ZOE Clarke, 26, of Appleby Glade, Castle Gresley, was jailed for 14 weeks, suspended for 12 months, ordered to pay £100 costs and an £80 victim surcharge for failing to notify the Department for Work and Pensions of a change of circumstance relating to a claim for income support between November 6, 2011 and December 2, 2013.

JAMIE Bestwick, 33, of Berle Avenue, Heanor, was handed an 18-month community order, an 18-month restraining order, ordered to pay a total of £150 compensation, £85 costs and a £60 victim surcharge for two counts of assault, both on April 7.

RACHEL Doney, 29, of Auriga Court, Derby, was jailed for two weeks for stealing cosmetics valued at £29.16 belonging to Boots, in the Intu Derby shopping centre on May 11 and in doing so was in breach of a 12-week suspended sentence imposed in June last year for assault.

A LARGE collection of Royal Doulton figures feature in our June Antiques and Collectors sale.

Mostly dating from the mid-20th century, the collection consists of a great variety of figures in a range of themes.

In total, there are approximately 20 lots of figures in the sale, with most of the collections consisting of multiple figures; making most of these lots a good purchase for anyone interested in adding to or starting a new collection.

Throughout the history of ceramics, figures and figure groups have been made by factories around the UK and Europe.

In the 18th century, Meissen produced figures, which were made to be exported across the continent. By the 19th century, many factories in England were producing them in large numbers.

Doulton, which had started production in 1815, ran until 1872, when it became known as Royal Doulton.

At the turn of the 20th century, Charles Noke launched a new group of figures, comprising the firm's very first figure, which captured the imagination of a visiting royal.

Queen Mary, who was on a visit to the factory in 1912, referred to one of the figures she viewed as a "Darling" and it immediately become known as the "Darling" figure.

Perhaps another point of interest is that these figures were originally painted by Harry Nixon, who was one of the artists employed by Royal Doulton to paint and also manage the painting of the figures.

These figures were subsequently given a HN number (after his name) and this remained the same code throughout the first half of the 20th century.

The HN numbering ran in chronological order and this simple system continued until 1940, after which it changed.

The Royal Doulton figures remained popular throughout the 20th century and were widely manufactured throughout the 1960s, 70s, 80s and into the 90s.

Royal Worcester, Minton and other factories were by now producing these types of figures as well.

The collection of figures in Hansons will be going under the hammer at our auction on June 20.

The Royal Doulton ladies are an example of the fashion for collecting in the second half of the 20th century and, though not as popular today as they were during their hey day in the 1960s, they could always come back into fashion.

For more information, call the showroom on 01283 733988 or visit the website www.hansonsauctioneers.co.uk.

Jill Gallone talks to Derbyshire's Folk Singer of the Year Bella Hardy about her Thirty for 30 tour.

IT is proving to be a big year so far for Derbyshire musician Bella Hardy.

In addition to winning the BBC Radio 2 Folk Singer of the Year award back in February, the Edale songstress is now celebrating her 30th birthday, and has taken the party on the road – playing 30 of her favourite venues.

"It's a retrospective tour and I'll be drawing songs from all my six albums," reveals Bella, who started writing songs as a teenager.

She comes to Derby Guildhall on Wednesday, joined by her band the Midnight Watch, and says the evening may also feature the odd classic folk number, though she was coy about revealing any details.

The Derby date – and one in Edale on Monday – also offers Bella chance to thank fans for their support which paved the road for her award.

Both Bella and Derby singer Lucy Ward were nominated for the 2014 BBC Radio 2 Folk Singer of the Year Award and were at London's Royal Albert Hall when the winner was announced. Bella took the crown.... and was utterly stunned.

"I've been floating ever since," says the quietly spoken singer. With her voice dropping to a whisper she adds: "I was totally overwhelmed when they announced I had won. The experience was phenomenal.

"I know everyone says it, but I never imagined in my wildest dreams that I would win. The other three girls who were nominated are fantastic singers. I was honoured to be in the category with them."

Bella is still pinching herself – and if life was busy before the awards it's even crazier now with trips to America, a 25-gig tour earlier this year and now her Thirty for 30 birthday tour.

Her recent hectic round of gigs included performing with Lucy Ward. The folk community is ultra-friendly. "People don't believe it when you tell them how twee the folk scene is – everyone knows everyone – but it's because it's like a community that I love it so much," says Bella.

Both Bella and Lucy have scooped national honours before – and had praise heaped upon them by the national press for the beauty of their self-penned songs, originality and voices.

