Senior lawyers representing millions of WASPI women are preparing to write to the Government citing “multiple legal errors” over their continued refusal to deliver compensation Government lawyers will have 14 days to respond to the pre-court action letter before they risk being hauled back to the High Court for a second judicial review. Campaigners have labelled the Department for Work and Pensions’ compensation stance “irrational and unfair”, describing their approach to affected women as “offensive”.

Miller Homes has opened applications for the first round of its 2026 Community Fund, inviting charities and community groups across the North West, including Coppull to apply for grants to support local projects and initiatives. The fund offers donations ranging from £250 to £2,000, helping organisations that make a positive difference within the communities where the homebuilder operates.

Donald Trump recently dismissed Sir Keir Starmer with a barbed remark: the British prime minister, he said, was “no Churchill”. It was a typically Trumpian flourish, provocative, theatrical, designed for social media headlines. Yet by his standards it was almost restrained. He might easily have added, more devastatingly, what Starmer actually is rather than what he is not.

Three months ago, the bus company extended its 600 service between Carlisle and Cockermouth to continue on to Whitehaven, and the half-hourly service has proved so popular with the public that last Friday, 6 March, it reached the milestone of carrying its 10,000th passenger. This has been made possible by financial support from Cumberland Council through its Cumberland Go initiative.

A powerful theatre production tackling child criminal exploitation is touring primary schools across Bradford, Leeds, Wakefield and Wigan, Oldham and Brinnington, from 2 March, reaching more than 1,300 young people at a critical stage in their development.

Pub bells across the UK will ring out early this evening at 6pm – and each night over the next six days – as part of a new campaign by Greene King and Macmillan Cancer Support to raise awareness of the one in six men in the UK who will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime.

Millions of commuters across the country are now benefiting from a freeze on rail fares for the first time in 30 years, helping with the cost of living and supporting economic growth.

Yorkshire leaders, businesses, farmers, food producers, and many more are working with citizens from across the UK to shape a new government Food Strategy. York & North Yorkshire was the second of the What Works Here Inquiries and involved representatives from across the region's food system coordinated by Deliciously Yorkshire. The Inquiries are being led by the Citizen Advisory Council (CAC), a group of citizens from across the UK, who are working with government to understand the way food works in York & North Yorkshire, the challenges for many families in affording healthy, local produce and how national government could help.

The Church of England in Lancashire (Blackburn Diocese) was one of five dioceses to have a youth representative attending the most recent General Synod for the first time. William Leeming from Clitheroe is also Churchwarden of Whitewell St Michael in the Parish of Hodder Valley. General Synod is the national ‘parliament’ of the church and it meets several times a year.

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly known as Prince Andrew, was arrested on the morning of his 66th birthday earlier this week. The Met Police had been investigating claims that his royal protection officers had been ‘turning a blind eye’ during visits to Epstein’s Island. What a way to celebrate another trip around the sun!

You’ve barely packed away the last of the fairy lights and wrestled with the glut of bloated January bills, and just as you come up for air, half term. Really, so soon?! BACP counsellor Margaret Ward-Martin, founder of The Grace Project, looks at how to make the most of the half-term ‘break’ for both parents and children.