Groups are showing "no boundaries" in attacks on the Asian community in Northamptonshire, a police chief has warned after reports 13 families have been subject to “gold” burglaries this month.

In total, since November there has been 34 incidents in Northamptonshire where Asian family homes have been targeted for high-value goods.

Police say groups of up to eight men at a time are entering homes before demanding to know where families keep high-value items, mainly gold. Often the raiders are using violent tactics to get their hands on goods and one occasion a child was injured.

Detective Superintendent Dennis Murray of Northamptonshire Police is now urging families to take extra precautions such as putting valuable items in safety deposit boxes and being careful when answering the front door.

He said: “In the last two months we have seen a serious rise in the number of burglaries in and around the community.

“These burglaries are clearly targeted at individuals and it is clear that the individuals involved are doing some sort of research.

“They seem to know the premises they are going to have valuables there.”

Det Supt Murray said the offenders are showing “no boundaries” in the way the sickening attacks are being carried out.

He said: “What we are seeing is escalating levels of violence or threats of violence during the course of these burglaries.

“On one occasion they used violence against children.”

Det Supt Murray said the force was throwing extra resources at tackling the Asian gold burglars.

Officers have been carrying out extra patrols in the predominantly Asian area of Northampton, Kettering and East Northamptonshire.

He also said the force was working with regional and national colleagues to see if there were links between the offences across county borders.

A 26-year-old man was arrested and bailed last week in relation to a burglary but so far no items have been recovered.

This, the police chief said, could be because the gold is being sold on quickly and melted

Det Supt Murray said he did not believe just one group of individuals were behind the attack.

But he said the recent swathe of offences bore similar hallmarks.

The criminals are entering homes in groups before demanding to see where valuables and gold are kept.

“There is clearly an element of pre-planning in what we are seeing,” he said. “It is clear these individuals are getting their knowledge of the homes keeping gold from somewhere.”

There will be a public meeting at the police headquarters at Wootton Hall on Thursday, March 22, which anyone concerned about Asian gold thefts in their area can attend.

If you have any information about similar burglaries in your area, call the force on 101.

Mrs Leadsom responded to a consultation on behalf of her constituents who raised concerns with her over the years with particular reference to the A5, A422 and A508.

The Department for Transport held a consultation on proposals for the creation of a Major Road Network which was committed to by the Government as part of its Transport Investment Strategy.

The creation of the Major Road Network would allow for dedicated funding from the National Roads Fund to be used to improve some of our busiest and most economically important local authority ‘A’ roads that sit underneath the wider Strategic Road Network of motorways and trunk roads.

Mrs Leadsom said: “I wholly welcome the proposals by the Department for Transport to allow our local authorities to come together and bid for funding to drive investment in enhancements and major renewal schemes along some of our most economically important local and regional roads.

“The Major Road Network is the missing piece of the jigsaw in funding for our local roads, and I know that commuters and local residents will look forward to the Department publishing its response to the consultation so that we can begin to put bids forward for schemes in our area.

“In my own response, I have focused on the urgent need for the Farthinghoe Bypass to be built as soon as possible, as well as considering what the proposals would mean for other projects like a bypass for Roade and the vital early delivery of the Towcester Relief Road. You can read a copy of my response on my website. Residents will know that my key priority is to ensure that we keep South Northamptonshire moving through road projects like these, and I am determined that we get spades in the ground on all of them as soon as possible.”

Police are calling on the public to tackle the increasing problem of 'cuckooing' by looking for signs that their neighbours and friends are being abused.

Cuckooing is a where gangs travel to towns and befriend vulnerable people only to take over their home and use it to deal drugs.

It comes after police have revealed a Northampton man with mental health issues was recently the centre of a safeguarding operation when officers discovered he was being exploited by drug users, prostitutes and alcoholics.

They found a gang from another county had taken over his home and used it as a base of crime.

Detective Inspector Dave Harley, from Northamptonshire Police, said: “These gangs to locate and take over addresses of vulnerable adults by force or coercion.

"Often a person is supplied with drugs to initiate the relationship but others such as people with mental health difficulties can also be targeted."

In many cases there is often a rise in anti-social behaviour in places where cuckooing is taking place.

The warning signs of cuckooing are:
- an increase in visitors and strangers to a property
- rubbish and litter nearby
- noise nuisance
- disturbances at the property

Alongside an increase in anti-social behaviour, the tenant is seen less often and in some cases is never seen alone.

DI Harley said: "Very quickly the gang will establish control, taking over the person’s home and use it as a base for dealing drugs. In some cases the gang will take over a number of properties and move between them, or use a property for a couple of days before moving on to evade detection.

“These gangs work very quickly to take over a person’s home. The speed with which the gangs operate can make it difficult to respond, by the time we are aware of the issue they have moved on. That is why we are calling for the public’s help.