At 16, Bella wrote the chorus of her first song, the one, perhaps, that changed her life, Three Black Feathers. It won Best Original Song in the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards in 2009. She recalls: "I went to Lady Manners School at Bakewell to do my A-levels. It was a very long bus journey, so I used the time to write poems. I like to let my mind wander. Growing up in Edale, the countryside, the dreaminess, all helped me."

Bella grew up in a singing family, who were members of the local choir in Edale.

"I became aware of community singing rather than folk singing," she adds. "Mum encouraged me to play grandad's fiddle and join the school ceilidh band.

"At 13, I went to a folk summer school in Durham with the band and that was a revelation for me. I found myself in a place with 100 young people who loved music as much as me.

"Because of the nature of folk music, it's not cool to like it but all those kids did and were kooky, unique, beautiful people. I made lifelong friends.

"The only way we could see each other was to perform at festivals so we formed a band, the Pack. It was also a way of going to festivals for free. We didn't have any money for tickets."

It paved the way for a life of touring and performing for Bella, who now divides her time between a flat in Edinburgh and the place she will always call home, Edale.

"It's wonderful to be able to do what you love, though you have to work hard to make ends meet, " she says.

But she wouldn't have it any other way and the hard graft fits well with the whole ethos of folk music.

"Folk music isn't about an instant grasp for fame," she says. "It's about having a career with longevity. It has integrity. I feel very lucky. I'm doing all right."

WHAT: Bella Hardy

WHERE: Derby Guildhall Theatre

WHEN: Wednesday, 8pm

ADMISSIONS: £11.75

TICKETS: Call 01332 255800 or visit www.derbylive.co.uk

ENGLAND may struggle to get hold of the World Cup this year but you could get your hands on the next best thing.

Hansons Auctioneers are holding a special World Cup sale, including a replica version of the classic trophy.

The original, by Italian artist Silvio Gazzaniga, will be heading to South America but a replica is expected to fetch between £100 and £150.

Other lots at the auction include a shirt worn at the 1966 semi-final belonging to the German player Franz Beckenbauer.

The shirt was discovered in a house in Derbyshire after being given to Sergeant Walter Turner as a thank you for keeping autograph hunters at bay.

The team, who went on to be beaten by England in the final, stayed at the The Peveril of the Peak Hotel.

The shirt is expected to fetch £5,000.

Auctioneer Charles Hanson said: "The football shirt is an important item of memorabilia. We feel it perhaps belongs in a museum."

The sale will take place on Monday, June 30. For more information phone 01283 733 988.

WILDLIFE experts say an array of birds which visited a Derby nature reserve this spring – including the first sighting of a common redstart – show why a failed plan to build on part of it shouldn't have gone ahead.

Derby City Council had planned to create a cycle track and mountain bike skills area on part of the Sanctuary nature reserve on Pride Park.

Once the city's planning committee had narrowly given the track permission, work began immediately.

But Derbyshire Wildlife Trust successfully applied for an injunction to stop it and was on track in an application to get a judicial review of the planning decision.

Then, any hearing became unnecessary, after the council pulled the plug on the scheme in March.

The authority said this was because, while the injunction halted progress, work required before the bird nesting season could no longer take place.

It said the affordability of the project depended on using contractors already on site and this would "increase costs beyond the budget available".

Councillor Martin Repton, then cabinet member for leisure and culture, said the council "genuinely believed" the cycle track wouldn't have affected the wildlife.

Nick Brown, the trust's enquiries officer, said that, had track work continued, some of the birds who came to The Sanctuary to nest might not have come back.

He said: "They [the nesting places] are sites adjacent to where they would have been working. Many of the birds could have been disturbed by the noise and movement."

Mr Brown said that, during spring, the reserve attracted birds moving north.

He said: "These stop off to feed and rest and, especially if the weather is poor, may stay a few days before moving on.

"The open habitat attracts wheatears each spring. Some of these birds were almost certainly bound for Greenland judging by their lateness, size and colour.

"A ring ouzel was seen on April 4. This is only the third sighting on the reserve. These are moorland and mountain birds so this one might have been heading for north Derbyshire or to Scotland or could have been a continental bird heading for Scandinavia.

"A yellow wagtail was seen also and a common redstart too – the latter a first for the reserve."

He said other birds seen included blackcaps, willow warblers, whitethroat, and sand martins.

Mr Brown added: "Of returning breeding birds, skylarks were heard singing and probably bred, lapwings were regular for a month and may have tried to nest."

Meanwhile, a second peregrine chick has flown the nest at Derby Cathedral, leaving just one remaining.

This is the ninth year in succession that the same pair of falcons has nested on the 16th-century tower of the cathedral, using a nest platform erected in 2006.

