ATM Thefts, Chop Shop Chopped, Carers Recognised & More
Happy Friday readers, the weekend is in sight and another very fast week it has been. I hope you have something special to look forward to over the weekend but until then .... grab a brew and have a read of today's newsletter covering all things Bassetlaw and surrounding areas, and of course - your daily puzzle fix.
You will also see that throughout June we are running a fabulous competition to win tickets to 'Beyond Van Gogh' or 'Beyond Monet' for the opening week of the exhibition at Motorpoint Arena in Nottingham. This competition can only be won by one of our amazing newsletter subscribers.
Todays thought for the day ... “Some women choose to follow men, and some choose to follow their dreams. If you’re wondering which way to go, remember that your career will never wake up and tell you that it doesn’t love you anymore.” — Lady Gaga
Enjoy the read and have a great weekend wherever you are reading this.
Justin Doddy, Editor
P.S. Don't forget to subscribe to our newsletter here if you haven't already and remember to send us your pictures and stories from around Bassetlaw, we may feature them in our newsletter.
Police warning after spate of thefts at cash machines
Police are encouraging people to be extra vigilant following a spate of thefts involving cash machines.
Four victims have been targeted in recent weeks resulting in losses of over £10,000.
A man in his 70s was targeted on 21 May as he used a cash machine inside a branch in Beeston. He had completed his cash withdrawal but had not yet removed the bank notes or card from the machine.
He was then approached by two men who told him he had dropped a £10 note. Unbeknownst to him at the time, his bank card was swapped as he was distracted.
Reports then came in that his actual bank card had been used on numerous occasions in different locations, totalling a loss of over £6,000.
The second incident, which also occurred on 21 May, happened at a cash machine in Mansfield.
A woman in her 70s again reported being distracted after she was told she had dropped some cash on the floor.
In the confusion that followed, the woman's actual card was taken, with transactions now totalling over £4,700.
Fraud and Cyber Protect Officer Dale Richardson, of Nottinghamshire Police, said:
“An investigation into these incidents is underway and, due to the similarities between the occurrences, it is likely they are linked.
“We are pursuing multiple lines of inquiry and are doing everything we can to find those responsible, while offering support and advice to the victims as they seek to apply for their losses to be refunded.
“In the meantime, we are encouraging the public to be vigilant when using cash machines.
"Whenever possible, use a cash point located inside a well-lit bank branch or retail store.
"Cover your PIN and keep an eye on your card at all times.
"Remember to put your cash and card away instantly once the transaction is complete and ignore any potential interruptions from strangers.
“If you witness anything suspicious, please contact Nottinghamshire Police on 101."
The possibility for Lincolnshire to host a leg of the 2026 Tour of Britain has been welcomed by some leaders – although not everyone is convinced
By: Jamie Waller, LDR
Lincolnshire has been offered the chance to host the initial stage of the men’s race on Wednesday, September 2, 2026 although no final decision has been made.
The organisation and hosting fee would cost Lincolnshire County Council up to £450,000, with officers saying it would draw thousands of visitors to the area.
However, questions were raised over whether it would actually be value for money at the council’s Culture committee on Friday (June 5).
The route would start and end in Lincoln, likely using the castle and Cathedral area in a similar way to the city’s annual cycling Grand Prix.
Reform Councillor Jimmy Brookes said:
“This would be absolutely fantastic for Lincolnshire. The more events we can get like this for residents, the better.”
He made the tongue-in-cheek suggestion that the route could go through his Skegness district so cyclists could “grab an ice cream”.
Reform Councillor Brenda Collier agreed:
“This is an exciting project which has been put in our lap – it’s always good to advertise Lincolnshire.
”Council officers say it would lead to millions of pounds’ worth of media coverage, giving a big boost to the county’s reputation nationally and internationally. However Conservative leader Councillor Richard Davies said the event would be unlikely to bring extra business to Lincolnshire.
“The hard truth is independent research on events like the Olympics and World Cup show they don’t actually have a positive economic impact to the areas which host them.
“While these events will attract a certain type of person, others will stay home because they know it’s on.
“I’m not saying we shouldn’t go for it, but we need to be honest about what it will achieve.”
The organiser, British Cycling Events, claims last year’s event led to £40million of benefits for the areas which hosted it, with spectators spending on accommodation, food and travel.
The exact cost to the council is still being determined, and officials are discussing whether authorities and partners could make a contribution.
If approved, the race would take place directly after the Steampunk festival, capping off a summer of culture in Lincoln.
The organisers are also said to be interested in holding a 2027 leg in Lincolnshire if the first is a success.
Six councillors endorsed the recommendation to host the event, with three abstaining until they received more data.
