BBC Local Live: Cambridgeshire

That's it for live updates from around Cambridgeshire for today and indeed this week. Thanks for your company.

We'll be back from 08:00 on Monday.

Scroll back through today's feed for anything you may have missed.

Have a great weekend.

Before we go tonight, we thought we'd keep you up-to-date with the showbiz news...

Peterborough's Olympic medal-winning gymnast, Louis Smith, is set to return to our TV screens on Sunday on "The Jump".

Channel 4Copyright: Channel 4

The Rio 2016 silver medal winner joins a list of 14 celebrity competitors who will be tackling an array of winter sports.

The show will be broadcast on Channel 4, beginning this Sunday from 19:30.

The broadcaster says there's been a "thorough review of safety procedures" after a number of accidents on last year's season.  

It's a busy weekend of football for our local sides, with Peterborough United heading to Port Vale tomorrow, and Cambridge United host Plymouth.

Peterborough go into the game off the back of a rough run of form.

A rocky festive period saw Grant McCann's side take just three points from three matches and the malaise has continued into the new year, hampering their play-off chances.

Posh's strikers have been much maligned this season, but they've been feeding on scraps in recent matches.

Marcus Maddison (pictured) is the chief chance creator in the Posh side, but others need to step up to feed the strikers.

Getty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images

It's an obvious statement, but Posh need to get back to defending well as a team.

When they were at their best in the first half of the season, their strikers pressed opposition defences high, making it tough for them to get out and play through Grant McCann's team.

Throw in some lapses in concentration from set pieces and a tendency to be caught on the ball in dangerous areas, and it's easy to see why they've begun to leak goals.

Meanwhile, Cambridge United manager Shaun Derry admits their record against their promotion rivals needs to improve. 

The U's have beaten only one of the 10 sides currently above them in the League Two table. They're hosting second place Plymouth tomorrow. Derry says they can't continue dropping points against the better sides.

Harrison Dunk should feature after recovering from a knock to his ankle, but Greg Taylor remains sidelined.

The number of homeless people applying for help to Cambridge City Council has more than doubled in the last six years.

Kevin Price, executive housing councillor for the city, told BBC Sunday Politics East that national factors, like a lack of social housing, were behind the increase.

He said 144 people came forward for help with homelessness in 2010 compared to about 400 last year.

"So many national changes have affected people in Cambridge - a city where the cost of living is really high," said Mr Price.

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Figures from the Department for Communities and Local Government also show a rise in the number of rough sleepers in Cambridge, from six in 2010 to 40 last year.

Mr Price said the city council spent as much as it could afford on helping the homeless.

"But councils like ours just don't have the number of houses that are needed," he added. 

Elsewhere in Cambridgeshire, the rough sleeper count is either static or falling. In Fenland, for example, the numbers recorded on the streets in 2010 were 11 compared to seven last year.  

Across the East of England, the number of people sleeping rough has more than doubled since 2010. Records show 212 people on the streets that year, rising to 460 in 2015 and 650 last year.

You can see more about homelessness issues on BBC Sunday Politics East, this Sunday at 11:00 on BBC One.  

A Cambridge vet is hopeful she has restored the sight of a critically-endangered orangutan that was blinded after being shot more than 100 times.

The plight of Aan captured the hearts of animal lovers across the world in 2012 after it was revealed she was shot with an air rifle on a palm oil plantation in Indonesian Borneo.

Volunteer veterinarian ophthalmologist Claudia Hartley performed a simple cataract operation on Aan's right eye on Friday at midday local time (04:00 GMT) at the Lamandau River wildlife reserve in Borneo, where the primate is being cared for by the Orangutan Foundation.

She then removed the primate's left eye, which was blinded permanently by dozens of pellets in the attack, during the three-hour surgery.  

Orangutan foundationCopyright: Orangutan foundation

The 44-year-old vet said the surgery could not have gone any better and that early signs looked "very promising".

"The surgery went very well, so we're pleased with how it went," she said.

"She's still quite sleepy and keeping the eye shut, so it's difficult to know how much she sees.

"If we shone a bright light in she would then scrunch her eye up, so I'm pretty sure she can recognise the light, but we can't assess how well she sees food and trees and obstacles and those sort of things, which is the more critical thing that we need to do."

If the operation is successful, she will be kept in the enclosure for a further three to four weeks to make sure she continues her post-op medication before being released into the wild.

The sliproad that connects the A1 to the A47 at Wansford is currently closed due to a lorry blaze.

@FenCopsCopyright: @FenCops

Police say the lorry caught fire due to a mechanical failure as it came off the A1 at the Wansford junction, and then jack-knifed.