“We want people to tell us when they have concerns about one of their neighbours, friends or relatives who may have become victimised in this way. We can take action to safeguard the person and investigate those people who have taken over their home.”

Anyone with concerns about the suspicious activity can call police on 101 or fill out this online form, alternatively you can call independent charity Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

Anyone with concerns about anti-social behaviour can call police on 101 or contact their local council.

Jeremy Corbyn branded the fallout at Northamptonshire County Council as complete "incompetence" during Prime Minister's Questions today.

Since Max Caller's damning inspection report released last Thursday, the Conservative leaders at County Hall have come under fire from all angles.

Today Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn opened up the Wednesday session in the House of Commons by questioning Theresa May on the failures here in the county.

During his opening salvo, he asked: "Can I ask whether the collapse of Northamptonshire County Council is the result of complete incompetence at a local level or complete incompetence at a national level?

The Prime Minister hit back, saying: "If you look at what's going on in relation to local councils, obviously there has been that report into Northamptonshire County Council.

"But let's just look across the board in relation to councils.

"If there is one message for everybody that's Conservative councils cost you less."

Mr Corbyn, then criticised the decision in Northamptonshire to begin outsourcing services to mutual companies three years ago, in a move known as the Next Generation Model.

"Now that council has gone bust," he continued.

"Does the prime minister believe that the slash-and-burn model for local government is really a good one?"

The PM hit back again by saying the crisis at County Hall was "not due to a lack of funding" from central Government.

Daventry town residents were surprised to see a 38.3 per cent increase in special expenses when they received their council tax bills through the post this month.

Many have since expressed their disbelief at the hike and asked for an explanation as to why it has gone from £55.89 in 2017/18, to £77.28 in 2018/19.

Special expenses cover the cost of maintaining places like the Holy Cross churchyard, open spaces like the Rec and cemeteries in Daventry.

Since striking a deal with environmental service agency Norse, Daventry District Council says it has "much better information on the actual costs of waste management and maintaining open spaces", as stated in its 2018/19 Capital and Revenue Budget and Medium Term Financial Plan published in February.

DDC has a policy of increasing council tax yearly by the amount permitted by Government without calling a referendum (currently 3 per cent), or by £5 for each average Band D property, whichever is higher. At the moment for DDC the £5 is higher.

But if special expenses change, the amount of increase allowed for council tax is affected; higher special expenses mean less increase in council tax, and vice versa.

As a result of this, Daventry town residents have seen a 0.8 per cent hike in council tax for 2018/19, compared to 3.5 per cent in 2017/18.

"For Daventry District, the only large special expenses account is for Daventry town. This is a result of DDC owning large areas of open space in Daventry which needs to be maintained, as well as some other items which are specific to the town," states the report.

"There is a handful of other special expenses, dealing with closed churchyards in villages, but these are not large enough to have a significant effect on the General Fund Council Tax.

"Under the new arrangements for environmental services, the council will have better information on the actual costs of maintaining open spaces in Daventry.

"This will have the effect of increasing the Daventry town special expenses. This will actually 'soak up' most of the £5 permitted increase, so the General Fund Council Tax next year will not be able to increase very much."

The special expenses budget in the report show that in 2017/18 the net expenditure was £364,975. For 2018/19, that total stands at £524,335.

The acting chief executive of Northamptonshire County Council will stand down after five months in charge.

Damon Lawrenson took over the role in November 2017 on an interim basis following the departure of Paul Blantern.

But following the scathing report of the county council on Thursday, the authority has revealed leader Councillor Matt Golby and Mr Lawrenson have agreed to “conclude the interim role next week.”

Current director of commercial, place and health Andrew Quincey will become acting chief executive while the council awaits the secretary of state’s direction following the Best Value Inspection report.

Acting leader Councillor Golby said: “Damon has been an ambassador for this county at a very difficult time. He has steered this council through some unprecedented territory and has faced up to the challenges that have emerged with his inimitable, can-do attitude.

“Damon and I have agreed that this is now the best time for him to end his temporary tenure with us.

“He has steered us through the period of our inspection, and our recent budget setting process. These have been some of the most difficult challenges this or indeed any other council has ever faced. I can only thank him for his work and dedication.”

Mr Lawrenson came under fire last week after it emerged he was holiday in Dubai when the council’s chief finance officer chose to put emergency section 114 spending controls in place.

In a short statement today, he said; “Now is the right time for me to move on from this position. I wanted to see the council through the 2018/19 budget setting process, the inspection process and then latterly through the advisory notice from our auditors. With these now completed I feel it is time for the council and indeed all councils in the county to move on to the next phase of their combined future.