Councillor Natalie Oliver, who is in charge of culture, will make the final decision later this month.
Our three interesting facts for today ....
Teddy Roosevelt had a pet badger called Josiah
George Orwell's first word was 'beastly'
1930s postboxes doubled as stamp vending machines
VEHICLE CRIME: Seven arrested and stolen vehicles recovered in 'chop shop' raids
On Monday (June 8, 2026), enquiries led to officers raiding a scrap yard in Doncaster.
They discovered an extensive and elaborate set up involving multiple vehicles, containers and parts, and it is believed the yard was being used as a chop shop.
A chop shop is a term used to describe a place where stolen vehicles are dismantled so that their parts can be sold or used to repair other stolen vehicles.
Five men, aged between 30 and 56, were arrested at the scene on suspicion of theft of a motor vehicle.
Three vehicles reported as stolen were discovered at the yard and have since been recovered.
The same day, officers in Barnsley attended a site where they located a stolen Mercedes and a Range Rover which had been stolen from an address as part of a two-in-one burglary. Officers also located a shipping container full of engines, a chassis and several car parts suspected to be stolen from the two stolen vehicles.Two men, aged 22 and 66, were arrested at the scene on suspicion of theft of a motor vehicle.
Detective Inspector Leanne Hearnshaw said:
"Vehicle theft has a huge impact on innocent people."People work hard to own and drive their cars and the last thing a person wants is for their vehicle to be stolen and stripped down for parts.
"These chop shops are often linked to wider organised criminality which brings fear and potential violence to people's doorsteps.
"We will continue to work to disrupt these operations, arrest perpetrators and locate stolen vehicles so they can be reunited with their owners and so we can keep our communities safe."
Win tickets to see Beyond Van Gogh or Beyond Monet
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To be in the draw all you need to do is sign up to our 100% Free daily digital newsletter. Current subscribers will be entered automatically.
Full details can be found at: https://bassetlaw-today.ghost.io/competition-2/ .
Nottinghamshire County Council’s youth service is celebrating Carers Week after being recognised as continuing to be young carer friendly.
Carers Week is a national campaign that raises awareness of unpaid carers and the important work they do.
This year’s theme, Building Carer Friendly Communities, focuses on helping more people understand and support carers.
The youth service received a Young Carer Friendly Quality Mark, for the second year running, for its work to support young carers across the county. All full-time staff have completed training to help them spot young carers and understand how to support them. Information is also shared so that young people know where they can get help.
The service works closely with Nottinghamshire Carers Association and the Young Carers Notts Service. New staff are trained when they join, and two team champions help make sure support for young carers keeps improving.
Many young people who use youth services have caring responsibilities. Supporting them and making sure they feel included is a key priority. The council currently runs eight young carer groups in young people centres and two more will be added this year.
Councillor Rory Green, Nottinghamshire County Council’s cabinet member for Children and Families, said:
“I’m really pleased that, once again, our youth service has been recognised as young carer friendly. Young carers in Nottinghamshire do an amazing job supporting their families, and we’ve made it a priority in our Nottinghamshire Plan to support these phenomenal young people. We are continuing to try to understand their reality, so that we can support them better. In recent months, I have become a Carers’ Champion, and conducted many of my councillor colleagues to successfully attend the, ‘NCA Young Carer Awareness Training,’ to support and identify young carers in their local patches.
“We want to make sure they get the support and chances they need. Our carers’ champions help staff learn how to support young carers and make sure they can access the help available. Our youth service offers vital support for young people and adding in specific support for young carers is fantastic.”
Becca Robbins, Service Manager, Young Carers Notts, said:
“Young carers can be the unspoken and hidden carer, either not identifying themselves as having a caring role, or being worried about doing so.
“Having professionals aware of what a young carer is and how they can best guide and support them is essential in showing a young person that they are listened to, that they don’t have to be alone.
“We are so thankful for the Nottinghamshire Youth Service for gaining its young carer friendly award – it means that another team of adults who come into contact with young people will be ready to ask the right questions, will be able to spot when a young carer may need help and support them.”
This award shows the council’s ongoing commitment to making Nottinghamshire a place where young carers are understood, supported and included.
A project to restore and reopen part of a medieval Nottinghamshire landmark has reached the halfway point – but costs have soared amid the discovery of significant archaeological features.
By: Joe Locker, LDRS
Newark Castle’s gatehouse is currently being restored and turned into a “destination attraction at the gateway to the town”, featuring interactive galleries and a viewing platform at the top of the tower.
The castle was originally built in the mid-12th Century by Bishop Alexander of Lincoln, who was known as Alexander the Magnificent.
It survived three sieges during the English Civil War, but was partially demolished on the orders of Oliver Cromwell.
