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A West Yorkshire art gallery is attempting to raise sufficient funds to purchase a Dame Barbara Hepworth sculpture "for the nation".

The Hepworth Wakefield wants to buy Sculpture With Colour (Oval Form) Pale Blue And Red, created in the 1940s, in order for it to go on permanent public display.

The oval-shaped piece, which sold for more than £3.5m in 2024, was later given a temporary export bar preventing it from leaving the country – providing a UK gallery the chance to acquire it.

The Art Fund charity has offered £750,000 towards the cost, however a further £2.9m is required before a 27 August deadline.

If the target was not met, the sculpture by the Wakefield-born artist would go to a private buyer and be taken overseas.

The appeal is backed by artists and creatives including Sir Antony Gormley, Anish Kapoor, Jonathan Anderson, Richard Deacon, Katy Hessel, Veronica Ryan, Joanna Scanlan and Dame Rachel Whiteread.

The piece is one of only a handful of wooden carvings made by the artist during the 1940s, when she lived in St Ives, Cornwall, with her young family.

If bought, the Hepworth said it would be a "star piece" in its collection.

The gallery also planned to lend it to other museums and galleries across the UK, "opening up access for people everywhere".

Simon Wallis, gallery director, said: "We established The Hepworth Wakefield 14 years ago to celebrate, explore and build on Barbara Hepworth's legacy.

"This sculpture is the missing piece, a masterpiece which deserves to be on display in the town where Hepworth was born."

Sir Antony said: "Barbara Hepworth's work remains a luminary example of both an engagement with modernism and a return to direct carving.

"The opportunity for the museum named after her to acquire this important work is precious and should be supported."

The gallery is home to Wakefield's art collection, including significant works by Dame Barbara but excluding her finished works from the 1940s.

Jenny Waldman, Art Fund director, said: "This rare and significant sculpture should be on public display in the UK now and for generations to come.

"Every museum should have the power to secure landmark works of art but in today's challenging funding climate they simply cannot compete with the prices demanded on the open market."

She added: "We applaud The Hepworth Wakefield for the huge ambition of their bid to bring this Hepworth home."

West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds

About 600 cyclists filled the streets of a city to promote the joy of cycling.

The eighth mass cycle ride in Winchester, Hampshire, took place on Saturday morning.

Five different routes converged on the city centre, reaching King Alfred's Statue for a processional lap, before finishing at Abbey Gardens.

Organisers Cycle Winchester said the aim of the event was to get more people cycling, more often.

The procession included cyclists of all ages, visually impaired tandem riders, and in-line skaters.

Emma, a volunteer with advocacy group Cycle Winchester, said she was moved by how "joyful and inclusive" the event was, calling the diversity "really incredible to see".

"We know so many people could and would like to cycle in Winchester. We're a fairly small city, but a lot of people don't feel able to do that," she said.

"It's not always the most pleasant experience.

"Today is about showing people the joy of riding together, but also how achievable small, everyday trips can be."

A Surrey Police officer has been charged with stalking, the force has said.

PC Jake Mullarkey, 35, has been charged with one count of stalking.

He was arrested on 28 July 2024 and has been suspended from the force, a police spokesperson said.

Mr Mullarkey is due to appear at Brighton Magistrates' Court on 24 April.

A hospital outpatient unit located on the top floor of a department store is to be relocated when the retailer closes its doors for the last time.

University Hospitals Dorset (UHD) created the hub in Beales, Poole, in December 2021 to help tackle waiting lists that grew during the Covid pandemic.

Beales announced in February that its last remaining department store would close at the end of May but said the NHS hub would remain.

UHD said outpatient services would move from 5 June to St Mary's Hospital – the former maternity unit which was relocated in March.

Following the move, the Outpatients Assessment Clinic (OAC) will continue to provide abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) screening, dermatology, dexa scans, ophthalmology, orthopaedics, phlebotomy and ultrasound.

Core breast screening services will move to Poole Hospital, with remaining facilities relocated to another UHD site.

UHD chief operating officer Mark Mould said: "When we opened the Beales clinic, we were responding to unprecedented demand in the wake of Covid.

"Since then, the clinic has gone from strength to strength – with over 75,000 patients seen across 19 specialties.

"Our fantastic staff and volunteers have been key to the clinic's success, and their commitment will ensure we maintain the same high standards as we transition to the new location."

Maternity services moved from St Mary's to a new unit at Royal Bournemouth Hospital on 31 March.

Beales department store, in the Dolphin Centre, closes for the last time on Saturday.

A businessman who told a criminal he could sell a stolen £4.8m golden toilet for him "in two split seconds" has been given a 21-month suspended sentence.

Fred Doe, of Winkfield, Windsor, Berkshire, was found guilty of conspiracy to convert or transfer criminal property in March.

The 18-carat toilet was created by the conceptual artist Maurizio Cattelan and had been installed at the Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire as part of an exhibition.