“I truly believe that this council is full of excellent people who have not only shown they can face up to some of the biggest challenges ever faced by a local authority but have shown the aptitude, skill and awareness to navigate what will no doubt be difficult and turbulent waters ahead.”

Such was the scale of Max Caller's 50-page Best Value inspection into the county council, details of its contents are still being picked over a week after it's publication.

A deeper analysis of the document has shown how Mr Caller felt Northamptonshire could well have been out of trouble by now if officers had taken the chance in 2015.

The chief financial officer had written to a Section 151 Officer’s letter dated 29th October 2015 to Paul Blantern, then Chief Executive, signalling the intention to issue a Section 114 report (the action that led to all spending being stopped last month).

He wrote: ‘We are experiencing a significant financial crisis but there is avoidance of the term and a lack of action appropriate for the situation we find ourselves in.

“At the heart of this is the corrosion of our financial management arrangements over the past eighteen months - there has been a change of culture and behaviour where overspending is acceptable and there are no sanctions for failure.”

Strong words indeed, but the Section 114 report was not subsequently issued and there was no change to the approach; overspending without compensating action to recover the position continued.

Mr Caller said: “His warning was not taken seriously”.

Among the more sinister revelations of the report were that councillors not in the Tory inner circle who tried to carry out their basic democratic duties were denied basic information they needed to hold leaders to account.

The inspection team was surprised by the number of councillors who told them they had been flatly refused answers on matters of crucial importance.

Members were told, “You can only ask that at scrutiny meetings” and “I need to get permission from the cabinet member to discuss this with you” - or just did not get a response at all.

Challenge and criticism was to be discouraged as senior members and officers knew best.

And it was clear to inspectors that the chair and other members of the committee “have been repeatedly thwarted”.

Matters that the committee have wanted reports on have taken many months and much persistence for the reports to be prepared and brought to the committee, for example the Highways Service Contract Review.

“This highlighted significant weaknesses,” Mr Caller says, “including deliberately holding and concealing balances which should have been properly returned to the centre, as a way of trying to bypass budgetary constraints.”

Shockingly, councillors told inspectors they felt, if they asked difficult questions at Audit Committee or scrutiny meetings, they would be replaced which Mr Caller found was likely to be true.

Mr Caller said: “Individual councillors appear to have been denied answers to questions that were entirely legitimate to ask and scrutiny arrangements were constrained by what was felt the executive would allow.

“Even if there was a concern about the publishing of confidential information, most authorities have protocols and practices which make it possible for key information to be shared and protect the authority.”

To refuse it outright, Mr Caller said, “is just wrong.”

Victims of crime in Northamptonshire sometimes receive ‘a poor service’ from the county’s police force, according to a critical inspection report.

The force has been graded as ‘requires improvement’ in all areas inspected by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) in 2017.

The report, published today (Thursday), says excessive workloads for officers and staff mean the force is unable to meet the demand it faces.

But it acknowledged that the building blocks for more effective policing are in place.

The inspection found some crimes are being recorded incorrectly and several incidents had been wrongly assigned to the telephone investigation team because not enough response officers were available to attend immediately.

In some less serious investigations, the force was found not to be completing initial inquiries satisfactorily.

It also found the force to have a ‘serious’ shortage of investigators, although it recognised it is increasing its number of trained investigators.

The report said: “The quality of the force’s investigations remains inconsistent.

“It does not always allocate them to appropriately trained staff or supervise them fully.

“As a result, victims of crime sometimes receive a poor service.”

Northamptonshire has one of the lowest rates of cases where a charge of summons is brought (8.5 per cent).

The report said: “This means that some perpetrators may not be being brought to justice, and fewer victims may have the outcomes they should have been able to expect.”

The force also needs to improve its management of registered sex offenders, ensuring it completes visits with appropriate timescales to protect the public.

The report added that Northamptonshire Police’s new policing model is expected to sort out many of the problems highlighted by HMICFRS.

It said: “The force’s change programme, known as the service delivery model (SDM), aims to resolve many of these problems.

“This new model is expected to align resources to meet demand better, allowing officers and staff to concentrate more on dealing with the priorities of the force and its communities.”

Chief Constable Simon Edens welcomed the report’s findings, adding that the force was responding dynamically to tackle many of the areas identified as requiring improvement.

He said: “I welcome this report and am reassured that many of the areas for improvement were already being identified and addressed at the time of the visit.

“Since then, a tremendous amount of work has gone into improving our processes, including how we tackle serious and organised crime and raise the quality of our investigations.

“Our new service delivery model, launched around the time that HMICFRS visited in October 2017, is now embedded and has radically restructured the way the force operates, for example in making our neighbourhood officers more accessible, our response teams better placed to react and our overall community engagement work bordering on excellent.

