28/10/2011 Look North (East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire)

Good evening. Welcome to Look North. Here are the headlines: Dark times

ahead for the families facing fuel poverty this winter. One MP says

the energy companies are to blame. They definitely have a duty to be

better than they are being. People are suffering fuel poverty. It is

very difficult to explain to an auteur to -- an autistic child who

is saying, I am cold. The Olympic runner who says he will

not be stopped in his tracks by lack of funding. It has sharpened

me up. Still blooming - the riot of colour

in our gardens, even as the clocks are set to go back.

And the pumpkins lighting up Disneyland this Hallowe'en.

And it has been a beautiful day, but will the sun continued to shine

this weekend? I will have the There are calls for energy

companies to be charged with corporate manslaughter if people

die this winter because they cannot afford to heat their homes. The

Hull MP, Karl Turner, who was also a barrister, believes many

companies could face court action as the number of households

affected by fuel poverty continues to increase. Here's our political

editor, Tim Iredale. With winter fast approaching, there

are concerns that a growing number of households will struggle to

afford their energy bills as temperatures plummet. Have you seen

this before? Yes. Ros Reynolds lives in what she describes as a

draughty farmhouse with her son. She is registered disabled but says

she is pay more than half her monthly income to her energy

provider. I get �554.60 each month in benefits and out of that I have

to pay �311 on an estimated electric reading. She says she has

even resorted to candlelight. pretty nice! What I will be doing

is wrapping myself in three or four layers of clothing and put in on

the coal fire and going to bed early. But trying to explain to my

son is something different. definition of fuel poverty is a

household where more than 10% of income is spent on keeping warm.

That is believed to be around one in five in this country. It is

estimated at around 2,700 people will die this year as a result of

fuel poverty. All I have said in the House of Commons is that the

behaviour of the big six energy companies is tantamount to a

corporate manslaughter. The reason I say that is because the profits

from these big six have gone from �15 to �125 per consumer. What I

say is that they need to be responsible. They have a definite

moral duty to be better than they are being. People are truly in fuel

poverty. Earlier this month, the Prime Minister met representatives

from the big six energy firms. He promised the Government would work

harder to try to reduce bills. In the short term it seems that many

families will have to make some tough financial choices this winter

just to pay the bills. We approached Energy UK, which

speaks for the big six, and they declined to comment tonight. Just

before we came on the air, I spoke to Derek Lickorish from the Fuel

Advisory property group. He ran EDF Energy but now his organisation

advises the Government on fuel poverty. I asked him to explain how

the companies should take on fuel poverty. I think they should have

done for more to have him place a framework that will help the poor.

-- done far more. There is a case for energy reform and the

Government should intervene in the market. I would like to see the

same determination to be applied to something like a regular tariff for

consumers who do not access the market because they don't have IT,

and of the 6 million homes we have in fuel poverty, many of them will

be on the worst deal. That is where I am critical. And if more dive

from the cold, is that a case of corporate manslaughter, as the MP

is suggesting? -- if it more die? do understand but it becomes a

distraction. There is a framework in which this market operates and I

would like to see MPs talking about the number of things that would

improve the plight of the fuel poor. Should the Government force the

companies to do something? I think they should do something that would

enable the energy companies to do something. If we look at the warm

hands discount that is about to be introduced, that is a good

initiative. But it is only going to pensioners on credit. We want to

see people in receipt of cold weather payments get that and that

would require legislation, which is a matter for government. You are an

adviser to government on this issue. It sounds like they have some way

to go? They have a long way to go. In addition to the warm homes

discount, we are about to have the green deal, which will add another

billion pounds to people's accounts, and we want to see that money spent

on insulation for the fuel poor. The only long-term sustainable

solution is insulating allow homes. Despite the fact we have some of

the best gas prices compared to northern Europe, we use too much

because too much of our heat escapes through the walls and

Windows. Thank you. We would love your thoughts on this

one and I will be reading them out before 7pm. Should energy companies

be held criminally responsible for people dying from a lack of

Does the Government have a duty to Rising energy bills will be the

talking point on this week's Politics Show. That is at 12pm.