Sentencing Doe, Judge Ian Pringle said: "You had a limited function, you had no personal gain, you had no wider involvement, and you were involved for a short period."

Doe has been sentenced to 21 months imprisonment suspended for two years and ordered him to do 240 hours unpaid work.

In September 2019, five men smashed their way into the palace, ripped out the plumbed in toilet and fled in a stolen car.

Michael Jones was convicted of burglary in connection with the crime after a trial at Oxford Crown Court in March.

James Sheen pleaded guilty to burglary in 2024.

Speaking outside court, Doe said: "My good nature has been taken advantage of.

"I got caught up in something I should not have and now I just want to go home and enjoy my family. I am a good person."

He left in a car surrounded by a group of friends, who shouted "he is a good person" and said they would be going for a drink to celebrate.

The judge said Doe had been of previous good character and accepted that the conspirators may have taken advantage of his good nature.

He added Doe was "targeted" for his legitimate contacts in the Hatton Garden jewellery district.

Just two days after the golden toilet was stolen in an early morning raid, Doe sent a voice message to Sheen saying: "I do know just the man you need to see… the word's on the street about the car."

The court heard that 'car' was their code word for gold.

Four years later, Sheen would plead guilty to stealing the 18-carat solid-gold toilet.

The hundreds of texts, calls and voice messages sent between the two men in the two weeks following the heist would help convict Doe, a well-connected businessman from the traveller community.

As a work of art, the toilet weighed 98kg (216lbs) and was insured for $6m (£4.8m).

Gold prices at the time would have meant the metal alone was worth £2.8m, the court was told.

It is not known exactly when the thieves broke the toilet into smaller pieces, or whether they melted the gold themselves.

But the court heard within two days of the heist, Sheen was looking for buyers, offering gold at about £25,500 per kilo.

In voice messages Doe, who is also known as Fred Sines, told Sheen that: "I can sell that car for you in two split seconds."

He was also heard explaining what can be expected of a deal: "Within 48 hours you get paid and it's guaranteed by me. Personal guarantee."

But he also urged secrecy: "Jim, very clear. This stays strictly between me and you."

Doe organised a meeting between Sheen and a bullion dealer in Hatton Garden, London's jewellery quarter.

He told the toilet thief that the dealer "knows the full score of the car."

"What the car is, what it was, what it wasn't. You know, these boys are 100 million percent on me," he added.

In the end, the deal turned sour and it collapsed without a sale.

Sheen instead sold the twenty kilos of gold – around a fifth of the toilet's gold – to an unknown buyer in Birmingham for £520,000.

During the trial Doe acknowledged that he had been trying to help Sheen sell the gold, but denied knowing it was stolen, calling the toilet thief an "idiot" who had let him down.

His defence barrister told the jury that "this loss to the nation's bottoms cannot be laid at the feet of Fred Doe".

But the jury found him guilty.

In sentencing, Judge Pringle said: "You were at best a middleman who was targeted, in my view, by James Sheen because you knew many people in Hatton Garden because of your knowledge of valuable watches.

"In all the references I've read, you were described as kind, caring, selfless and somebody whom some people take advantage of."

Sheen and Jones, both convicted of burglary, are due to be sentenced in June.

None of the toilet's gold has ever been recovered.

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A theatre where William Shakespeare is thought to have performed has had an area of historic timber floor "larger than a tennis court" exposed.

The flooring, believed to have been once trodden on by the playwright and actor, was discovered at St George's Guildhall in King's Lynn, Norfolk, in 2023.

A conservation project has worked on exposing the wooden floorboards and other areas of the venue.

Tim FitzHigham, creative director of the theatre, said: "The information that's coming out of that floor is kind of like the dry equivalent of the Mary Rose; that's how important this discovery is."

The theatre's first recorded performances took place in 1445, long before Shakespeare's birth in 1564.

During 1592-1593 London's theatres were closed because of an outbreak of plague and Shakespeare and his company of actors were on tour in King's Lynn.

The theatre claims documents show The Bard acted there in 1592 or 1593.

• BBC Bitesize: Who was William Shakespeare?

Last year a doorway, that may once have led to the Bard's dressing room, was also discovered at the King Street venue.

Performances were moved to another building on-site in February to start lifting layers of the floor.

Mr FitzHigham said the area of floor was "larger than a tennis court and it's all 1419 beams all around you".

"Having the whole floor exposed gives us a massive amount of information about the use of the venue over the last 600 years," he added.

During the conservation project, there has been early evidence of playgoers eating food, drinking, and smoking at the venue.

"We've literally found the food. We found all this stuff down the cracks of the floorboards," Mr FitzHigham said.

"We've got loads of nutshells, oyster shells, bits of pipe, broken wine bottles and chicken bones."

People can view the exposed stage before the next phase of the conservation project in July.

Controversial plans for 700 homes on a former golf course that ecologists have said is a haven for nature have moved forward.