“Northamptonshire Police’s core purpose is to protect people from harm and I am satisfied that the entire workforce, led by our frontline officers, are responding robustly to the areas of concern identified and that we now have a whole force approach to making significant, positive progress to that end.”

The county force added that major steps had been taken to improve the way it tackles serious and organised crime, which includes gang-related issues, CSE and Asian gold thefts.

Stephen Mold, police and crime commissioner for Northamptonshire, said he is unhappy with the rating and has made Chief Constable Edens aware of his feelings.

He said: “I have worked with the chief constable to provide the resources he has identified as being required to make Northamptonshire safer.

“I believe the foundations are in place but I am frustrated at the speed at which change is being implemented.

“I have made clear to the chief constable that we need to see the ongoing work delivered at a faster pace.

“The staff and officers of Northamptonshire Police are doing a fantastic job under challenging conditions, and I know that they go above and beyond the call of duty day in, day out to keep Northamptonshire safe.

“I continue to say thank you for their hard work on our behalf.”

Mr Mold added that he is ‘content’ with the plans laid out to improve the force.

He said: “I’m pleased that HMICFRS have acknowledged some change in the right direction, however I reiterate that this needs to be pro-actively continued by the chief constable and chief officer team to ensure that the people of Northamptonshire receive a service to the standard they deserve.

“The chief constable has shared with me how he plans to improve the issues identified and I am content with these plans at present.

“I will continue to both work with the chief constable and hold him to account accordingly.

“Within my remit I remain focused on building public confidence, knowing that we have plans in place to improve efficiency through better use of technology and more effective use of our buildings and estates, which will deliver significant change.”

Nationally one force was found to be ‘outstanding’, 30 forces were ‘good’, 12 ‘required improvement’ and none were ‘inadequate’.

They say there are only two certainties in life: death and taxes. And from April 1, we’re getting some changes to the latter which could see you better off...

That is, unless you drink sugary drinks and drive a high-pollution diesel.

New tax: Sugar tax

Cans of fizzy pop look set to cost as much as 8 pence more as the new sugar tax comes into force this April.

The Soft Drinks Industry Levy (SDIL), also known as ‘the sugar tax’, is set to make soft drinks companies pay a charge for drinks with added sugar after it was announced in the 2016 Budget in a bid to tackle rising obesity rates.

The new tax will make soft drinks companies pay a charge for drinks with added sugar with two bands for deciding on the tax increase.

The amount of tax depends on the total sugar content of the drink with companies having to pay 18p per litre on tax if the drink has 5g of sugar or more per 100ml, or 24p per litre if the drink has 8g of sugar or more per 100ml.

The Government has said this is not a tax on consumers, meaning companies do not have to pass the charge on to customers; however, prices of sugary soft drinks are expected to rise.

Under the new tax system a 330ml can of Coca Cola, Old Jamaican Ginger Beer, Pepsi and Dr Pepper are expected to cost 8p more; and a 330ml can of Sprite, Fanta and Schweppes Indian Tonic Water could cost 6p more.

A litre bottle of pop could cost as much as 24p extra.

The new sugar tax is a welcome step for health campaigners. But not all popular sugary drinks are set to be hit with the extra tax.

‘Tax rise’: Dividends allowance reduced

The dividend allowance which was introduced at £5,000 in 2016/17 is to be reduced to £2,000 for 2018/19 onwards.

This would mean an extra tax liability of £225 for a basic rate taxpayer, £975 higher rate and £1,143 additional rate taxpayers.

Tax changes: Diesel cars

New Diesel cars bought last year will be subject to a charge due to new bands from April 1, if they fail to meet the latest Euro 6 emissions standards in real-word testing.

RELATED: Diesel tax, benefits & five other law changes you need to know about in 2018

The rise for a Ford Fiesta could be as little as £20-30, but a Porsche Cayenne would be hit with a rise in the hundreds of pounds.

The changes don’t apply to commercial vans or vehicles, only cars. Diesels with emissions of 1-50g/km diesels will cost £25, 51-70 will cost £105.

And at the top end it’s £2070 for highly polluting car like a Porsche Cayenne.

All cars that cost more than £40,000 outright will attract an extra premium fee of £310 for years two to six of ownership, regardless of emissions.

Mortgage interest on residential property

The restrictions on the treatment of mortgage interest on residential property lettings increase for 2018/19: Only 50% of any interest paid will be fully deductible from rental income; relief for the other 50% will be given as a basic rate tax reducer.

The proportions were 75% and 25% in 2017/18 so higher and additional rate taxpayers will see an increased tax liability, according to Deloitte.

This may be more than expected (and could affect basic rate taxpayers too in some circumstances) as only the deductible interest is taken into account for calculating the taxable income.

So for example those with income over £50,000 who have a child benefit clawback will see this affected too, as will those whose income is over £100,000 meaning their personal allowance is tapered.