GRASS on Derby highway verges that was allowed to grow longer than usual to save cash will not be cleared away now it has been cut, the city council has said.

An official made the comments after Conservative councillor for Mickleover, Alison Holmes, said residents had told her the verges still looked a mess after being mowed.

Council leader Ranjit Banwait says he wants the number of times highway verges are mowed returned to previous levels, but that "something else" will need to take a hit to save cash.

Mrs Holmes said the verges had been the main issue residents had brought up with her since she was elected last month.

She said: "First was when they were going to be cut and second was what would happen to the piles of grass.

"It looks awful, especially when it's next to grass that a resident has cut themselves."

David Bartram, the council's head of highways and grounds maintenance, said: "In Derby we have always mowed our grassed areas using cut and drop methods and do not collect grass cuttings for composting.

"This is because of the presence of contamination in some areas from litter, glass, dog fouling and occasionally drug-related paraphernalia.

"This means we are unable to use our normal green waste recycling methods and the material would have to be sent to landfill,'' added Mr Bartram.

I'VE never really had much sympathy with smokers who moan how difficult it is to give up the weed.

And I have no idea what it must be like to come off hard drugs.

Fortunately, I can take or leave alcohol so if someone told me I had to give up beer tomorrow I wouldn't find that very difficult.

I love chocolate but if I really put my mind to it I can resist.

But over the past few days I have been forced to go cold turkey over an addiction I have had since I was a small child.

Yes, since I can remember I have bitten my nails and, finally, I have been told that I have to stop.

But, let me assure you, this is no easy feat.

The focus on my fingers and thumbs came after a recent visit to the dentist.

Two fillings had fallen out and I thought I would be given routine replacements.

So, it was totally out of the blue when my dentist gently approached the subject of my shrinking gnashers.

She told me that front teeth should be 10mm long but mine are just 6.5mm.

Apparently, a combination of my age and my penchant for incessantly biting my nails (and pens and other plastic materials such as golf tees) has whittled them down.

In addition, I, unconsciously, grind the rest of my teeth and they all need building back up.

This, she informed me, would require a plan of treatment which would stretch over nine months.

Facing up to so many visits to the dentist would have been daunting enough but then she struck the hammer blow: I would have to give up chewing my nails – a habit which has stuck with me for more than 45 years.

I admitted that this could be rather tricky but even I didn't realise how addicted I was to my own fingers.

Every minute or two I have had to stop myself moving my hands towards my mouth.

Often, I have found myself sitting in a traffic jam, suddenly realising my fingers are between my teeth.

I know I have to stop the nail-biting before my dental treatment because I will smash off the crowns if I don't.

On the plus side, I am starting to grow sharp nails which would be really useful for opening cans of fizzy drink.

Oops, there's another addiction which I am attempting (and failing) to resolve.

You see, I don't drink tea and coffee but have a very unhealthy penchant for carbonated drinks which are not only bad for my teeth my also my insides.

A strong-willed teetotal colleague, who gave up smoking, has told me that dealing with addiction is simple.

"Just give it up, no half measures," she said.

But I'm not finding it comfortable.

It is as if my nails and my teeth are magnetically drawn together and my tongue and tonsils feel like sandpaper without a refreshing fizzy drink.

However, I know that toughing out these situations will be worth it because, in a year's time, I will have a pearly white smile to go along with my nattily dyed hair and my svelte pot-belly-less figure.

Hold on a minute – this really is starting to look like a midlife crisis.

Clive Fearon has been a personal trainer in Derby for more than 20 years. He explains how to get fit and stay fit and why he believes diets do not work.

DIETS usually fail and most make you fatter. Weight loss is seen as the panacea to cure all the ills in our lives but the majority of people go about it the wrong way and end up back at square one.

Before you shoot the messenger, let me explain why.

Most diets stress a strong reduction in calories for a given period of time. If this reduction is too severe, you're setting yourself up to fail.

This is down to your resting metabolic rate which is the number of calories you require per day to keep yourself alive and to perform bodily processes.

The theory is that if you only consume enough calories to maintain your resting metabolic rate, then you will burn more calories than you are consuming and weight loss will occur.

This approach is doomed to failure because our bodies are machines but are designed to adapt for survival.

When we consume fewer calories, the body slows down its metabolism. This begins to occur after about a week of dieting.

It is also around this time that the body becomes depleted of glycogen, this is the substance converted from food that the body uses as energy.

The average person has between 5lb and 8lb of glycogen in their body, equivalent to the amount that most people lose in the first week or so of a diet.

