driving at excessive speeds on 20mph and 30mph roads, while 55% said they believe there is a ‘culture of speeding’ in the UK. Separate research last Autumn found that 86% of drivers polled support new measures to combat excessive speeding, of which 55% strongly support action.
The RAC recently responded to several Government consultations following the publication in January of the Road Safety Strategy, the first in over a decade.
It has welcomed commitments to reduce the number of people killed and seriously injured on the roads by 65% by 2035, and the acknowledgment that excessive speeding should not go unchallenged.
However, the RAC believes clear focus must now be placed on tackling those drivers that represent the biggest risk on the roads, including those that are prepared to drive at such high speeds – especially on low (20/30mph) roads – and those that habitually reoffend.
RAC senior policy officer Rod Dennis said: “Our analysis shows some of the frankly chilling speeds some people are prepared to drive at – and these are just the cases the police are aware of.
“The fact that some were recorded in residential areas, even near schools, in daytime hours when others might well have been using the roads, underlines just how dangerous this kind of behaviour is. Such roads will almost certainly be well used by pedestrians and cyclists, so it doesn’t bear thinking about what travelling at such high speeds could have led to.
“There is a lot of work to be done. Despite drivers and riders exceeding speed limits being a factor in an increasing number of fatal road collisions, it’s clear that some people remain oblivious to the incredibly severe risk that driving too fast poses. The latest official data shows there were more than 300 fatal collisions in just one year where speeding was a factor – tragedies which are, on the whole, entirely avoidable given speeding is a choice the driver makes.
“We very much look forward to the Government’s response to its consultations on the Road Safety Strategy. New casualty reduction targets and an update to councils on setting local speeds are welcome, but a greater focus tackling the problem of excessive speeding and repeat offending is also desperately needed.
“Together with the Stop Excessive Speeders campaign, we therefore strongly urge the Government to introduce Intervening Intelligent Speed Assistance technology – which can prevent a vehicle from exceeding the limit – to reduce the number of drivers on our roads that puts all of us at risk.”
National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for roads policing Chief Constable Jo Shiner said: “The fact that a majority of drivers now believe there is a culture where speeding is acceptable reflects a deeply embedded issue in driver behaviour.
“We must reset expectations and make it clear that safe, lawful driving is a shared responsibility.”
The case for Intervening Intelligent Speed Assistance (IISA) technology – as made by the RAC in its response to the Government’s Road Safety Strategy consultation:
Speeding in the UK is a widespread and persistent problem that continues to drive death, serious injury and wider social and economic harm on a significant scale. In reported road collisions in Great Britain in 2024, 29,467 people were killed or seriously injured, and 128,272 casualties of all severities were recorded.
Further, RAC research in October 2025 found that 86% of drivers polled support new measures to combat excessive speeding, of which 55% strongly support action.
The Government has recently consulted on mandating Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA) in new vehicles that in future are sold in Great Britain. Though a welcome addition to road safety, the impact of ISA has a limit as it only advises the driver of a speed limit breach and can be overridden at will.
Intervening ISA (IISA) is an aftermarket technology that limits throttle input when required to ensure compliance with the speed limit and can only be overridden in limited and monitored circumstances.
The RAC is therefore supporting the new Stop Excessive Speeders campaign, and its call for Intervening ISA to be considered for its potential to significantly improve road safety by specifically targeting those most dangerous offenders.
Intervening ISA should be used as a specific mandatory judicial intervention, in coordination with the DVLA, for drivers who persistently and dangerously exceed the speed limit, despite multiple other interventions.
Intervening ISA would be used as a condition of retaining or regaining a licence and paid for at the cost of the motorist, with subsidies provided for low-income motorists to ensure they are not excluded on the basis of exceptional financial hardship.
To provide a more robust evidentiary basis for the widespread implementation of intervening ISA, specifically as a judicial intervention for repeat or serious speed offenders, the RAC – together with the Stop Excessive Speeders campaign – supports calls for a legislated intervening ISA pilot programme for Great Britain, with mirrored provision for Northern Ireland.