PAYE tax rates and thresholds 2018 to 2019

Employee personal allowance is now £11,850 per year (up from £11,500) UK basic tax rate 20% on annual earnings above the PAYE tax threshold and up to £34,500 (An extra £1,000 on last year).

Starting rate limit remains at £5,000

Basic rate band is now at £1 – £34,500 from the previous £1 – £33,500

Higher rate band is now at 40% of earnings over £34,501 – £150,000 (£1,000 extra)

Additional rate band stays the same at 45% on annual earnings over £150,000

As part of last month’s controversial budget at County Hall, the Conservative group proposed members took a 10 per cent cut to their basic allowance indefinitely- in a bid to save £55,000-a-year.

Extra allowances for those appearing on committees or taking up cabinet posts were earmarked for a 20 per cent cut.

However, council law dictates any cut to allowances needs to be put to an independent panel drawn from members of the community.

Today though, councillors ignored the recommendations of that panel, which urged the authority to make no cut to their pay

The full council meeting at county hall saw the original proposal approved unanimously.

Councillor Chris Stanbra (Lib Dem, Oakley) said: "I voted against the budget, as I didn’t like it.

"But this was a proposal that was absolutely right.

"To do anything else would be folly in the extreme.”

The allowance comes after staff at One Angel square were handed a blanket pay freeze last month as part of the £40 million budget cuts.

Councillor Andy Mercer (Con, Rushden South) said the cut would show "solidarity" with frustrated employees - some of whom also saw their performance bonuses removed last year and were forced to take an enforced day’s holiday to balance books.

But the independent remuneration panel saw differently.

“The panel feel citizens should not be prevented from participating in an election by a level of allowance that does not cover the costs associated with being a councillor,” its report read.

Their recommendations by the panel, which including a magistrate, a financial controller and a management consultant, were ignored in favour of an allowance cut.

The move will save the council £121,000 a year, prompting some to describe the move as little more than a ‘gesture’.

In total, 17 different special responsibility roles will be cut.

The leader’s special allowance will reduce from £32,192 to £25,750 and the basic rate will reduce from £9,236 to £8,312.

Though the move received wide support, two Conservative councillors said the authority could attract better talent to the chamber with a more generous allowance.

Councillor Jonathan Eakins (Con, Brickhill and Queensway) said: "The staff should get more and we should get more - everyone in the country should get paid more."

The allowances will be reviewed again before the next county elections in 2021.

Councillor Matt Golby, now the interim leader during one of the toughest periods in the council’s history, believes so-called Government commissioners must be drafted in as per the recommendations in Mr Caller’s report.

“I think the organisation needs it now,” he said. “It needs a clear link with the Government so they know what pressures we are dealing with.

“It is so they know what the source facts are - particularly in adults and children’s services.”

Mr Caller recommends the Government sends in commissioners to run all services at the council, except for planning, for two years.

When they were drafted in to rectify concerns of sexism and bullying in Rotherham, they managed to attract extra funding to the council.

But Councillor Golby said Northamptonshire is still in the dark as to whether they would leverage funds.

“That’s the million dollar question,” he said. “Literally.

“We are in a state of limbo as to what is going to happen next.”

Councillor Golby has thrown his hat into the ring for the permanent leadership job, unlikely to be decided until next month at the earliest.

The member for Duston West and St Crispin says he is the man to unite a divided local party - heavily criticised by four of the county’s MPs and a group of Tory council backbenchers.

“One of the things I have done is to contact all of your MPs and make it clear we acknowledge the failings in the report,” he said.

“We want to work together as one and they all said they would help.

“From Thursday (when Heather Smith resigned) to Friday, their attitudes changed completely.”

Councillor Golby also talked of giving promotions to “young blood” in the party, some of whom were critical of the outgoing leader.

Put simply, commissioners are a crack team of local government experts, sent in by the Department for Communities into struggling councils to get them back on track.

While the council will have an opportunity to respond to the inspection report now, ultimately it will be down to the communities secretary Sajid Javid to decide whether he takes that course of action.

While rare, Northamptonshire wouldn’t be the first place to see this happen.

Recently, in the London borough of Tower Hamlets Mr Caller himself - as a former London borough chief executive - was one of a team of commissioners sent in following a damning report.

The firm PricewaterhouseCoopers found “a worrying pattern of divisive community politics and alleged mismanagement of public money by the Mayoral administration” at the council and the Government sent in a team late in 2014.

They remained in place until March last year and during that time took responsibility for grant-making, for selling off assets and even took the reins of the council’s publicity machine.

Whether the commissioners would have the same remit in Northamptonshire remains to be seen.

But Mr Caller’s recommendation was broad.

He said the secretary of state should give “serious consideration” to all services, with the exception of planning, being run by commissioners “with the full powers of the council”.

