The M25 clockwise has been closed near East London this morning (June 10) after a huge multi-vehicle crash blocked the entire carriageway, with emergency services rushing to the scene.
It's understood the incident happened near Epping with the northbound carriageway closed on the link road from the M25 Junction 27 clockwise in Epping through to the M11 Junction 6 northbound.
It's not known yet whether any of those involved in the crash have been injured.
National Highways has tweeted to warn motorists of the closure. All lanes are being temporarily held as of 10.30am.
MyLondon has reached out to Essex Police for more information on this incident.
Did you see what happened? Get in touch at dan.wiggins@reachplc.com
For more updates on this breaking news story follow our blog below
A fire has broken out close to a primary school in North Finchley this morning (June 8). Around six fire engines and 40 firefighters have rushed to the scene of the blaze.
A London Fire Brigade spokesperson wrote: "Six fire engines and around 40 firefighters have been called to a fire on Moss Hall Grove in North Finchley. The Brigade's 999 Control Officers have taken nearly 40 calls. More info soon"
The nature of the fire is not yet known and there have not yet been reports of any injuries.
This is a developing news story, follow our live blog for all the latest updates.
Are you at the scene? Did you see what happened? Let us know at matt.spivey@reachplc.com.
A mum has won £6,500 from a South London council after it failed to fix her leaky roof for five years. The Housing Ombudsman - which deals with complaints about town hall landlords - found Lambeth Council spent a total of six years dragging its heels over an ongoing damp and mould problem in the unnamed woman’s flat.
In one instance, the council took five months to act on a safeguarding enquiry from her son’s primary school about black mould and a broken window pane in the house. It was one of a catalogue of failures in the council’s handling of the case which led the woman and her son having to sleep in the same bed to keep warm because of dodgy windows elsewhere in the house.
While workmen sent by the council tried to fix the problems, the flat was left in darkness, surrounded by scaffolding, for over two years. Meanwhile, the woman’s son developed what she described as “extreme eczema,” which his school reported was visible on his hands and body. He also started using an inhaler, which his mum blamed on mould in the property.
Lambeth Council has since apologised to the woman for the delays (Image: LDR Grainne Cuffe)
During an emergency leak at the flat in 2021, the woman called the fire brigade after the council failed to respond. When firefighters arrived, they told her that live wires above the flat’s door were hazardous.
Lambeth said that repairs were delayed because the woman refused to let a surveyor in to inspect her roof. But the Ombudsman said “little evidence was seen to support” the council’s claims, noting that there was no evidence it had formally raised access issues since a court hearing in 2016.
The Ombudsman added that missing information “hampered” its investigation into the case. Lambeth was unable to provide a tenancy agreement or any inspection reports when asked for them.
Richard Blakeway, the Housing Ombudsman, branded the woman’s situation “intolerable” and blasted the council for its “inappropriate” response which was “contrary to its legal obligations.”
He added: “It should not take intervention from the Ombudsman to carry out fundamental repairs."
Lambeth Council said it had now completed all the works, apologised to the woman and paid her £6,500 compensation.
A council spokesperson added: “We acknowledge that our management of the repair was inadequate, and we recognize the need for greater proactive communication with our tenants.
“We acknowledge that a proactive approach is crucial when addressing water penetration and damp issues, as these can be highly disruptive for our residents and have the potential to escalate.
“The council is therefore actively working on establishing a Repairs Journey team and an Early Resolutions team dedicated to improving communication between the Repairs Service and our tenants, and managing and coordinating repair needs promptly and proactively.”
Jeremy Clarkson said he finds the criticism of Phillip Schofield over his secret affair with a younger male colleague “weird” and has “never seen a witch hunt like it”. Writing in The Sunday Times, Clarkson said he does not know Schofield and has “no skin in the fight”, but wrote about the outrage that has followed Schofield’s saga.
“He maintains that his lover was over the age of consent when their relationship became physical, but that hasn’t silenced the howls of disgust,” Clarkson said. “And I find that weird. We casually roll our eyes when we hear that Leonardo DiCaprio’s new girlfriend is three and we even nod appreciatively when we learn that the age gap between Al Pacino and his pregnant girlfriend is 54 years.”
Clarkson said he has never seen a “witch hunt” like the one that has gone after the former This Morning host. “Everyone who’s ever walked past him in the street must be sacked as well. And those who paid his wages or sat next to him in the studio must be hauled into televised committees so that bramble bushes can be inserted into their bottoms,” Clarkson added.
“I’ve never seen a witch-hunt like it, and what baffles me most of all is that, as things stand, no crime has been committed. I don’t know him at all well and have no skin in the game, but it seems to me he is only guilty of being what he said he was: gay.”
He added that the public will be subjected to “endless conversations” about duty of care and how people on This Morning were “routinely ignored when they made impassioned cries for help”. Clarkson went on to say he did not believe ITV chief executive Dame Carolyn McCall or the director of television would have been aware of the affair.
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On Saturday, LGBT rights campaigner Peter Tatchell said the outrage against Schofield has “more than a whiff of homophobia” to it. The former Labour politician said the pair’s relationship had been “cast as sordid and abusive” while other high-profile heterosexual relationships with significant age differences had not been met with such outrage.
“There was never such a massive hue and cry over relationships with much younger women by Leonardo Di Caprio, Al Pacino and Peter Stringfellow,” Tatchell said. Schofield told The Sun that he and his former lover had met when the man was 15 and he was “maybe” in his mid-50s, but added that the affair began after the man started working at ITV and had been “consensual”.
