There is severe disruption this morning on the West Coast Main Line after Northampton station flooded, disrupting all trains running between Milton Keynes and Rugby.

The River Nene in Northampton has burst its banks, causing flooding of the tracks through Northampton train station and roads around the surrounding area.

Both Network Rail and London North Western Railway have confirmed that the station is inaccessible, meaning no trains or rail replacement bus services can be run.

London North Western Railway are further affected because they are also unable to access the depot just north of Northampton station where a lot of their trains are based, and are duly unable to run them out of the town to other places.

As of 08:45am this morning (25/11), there are mass cancellations of London North Western services on the West Coast Main Line, with only a handful of services running on lines and all services via Northampton cancelled.

Some services are still in operation, with these operating on the line that bypasses Northampton. Avanti West Coast are still running, although their services are also subject to delays.

The flooding comes in the wake of Storm Bert, which hit the UK over the weekend. Heavy wind, rain and snow have been recorded in multiple parts of the country.

Carole Bayliss, strategy director for Network Rail’s West Coast South route, said in a statement, “We’re very sorry to passengers disrupted by flooding in Northampton, which will mean major disruption on the West Coast Main Line today.

“While our teams monitor water levels and wait until it’s safe to fully assess the extent of flood damage to the railway, we’re urging passengers to check with National Rail Enquiries before travelling.”

Jonny Wiseman, customer experience director at London Northwestern Railway, added, “The recent heavy rainfall and resultant standing water in the Northampton area is impacting all services through the station and also access to our nearby depot.

“We advise our customers to check their journeys before setting out as significant disruption is expected to continue throughout the day across our network.”

Network Rail have stated that the flooding is expected to cause significant disruption to rail journeys all day while engineers monitor water levels and assess damage caused to tracks and signalling equipment.

The railway line closure coincides with further closures of roads in Northampton in the wake of Storm Bert.

On social media, Northamptonshire Police have confirmed that due to flooding, road closures are currently in place for St Andrew’s Road and surrounding areas, St James’ Park Road, along Victoria Park, Dallington close to the brook, London Road and Bridge Street in Far Cotton and Bedford Road

A fifth place finish at the Las Vegas Grand Prix was enough to crown Max Verstappen as the 2024 F1 world champion.

The 27-year-old won his fourth consecutive championship in a race where he outscored rival Lando Norris, who finished one place behind him on the streets of Las Vegas.

While he was unable to fight for victory or a podium, outscoring Norris means that Verstappen is now 63 points ahead of the British driver with 60 to play for in the final 2 rounds of the season.

That means that Verstappen becomes a four time champion in F1, becoming only the fifth driver in F1 history to win four titles in a row following Juan Manuel Fangio, Michael Schumacher, Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton. Alain Prost is the sport’s only other man to win four championships.

Team-mate Sergio Perez finished in 10th and picked up the final championship point, having had to launch a recovery drive after starting from 16th place on the grid.

The result means Red Bull remain third in the constructor’s championship, with the Milton Keynes-based team now 53 points behind leaders McLaren and 29 points behind second place Ferrari ahead of the final two rounds of the season in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

Verstappen’s race in Las Vegas was a fairly straight-forward one, where he ultimately finished in the 5th position where he qualified. He had managed to jump ahead of others during the second round of pit-stops, but was bypassed by Lewis Hamilton and the Ferrari pair of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc, with the Dutchman finishing 16 and a half seconds behind race winner George Russell.

However, with Norris and McLaren unable to hit the heights seen at other races this year with a car that couldn’t keep up with the Red Bull, it allowed Verstappen to finish ahead of Norris, in the process confirming he would finish the Las Vegas Grand Prix with the world championship.

Perez had started out of position after a sixth Q1 exit of the season. While he was unable to get closer to the higher end of the points, he was able to gain some momentum including making a double pass on Liam Lawson and Kevin Magnussen before overtaking Fernando Alonso in the final laps to pick up the final point of the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

Northampton Town made it back-to-back goalless draws as they played out a 0-0 draw with Cambridge United at Sixfields.