Picnic & Rounders
Tuesday 14th July 4 – 6.
If you would like to come along please let us know. This is a bookable event
Would you or anyone you know fancy coming along to one of groups?
Our groups are friendly, fun and a great place to chat to others!
Ofcom has today fined Virgin Media £28 million for putting customers on millions of calls through unreasonable effort, hassle and difficulty when trying to switch to another provider.
In the UK’s competitive market, telecoms customers can choose from a wide range of providers, services and packages – often saving hundreds of pounds by switching to a new deal. The ability for customers to shop around, switch and save is particularly important given the current cost-of-living crisis facing UK households.
Our rules – known as General Conditions – are clear that the conditions or procedures telecoms providers have in place must not act as a disincentive for customers who wish to cancel their contract.
Having received significant volumes of complaints from Virgin Media customers reporting difficulties in cancelling their contracts – and following unsuccessful engagement with the company to address this issue – Ofcom launched an investigation to establish whether the company had complied with its duties.
Our investigation uncovered systemic and repeated failings in Virgin Media’s contract termination procedures. Millions of calls made by customers between 1 January 2022 to 11 September 2024 were likely to have been mishandled by call agents in order to delay or prevent customers from cancelling and switching to a competitor.
As a result, we have concluded that Virgin Media’s two-tier cancellation process and agent behaviours caused customers on millions of calls unreasonable effort, hassle or undue difficulty when trying to cancel.
These failings likely acted as a disincentive to switch for customers across millions of calls – delaying or preventing them from taking advantage of a competitor’s offer, against Ofcom’s consumer protection rules.
As a result of Virgin Media’s serious failures, Ofcom has fined the company £28 million, which will be passed on to HM Treasury.
In setting the penalty amount we took into consideration, among other things:
The penalty includes a 30% reduction on what it otherwise would have been, given Virgin Media admitted its failing and agreed to settle the case.
Natalie Black, Ofcom’s Group Director, Infrastructure and Connectivity, said: “The facts are clear. Virgin Media made it harder for customers to cancel their contracts and then did not fully cooperate with our investigation. As a result, we are levelling our largest ever fine under our consumer protection rules for direct harm to consumers.
“Today, we are sending a clear message that any provider who wilfully acts against the interests of their customers will pay a heavy price. And by introducing the One Touch Switch Process, we‘ve put in place further safeguards to prevent this from happening again.”
Virgin Media has made a number of important changes, including to improve its commission scheme, training and quality assurance and monitoring.
As part of our decision, we are requiring Virgin Media to check that every affected customer who complained has received the compensation or other remedies they were entitled to. The company must complete this in six months.
Jupiter Artland Foundation has announced the launch of Jupiter+ Nation in Dumfries, the fifth iteration of its pioneering youth and community engagement programme and the culmination of five years of sustained investment in young people, artists, and communities across Scotland.
Beginning in Dumfries and designed to grow nationally, Jupiter+ Nation marks a significant evolution in Jupiter Artland’s commitment to widening access to contemporary art and creating meaningful pathways into creative careers.
Running in Dumfries at Loreburne Shopping Centre, High Street, Dumfries from 31 July, with an associated programme from 28 August, the project transforms a vacant former estate agent’s office inside the Loreburne Shopping Centre into a free-to-visit contemporary art space, anchoring an ambitious free learning programme expanding nationwide.
The exhibition and programme ends on 6 December 2026.
Since launching in Perth in 2022, Jupiter+ has transformed vacant high street spaces into sites for world-class contemporary art, creative learning, and youth engagement. Across Perth, Ayr, Paisley and Dundee, the programme has welcomed more than 20,500 visitors and engaged 2,536 learners through exhibitions, workshops, artist commissions, mentoring and youth development initiatives.
What began as a local experiment has become a nationally significant programme, demonstrating how contemporary art can create opportunity, confidence, and cultural participation in communities across Scotland.