Guests will include Karl Turner and Martin Vickers.

Coming up later, capture your life through a lens and help to create a

picture of Britain in just one day. An athlete from Grimsby who is

hoping to compete at the Olympics has been told he has lost its

funding from the UK Athletics. Richard Buck found out this week he

will not be supported in his bed but he has vowed to overcome the

problem. -- in his bid. Richard Buck is a determined young

man. The Grimsby-born athlete who spent part of his childhood growing

up near Hull received a hammer blow this week when his funding was

withdrawn. Give up? Not a chance. The fact I have not got that

backing just means every decision I make has to be the right one. It is

almost life and death so it has sharpened me up. Richard Buck

looking strong! Despite winning a medal at the European indoor

championships, rigid found himself up against a number of talented

runners when the money was handed out. -- Richard. Nonetheless, the

decision was unexpected. With all the other guys improving in the

event, it became difficult and tight and not through any fault of

Richard, he got squeezed out. It is not all gloomy news.

Lincolnshire Paralympic throwers here get some funding, as does

hammer throw Alex Smith, from Hull. By this time next week, which it

hopes to have a part-time job to make ends meet. With central

funding or not, this is a man determined to make it to London

2012. Some more news in brief. Six

Tornados from RAF Marham in Norfolk are to be withdrawn from operations

over Libya. The jets are, is stationed in Italy but will return

to their base near King's Lynn tonight. 10 Tornados will remain at

the Italian military base of the time being. Three remaining

Lincolnshire surveillance aircraft are to return of the weekend.

Two men have died in a car crash in Lincolnshire. The accident happened

on the A52 Fen Road near Donington last night. -- two women. Pamela

Moore and her sister, Eileen Williams, were both killed.

Teaching staff at Hull College are being asked if they want to take

voluntary redundancy. Up to 85 posts are said to be under threat.

The college has bases in Hull, Goole and Harrogate and says the

job losses are down to government funding cuts. The union says the

job losses are unnecessary. It is a question of whether or not they can

make salving -- savings elsewhere to carry the college forward

without the need to make further job losses and redundancies. There

has got to be natural wastage. People will be leaving in any case,

through retirement, changing jobs. Can we manage in a different way?

The Butterfly and Wildlife Park at Long Sutton is due to close because

of a drop in the number of visitors which has been blamed on the

economic downturn. The attraction will reopen in February for a short

period to include next year's spring and summer seasons. However,

30 staff will lose their jobs when the doors finally close next August.

Thank you for being in touch about how a story on the health workers

being given an extra day off for having the flu jab. 3,000 members

of staff have taken up the offer at the Hull Royal Infirmary and Castle

Hill Hospital compared to just 600 at the same time last year. The

Trust says it will save lost working days in the long run.

We had a big response. Not surprisingly! Thank you for all

your texts and emails. James phoned in and said they were in a hospital

runaways are we should be mandatory Thank you for those. Still ahead,

why the flowers think the clocks have already gone back to spring.

And taking the mickey. The specially grown Lincolnshire

pumpkins lighting up Disneyland Don't forget, if you have got a

picture, do send it in. This was taken by Paul. A fabulous sum rise

at Sutton Bridge in Lincolnshire. And the light has you can see was

lived in by Peter Scott. Good evening, Peter. You have been

very mean to me, but just to show there are no hard feelings, I will

give you some sunshine and you can top up your tan! Your all heart!

is going to be a lovely weekend. We are looking at variable amounts of

cloud but we are looking at sunshine as we have through

Saturday and Sunday. The pressure chart shows us we have some weather

runs over us on Saturday. It will not bring as much in the way of

rain until the afternoon, they you can see the eyes are bars closing

in, so we will turn rather breezy. -- the isobars. We will have plenty

of sunshine, so to end the day, we are looking at clear conditions. We

could have the odd spot of drizzle overnight tonight. East

Lincolnshire will stay dry and many of us will be dry overnight. Where

we have bigger cloud, we will have high is of 10 degrees. The sun will

rise at 8am tomorrow and set again at 5:40pm. These are the high ward

at times. -- high water at times. A cloudy and Pam start tomorrow. We

will see the sky clear ring tomorrow, leaving us with plenty of

sunshine. Through the afternoon, cloud will increase from the north-

west, but this band of rain will not arrive until after dark.

