Furious motorist throws eco protester to the side of the road, punches and kicks another before slapping a third as their group stages sit-down protest on German highway

• Shocking video captured the moment an enraged man leapt into the B36 road
• He slapped, punched and kicked protesters before dragging them away

By David Averre

Published: 09:51 EDT, 8 September 2023 | Updated: 14:15 EDT, 8 September 2023

Across the UK drivers, cyclists and walkers alike have come out in force to blast councils on some of the most ludicrous road markings and signs that have been catching people out – sometimes landing them with huge fines. 

Rushed-through road markings and ill-thought out signs have left resident’s amused and infuriated in equal measure – as while some see the lighter side, others have raised serious safety concerns. 

From mismatched crossroads with six different arrows and wiggly road markings, to curved car parking spaces and semi-circular cycle lanes, MailOnline reveals some of the most disastrous installations created – all at the cost of the taxpayer.   

It comes as a street in Edinburgh was seen with double yellow lines that span as little as 30cm leaving resident’s up in arms over the council’s strange decision.

Meanwhile, last week in Wales, a one-way road sign sent English and Welsh speaking drivers in opposite directions down the street depending on which translation they read.  

Do you live near one of Britain’s most baffling road signs or markings? Email eirian.prosser@dailymail.co.uk 

Wiggly lines to make roads safer: Clevdon, Somerset

Perplexed residents in Clevedon, Somerset took to dancing on what was dubbed as Britain’s ‘most bonkers’ road marking to protest a strange new traffic scheme.

In a bid to slow down traffic, North Somerset Council had decided to paint wiggly lines along the promenade.

But rather than act as a deterrent for speeding, locals laughed off the attempted safety measure claiming it looked more like a ‘driving lane for drink drivers’ than a meaningful attempt to slow traffic.

In protest the cheerful locals, fed up with their town becoming a ‘laughing stock’, made a conga line and danced across the lines, holding signs that said ‘our councillors are drunk or stupid’.

The action carried out by the ‘Wavy Wriggle to Save Our Seafront Group’ ended up working – the council swiftly took action to get rid of the waves.

But resident’s were left equally stumped a month later when the council replaced the whacky lines with a white circle ‘like an alien landing pad’ near the seafront, which turned up one morning. 

One local said the circle appeared ‘mysteriously – in the dead of night’.

‘Is it a crop circle for tarmac? Is it a warning of alien craft arriving to inspect the carnage on Clevedon seafront? Clevedon residents are completely baffled,’ she added.

Semi-circular cycle lanes: Halifax, West Yorkshire 

Council bosses in Halifax were slammed for wasting the tax payer’s money after a ‘weird’ semi-circular cycle lane was painted on a busy main road in the town. 

Calderdale Council had their workers paint the ‘confusing’ bike lane, which measures roughly 8ft, on Kings Cross Road in Halifax, using part of the £4.9m West Yorkshire plus Transport fund to improve local transport links. 

When the markings appeared on the road earlier this year residents had one question: ‘What is it for?’

Barely big enough to fit more than a few bikes, the dotted semi-circular lane was dubbed a ‘waste of money’ with even the leader of the council James Barker believing the markings could present a danger to road users as no knew who it applied to.

‘They have created this little weird semi-circle, and it’s left most local residents completely at a loss as to what it actually even means’, Mr Baker said.

‘It’s at a perpendicular right angle to the road. So it’s not even like you’re on a cycle lane and then suddenly enter it. We are trying to guess what it means.

‘We think maybe it’s a shared space for cyclists and pedestrians – and that it’s telling cyclists they have to give way. That’s our best guess.

‘But most residents are just confused. They’ve never seen something like this before in their lives. And confusion on the road is dangerous. If a cyclist misunderstands that or basically thinks it was something different, it could cause an accident.’

Furious residents vented on Facebook about how their taxpayers’ cash had been used by the local authority.

‘Out there somewhere is someone being paid good money to come up with this idea, more worryingly is that someone out there is willing to pay good money,’ one wrote.

And another added: ‘What is the point of that? Could have spent the money fixing all the potholes everywhere! Useless waste of money!’

