Lottery funding of £1.2M is to be used to uncover Rochdale’s medieval bridge and take the Roch river out of culvert so it can be opened up as an amenity and focus for regeneration. Environment Agency funding of £1M will also go towards the project which will help alleviate flooding in the town.

A builder who tampered with sluice gates during last winter's floods on the Somerset Levels has been fined £1,000. Lee Goddard, 40, from Hambridge, pleaded guilty to opening Slabgate sluice between 20 and 23 December to divert water from his home. Taunton Magistrates' Court heard his actions caused an estimated 45,000 cubic metres of water to head towards the village of Thorney. The private prosecution was brought by the Parrett Internal Drainage Board. By opening the sluice gate, Goddard breached a local by-law and the Land Drainage Act. Goddard was also ordered to pay £1,500 for the prosecution costs and the cost of repairing the sluice gate.