this works

<?php

use App\Feed;

Route::get('/parsexml', function () {

    $fetch_date = \Carbon\Carbon::now()->toDateTimeString();

    $feed_url = "http://www.bva.co.uk/custom/pages/news/newsrelease/feed.aspx";

    $RSS_DOC = simpleXML_load_file($feed_url);
    if (!$RSS_DOC) abort(404);

    $feeds = Feed::all();

    $feedarray = [];
    if($feeds) foreach($feeds as $feed) $feedarray[] = $feed->item_title;

    foreach($RSS_DOC->channel->item as $RSSitem) {

        if(in_array($RSSitem->title, $feedarray)) continue;

        Feed::Create([
            'item_id' => bcrypt($RSSitem->title),
            'feed_url' => $feed_url,
            'item_content' => $RSSitem->description,
            'item_title' => $RSSitem->title,
            'item_date' => $RSSitem->pubDate,
            'item_url' => $RSSitem->link,
            'fetch_date' => $fetch_date
        ]);

    }

    return view('pages.parse')->with('RSS', $RSS_DOC);

});

Route::get('/', function () {

    $feeds = Feed::all();
    return view('pages.index', compact('feeds'));

});