Adrian Gill, Calderdale Council’s Assistant Director of Strategic Infrastructure, said it had been created as part of a new scheme to ‘make it easier for people to walk and cycle in this traditionally car dominated area’.

Bendy car parking spaces: Bath, Somerset 

A scheme introduced to improve parking for resident’s has in turn left many locals completely confused.

Residents of Denmark Road in Oldfield Park, Bath, have called on their local authority to explain their new Residents Parking Zone that has left road users with bendy parking spaces that curve round the corner of the pavement.

Elsewhere on the street ‘White H bars’ have been splashed across the road, telling people not to park there, adding to the uncertainty. 

The parking spots also extend to cover the entrances to driveways – leaving people fearing they will block neighbours in their homes.

There is a car park at the end of the road, but a separate permit has been introduced for the area, costing £547 a year, and as a result it mainly stays empty. Residents had previously been able to park there for free.

One local said: ‘I’m worried I’m going to wake up and not be able to get out of my house.’ 

But fixing the errors will take a traffic regulation order from the council costing £4,500 and is likely to take months, with the problem expected to worsen in September when university students return to the city. 

Bath and North East Somerset Council say the road markings are part of a wider scheme to install road parking for local residents that have improved other areas of the city. 

Councillor Manda Rigby, council cabinet member for transport, says the difficulty road planners are facing is that some of the residential roads are too narrow.

She told Somerset Live: ‘One of the issues which a zone tries to address is pavement parking particularly in narrow streets like Denmark Road.

‘Specifically with Denmark Road we have talked to residents and explained how the markings work.

‘The curved bay is only suitable for smaller vehicles but does provide an additional parking space and we would take a commonsense approach to enforcement.’

Tiny 30cm double yellow lines: Edinburgh, Scotland

Locals in the Scottish capital have found it hilarious that the council decided to leave tiny double yellow lines – just 30cm long – on their residential road when a council installed a new cycle path.

Construction to create a west-east-cycle path around Melville Street and Manor Place in Edinburgh began back in February 2022 to improve cycling routes throughout the city.

Now the roadworks appear to have been completed, transforming the area to have a one-way segregated cycleway on each side, adding a pavement and benches where the two roads meet.

But residents are confused why there is plenty of space to park for permit holders other than a 12 inch stretch outside St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral on Manor Place where cars cannot park.

Speaking about the tiny road markings, nearby resident Jamie, said: ‘It’s just bizarre But before this very expensive cycle path was here it was a straight road, this whole area was double yellow lined.

‘I don’t think the council got round to removing the old markings but it’s just ridiculous.’

George Johnson, 79, who lives in the area, said: ‘It’s quite funny, I suppose. But I was a lorry driver for years and had to follow the highway code. But nowadays, I’ve noticed no one follows the roads or cares about the road markings.’

Mr Johnson was sitting on the bench between Manor Place and Melville Street when a pickup truck drove straight across the newly-laid flagstones.

Mr Johnson added: ‘These flagstones are made to take the weight of people and bikes, not 20 tons.’

Sign sends drivers in wrong direction depending on whether they speak Welsh or English: Cardiff, Wales 

This week road users in Cardiff have been left speechless after a road sign in the Welsh capital has sent traffic in opposite directions depending on whether the driver reads the English or Welsh translation.

Traffic is currently traveling one way due to road works on Clare Road but those using the English version of the sign are told ‘Pendyris Street one way ahead eastbound only’.

Whereas the Welsh version of the sign reads  ‘Pendyris Street unffordd tua’r gorllewin yn unig’ translating to ‘Pendyris Street one way westbound only’. 

Cardiff Council took to social media to thank members of the public for flagging the mistake, writing that ‘the relevant department is aware and this will be corrected as soon as possible’.

According to reports, the sign at the western end of the road will be removed and replaced with a ‘no entry sign’, and sign on the eastern sign will be replaced with one that states the new layout is ‘one way’.

