There will be no duck race in Burton Latimer this year after the popular event was postponed again. The family day out sees hundreds of plastic ducks released into the River Ise.
Last year it was postponed twice, the second time because it fell within the period of national mourning after the death of the Queen.
Burton Latimer Town Council has said it won’t go ahead again this year. It said legal restrictions meant it could not operate in the normal way while the positions of town clerk and financial officer were both vacant – the person who had previously held both roles having resigned.
Now the council has staff in place, it says a review found it needed a licence – but couldn’t get everything sorted in time for the event to be held.
Northamptonshire Telegraph
(Graham Reeves)
Rest for the wicked
A family returned from a holiday to find a burglar asleep on their sofa.
Christopher West, 38, stole no loot but tucked in to food and booze at the Sunderland home. The intruder, who had knives on him, got a suspended sentence at Newcastle Crown Court.
Metro
(Amanda Welles)
Mow them down
A drunk driver was caught driving a ride-on lawnmower down a dual carriageway between Leighton Buzzard and Milton Keynes in the middle of the night.
Several members of the public called 999 after seeing the mower. It was stopped in Bletchley.
A police spokesperson said: “In Milton Keynes we see weird and wonderful sights every day, but even then we are shocked by what we find sometimes.”
Milton Keynes Citizen
(Daragh Brady)
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This article appears in the 14 Jun 2023 issue of the New Statesman, Over and Out