A wet and windy afternoon produced no breakthrough for either the Cobblers or the U’s, with the result meaning a second goalless draw in a row for Northampton after they had drawn 0-0 with Blackpool last time out.

A fourth straight game without a win in League One means Jon Brady’s side now sit 16th in the table.

It took some time for the sides to create tangible opportunities, but one would fall for Cambridge when Brandon Njoku saw a strike repelled by Lee Burge.

Sam Hoskins would curl a strike just off target, before Cambridge saw Elias Kachunga miss the target when well placed.

In a similarly low-quality second half, Shayne Lavery missed a fine chance for Cambridge when he fired off target from 12 yards.

Perhaps the chance of the day came for Cambridge, with Burge keeping out Lavery before Nesta Guinness-Walker kept out a rebound from Kachunga.

Substitutes Tom Eaves and Martyn Waghorn missed chances to win it for Northampton late on, but there was no way through for either side.

The Cobblers will next be in action on Tuesday night, when they travel to Wigan Athletic to face the side currently sat directly below them in the third tier table.

Milton Keynes City Council have confirmed arrangements for bin collections during the Christmas and New Year period.

As part of the announcement, MK City Council said that to help residents with their extra recycling during the festive season, they will be collecting blue and red bins during the week after Christmas. 

Recycling rates usually rise after Christmas when people have additional packaging, wrapping and bottles to dispose of. The amount of rubbish and recycling collected during the festive period typically goes up by 30% compared to the waste created during the rest of the year.

In contrast, green bin waste levels usually dip over winter as fewer residents are getting rid of garden waste. With this in mind, during week commencing 30 December, food and garden waste collections will pause to give crews enough time to pick up the additional recycling.

Since the city council introduced separate bins for paper and card and plastic, metal, and glass just over a year ago, MK’s recycling rates have increased by a third and city council sends almost nothing that MK throws away to landfill.

Interim Cabinet Member for the Public Realm, Cllr Akash Nayee, said, “During the festive season, our crews are busier than ever with the increased rubbish and recycling. To help our residents, we will collect blue and red bins, which tend to be fuller, and pause food and garden waste collection as they are generally lighter in winter. Thank you, MK, for helping us to boost our recycling rates and we hope this common sense change for the post-Christmas week is useful for everyone.”

Collections scheduled for Wednesday 25 December will take place on Friday 27 December and will see black, blue and green bins collected.

Collections scheduled for Thursday 26 December will take place on Saturday 28 December and will see black, blue and green collected.

Collections scheduled for Friday 27 December will take place on Monday 30 December and will see black, blue and green collected.

Collections scheduled for Monday 30 December will take place on Tuesday 31 December and will see black, red and blue collected.

Collections scheduled for Tuesday 31 December will take place on Thursday 2 January and will see black, red and blue collected.

Collections scheduled for Wednesday 1 January will take place on Friday 3 January and will see black, red and blue collected.

Collections scheduled for Thursday 2 January will take place on Saturday 4 January and will see black, red and blue collected.

Collections scheduled for Friday 3 January will take place on Monday 6 January and will see black, red and blue collected.

Collections scheduled for Monday 6 January will take place on Tuesday 7 January and will see black, blue and green collected.

Collections scheduled for Tuesday 7 January will take place on Wednesday 8 January and will see black, blue and green collected.

Collections scheduled for Wednesday 8 January will take place on Thursday 9 January and will see black, blue and green collected.

Collections scheduled for Thursday 9 January will take place on Friday 10 January and will see black, blue and green collected.

Finally, collections meant for Friday 10 January will take place on Saturday 11 January and will see black, blue and green collected.

Normal collections will resume from Monday 13 January 2025.

Real Christmas trees will be collected if the trunk is no more than 15cm / 6in in diameter, fit neatly inside your green bin with decorations removed. Alternatively, trees can be taken to one of the city council’s recycling centres. You can book a slot and check the opening hours at: www.milton-keynes.gov.uk/hwrc