A mishmash of crossroads for bikes, busses and cars: London Bridge, Southwark

This confusing crossroad has been labelled one of the worst in Britain after its complicated road markings left motorist – and their SatNavs – baffled.

The junction on the south of London Bridge features a ‘ridiculous’ mishmash of instructions for road users, with roughly six separate arrows, three ‘Bus Gate’ markings, a bicycle icon and a group of overlapping lines. 

It seems as if the confusion has stemmed from old markings not being properly removed before the new ones from Labour Mayor of London Sadiq Khan’s 2020 Streetspace scheme were painted on.

Mr Khan’s scheme at the start of the pandemic meant cars were largely frozen out and only pedestrians, buses, bikes and black cabs could use the bridge on weekdays.

One taxi driver said: ‘It’s ridiculous. Nobody needs a dozen painted arrows to drive in a straight line. Even the sat nav doesn’t know what the right road layout is.’

Transport for London said Mr Khan’s Streetspace scheme was intended ‘to make it easier and safer for people to walk, cycle and use public transport’.

It added: ‘We wanted to avoid people using their cars where possible, helping us reduce congestion, clean London’s air and help people be healthier.

‘As part of our funding settlements we have received from Government during the pandemic, funds were set aside to invest in healthy streets schemes.’

Confusing sign raking in fines: Lambeth, London

Low Traffic Neighbours are popping up all over the country as council’s try to curb pollution caused by vehicles and instead promote active travel, such as walking or cycling.

The controversial schemes have been carried out with varying success but one road sign in the Labour-run east London borough of Hackney alerting people to the LTN’s caused chaos earlier this year. 

Only bicycles and local buses are allowed to pass through Lansdowne Drive between 7am and 10am, and 3pm and 7pm, Monday to Saturday. The restrictions are in place during school drop-off and pick-up times.

But the confusing sign – which attempts to show the stringent rules – has caught plenty of drivers out. So much so the stretch of road had generated a stagger £6 million for Hackney Council by last November – after being installed less than two years prior. 

Only a small section of the road — about 50 yards, in fact — falls within the LTN, which has an array of what have been described as dizzyingly confusing signs at each end.

It must be the most unpopular 50 yards of road in Britain for drivers, and the most lucrative 50 yards for a local authority.

In the first month of becoming an LTN in February 2020, Lansdowne Drive earned nearly £500,000 in fines; by the fourth month the figure had risen to more than £1 million.

Silly spelling mistake: Brighton, East Sussex

Road marking painters went straight to bottom of the class – after spelling the word school wrong.

Contractors spelt out the non-word ‘shcool’ outside Brighton’s Portslade Aldridge Community Academy (PACA) on Chalky Road as kids went back to school last September.

They quickly realised their mistake, but not before amused locals managed to snap some pictures and post cheeky comments online. 

Comedian Dom Joly also joined in with the public shaming on his Instagram, saying: ‘It is with great sadness that we have to report the death of a country…’ 

Robert Tee wrote: ‘Hopefully the person who wrote the sign did not graduate from there as that would be so embarrassing as he needs to attend some evening classes. Think he should get an F grade and some extra homework.’

Brighton and Hove City Councillor Peter Atkinson, who represents the North Portslade ward, at the time told The Argus: ‘They obviously didn’t have a spell checker with them.’ 

A spokesperson from the council added: ‘Unfortunately our contractor carrying out our resurfacing work on Chalky Road outside PACA originally misspelt the word ”school”.

‘This has now been put right at no cost to the council.’

More spelling mistakes on FIVE road signs: Weston-super-Mare, Somerset 

At least five separate signs pointing to four streets in Weston-super-Mare were spelt wrong last year, with some infuriated locals claiming it was an example of ‘typical council incompetence’.

Among some of the most obvious gaffes is Becket Road, which is also spelt as Beckett Road on a sign just across the street, and Queen’s Way – which is spelt three different ways all within close proximity of each other.

Austen Drive is spelt with both an E and and an I just a few hundred yards apart, while Ryecroft Avenue is spelt with and without an E in a separate area of town.

Locals said at the time the errors caused problems and made giving directions complicated.

