Gloucestershire

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/18925844

A children’s soft play centre has removed its hanging “body bag” Halloween decorations after concerns were raised by parents.

Rugrats and Halfpints in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, has apologised over the objects resembling human corpses covered in black plastic.

Some appeared to be wrapped with tape bearing the words “caution” and “danger” and were hanging upside down from poles adjoining one of the soft play structures, according to pictures posted online.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/18313826

"We were on a camping holiday in Coleford for a week in August last year. It is the perfect location to watch deer and see the wild boar and the humbugs. One of the days we were there, we had been out for a good couple of hours and had seen deer and the wild boar and little humbugs, and it got to about 9pm and we decided to head back to the camp site.

"We were driving passed the fenced area by the recycling centre in Coleford and we seen a lynx jump into the road. In one bound it jumped across the road.

"There is no question about it, the animal was clearly a lynx. You could tell by the tufts on its ears, the green eye shine and it was dark tan and tall as a Labrador.

"The definition of the muscles on the animal as well. It had muscular legs and had no problem leaping eight or ten feet across the road.

"It was a lynx, you could see plain as day."

Gareth understand people may be sceptical about seeing big cats in the British countryside. However he says it is not the first time he has seen a lynx while out exploring the countryside.

He said: "In 1996 I was on my way, with my wife, to see friends in Colchester and seen a puma on a road near Colchester Zoo. I think the big cats which are living in the British countryside hear the big cats which are n the zoo and are attracted to the sounds and the noises of the other big cats.

"Another time when I was working as a delivery driver, and I was taking groceries to a house in the middle of nowhere and I seen a puma in the middle of a field. There are more big cats living in the wild in the countryside in England than people realise.

"I am not too sure about leopards or jaguars being out there, however there are plenty of lynx and it is very interesting in how they came to be there. If you're someone who disbelieves big cats are out there, it is unfortunate, however one day you may be able to see one for yourself."

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"To top up the population of feral lynx in the UK, some 'Black Ops' release programmes have taken place which have been carried out by private re-wilding enthusiasts.

Previously:

• 'Wolf' seen in Forest of Dean chasing herd of deer into bracken
• Big cat spotted running into field of sheep who just don't care - Lynx sighting on Dartmoor

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/18243363

A group of wild boar have been spotted wandering past a pub.

The footage was captured outside the Golden Lion in Cinderford, Gloucestershire, on 2 October.

Boar were hunted to extinction 700 years ago, but became established again in the Forest of Dean in the 1990s.

Forestry Commission wildlife rangers monitor numbers in the Forest of Dean each spring and carry out culls, if necessary, to keep the target population to about 400.

The boars have been known to go hunting for food in the local neighbourhoods when foraging becomes harder in the nearby forest.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/17533303

Two friends are causing a stir completing a six-day tandem bike ride completely naked. Neil Cox, 36, and his friend, J Antic, 25, set off on Saturday on a naked 260-mile journey from Gloucester to Land's End, Cornwall.

The pair are both naturists - meaning they like to spend time in the nude - and wanted to see some natural beauty across the south west of England. Neil and J have cycled naked through Gloucester to Bristol, taken a trip to the Mendips and stopped off in Glastonbury.

The pair have spent some nights camping and others in hotels or B&Bs, and even took some nude trips out shopping or to drink in bars while on their journey. Now in Cornwall, they're on the last leg of their cycle - and say the response to them so far has been "overwhelmingly positive".

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"People on social media always have opinions - but we haven't had many negative reactions. People in Glastonbury were overwhelmingly positive, it was a bit overwhelming. In Bristol people had a casual indifference, but that's what we want to be the case really.

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"Wherever we go, people do look over - I think some are just bemused about seeing two people on a tandem. So they find it even funnier to see two naked people on a tandem."

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/17070663

"A Gloucestershire council has declared a major incident and is working with GCHQ to assess the full extent of a cyber attack by “hostile actors”. Tewkesbury Borough Council shut down all of the services they provide online yesterday (Wednesday, September 4) after they identified “hostile actors” within their IT systems.

Council leaders say the full extent of the cyber security breach and the motive of the attack is currently unknown. But they are redeploying staff to towns and large villages across the Borough to ensure the most vulnerable have access to the services they rely on.

Chief Executive Alistair Cunningham said: “With all our systems shut down, our main focus is around the vulnerable people we serve in this community.

"We are currently dealing with an IT incident. Our systems have been compromised.

“We were alerted to unknown user accounts accessing our systems yesterday afternoon. We are clearly at an early stage of our investigation but as of today we are saying there is no evidence of data exfiltration from the organisation.

“Yesterday we thought data had been removed from the organisation which would be of serious concern to our residents. We have been analysing the movement of data in and out. The data leaving the system was through bonafide user accounts.”

“The accounts we have identified have not been taking data out of the organisation. That is the situation which is reassuring to ourselves and partners and clearly the public in terms of the data we hold.”

He said the authority has taken the necessary cyber response steps including informing the National Cyber Security Centre who are supporting them with their investigation..."

A student has started a project to reclaim some of her county's old language.

Univeristy of Gloucestershire graduate, Holly Williams-Richards said she became "enamoured" by some of the traditional words she found during her research.

Some of these words, such as "flittermouse" - which means bat - are being displayed in a public art trail to introduce them to new generations.

They can be found in places like the Oxstalls Campus at the university and across Gloucester city centre.

A light aircraft has landed on a main road in Gloucestershire.

The county's police force said it had received reports after the craft landed on the A419 in Frampton Mansell, some five miles from Stroud.

The incident is said to have taken place at around 4.45pm on Tuesday.

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"There were two occupants on board who will be assessed by the ambulance service, and it is understood that no other vehicles were involved," a spokesperson for the force said.

One witness told Gloucestershire Live that it looked like the plane had "stalled and nose-dived into the main road".