Temperatures are not too bad until Saturday. We are looking at about

12, 13 degrees. Sunday, again, we will see variable cloud and sunny

spells, but 10 in milder, at 16 If that goes horribly wrong, we

will have half a dozen pictures! We will have to retrain our other

As one of the warmest October is on record comes to the end this

weekend, Hallowe'en revellers cannot look towards spring time

temperatures. So far there has been no serious frost to kill off the

summer blooms and that has led to some surprising results in our

gardens. It is the time of year when our

gardens should be looking scary, but as Hallowe'en approaches, hot

autumn's mild weather is bringing Dennis Shaw's award-winning garden

is completely confused, these bedding plants should not be

flowering until spring. I am 68 and I have never seen it as good and as

happy as it is now in a garden. It looks beautiful. But at this time

of the year, it shouldn't. Some small back gardens, to beat

stately-home us. The weather is confusing everyone. Spring

daffodils are even curious to see what is happening. We have lots of

buds there still to come. Down here we have lovely flowers that are

still going strong. Normally we would have these indoors at this

time of year. It is not just the professionals who were rubbing

their heads, it is the end of October and the gardeners rule book

has been thrown out. The these were about to be pulled up because I

thought they had finished flowering, but when you look at them there are

lots of new buds on. It seems a shame to pull them out. I would

leave them a bit longer. The advice is to enjoy it while it lasts. As

the first serious frost, things could change overnight. I am

wondering why I have got flowers at this time of year, but that is

nature. But we will have to leave it at that. It looks nice. With

temperatures climbing higher towards Halloween, the colour of

summer shows no sign of ending just yet.

The world has gone mad. Some proof now that we are heading towards

winter because of the clocks go back in the early hours of Sunday.

Some relish the extra hour in bed but the East Yorkshire MP told the

House of Commons that it was a depressing ritual. Many millions of

people will be less happy than they could be as Britain is plunged into

darkness by early afternoon, following us putting our clocks

back. If we cannot have a debate, can we have action in future to end

this a necessary and depressing ritual. Just before it got dusky

this evening, I asked Greg Knight why he thinks that putting the

clocks back was so depressing. is depressing about it is how the

country has plunged into darkness by early afternoon. What I am

saying is that even if we have to change the clocks once the year,

let's move the hour on one hour so that we have an extra hour of

daylight in the evening. In Central European Time or what would that

basically mean to people watching tonight? It would mean that instead

of it getting dark at about 5:50pm in Bridlington it would get dark at

6:50pm. It would mean that people could do their shopping in the

daylight, children leaving school would have more playtime before it

gets dark. It would be a boost to tourism. But it would mean darker

mornings as children were going to school? It would indeed. That is

the downside of the coin. The Royal Society for the Prevention of

accidents say that they should not be a problem. Most morning journeys

are predictable, they are from home to work or home to school. It is

the afternoon and evening journeys which are unpredictable. People may

go shopping on their way home and therefore go on a stretch of road

they are not used to. Because of this, the Royal Society for the

Prevention of accidents say we would save about eight T Livesey

year. -- 80 Livesey year. Some people that this would -- some

people say this would affect the North of England and Scotland very

badly. I think it would be a great benefit to the East Coast.

Bridlington get starker 40 minutes before places like Bournemouth, it

is not just Scotland it is the west of the country. I think we should

try it as an experiment and if I am proved wrong, I would say that we

should go back. I think there are benefits for of the body.