Jupiter+ Nation now becomes the umbrella identity and long-term home for this work: a permanent national platform connecting young people, artists and communities through contemporary art.
After Dumfries, the programme will continue to create opportunities for participation, artist development and cultural engagement, building a growing national network across Scotland.
The exhibition in Dumfries this season features Growing Pains, a striking, site-specific multimedia installation by award-winning artist Lindsey Mendick.
Referencing her own teenage years in the early 2000s, Mendick transforms the former commercial office space into a haunting, humorous, and deeply immersive environment exploring the uncertainty, awkwardness, and social hierarchies of adolescence.
Using the metaphor of an estate agency, a business built entirely on peddling aspirational lifestyles, the installation features an intricate, spiralling office desk displaying eight Alice-in-Wonderland-style ceramic dollhouses bursting with teenage figures. The exhibition explores themes of social mobility, identity, and the transitional thresholds of youth, alongside an accompanying video piece.
Nicky Wilson, Director, Jupiter Artland, said: “The programme’s fifth year marks a major milestone. Through artist-inspired learning, youth leadership programmes, residencies and public commissions, Jupiter+ has worked with schools, colleges, universities, and community organisations across the country, helping young people develop creative skills, discover new pathways, and build confidence in their own voices.
“Independent evaluation across the programme shows strong evidence of impact.
“In Dundee, participants reported feeling more confident sharing their own experiences through creative work, and 73% of learners said they felt more inspired to use creativity to speak up about issues that matter to them after taking part.
“More than three quarters agreed that exhibitions like Jupiter+ create spaces where young people can ask big questions and imagine new futures.”
At the core of Jupiter+ Dumfries is a barrier-free educational outreach offer.
As in every iteration of Jupiter+, every secondary school, college, and community group in Dumfries and Galloway is invited to take part in fully funded, tailored learning sessions.
The launch of this national programme comes as the Milburn Review brings renewed national attention to the scale of youth disengagement across the UK.
Jupiter+ Nation stands as five years of working evidence that creative participation can open new pathways for young people, an approach aligned with Scotland’s Developing the Young Workforce strategy and the widening-access ambitions of A Blueprint for Fairness.
Participant feedback reflects the programme’s wider ambition. One young person commented after their experience: “I learned to not be afraid of stepping out of my comfort zone. Have confidence in myself.”
Another described the experience as “liberating and freeing”, highlighting the importance of creativity as a space for experimentation, expression and personal growth.
Exhibition Dates:
31 July – 6 December 2026 (Tuesday to Friday for booked sessions; extended public opening hours to coincide with holidays and regional events).
Location: Loreburne Shopping Centre, High Street, Dumfries, DG1 2BD.
Jupiter Artland
Alongside its learning programme, JUPITER+Dumfries presents a public programme of free artist-led events that encourages creativity, dialogue and civic participation across the region. To be announced.
A 33-year-old man has been arrested and charged in connection with the death of 35-year-old Barry Gilgun in Edinburgh.
Barry was found with serious injuries following a disturbance outside Cables Wynd House in Leith on Sunday, 5 July, 2026.
He was taken by ambulance to the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, where he died a short time later.
The 33-year-old is due to appear at Edinburgh Sheriff Court today – Tuesday, 7 July.
A report will be sent to the Procurator Fiscal.
The latest issue of CAMRA’s branch magazine Pints of View is currently being distributed.
Goodbye Dandelion, a humorous, moving new work by award-winning writer and performer Maddie Rice and composer Marcus Rice, has been selected as the recipient of the inaugural Underbelly Futures Fund Award.
Created to support exceptional new work at and beyond the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the Underbelly Futures Fund Award recognises productions that demonstrate outstanding artistic merit and strong future touring potential.
As the 2026 recipient, Goodbye Dandelion will receive a package of support designed to help the production thrive both during the festival and in its future development. This includes £5,000 in grant funding and £5,000 in investment to support the current and ongoing life of the show.
The company will also receive a favourable venue agreement, enhanced marketing support, in-kind rehearsal space, financial assistance to facilitate accessible performances and the opportunity to perform at Underbelly Soho’s Fringe Fix Season in September.
