Car swallowed by hole in London street

Residents of Woodland Terrace in Greenwich woke up on Thursday morning to discover a car which was parked on the street the previous day was now half hidden in a huge sinkhole which had opened up overnight.
Police were called to the scene around 3.20am to find the blue people carrier in the hole outside the Benefice of Charlton St Thomas' Church, and cordoned off the area to ensure the safety of local residents.
Nobody was injured in the incident, though the phenomenon of sinkholes does appear to be becoming increasingly common, with a number of similar incidents being reported in 2015.
A spokesperson for the Royal Borough of Greenwich said that the council was working with emergency services to secure the area: "We are urgently investigating the matter and will update residents the moment we have more information."
Cleo O'Kane, a local resident who lives opposite where the hole opened up, said: "I thought it was thunder - I heard a loud bang, but it was raining so much I thought it was thunder.
"All the car is resting on apparently is a pipe, otherwise it would have disappeared."

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Happy World Naked Gardening Day!

You may not have been aware, but today - the first Saturday of May - has been named World Naked Gardening Day, when gardening lovers are encouraged to embrace their gardens as nature intended.
The award-winning gardeners of the RHS Malvern Spring Festival in Worcestershire marked the occasion by stripping off and being photographed amongst the greenery of their creations.
Today was the third day of the four day festival which over 90,000 people are expected to have visited by the time it finishes tomorrow.
Mark and Gig Eveleigh won Best Show Garden at the event hosted by the Royal Horticultural Society.
The day was marked on Twitter with posts tagged with #nakedgardeningday.
Whether or not you were brave enough to celebrate the day as intended, it was very welcome to have some warmer weather in which to enjoy our gardens this weekend.

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Many UK cities with less than 'superfast' broadband on average

Broadband speed tests have been conducted across 42 UK cities, revealing that almost half of all residents are using connections with an average speed slower than 24Mbps - the point regarded as the start of 'superfast' speeds.
The testing was conducted by comparison site uSwitch, and found that the city with the lowest average speed was Hull with just 12.4Mbps, while even London users were below the 'superfast' rating with an average speed of 22.4Mbps.
Middlesbrough, Belfast and Brighton were the top three cities, with average speeds of 34.4, 34.3 and 33.8Mbps respectively.
The cities with the lowest average broadband speeds after Hull were Aberdeen with 15.6Mbps and Milton Keynes with 17.1Mbps.
It should be made clear that services offering faster speeds may be available in these cities, but the figures represent the actual average speeds people are using in each location.
The government has stated that superfast broadband is available to around 90% of UK homes and businesses now, and further funding has been pledged to increase the total to 95% by 2017.
BT has said that its fibre-based services are available to 24 million homes, but only 22% of these are using the fast connections at the moment.
Although some broadband users want the fastest speeds, many people are still happy with lower download rates as long as they can browse the web, send emails and watch the occasional programme via catch-up TV services.
Faster services can also cost significantly more than those offering lower speeds.
uSwitch's Ewan Taylor-Gibson commented: "We should be asking what more can be done to encourage the adoption of superfast broadband, now it's so widely available.
"The UK's towns and cities should be leading the charge when it comes to broadband speeds, yet just 22 cities have broadband users with average speeds of more than 24Mbps."

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More than 900 beacons lit to celebrate Queen's 90th

On her 90th birthday yesterday the Queen lit the first of over 900 beacons across the world in celebration of the landmark date.
The first beacon was lit in Windsor, before the Queen was joined by Prince Phillip for a private dinner at Windsor Castle.
The beacons have been set up in locations across the countries of the Commonwealth, some being purpose-built gas-fuelled structures, others more traditional bonfires or braziers on tall wooden posts.
Royal gun salutes were fired from the UK's capital cities as the Queen greeted crowds of well-wishers in Windsor.
Her majesty also unveiled a plaque to mark the beginning of The Queen's Walkway, a recently designed 6.3 kilometer trail which links over sixty significant points in Windsor. The trail was developed to commemorate the moment on 9th September 2015 when the Queen broke the record for the longest reigning British monarch.
The Prince of Wales spoke about his mother at the lighting of the beacon in Windsor, saying: "this, ladies and gentlemen, is a very special occasion and this beacon that her majesty is about to light will also represent - as it lights other beacons across the nation - the love and affection with which you are held throughout this country and the Commonwealth."

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