-- for everybody. Do you like it the way it is or do

you back the change to Central European Time? Let me know what you

If you have ever thought about capturing your life on camera, then

a film that the BBC is making may inspire you. Britain In A Day aims

to capture a slice of life of people across the UK on November

12th. Capturing a private moment in time.

Here in China, it tie Chan and his dad a lighting incense in memory of

his mother, in Hampshire and meanwhile a journey to meet his dad

for a pint is what Jack chose to film for the life in a day project

on 24th July last year. Now you can get involved in Britain in a day --

Britain In A Day. The exciting thing about this project is that it

is normal people, it is not celebrities, it is not a glossy.

People will get a chance to upload their films and be a part of

something quite unique. The idea is to get as many people as possible

across the UK to film what they're doing on 12th November. I might do

an interview with my grandad, he is turning 90 near 12th November.

Hopefully if my little boy makes his first steps that will be one

thing. I would like to buy myself one of those little flip cameras,

they are about �30 now. The great thing about Britain In A Day is

that you do not need a posh television camera to take part, one

of these will do. The pictures can be just as good. The most important

thing is to get a story of a person's Dave. It is an emotional

project, reflecting life across Britain. Britain In A Day is for

everyone, your chance to be part of a national archive or maybe a

special film of the best bits to be broadcast ahead of next year's

Olympics. For more information you can go to

All about football teams are playing this weekend, he rather

details. Hull City travelled to Nottingham Forest. You will also be

able to hear about Scunthorpe United. The build-up to me both

matches starts at 1:30pm. Grimsby Town a take on Ashington at home.

Coverage of that will be on tab and also on the Web. Lincoln City's FA

Cup qualifying game is away at Alfreton Town. Coverage starts at

2pm. The players are showing that they have the appetite and really

we need to build a platform for the successes.

Enjoy your football this weekend. The time is running out for you to

nominate people in your community to you think make a difference of

three sport. Last year, Julie Norman who runs the Acorn Judo Club

in a Lincolnshire took the honours. The closing date for the entries

this year is on Sunday. There is not much time left to put someone

Yesterday on Look North week marked the 100 anniversary since Harry

Houdini performed in Hull. Here is what happened when a very modern

Houdini attempted to recreate one of his famous routines and he got

out alive. He grows 3 million pub in the year,

but this year David Bowman has been given a special task. He is to grow

pumpkins in the shape of some well- The pumpkin, it has been a symbol

of Hallowe'en for centuries. It has a bumpy, flesh like exterior and

perfect evil head Cobbing shape. Now, and you, contorted pumpkin has

been grown in the fields of Spalding, so scary it looks like...

A pumpkin shaped like a Mickey Mouse head. It is not scary at all.

There is good reason for it not to be too scary because pumpkin farmer,

Dave Bowman, has been asked by Mickey Mouse himself to grow the

pumpkins for Disneyland Paris. we have got here is a genuine

Mickey Mouse shaped pumpkin. It has been grown in a special mild. It

has been left to get on with it. This is a plastic mould, you place

the pumpkin in their and then you put the top on. Then you just

bought the whole thing together. Here is David collecting the

pumpkins from his fields. You can see Mickey Mouse's reaction. But

but are they convincing enough for the people of Spalding? It looks

like Minnie Mouse's head. It is Mickey Mouse. It is Mickey Mouse.

Is that natural? Big cheeks. Yes, they are. It is possible that we

could be looking at the start of a new period -- at the start of the

New Era of pumpkin growing. Finally, let's recap the main

national and regional headlines. Sentenced to life, a Vincent Tabak

is a jailed for the murder of landscape architect Joanna Yeates.

There are calls for energy companies to be charged with

corporate manslaughter if people die this winter because they cannot

afford to heat their homes. The Wood for tomorrow, mostly dry

and sunny spells throughout the morning. There may be rain later in

the day. On the subject of fuel bills,

hammered says that we will all suffer this winter because the

reluctant -- the government is reluctant to impose any fines on

the energy companies. Paul says, I work for one of the

big six companies and your coverage infuriates me. The cost of fuel has

increased substantially and it has to be passed on to the customer.