The Romanesque gatehouse is now considered by Historic England to be one of the finest complete examples in the country.
However, the project is taking longer and has proven more costly to complete.
During the work a number of archaeological features have been discovered, including a five-metre deep well and a latrine.
Scaffolding has exposed further damage to the masonry on the gatehouse, while a chimney has been found to be structurally unsafe.
At a Newark and Sherwood District Council cabinet meeting on Tuesday, June 9, councillors approved extra cash to help finish the project, which a council officer said is now roughly “50 per cent” complete.
The original budget was £5.6 million, but tenders for the work came back “significantly over the budgeted cost”.
In February last year the authority approved an extra £1 million for the work, but the cost has since risen again by another £1.5 million, bringing the total budget to just over £8 million.
Cllr Jack Kellas, the leader of the Conservative Group and of the council’s opposition, said:
“It is never nice to see the cost of a project go up. Nobody wants to see that, but I am equally keen that this project is complete.
“I understand the original gatehouse budget recognised the historic nature of the castle, and built in a pretty large contingency as was, but I just want assurance before we take a vote that we have reassessed the due diligence work, and are comfortable and confident with the money you are asking for to complete the gatehouse.
“Essentially, what I am saying is I hope you are not anticipating coming back again asking for more, and also just for some assurance whilst the amount of money we are spending on the project is going up, your assurance the project still meets the value for money tests?”
Neil Cuttell, business manager for economic growth and visitor economy, said:
“The benefit cost ratio is undertaken in most full business cases. For every pound of public money that goes in, we would like to see a minimum £1.20, £1.30 [return].
“I can assure you most of the projects are very, very north of £1.50, and the castle project is north of £1.50.”
The meeting heard the council has sought to mitigate any risks, and that most of the “chunky” discoveries have likely been found.
Councillor Rowan Cozens, the deputy leader of the council and portfolio holder for heritage, culture and the arts, added:
“Of all the projects we are doing this has to be the flagship one.
“It still amazes me there is a well that wasn’t documented, we never knew about it. We didn’t know anything about whether it was a moated castle, whether it was dry.
“In fact what we’ve found out in many respects is priceless isn’t it, because it is history?
“It is quite right to be asking questions about the cost, of course it is, but this is a project some 10 years in the making, we are all invested in it.
“This is almost the price of discovering the gift that we have got right at the middle of the town.”
The spending of more than £17,000 on chauffeurs by the region’s Labour mayor has been dubbed “excessive, shocking, eyewatering and unjustifiable” by opposition parties.
By: Eddie Bisknell
Data published by the East Midlands Combined County Authority shows that in the 13 months from March last year to April 2026, Ms Ward has spent £17,733 on chauffeurs described as “luxury, executive, premium and high-end”.
This follows extensive work from the Local Democracy Reporting Service into the amount of money spent by Claire Ward, East Midlands Mayor, on chauffeurs since March 2025.
In March this year, the LDRS had reported on data for March to August 2025, with no further data available at that time, showing £1,508 spent on chauffeurs.
Following this, in May, the LDRS successfully lobbied for the remaining data up until February 2026 to be published, showing a further £7,820 on chauffeurs.
Now data for March and April 2026 has been made available showing a further £8,405 on chauffeurs for Ms Ward in those two months alone – nearly as much as the previous year combined – totalling £17,733.
This is more than eight months worth of wages – before tax – for the lowest paid workers at the four councils which form the combined authority.
Here are the rates for the lowest paid employees at each of the four constituent councils which make up the combined authority:
- Nottingham City Council – £24,413
- Derbyshire County Council – £24,519
- Derby City Council – £24,796
- Nottinghamshire County Council – £25,949
The new data includes 14 different payments for chauffeurs, with the lowest being £330 and highest being £990.
Ms Ward has an annual salary of £93,000 and can also claim expenses.
Previously, the combined authority detailed the company name of the chauffeur, namely Pinnacle, in Stapleford, and Blacklane, in the USA, but it no longer specifies a company – merely listing the incorrectly spelt “chauffer”.
For the third time Ms Ward has been asked to respond on her use of chauffeurs she has chosen not to do so, with a statement provided by a spokesperson for the combined authority instead.
The statement details the need to make efficient use of time, retain safety and to attend meetings across a broad geographical area – covering a combined 1,900 square miles.
It says Ms Ward does also make use of her personal car and public transport, with various claims also made on the Government procurement card for parking fees.
Political parties across Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire have made clear that while there are security and time constraints to contend with, the amount of expenditure on chauffeurs by the politician with the region’s public transport brief is too much and, at best, not a good look.