The whole vehicle, including its contents of till roll, went up in flames.

The driver was uninjured.

Those are just some of the 312 hoax and inappropriate calls our region's paramedics had to deal with between April and December last year.

Some of the calls included...

• A woman who needed an escort home to breastfeed, claiming there was too much traffic.
• A man who was bitten by a rat the day before. He was advised to go to his GP.
• A man who had broken his toe nail.

Getty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images

The county breakdown of hoax and inappropriate calls to the East of England Ambulance Service is:

• Bedfordshire – 43
• Cambridgeshire – 72
• Hertfordshire – 42
• Essex – 74
• Norfolk – 46
• Suffolk – 35

Gary Morgan, from the ambulance service, said: "We'd urge the public to remember that the ambulance service is for emergencies."

This is the aftermath of a car fire on the A47, which closed both sides of the road earlier this afternoon.

@FenCopsCopyright: @FenCops

@FenCopsCopyright: @FenCops

@FenCopsCopyright: @FenCops

Police say they came across the fire at about 12:20 on the Thorney bypass.

Luckily there was no-one trapped in the vehicle, but police managed to speak to the driver who was uninjured. 

A full road closure was needed due to smoke billowing from the Peugeot.

Highways England was also called because both the road and the central barrier were damaged.

It's not only the men's Six Nations that kicks off this weekend. The women's equivalent gets under way, too, with Scotland hosting Ireland this evening,followed tomorrow by Wales v Italy and - arguably the pick of the ties - England v France at Twickenham. 

The women's game is really taking off across the UK, so watch England full-back Danielle Waterman explain her love of rugby and the different versions you can play - and if you're inspired to pick up the oval ball yourself, check out our Get Inspired guide.

England Women v France Women kicks off at 19:35 GMT on Saturday, with live coverage on BBC Radio 5 live sports extra, plus highlights of all three matches on BBC Two at 22:45 GMT.

A Cambridgeshire greengrocer says he's "never known" lettuces to be as expensive in 50 years in the industry.

No doubt you'll have seen a number of supermarkets are restricting the sale of some vegetables because of a shortage, caused by bad weather in southern Europe.

Neil Watson, from Alice's Fruit Sales in Whittlesey, says the shortage is hitting him hard.

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"I pay £15 for 10 icebergs at the moment. That's £1.50 before I start. There's also a lot of people who have half. They're 80p a half.

"You can tell I'm not even getting my expenses back," he said.

"It's so difficult at the moment.

"I've been in the job 50 years and I've never seen prices like this."

Contrary to earlier on in the week, today has started out rather sunny and blue around Cambridgeshire.

Here are some of the best pictures from the day so far, captured by our BBC Weather Watchers...

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After a generally dry and sunny start, south-easterly winds will strengthen with cloud thickening through the afternoon.

Outbreaks of rain will push into western parts of the county during the afternoon.

Highs of 10C (50F).  

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Anglian Water has announced £425m of investment over the next year that it says is needed to keep taps running in one of the UK's driest areas.

Part of the investment is a brand new storage tank at Grafham Water, which will hold the equivalent of 16 Olympic-sized swimming pools of water. 

Construction on the mega structure is now finished, with the tank set to be in use by early March.

We were given access yesterday, before the lid was sealed shut...

Anglian WaterCopyright: Anglian Water

Anglian WaterCopyright: Anglian Water

Anglian WaterCopyright: Anglian Water

Anglian WaterCopyright: Anglian Water

The "resilience tank" took a year and a half to construct. It's held up by 90 pillars and stands at 5m (16ft) tall - about the height of a double decker bus.

Anglian Water says bills will rise by about 2% to cover the cost of the investment.

However, a spokesman for the company says bills are still lower than they were four years ago.

You may want to consider a different route if you're due to travel on the A47 Thorney bypass in the near future.

The road in currently closed due to a car fire.

We've got calls in to the police and will bring you the latest when we know more.

The Halley research station, used by Cambridge-based British Antarctic Survey, has been towed 14 miles (23km) across the Brunt Ice Shelf after a crack appeared earlier this year.

Watch the move below...

The trial of the man accused of murdering Hertfordshire author Helen Bailey has been called off today after the judge at St Albans Crown Court announced that a juror's mother was terminally ill.

It's hoped proceedings will continue on Monday.

Helen Bailey's fiancé, 56-year-old Ian Stewart, denies murdering the author at their home in Royston last year.

Hertfordshire PoliceCopyright: Hertfordshire Police