It wasn’t all bad

A public-spirited businessman bought a car park by the sea in Devon last week – and immediately abolished all charges. Rob Braddick puchased the car park, in Westward Ho!, from the council. It had charged drivers £3 a day but Braddick – whose family have lived in the area for generations – decided that to attract more visitors to local businesses (including his own), he would make it free. He now hopes to expand the car park, while keeping it free.

A cocker spaniel was rescued alive from the bottom of an 82ft well last week, a fortnight after going missing during a walk. Bobby’s owners, Sally-anne and Adrian Phillips, had given up hope of finding him when a farmer heard a mysterious barking – and traced it to the well: it was built for a long-since demolished house, and until Bobby fell in, no one knew it existed. The dog survived by licking condensation off the well’s walls and eating insects dug out of the mud at the bottom. Skinny and smelly but unharmed, he was rescued by the Norfolk fire brigade, and taken home for scrambled eggs and a bath.

At the age of 96, Dr Henry Heimlich has saved a person’s life, using the manoeuvre he invented 42 years ago. The retired doctor was having dinner at his care home in Cincinnati when an 87-year-old woman at his table started to choke on a hamburger. Dr Heimlich rushed to her chair, where he carried out three abdominal thrusts to dislodge the meat from her windpipe. The Heimlich manoeuvre is thought to have saved 100,000 lives in the US alone. Asked how it felt to use it himself, he replied: “I felt wonderful.”