BRADFORD Council has been forced to close Ilkley Lido on the hottest day ever.

The Council's Twitter account announced the closure shortly after 5pm today saying: "Unfortunately, we have had to close Ilkley Lido due to a power cut affecting the area. We will be back open as soon as we can."

The closure will come as a blow to many looking forward to a cooling swim after suffering in the sweltering heat all day.

Temperatures have reached 40C for the first time on record in the UK, with 40.2C provisionally recorded at London Heathrow, the Met Office said.

The threshold was hit at 12.50pm as much of the UK sweltered in a heatwave, with parts of England and Wales under a red warning for extreme heat, posing a danger to life, pressure on the NHS and disruption across transport networks.

The extreme heat is fuelled by climate change, which is making every heatwave more intense, frequent and likely, scientists warn.

The new high for daytime temperatures comes after the UK experienced its warmest night on record on Monday, with temperatures remaining in the mid-20s.

Northern Powergrid reported experiencing a high volume of faults as a result of the extremely high temperatures across the region. It caused some of its transformers to overheat and conductors to sag. 
The Ilkley power cut is affecting some 620 properties in the Middleton area.