Jack’s scoops up council funding

Jack’s Gelato was handed a sweet deal last week, after South Cambridgeshire District Council gave the much-loved local business a £40,000 grant. Jack’s Gelato, which already makes all its own ice cream, is planning to use the grant to buy a new waffle cone machine. “It’s the last thing we don’t make ourselves,” owner Jack van Praag told the BBC, “this is the last piece of the jigsaw”. The grants were designed to breathe “new life” into local businesses in Cambridge – and have been handed to six other projects across the city.

Haunted halls!

Cambridge could be in high spirits this Halloween after being ranked one of the most haunted cities in the UK. According to a recent study, which ranked towns across the country on reports of paranormal activity per square mile, Cambridge is only out-haunted by Ipswich and Lincoln. This might not come as a surprise to some Cantabrigians – Corpus Christi College is said to be haunted by the ghost of former Master Dr. Butts, and Oliver Cromwell’s head is buried on Sidney Sussex’s grounds.

From dean to porter

Retired lawyer Dean Allen has given “college family” a whole new meaning after becoming a porter for a day at his daughter’s former college. He had long held respect and intrigue for the famed job of the college porter since watching Porterhouse Blue in the 1990s. After spending years driving his daughter back and forth from Jesus College, his wish to join the porters’ ranks came true on his 70th birthday – when special exceptions were made to make Allen’s “bucket list idea” come into fruition.

“No poo in our rivers,” say council

East Cambridgeshire District Council has asked the Environment Agency to ban sea toilets from being emptied in the River Great Ouse – the jewel in the crown of Ely. “I think we can all agree that we shouldn’t have poo in our rivers,” Liberal Democrat councillor Kathrin Holzmann, who brought the motion, told the BBC. Sea toilets – which empty human waste through a pump into the water – are legal to use in tidal rivers.