Goodbye Dandelion is told by real-life siblings Maddie (on the mic) and Marcus (on the keys), and was created with and directed by Katie Pesskin. The show follows the final years of 87-year-old Darcy through the eyes of an unlikely new friend. Blending storytelling and live piano, the piece explores friendship, mortality, and what it means to truly live.
The work marks Maddie Rice’s return to Underbelly following her acclaimed turn in Fleabag (2017), becoming the only actor other than Phoebe Waller-Bridge to play the role, and her award-winning solo show Pickle Jar (2018), also directed with and directed by Katie Pesskin.
Goodbye Dandelion was first presented in development at Underbelly’s scratch night Belly Scratch in November 2025, where it immediately stood out for the sensitivity and confidence of the work, the compelling onstage dynamic between the siblings, and the use of live music to heighten the storytelling.
The Futures Fund continues Underbelly’s history of championing daring new voices across theatre and live performance.
Marina Dixon, Head of Programming at Underbelly said: “We were all highly impressed with the beautiful and sensitive writing, the way the music is used to heighten the story, the clear on-stage familial dynamic between Marcus and Maddie, and the willingness to take on a controversial and relevant topic.
“We are proud to name Goodbye Dandelion as the recipient of the inaugural Underbelly Future Fund Award and look forward to supporting the show’s continued development and future journey.”
Maddie Rice said: ‘We’re so thrilled to be supported by the Underbelly Futures Fund! Goodbye Dandelion begun life at BellyScratch, and as a writer/ performer I’ve done most of my previous fringe shows at Underbelly- so this feels like a full circle moment.
“It’s my first time at the fringe for 7 years and feels extra special to have this support and to be working with Marcus and Katie. Thank you Underbelly!’
From October 2026, people in supported housing and temporary accommodation will be able to keep more of what they earn.
We’re modernising Housing Benefit rules and ensuring people are better off when they increase their earnings, hours or move into work.
Find out more: https://ow.ly/IJ9050Zk4Xb
More than 300,000 residents in supported housing and temporary accommodation will no longer face a drop in income when increasing their working hours, under new rules laid in Parliament yesterday.
More than 300,000 residents in supported housing and temporary accommodation will no longer face a drop in income when increasing their working hours, under new rules laid in Parliament yesterday [Monday 6 July].
The system inherited by this Government left vulnerable people in supported housing having to choose between staying out of work, or risk losing their housing support, because the work allowance was higher for Universal Credit than it was for Housing Benefit.
The less generous rules for Housing Benefit created a cliff edge that trapped people on benefits rather than supporting them into work. Some landlords even discouraged residents from taking jobs to protect their own rental income.
As part of the Government’s commitment to move from a welfare state to a working state, the regulations change how Housing Benefit is calculated so it works in the same way as Universal Credit – a change that will incentivise work for 315,000 people when they come into force in October 2026.
Sir Stephen Timms, Minister for Social Security and Disability, said: “The system we inherited was actively pushing some of the most vulnerable residents away from work rather than towards it.
“These changes fix that – ensuring residents can keep more of what they earn, so that taking a job or increasing hours always pays better than benefits.
“This announcement delivers on a commitment made in our Autumn Budget, and forms part of the government’s wider plan to reform the welfare system – tearing out the barriers that have trapped people in dependency.
“We are replacing that system with one that rewards work and ensures people keep more of what they earn, while protecting those who need it most.”
Monday’s rules come alongside previous steps to help people on disability benefits that want to work, into work, says the government: ‘We have already rebalanced Universal Credit to tackle the perverse incentives that discouraged work and introduced Right to Try legislation, allowing sick or disabled people to try work without the immediate fear of reassessment.
‘These measures come alongside our Connect to Work programme, which delivers tailored, personalised, local support that will help 300,000 people into work, and the deployment of 1000 Pathways to Work advisers to help those written off by the previous Government’.
Additional Information