This, he suggests, will allow the council officers to work on establishing two unitary councils to run services.

Branch secretary of the county council Unison branch, which represents 1,200 staff at Angel Square, Penny Smith, said: “We have had far too much grandstanding from our elected members over the years so we welcome this approach.”

Jade Miller of Daventry is urging kind-hearted fundraisers to pledge cash to her niece's family after one-year-old Connie Bent was diagnosed with Leukaemia two weeks ago... just four months after she had stopped taking medication for a congenital heart problem.

The little girl had been poorly for a number of weeks and upon taking her to the doctors, her mum, Leanne said she was told her daughter had a virus so she pushed for more blood tests.

Jade said every mum should trust their instincts: "She hadn't been well for a good few weeks and she [Leanne] had been to the GP two or three times to be told Connie had 'just a virus'.

"Due to Connie's heart condition, she pushed and pushed for a blood test and was sent to Northampton General the following day."

After an immediate blood transfusion Connie, who is severely anaemic, was told the following morning she would be transferred to Nottingham hospital to start her treatment.

She added: "It was the very same afternoon, the phone call they received tore their lives apart... that Connie had Leukaemia."

Jade has now set up a fundraising page to raise £750 to cover the family's travelling expenses, to and from Nottingham University Hospital every day, with all leftover funds planned to be spent on treating Connie after her painful start in life.

Jade said Connie's diagnosis has affected her parents greatly: "Connie was due to be transferred back to Northampton General Hospital for the rest of her treatment, but unfortunately within the last few days, the chemotherapy medication has given her a sore mouth and throat and she can't swallow, so she has had a feeding tube inserted.

"She has also had to start a course of antibiotics as she had a raging temperature due to developing some kind of infection.

"It's so scary with all the drugs in her system she just doesn't seem like the same baby, she is so zoned out, sleeping a lot and the poor thing hasn't given anybody one of her beautiful smiles for days."

Connie, who is described by Jade as "happy, silly and cheeky", has been told she will have to take medication until she is nearly four years old.

To donate to the family, click: https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/connieclaire

It’s been a half-hidden gem of north Northamptonshire for the best part of 300 years.

Now a pioneering £1.6 million project will turn Grade I-listed Kelmarsh Hall, ten minutes from Market Harborough, into a major tourist spot, when it re-opens next month.

Mountain hiking, exploring through the jungle and trucking across the desert was in store for these intrepid Daventry team members as they set off for Peru on a three-week adventure.

Laden with rucksacks, Colin Barden, Paul Wood, Paul King, John Moser, Nick Wood and Lisa Wood left for South America on the Dun Cow Trans Expedition 1988.

All were regulars at the Dun Cow pub in Brook Street.

Their first week would be spent in the Atacama desert, where they visited a ruined pre-Colombian city.

Then they followed the Inca trail through the mountains which would lead them to a lost city of the ancient civilisation.

Trekking through the jungle and canoeing down one of the Amazonian tributaries completed the group’s three weeks, before they flew back home to Northamptonshire.

Once back on English soil, the adventurers were to set up the Daventry Dangerous Holidays Club.

Their intention behind forming the association was to endeavour to take an unusual holiday every year.

A woman has claimed that a moisturiser designed for newborns has cured her of psoriasis within 24 hours of using it.

Laura Gray’s review of Childs Farm Baby Moisturiser with Shea & Cocoa Butter (250ml) has now gone viral with the post being shared 43,724 times and liked 13,000 times.

Laura Gray said in a Facebook post: “Needed to share this with you all. I suffer from Psoriasis, have done for years, I get it all up my arms, neck and chest and up until yesterday only hydrocortisone cream would get rid of it, but it’s really harsh and only pharmacists can give you it [sic].”

She added: “Yesterday my Mam told me try this baby moisturiser, I’m not joking 24 hours later my psoriasis is gone! Anyone suffering with psoriasis or eczema you need to try this ! £3.99 in Asda in the baby aisle or online at childsfarm.com [sic].”

The £4.00 cream is dermatologist and paediatrician approved and suitable for sensitive and eczema-prone skin according to the Hampshire based company who make the baby moisturiser. Childs Farm says their products are specifically designed for babies and newborns, with products only containing essential oils, natural detergents, natural moisturisers and natural preservatives. Their range also includes baby wash, bath bubbles, shampoo and hair and body wash.

Childs Farm said in a statement: “As a small, British company, we are also overwhelmed by Laura’s post.

“We want to help in any way we can to keep Laura comfortable, but to ensure other sensitive skin sufferers know where to get the products.”

The Childs Farm moisturiser is available to buy in Asda, Boots, Tesco, Morrisons, Superdrug, Lloyds and Ocado.