One resident, who asked not to be named, said: ‘I noticed the Becket/Beckett signs years ago as I turn into it most days.

‘It was hard to miss considering they were literally opposite each other.

‘I found it quite funny and put a photo on my Facebook profile, and a friend told me that Queensway, which Becket Road is off, also showed as Queen’s Way – so I went and had look.’

Another Weston resident said online: ‘Sums the council up in one word – which is unprintable!’

And a third added: ‘Someone had a few too many when this was done!’

Support for industrial action among junior doctors appears to have plummeted as 5,500 fewer walked out each day during their latest strike than in the first wave, new figures show.

The Royal College of Nursing yesterday also admitted for the first time that its industrial action could ‘hit the end of the road’ this week, in a major boost to patients.

Health bosses were forced to cancel 108,602 appointments and operations when medics withdrew care for three days last week, including from cancer wards and A&E.

It took the total number of postponements as a result of strike action by the likes of junior doctors, nurses, and physiotherapists to 651,232 since December.

However, while an average of 28,708 doctors below the rank of consultant took part in strike action each day between March 13 and March 15, this plummeted by a fifth (19.3 per cent) to just 23,158 last week.

The figure during the previous wave, from April 11 to April 14, was 26,145.

Notably, last week’s peak figure of 24,407 on Wednesday was fewer than every day during the previous rounds.

It suggests the doctors are growing weary, can no longer afford to lose pay or are concerned that taking too much time off work will impact on their ability to progress to their next year of training.

Meanwhile, consultants, nurses and radiographers are being balloted over their own industrial action, which could see disruption within the NHS drag on for months more.

However, Pat Cullen, chief executive of the RCN, has raised doubts over whether enough nurses will return their postal vote in time to secure a mandate for further strikes, with the ballot closing on Friday.

Under the 2016 trade union laws, at least 50 per cent of union members must vote in a postal ballot for its result to stand – equivalent to more than 150,000 of the RCN’s membership.

Ms Cullen told the Guardian: ‘There are only a couple of days left to vote by post and it is starting to look like the government’s rules on postal voting could get the better of us.’

She said she believed the vote would indicate support for further strikes but the 50 per cent voting threshold may not be reached.

Ms Cullen, who is seeking a double digit pay rise for her members, added: ‘Nursing staff can still post their ballots back but unless 150,000 people get their votes sent back in the post then the strike has hit the end of the road.’

Only last week, junior doctors threatened to walk out ‘indefinitely’ if the government refuses to cave in to their demands for an inflation-busting pay rise.

The British Medical Association has told ministers they must boost pay by at least 35 per cent if they want to bring the industrial action to an end.

It warned its row is not a ‘flash in the pan’ and it is prepared to reballot members ‘again and again and again’ to maintain a strike mandate.

The alarming warning would see waiting lists, which already stand at a record 7.4million, soar further and leave patients waiting longer in pain.

Dr Robert Laurenson, co-chair of the BMA’s junior doctors’ committee, said: ‘There will come a time when the inevitable will happen – it will probably look like an indefinite withdrawal of labour.’

Professor Sir Stephen Powis, national medical director at NHS England, believes the strikes have had a greater impact on appointments than the figures suggest.

He said: ‘These figures yet again demonstrate the huge impact of industrial action for patients and their families, and are likely to underestimate the scale of disruption last week, with many services avoiding scheduling appointments for strike days.

‘With more than 106,000 appointments now being added to over half a million already postponed over the last six months due to strikes, we are continuing to see a massive cumulative impact on NHS services and our hard-working staff as they do all they can to maintain safe patient services while tackling a record backlog.’

Miriam Deakin, director of policy and strategy at NHS Providers, which represents NHS trusts, said: ‘Strikes cannot become ‘business as usual’ for trusts and patients.

‘Trusts have had to deal with seven consecutive months of disruptive and demoralising industrial action in the NHS and leaders are working hard to prepare for a possible eighth.

‘Trust leaders and their staff continue to pull out all the stops to cushion the impact of strikes with patient safety the top priority.

