Rain or Shine...

CENTRAL ENGLAND has had its warmest year since records began, the Met Office said yesterday.

Unless there is a cold snap over the millennium, it will be the warmest year observed in the region since British records began in 1659.

But the bookmaker William Hill announced that it had cut the odds of a white Christmas from 8/1 to 6/1 because it feared a pounds 100,000 pay-out.