Working fathers desperate to spend more time with their children are being failed by current policies, according to a parliamentary committee which is calling for men to be given 12 weeks of paternity leave.

Parental leave policies must be overhauled to allow fathers to better balance their childcare duties and working life – and to help eliminate the gender pay gap, the Women and Equalities Committee has said.

Struggling fathers

Less well-off fathers in particular are being let down, despite the Government’s “good intentions”, the committee states in a report published on Tuesday.

Shared parental leave, which allows both parents to collectively take up to 50 weeks of leave – 37 weeks of which is paid – providing they meet certain criteria, was introduced in 2015.

These findings come as the deadline for gender pay gap reporting looms: organisations with 250 or more employees must publish specific figures about pay disparities by 5 April.

The Government has said it wants to “enable families to share caring roles more easily” but fathers, mothers, employment organisations and other experts have indicated that current policies “do not deliver what they promise”, the report says.

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) recently revealed that take-up among the estimated 285,000 couples who qualify for shared parental leave every year could be as low as two per cent.

The Women and Equalities Committee has published a series of recommendations to stop the Government’s “well-intentioned” policies from being “undermined”.

Closing the gender pay gap

Increasing paternity pay for fathers could play a key role in closing the gender pay gap, the Government has previously said.

A higher rate of pay could enable more fathers to take time off work to fulfil their childcare responsibilities, thus enabling mothers who want to return to work early to do so.

BEIS said in a statement: “The Government is determined to ensure everyone can succeed in the workplace which is why we recently announced new protections for millions of workers, as well as promoting current employment rights.

“We have also launched a campaign to encourage more parents to take up Shared Parental Leave so they can better balance childcare and their careers and we are launching a taskforce to review how the right to request flexible working is currently being applied.”

What dads have to say

One father who gave evidence to the Committee said he asked for an extra five days paternity leave to bond with his baby after his partner was hospitalised for several days following the birth but his company was “not interested”. He said: “All they wanted to know was ‘How soon are you coming back?’…They just did not want to know. You have to treat people as humans.” Another father described how, as he and his wife were preparing to take on special guardianship of his niece and nephew, he was informed by his local authority he would need to stay at home to look after the youngsters, along with his own two children, while they weren’t in full time education. His line manager asked: “Can’t mum just look after the kids?” There exists a sense of embarrassment and fear around choosing to take shared parental leave, another father pointed out. “That embarrassment is about whether they are going to be the only or the first one to do it and how that would make them feel with regards to…their colleagues,” he said. “Also there is an element of fear…Are they seen as soft? Is this the thing men do? There is all that macho culture that exists when someone says, ‘I am taking time off to look after my baby.’” The fathers also spoke about being mocked by colleagues for working fewer hours to accommodate their childcare duties, receiving comments such as “Bye, part-timer”.

Working fathers in the UK

Paid paternity leave was only introduced in the UK in 2003 In 1961 the amount of time fathers spent caring for preschoolers was 12 to 15 per cent of the time that mothers spent doing so; in 2017 that figure stood at 46 per cent, according to data published by the Office for National Statistics.

With more than 700 million currently in use worldwide, it’s safe to say there’s an iPhone in quite a few pockets these days.

Many of us carry our iPhones everywhere and often use them to snap photos, so here are some tips on how to get the most out of your device’s camera.

Tap to focus

Make sure you take the photo you really want by focusing in on what you want to highlight.

When getting ready to take a picture, tap on something in your shot (whether it’s in the foreground or the background) to bring into focus.

If you want to make sure the focus stays on that point, hold your thumb or finger down for a few seconds, and the auto focus lock indicator will appear.

Panoramas

Perfect for taking gorgeous landscape photos, the panorama function in the iPhone camera allows you capture much wider shots than your phone’s camera would normally allow.

To use it, simply open up the camera app, swipe right until you reach the ‘Pano’ setting and then follow the instructions on-screen to take your panorama.

As well as taking panoramas by moving your camera from left to right, you can also move it up and down to photograph tall structures in their entirety.

Turn off your flash

One of the easiest ways to make your photographs look better and more natural is to turn off your camera’s inbuilt flash.

Do this in the camera app by tapping the lighting bolt icon and selecting ‘Off’.

Manually increase or decrease brightness

Instead of relying on flash to brighten your pictures, you can subtly increase the light in your photos by adjusting the exposure. When taking a photo, tap the screen and a sun icon will appear. Hold your thumb or finger down and slide up to make the photo brighter. You can also slide down to decrease the brightness, if you are taking the photo on a very sunny day, for example.

Use your grid lines

Make sure your photos are straight by turning on the camera grid feature. Go to ‘Settings’, ‘Camera’ and then hit the ‘Grid’ button to see a faint grid on the screen when you open the camera app. You can also use this feature to apply the photography concept of the rule of thirds to your images.