‘But they are worried about the long-term effects on patients who have their care delayed at a time when waiting lists are already at record levels, the impact on staff morale and the rising cost of paying to provide cover.

‘Only serious talks between the government and the doctors’ union can break the deadlock but in a speech in the middle of last week’s strike health and social care secretary Steve Barclay made no mention of steps to settle the dispute.

‘While ministers and the doctors’ union aren’t talking patients pay the price of the stand-off.

‘The longer that industrial action goes on and trusts have to keep coping with the fall-out from the most significant period of industrial action in the history of the NHS, the less they can focus all of their energy on patients and help to meet the government’s pledge to cut waiting lists.’

Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, which represents healthcare organisations, said: ‘Many patients may end up back in primary care due to experiencing complications or a deterioration of their condition as a result of waiting longer for their operation, meaning that the NHS is still forced to store up problems for the future.

‘Not only is this continuing standoff between government and junior doctors taking a toll on patient care and wellbeing, but on NHS finances.

‘One provider has told us that during a previous round, the combination of additional staffing costs and lost activity cost them £500,000, so we are starting to see the financial impact beginning to bite.

‘With demand for services high, pandemic recovery efforts in full swing, and finances already stretched to the limit, leaders will want to know how many more times this situation must be repeated.

‘Coping with strikes cannot become business as usual; both the BMA and the government need to get back to the table immediately.’

Dr Vivek Trivedi and Dr Robert Laurenson, co-chairs of the BMA Junior Doctors Committee, said last night: ‘Junior doctors are as determined as ever to keep fighting for their pay to be fully restored despite the mounting financial implications of striking and amid a cost of living crisis.

‘They will continue to take industrial action every month until this Government sees sense and resolves this crisis by listening to them and coming to the table with a credible offer.’

I’m the MailOnline Travel Editor and began cycling to work seven years ago – since then I’ve clocked up around 1,000 pedal-powered commutes between my East Dulwich home and the Mail’s High St Kensington HQ.

I turned to pedal power mostly because I was struggling to find time to exercise as a father. Then it became apparent riding a bike to work was twice as fast as using public transport (30 vs 60 minutes) – and addiction to pedal power set in, despite most days featuring a hair-raising moment or two.

Over the years, I noticed a pattern regarding said hair-raising moments – they normally involved the same types of vehicles. Here I’ve listed the road users that scare me the least and the most, ranked from the least terrifying to the ones that put me most on edge – and included a helmet-cam video compilation of just a few alarming commuting moments. Why? Perhaps it’ll help cyclists stay safer and remind drivers to be extra careful around us pedal-power commuters.

A quick caveat – I’m not ‘anti-car’, I love driving, and obviously there are exceptions for every single category (I also know some very careful Audi drivers, for instance). I also know some cyclists don’t exactly cover themselves in highway-code-honouring glory. Do you agree with my list?

14. Other cyclists

Obviously the least scary – high-speed collisions are impossible because almost no cyclist gets above 20mph around London (I know this because I have a GPS computer on my handlebars). And they’re all far too concerned about staying alive to be a danger to other cyclists.

13. Police cars (not answering emergency calls)

I’ve cycled a handful of times down a perilous double-lane South London road with a police car just behind me and it was like having a force field. Not only does the presence of a police car calm nearby drivers (funny, that), but police drivers have only ever shown the utmost courtesy to me, giving me ample space to go around stationary buses in bus lanes (a rarity in London) and always overtaking with care and attention. The Holy Grail of vehicles to cycle near.

12. Black cabs

Apart from the occasional startling U-turn, using that famous turning circle, I find black-cab drivers have excellent road manners around cyclists and tend not to blast unnervingly from point to point. The fact that they know all the shortcuts probably lessens the yearning to hurtle around.

11. Superbike riders

Given how fast superbikes can accelerate, some may be surprised at their placement in the non-scary end of the ranking. But I’ve found superbike riders have impressive roadcraft and are hyper-aware of what’s going on around them. No doubt partly because they are fairly vulnerable. The ones I see on my commute constantly check their mirrors and rarely endanger anyone (apart from the one I saw haring down a segmented cycle lane on Embankment). Just one plea – please don’t rev your engines behind cyclists to let us know you’re there. It gives us a terrible fright.