Now here's the sickener. While we may see fat as a bad thing, the human body loves it. Fat is energy-rich and is seen by the body as a back-up mechanism for when a calorie deficit occurs.

And there's more bad news for people wishing to lose weight: The body can't tell the difference between starvation and dieting, so will automatically switch into survival mode if your calorie intake is too low.

Survival mode slows down the metabolism, reducing how many calories your body needs per day to keep itself running. It also means holding on to those energy rich fat stores that want to get rid of for your summer holiday. The body keeps fat by using muscle for energy.

It is all about evolution. In hunter-gatherer societies, this calorie adaptation was needed to survive when food was short and they were starving. And it is why dieting can make you fatter. You might get lighter but you will have less muscle and more fat. Muscles are the engines of the body and we all know that smaller engines require less fuel than big ones.

Once your body has adjusted to getting by on fewer calories, it no longer needs to use its emergency fat stores to keep going. This is when your weight loss from dieting stops.

It normally takes between four to eight weeks for this to occur but that's not where the story ends. If you decide that you want to stop your diet and begin to consume more calories, the body will treat the extra intake as surplus calories and store them as fat. Diets are therefore a trap.

When you've lowered your calorie intake and altered your metabolism, it's much harder to lose fat unless you stay on your diet forever.

The holy grail is losing weight without slowing down your metabolism.

Healthy eating plans are an effective alternative to diets. The weight loss with healthy eating plans tends to be slower, between 1lb and 3lb per week, but they are more effective in the long run.

They also offer a better variety of meals to choose from, so reducing the boredom that many dieters experience.

In my experience, regular workouts with moderate to heavy weights combined with aerobic exercise and sensible eating is the most effective ways for both sexes to maintain their figure and muscle tone into your 40s and beyond.

Most people, particularly women, think that weights make you big and bulky and should be avoided at all costs. This is a myth.

Lifting moderate weights for muscle endurance gains both tones your muscles and improves the metabolic rate, this being the rate at which you burn fat. This means that your body will burn fat even when you rest.

For those people who want to add some muscle then fewer repetitions with more challenging weights are the answer.

Those worried about becoming too big – mostly women – need to know that to bulk up, you need to consume more protein, between 1.5g and 2g per kg of bodyweight. For example, if you are 70kg (about 11st) then your protein intake should be between 105g and 140g per day.

My tip to help you avoid piling on extra fat is to boost your metabolism by adding two or three weight training sessions into your weekly routine designed to improve your muscular endurance.

I use weights to help clients not only lose weight but also improve their muscular endurance with consistently good results.

If you're male or female and looking to lose weight then I'd encourage you to lift weights. My female clients lift weights like my male clients and the results are equally impressive for both sexes. Everyone loses fat.

The guys get that "hench" look they usually want because their bodies produce more testosterone, and the women get lean and look fit.

If you can't afford a personal trainer or prefer group training then I'd recommend that you do a class such as boxercise, involving a combination of toning and fat-burning.

Combining exercise with a healthy eating plan will help people produce a more effective weight lose and increased muscle tone without having to stick to uninteresting, restrictive diets as muscle requires more calories to maintain.

When you add muscle mass your metabolic rate increases. This basically means that the more muscle you have, the more calories you burn, even when you're resting.

You don't have to take my advice but if your current weight-loss regime is not working or getting you down then you might want to make a few changes.

For free exercise advice, see my exercise gallery and blog page at www.henchsports.com

The Dragon at Willington has a woman at the helm who has cooked for former prime minister Margaret Thatcher and rubbed shoulders with royalty at the State Opening of Parliament.

IF you should detect an unmistakable touch of class about the stylishly revamped Dragon at Willington, it's not surprising.

After all, owner Heidi Taylor did hone her considerable catering and hospitality skills at no less a place than Britain's centre of power, the Houses of Parliament.

When Heidi, a Derbyshire lass from the village of Stanton-by-Bridge, near Melbourne, invited me to see the new-look pub and restaurant for myself, she told me about her background in the hospitality industry. It turns out to be a fascinating story. For after gaining qualifications at High Peak catering college in Buxton, Heidi was soon working as a waitress, then later as a chef, at the House of Commons and the House of Lords.

"I was only 18 when during the mid-1980s I got my first job as a waitress at the National Liberal Club in Whitehall.

"Then I landed a job at the House of Commons serving MPs and cabinet ministers in the members' dining room. I regularly served meals to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and to Norman Tebbit, who was an extremely nice man.

"Mrs Thatcher was a super lady, very polite and often had time for a chat. She was always very grateful for the work we did."