Use your volume buttons to take selfies

If you are struggling to take a photo of yourself using the the on-screen shutter button, you might be interested to know that you can also press the volume buttons on the side of your iPhone to snap a selfie.

Capture a burst of action

If you have an iPhone 6 or later, you can hold your finger down on the shutter button to capture multiple pictures very close together.

Your phone will then group these photos together in a ‘burst’ – automatically blending them into one combined image, but still allowing you to select your favourite snap.

This function is especially useful if you are taking action shots of people moving which might end up blurry if taken as a standard photo.

Portrait mode

Thanks to their dual camera lens, the iPhone 7 Plus, 8 Plus and X models offer a ‘portrait’ mode which adds a depth effect to your photos.

This means that when taking a photo of a person or object, the background will appear in soft focus, but the subject of your photo will be crisp and clear. The result is an expert-looking snap that many people will think has been taken with a much more professional camera.

Are you a homeowner who requires major building work to your property?

If so, Nick Knowles and his crack team from BBC’s DIY SOS: Big Build would love to hear from you.

“We’re not looking for projects that only involve painting and decorating a few rooms,” says a spokesperson for the award-winning series.

“In previous episodes we’ve built single and even double-storey extensions, we’ve installed wet rooms, stair lifts and completely renovated and redesigned homes from the garden to the loft.”

DIY SOS: The Big Build can only accept applications from private residential homeowners and UK residents.

Photos or video of the property help your application to get assessed quicker, but don’t send these until the production team ask you to.

To apply to be on programme, fill in the online application form available from http://www.bbc.co.uk/showsandtours/takepart/diy_sos

Researchers found that high nicotine in electronic cigarettes causes non-alcohol fatty liver diseases in mice.

In a 12-week study, researchers split mice into two groups, one were exposed to e-cigarette aerosol and the other group of mice were exposed to saline aerosol.

The researchers collected liver samples and looked at genes in the liver affected by e-cigarettes using a technique called RNA sequence analysis, which allows scientists to observe large numbers of cells.

They found changes in 433 genes that were associated with fatty liver development and progression in the mice exposed to e-cigarettes.

Safer option?

Study lead author Professor Theodore Friedman, of Charles R. Drew University of Medicine & Science in Los Angeles, said: “The popularity of electronic cigarettes has been rapidly increasing in part because of advertisements that they are safer than conventional cigarettes.

“But because extra fat in the liver is likely to be detrimental to health, we conclude that e-cigarettes are not as safe as they have been promoted to consumers.

“Our experimental results will provide support to policymakers and federal and state regulatory bodies to take preventive measures to stop the increasing use of e-cigarettes among both children and adults.”

The study also found that genes related to the ‘body clock’ were changed in mice exposed to e-cigarettes, which is known to accelerate the development of liver disease including fatty liver diseases. The researchers say the study has important public health and regulatory implications, but acknowledged that the long-term effects of e-cigarettes on liver disease, diabetes, heart disease or stroke are relatively unknown.

Their findings were due to be presented at the Endocrine Society’s 100th annual meeting in the United States.

Cans of fizzy pop look set to cost as much as 8 pence more as the new sugar tax comes into force this April.

The Soft Drinks Industry Levy (SDIL), also known as ‘the sugar tax’, is set to make soft drinks companies pay a charge for drinks with added sugar after it was announced in the 2016 Budget in a bid to tackle rising obesity rates.

The new tax will make soft drinks companies pay a charge for drinks with added sugar with two bands for deciding on the tax increase.

The amount of tax depends on the total sugar content of the drink with companies having to pay 18p per litre on tax if the drink has 5g of sugar or more per 100ml, or 24p per litre if the drink has 8g of sugar or more per 100ml.

The Government has said this is not a tax on consumers, meaning companies do not have to pass the charge on to customers; however, prices of sugary soft drinks are expected to rise. Under the new tax system a 330ml can of Coca Cola, Old Jamaican Ginger Beer, Pepsi and Dr Pepper are expected to cost 8p more; and a 330ml can of Sprite, Fanta and Schweppes Indian Tonic Water could cost 6p more.

A litre bottle of pop could cost as much as 24p extra. The new sugar tax is a welcome step for health campaigners.

But not all popular sugary drinks are set to be hit with the extra tax. Schweppes Lemonade, Lilt and Tango are all exempt from the tax increase due to their smaller sugar content levels – as well as Irn Bru, whose parent company A.G Barr famously changed its recipe at the start of the year to get around the forthcoming sugar tax by limiting its sugar content from 10.3g per 100ml to just 4.7.

Drinks with a high milk content will also be exempt from the tax as they contain calcium and other nutrients, as well as fruit juices because they do not contain added sugar.