10. Mopeds

They’re too small and slow to instil any serious terror, but most seem to treat London like a giant video racing game, brazenly running red lights and speeding down cycle lanes – and they have a proclivity for weaving in and out of traffic with worrying unpredictability. While glued to their GPS maps. (They do look like fun, though.)

9. Regular (non-Audi) cars

When you’re a cyclist in a city, any car has a base level of scariness – because it’s a car. It’s faster and heavier than a bike and capable of killing you in an instant upon impact. 

But most drivers are well-behaved and cycling around them simply involves being careful and sensible.

8. Private hire cars

When I see a private-hire taxi sticker in a window, I stay frosty. Because I know anything can happen. At any moment. I’ve seen private hire cars skid within centimetres of pedestrians walking across zebra crossings, they often approach side junctions at speed and immediately overshoot into the road ahead before stopping (a classic scare for all road users) and close-passing (not leaving a big enough gap between the cyclist and the car) is a regular occurrence.

7. Audi drivers

So often, when terror comes calling on my commute, an Audi is involved. Audi drivers can’t bear to be held up for longer than a micro-second and are constantly guilty of not allowing cyclists to go around stationary buses safely – they blast past often within inches of the bike as it moves out in front of them – and always seem to be in a remorseless rush, as if they’re in a giant racing game in competition perhaps with the mopeds. 

6. SUVs

The moment with SUVs I hate the most is when passing in opposite directions along a road lined with parked cars. Let alone be in control, many SUV drivers can’t even see over the wheel properly and seem unaware of the tarmac-obscuring dimensions of their vehicle, and simply barrel towards cyclists without even a hint of speed-checking.

5. Lorries

There’s no chance of a David v Goliath ending for a cyclist versus an HGV and so I always pay very (very) careful attention to what I’m doing around them. Though most lorries in city environments can’t get up much speed – and I can out-accelerate any lorry in city traffic on my road bike if I’ve had my porridge – it’s best to take the grand total of zero risks around them.

4. Vans

In life, I like vans. Mainly because they deliver things to my house that I need. But to cycle around? A distinctly mixed bag. I’ve been knocked clean off my bike by a van, which pulled into the road while I was gliding past. It hurt a lot. This wasn’t great PR for van drivers. But that aside, van drivers in general can be worryingly blasé about cyclists and often quite aggressive.

3. Buses

I love travelling on buses, especially with my daughter. Great places for a hearty game of eye-spy and they can reach parts of the city trains can’t get to for mere pennies. But I find them a menace to cycle around. I’d genuinely like to know if pulling across the road when a cyclist is alongside and forcing them to slam on the brakes or onto the wrong side of the road is part of a bus driver’s training. Along with pulling up on the right-hand side of cyclists while indicating left and then simply drifting over to the left lane, forcing cyclists to take emergency avoidance measures. Buses – this is seriously terrifying. Please. Stop it.

2. ‘Not in service’ buses

The not-in-service sign on a London bus is a signifier of danger. When I spot a bus sporting one of these, caution levels move to 11. They’re demonic. I can only assume the sheer thrill of flooring a double-decker bus is too hard to resist for drivers hampered daily by picking passengers up every 100 yards.

1. Coaches

I loathe cycling around coaches. They’re too long and too fast – the drivers throw them around the roads with the sort of merciless abandon that makes my blood run cold. I once had a double-decker coach try to undertake me on a residential street in Pimlico. You read that right – undertake. Probably the scariest moment in seven years of cycling in the capital. 

(Just a second National Express, don’t send that terse complaint – it’s not your drivers I’m thinking of, more the out-of-town leisure company coaches. They know who they are.)

Follow Ted on Strava at www.strava.com/athletes/16377946. You can find him on Twitter at twitter.com/tedthornhill.

