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'Troubled hotel targeted' and 'TikTok trends sees spike in tresspasses'

News imageGoogle A Google Maps screengrab of the Grand Atlantic Hotel, a grey, five-storey Victorian building with pointy turrets and a glass entrance hall. Google
Multiple groups of urban explorers have filmed themselves entering the empty hotel in recent months

Here's our weekly roundup of stories from across local websites in the West of England.

What have been the big stories in the West this week?

Parts of south Bristol have been plagued with anti-social behaviour as TikTok trends have encouraged teenagers to trespass into empty buildings, Bristol Live is reporting.

People in Stroud are "outraged" after fruit trees at a hospital were axed to make room for a car park expansion, reports Gloucestershire Live.

Further action is to be taken to stop people breaking into the Grand Atlantic Hotel in Weston-super-Mare. Ongoing security problems at the vacant site will be tackled with higher fencing, anti-vandal paint and new legal powers for police to take stronger enforcement action against trespassers.

The Wiltshire Gazette says "frustrated" police want more powers to deal with "disgraceful" anti-social behaviour in Devizes town centre. Inspector Andy Lemon says he has seen a 14% increase in antisocial behaviour in the last year.

And there were celebrations for World War Two veteran, Muriel Ricketts, who celebrated her 106th birthday at her care home in Bristol this week. She told Bristol Live that the secret to a long life was not having a car and walking everywhere.

Top five local stories for the BBC in the West

Something longer to read

A forgotten vegetable once viewed as peasant or livestock food is enjoying an unlikely comeback in Somerset as a festival in its honour takes place this weekend.

More than 100 people across seven villages between Glastonbury and Bridgwater are now growing mangelwurzels, the bright red root crop crossed between beetroot, sugar beet and chard.

The Great Polden Hills Mangelwurzel Day will see vegetables judged in categories like 'Biggest Girth', 'Best Looking Legs', and looking 'Most like Donald Trump'.

Event founder Beverley Finnegan said: "What started as a challenge between friends to grow the biggest mangelwurzel has, eight months later, become a festival with hundreds of locals involved."

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