About 200 protestors turned up to a Swindon Borough Council meeting on Wednesday where councillors voted to move the plans for Highworth's former golf course to its next stage, where more details will be drawn up.

The Council says 46% of the land will be retained for public open space, and a nature reserve.

However, local campaigners and the town council created a business plan for it to be turned entirely into a nature park, and said the development would be "catastrophic".

The golf course closed and became an open space for nature to flourish and local people to enjoy in 2019.

The land is council-owned and has been since the 1970s.

Swindon Borough Council was looking at three options: 700 homes with a nature reserve, 400 homes with a nature reserve or reserving the site entirely for a nature park.

Officers had recommended the larger number of homes as it would help meet affordable housing needs and provide more return for taxpayers.

Campaigners say the area has also become an important, accessible open space for the local community.

Local resident Robin Clegg said the space is used by more than 500 people a day and that more than 4,500 signed a petition previously to keep the site as it is.

"I've seen heron, owls, snakes, many different flowers. Surveys have shown there's over 300 different flora and fauna on the site," added Mr Clegg, adding that having the open space available is good for people's health.

Councillor Julie Murphy, mayor and member of Highworth Town Council, highlighted how an ecologist's report commissioned by the borough council said the area was a unique and important place for people and nature.

She added the council "appreciate" affordable housing is a "necessity", but new developments with an element of affordable housing are already planned for Highworth.

A couple from Guernsey have urged fellow islanders to consider becoming foster carers.

Helena and Peter McGovern are respite foster carers, which means they fill in for foster carers when they need a break or go on holiday.

Mr McGovern said it was "a wonderful experience", which he and his wife both "highly recommend".

The pair shared their experiences as part of Foster Care Fortnight, an annual awareness campaign in the UK, which the Channel Islands also takes part in.

As part of the campaign, which runs until 25 May, the Family Placement Service said foster carers could have an "incredible impact".

Mr McGovern said of his experience with foster caring: "It's been great, it's tough sometimes, but we've met some wonderful people along the way, we've got to know some of the children and it's lovely to see them mature, growing up, settling down.

"It's a wonderful experience – we would highly recommend it."

Reform UK has selected a leader for its new group of councillors on Leicestershire County Council.

Dan Harrison has taken up the position following this month's election where the party wiped out the Tory majority at County Hall.

Harrison, a former Conservative county councillor who defected to Reform in February, will lead the party's 25 newly-elected members, it was announced on Monday.

Reform is the largest party on the authority but is three seats short of an overall majority.

Harrison said it was "an honour and a privilege" to be elected group leader.

The Tories are now the second largest party and hold 15 of the 55 seats and have lost control of the council after 24 years in power.

The authority remains hung with no party in overall control.

The Liberal Democrats have 11 councillors, Labour have two and there is a single Green and independent councillor, following the election on 3 May.

Reform has the option of either governing in a minority administration or trying to form a coalition with parties towards the opposite end of the political spectrum.

It is likely to become clear what the future political leadership of the council on Wednesday.

That is the date of the county council's annual general meeting – when all councillors meet to elect a chair and vice-chair and appoint councillors to committees.

The defeated Tories have already ruled out forming a coalition with Reform and said they would serve as a "strong opposition" to the larger party.

Harrison is division member for Ashby-de-la-Zouch and was first elected to the council as a Conservative in 2017.

said: "It's an honour and a privilege to have been elected leader of the Reform UK group on Leicestershire County Council.

"What we have achieved here is incredible.

"From a standing start we are now the largest party on the council.

"The people of Leicestershire have given this council a clear mandate for serious change."

Joseph Boam, the newly-elected Reform councillor for Whitwick, has been chosen as deputy leader of the Reform group.

The chairman of a swimming club which lost its home when a Kent sports centre closed said he was looking forward to returning after the site was saved from permanent closure.

Folkestone Sports Centre has been closed for nearly a year, but after months of uncertainty, has been bought by The Sports Trust, which plans to run it as a leisure centre again.

Ian Howe, chairman of Folkestone Swimming Club, which calls the sports centre home, said the deal was "really positive news", but uncertainty loomed as to when the site would reopen.

Mr Howe said the club was planning discussions with the trust to find out more about the opening.

He said: "We are coming up on 10 months now where we can only have one proper session a week. It's good to know we will back in there eventually."

Administrators confirmed in January that the sports centre, which was built in 1972, had secured a buyer for the site after the trust who previously ran it said in July 2024 it could "no longer afford to remain operational".

Sir Roger De Haan, whose charitable trust supported The Sports Trust in buying the site, said it had outbid multiple housing developers to ensure the site could be saved as a sports centre.

Paul Carney, chairman of the trust, said there was "considerable work to be done to the centre" and hoped that essential works would be completed over the next 12 months.

The acquisition of the site was also praised by Folkestone and Hythe MP Tony Vaughan, who added that the deal "secures the future of this vital local community facility".