Instant karma! Road rage pedophile hurls n-words at another driver and rams victim’s car before losing control of his Jeep and crashing it: Cops arrest him for assault with a deadly weapon

• Tracy Robert Blackwell, 61, a convicted sex offender, was charged with assault with a deadly weapon in connection to the viral incident
• Video captured the May 16 road rage incident that showed a man screaming slurs at the occupants of another vehicle on the California freeway in Oakland
• Blackwell then crashed his vehicle into a wall after hitting the victim’s car 

By Andrea Cavallier For Dailymail.Com

Published: 21:45 EDT, 23 May 2023 | Updated: 01:25 EDT, 24 May 2023

Housebuilders made gains amid hopes that the property market was on the road to recovery.

Following seven consecutive falls, data from building society Nationwide showed that UK house prices increased in April.

Prices rose 0.5 per cent last month while analysts had expected a 0.4 per cent decline.

The property market took a hit last September after Liz Truss’s disastrous mini-Budget which sent mortgage rates spiralling.

But in a sign of ongoing recovery, the average house price rose by 0.5 per cent between March and April to reach £260,441. While this was 2.7 per cent lower than a year ago, analysts had forecast a fall of 3.6 per cent.

Robert Gardner, Nationwide’s chief economist, said the data showed there were ‘tentative signs of a recovery’.

Tomer Aboody, director of property lender MT Finance, said: ‘Buyers are finally making their move after months of waiting and stalling. More transactions are definitely needed for the overall strength of the housing market.’ 

Persimmon rose 5.5 per cent, or 72.5p, to 1386.5p, Berkeley Group added 1.3 per cent, or 57p, to 4504p, Barratt Developments moved up 1 per cent, or 5.2p, to 505.2p and Taylor Wimpey gained 0.04 per cent, or 0.05p, to 128.25p.

Among the mid-cap stocks, Bellway grew 1.7 per cent, or 42p, to 2454p, Vistry Group increased by 1.5 per cent, or 12p, to 794.5p and Redrow jumped 1.7 per cent, or 9p, to 526.5p.

The London stock market made a slow start to the week in the first session following the May bank holiday, with the FTSE 100 down 1.2 per cent, or 97.54 points, to 7773.03 and the FTSE 250 fell 0.6 per cent, or 110.91 points, to 19314.23.

Education publisher Pearson slumped 15 per cent, or 133p, to 754p after its US peer Chegg warned that rising student interest in ChatGPT, the artificial intelligence software, was hurting its business.

Chegg’s forecast for second quarter revenues to range between £141million and £143million fell short on the £156million expected by analysts.

The boss of Ferrexpo is to step down after a year leading the Ukrainian iron ore miner.

Jim North, who joined the November 2014 and became chief executive in February last year, will leave at the end of June.

Chairman Lucio Genovese will take over on an interim basis from July 1. Shares were up 2.8 per cent, or 3p, to 111.1p.

Investors in banknote printer De La Rue will have to wait to find out who will be their chairman after it said it was in the final stage of its hiring process.

The group had hoped to replace Kevin Loosemore, who resigned last month following pressure from the activist investor Crystal Amber, by yesterday or ‘as soon as practicable thereafter’. 

It named Nick Bray as interim chairman until a permanent hire is made. Shares rose 3.5 per cent, or 1.45p, to 43.45p.

Superdry is in talks with investors to raise around £12million by selling up to a fifth of its shares in a bid to shore up its balance sheet.

The fashion retailer’s boss Julian Dunkerton will ‘significantly participate’ in the sale. Shares fell 1.6 per cent, or 1.4p, to 84.7p.

Maker of digital products Made Tech plunged 27.5 per cent, or 7.5p, to 19.75p after it warned its revenue and profit for the year to May 31 would be lower than hoped. 

The group said some clients had delayed the start date of work packages until its next financial year.

It expects to report revenues of around £40million, falling short on the £43million analysts had expected.

And profits of at least £1.5million would be below the £3.9million pencilled in by the market.

Hostmore, owner of TGI Fridays, hired interim chief executive Julie McEwan permanently and unveiled further cost-saving measures to reduce debt. Shares soared 27.1 per cent, or 3.8p, to 17.8p.