Councillor Alex Dale, Conservative opposition leader on Derbyshire County Council, said:
“While the Mayor has an important role to carry out across a large region, a spend of more than £17,000 on chauffeur-driven travel in just 13 months strikes me as very excessive.
“Residents rightly expect elected representatives to provide value for money, particularly at a time when many families are feeling the squeeze from the rising cost of living.
“I struggle to see how this level of spending can be justified and why travel by car or public transport, like everyone else, hasn’t been considered in these cases.”
Councillor Lucy Care, Liberal Democrat group leader on Derby City Council, said:
“It seems a lot. I would like to know more about the purpose of the journeys and whether those journeys could have been taken by more sustainable modes of transport.
“She is supposed to be supporting cycling and public transport use. It would be good that as far as possible she is leading herself in doing that.
“There can be good reasons for needing to be driven somewhere. She is obviously a high-profile person and if she is doing a public role she needs to be accompanied, but how many of these visits were needed for the job, how many were for publicity purposes and for how many could she have been accompanied on public transport?”
Councillor Rachael Hatchett, speaking on behalf of the Green Party group on Derbyshire County Council, said:
“I appreciate that Mayor Claire’s time is precious and I also appreciate there are security considerations in her travel, but it means that the Mayor is isolated from the realities of everyday life for public transport users and I would urge her to improve our bus network so people have better options than using their cars, especially at a time of high fuel costs.
“It would be good to see Mayor Claire mixing public transport with her use of chauffeur-driven cars.”
Councillor Teresa Cullen, Broxtowe Alliance member of Nottinghamshire County Council, said:
“I do not understand. Unless she has lost her driver’s licence, why does she need to be taken everywhere by chauffeur? That is a shocking amount of money to claim for a chauffeur.
“I can’t see any justification for it. I am not the Mayor and I don’t have to cover the whole of the East Midlands, but I have been a councillor since 2015 and I have never claimed any expenses, let alone for a chauffeur to take me anywhere.
“When I was Mayor of Broxtowe I refused to have a taxi or a chauffeur to take me anywhere because I thought it was a waste of public money.
“I do think it is a waste of money. That is an eye-watering sum of money to spend on chauffeurs. That sum of money could have paid for something that could have made a difference.
“In my county council ward in Beeston Central and Rylands we have got a real problem with our bus service, run by a charity, who simply do not have the money to run it efficiently, so people are constantly contacting me to say their bus hasn’t turned up and can’t get to doctor’s appointments or to work.
“£17,000 would have probably been enough money to make that bus service – the 18 bus route from Stapleford to Nottingham, run by Nottingham Community Transport – efficient for a year and that is what is at stake. It is shocking.”
Cllr Cullen, who travels across Nottinghamshire in her councillor role and also as chief executive of a charity, said:
“It isn’t a waste of my time. I have Bluetooth and can have conversations and it is a great time to consider things while concentrating.
“For £17,000 you could probably employ somebody as an actual driver.
“You can get across Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire by train and you can work easily on a train and it is more efficient than the back seat of a car.”
Cllr Stephen Reed, deputy leader of the Reform UK administration on Derbyshire County Council, said:
“The Mayor was elected by the people of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire and it is up to her in her role as Mayor how she spends their money.”
A combined authority spokesperson said:
“EMCCA is a large regional authority covering a population of 2.2 million people.
“The Mayor of the East Midlands, as a significant elected figure in the region, is expected to represent the region at a range of meetings, events and engagements with external partners and stakeholders across its geography, with a particular emphasis on attracting new investment into the region and supporting the local economy whenever possible.
“Travel arrangements are considered on a case-by-case basis, taking into account operational requirements, efficiency, safety, confidentiality and the ability to work while travelling.
“While we make every effort to arrange engagements in the same area where possible, there are occasions when the Mayor is required at multiple meetings and events in different parts of the region on the same day.
“On those occasions, using a driver allows the Mayor to use travel time productively for calls, briefings, meetings and correspondence rather than spending several hours behind the wheel.
“The Mayor also uses public transport and her own vehicle where appropriate, with travel arrangements determined by the requirements of any given day.
“All expenditure is subject to the authority’s governance processes and is assessed to ensure it is necessary, proportionate and represents value for money. Spending is published regularly in the interests of transparency.”
Can you figure out today's puzzle?
First figure out the nine letter solution and then find as many words as you can in today's panagram that contain the letter H.
Our last panagram was FACTIONAL. Read our next newsletter for the solution to today's puzzle.
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Have a great day and I look forward to seeing you read our next newsletter.
Justin Doddy, Editor
Bassetlaw Today
P.S. Your feedback about this newsletter is important to me. You can email me your feedback to news@bassettlawtoday.co.uk