Later Heidi moved on to the House of Lords, where she worked as a commis chef. "I think my most memorable moment was lining up with my colleagues in our chefs' whites at the State Opening of Parliament. I stood within touching distance of the Queen and Charles and Diana. Princess Diana was wearing a tiara and looked stunning. It was a glittering moment."

These amazing experiences in Heidi's early career, along with her later ten-year career in interior design, have all contributed to the way she has stylishly recreated The Dragon at Willington, which is now making a considerable mark on the pub-restaurant scene in South Derbyshire.

This historic pub is attractively set on The Green at Willington, overlooking the picturesque Trent and Mersey canal, with its array of colourful boats. What's more, the pub has already won two major awards – Best Out of Town Pub in the 2012 Derby Food and Drink Awards and Best Traditional Pub in the Derbyshire Food and Drink Awards this year. Heidi, 47, has overseen recent renovations and extensions, having acquired the pub from a national brewery chain four years ago, when it was known as The Green Dragon.

"It was run down and we decided to not only renovate and extend it, but also to change its name to The Dragon, which helps to reduce confusion with the Green Man pub which is nearby."

The Dragon's restaurant and bar are now much enlarged and its food is winning awards for being fresh, tasty and home-made with many ingredients sourced locally, including from a nearby allotment. Heidi took on the venture with business associate and co-director Alan Shepherd, who used to work for Marston's Brewery. "He is extremely knowledgeable about the pub trade and I have brought my expertise in food and interior design to the project. It has been a massive team effort, also including my partner and my children Abigail and Robert.

"Robert works here full time as a chef and Abigail helps out at the bar when she's on vacation from her chartered surveyor's degree course at Nottingham Trent University."

The Dragon is a perfect place for all-year-round dining and socialising but is particularly magical in summer, as there is plenty of attractive outdoor space for warm, sunny days. A large lawned garden at the rear of the pub overlooks the canal, while there is a lovely secluded paved courtyard for dining and drinking at the front.

A wonderful sun trap, this courtyard has been created from the garden of the cottage next door which Heidi bought to enlarge the pub-restaurant. The elegant pots of home-grown herbs which the chefs use in the kitchen, are an especially nice feature of the courtyard.

The Dragon now has a large new kitchen, where head chef Chris Blincoe, 31, leads a team of 14 specialising in modern English cuisine.

Staffordshire-born Chris came to The Dragon from its sister establishment, Harpur's at Melbourne. "Our style here is fresh, tasty food that's full of flavour and has some quirky presentation," he explains.

His kitchen is a hive of industry as food is served throughout the day, starting with breakfast at 8am (popular with the boating community), finishing with last orders at 9pm.

With beams, stripped wooden floors, natural brick and lots of design detail, The Dragon's restaurant is elegant and spacious. There are some imaginative contemporary touches, including original oil paintings by Teresa Withington, girlfriend of Heidi's son Robert.

"My aim was to make the place traditional and stylish without being pretentious," Heidi explains.

The restaurant's evening menu is a big attraction, with Chris Blincoe's signature dishes including The Dragon's own-recipe sausages served with leek and onion mash, gravy and red onion marmalade at £9.95.

His Thai red curry salmon with jasmine rice and crab noodle salad is a big hit at £12.95, while his celebration of locally-sourced produce, a dish comprising Packington pork belly, Glebe Farm lamb rump and beef shin, with curried parsnip and baby vegetables, also goes down a storm with food lovers. Another favourite is his Dragon burger served with root vegetable coleslaw, home-made ketchup and fries, at £9.95.

Vegetarians love his globe artichoke and sun blushed tomato risotto, served with courgette and aubergine salad and black olive crumble. One diner recently described it as 'divine'.

Starters include smoked haddock and sweetcorn chowder with warm bread and chive crème fraiche at £4.95. Curried crab ravioli with heritage tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella, purple basil and bisque dressing, also goes down a treat at £6.25.

As for puddings, the choice is mouth-watering, from homemade Turkish delight crème brulee to blueberry cheesecake sundae with homemade ice cream, marshmallow, cream, biscuit granola and blueberry vodka sauce.

The Dragon serves a summer garden menu throughout the day, which includes sandwiches, salads and main courses. It is also planning to offer Champagne afternoon teas, courtesy of excellent pastry chef Fiona Bailey.

In addition to its food, The Dragon is renowned for its big range of traditional real ales sourced locally from micro breweries like Burton Bridge, Dancing Duck, Blue Monkey and Derby Brewing Company. There is also a wide choice of ciders, fine wines, spirits and soft drinks.