05/08/2013 Look North (East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire)

Crews admit they struggle to get to patients in time.

The 81-year-old war veteran beaten up after asking a group of youths to

stop throwing things at his house. Turning empty shops into houses, the

plan to breath new life into our high streets.

And more than 30,000 people watch Hull's finest local talent.

I will be asking just what events like this And we will have the full

weather forecast later in the programme.

It provides emergency care for almost five million people, but for

the past three years the East Midlands Ambulance Service has

failed to meet its response times. Tonight we go behind the scenes with

the ambulance crews who are struggling to meet those targets and

hear claims that there simply aren't enough ambulances on the road in

Lincolnshire. It's been a troubled few months for

EMAS. Earlier this year it was fined �3.5 million for missing targets

again. A controversial plan to reorganise

the service has been called in for review by the government. And then

on Friday, the Chief Executive left his job after less than two years in

the role. In a moment I'll be talking to a local MP who sits on

Parliament's Health Committee and has his own ideas about what need to

happen to EMAS in the future. But first, this special report from our

Health Correspondent Vicky Johnson, who spent a night with ambulance

crews in Lincolnshire. Vicky's report does contain some flashing

lights. We are just making sure we have got

everything that we need. That's the first job crews do when they clock

on. Minutes later, they get their first It takes them 16 minutes to

drive the 12 miles to Dunham on Trent, where an elderly man has

collapsed. A decision's quickly made to transfer him straight to hospital

in Lincoln. We are not really sure what is going on with him. I think

he came through as an eight minute response. Because of where it what

it took us longer than that and that was one that was missed. This is

such a huge county. My personal opinion is that we do not have

enough vehicles on the road to cover the amount of people that we deal

with on a daily basis. The handover at the emergency department went

quickly and smoothly, but that's not always the case. We had two vehicles

to queue in on Tuesday. This is an all year round thing now. It is

frustrating when you are sat at the back of the queue waiting with

patients that are potentially quite poorly, but there is just nowhere to

put them. Before they can go back on call, the crew has to complete the

new electronic patient report forms, and that can take up to half an

hour. League-macro you can experience -- you can experience

quite extensive delays. We just have to see the patient as quickly as we

can. Admin completed, and it's straight back on the road, attending

to yet another emergency. There is a 25-year-old female who is querying

an asthma attack. By the time they get to North Hykeham, a first

responder from Lives is already there. This time the service has met

its response target. I am just about two or three miles up the road

there. One in our responders lives just up the corner so it is quite a

local one for me. The crew take over and decide not to take the young

woman to hospital. Instead, they make an appointment for her at the

out of hours service. We do all of the paperwork the same. We will make

an appointment and bring them up now and then he can bring them back once

she has seen the doctor there. have described a job, a 72-year-old

female that has fallen and hurt her leg. But within minutes they were

diverted from Sleaford to Woodhall Spa. A 19-year-old female with

breathing problems. The elderly date he will have to wait until someone

else is available to go see to her. -- the elderly lady. If there is

going to be a delay in getting a crew to a patient they will send a

fire crew out -- the fire brigade out. It's took the crew 15 minutes

to get here, but as first responders, the fire brigade were on

scene much quicker. As far as the crews on the ground are concerned,

patients should always be put first. Patient care, second sometimes,

which is a shame that targets me nothing to us at the end of the day.

We are here to deal with the patients and treat them. There are a

lot of politics in the job that we do. I come for the public and I may

best and then go home again. There is an emergency call to the East

Midlands Ambulance Trust every 45 seconds, and demand is increasing

every year. Extra funding for more front-line staff should have been

sure of the battle to answer all calls within the necessary targets

is one more often. Nobody from EMAS wanted to be

interviewed today, but in a statement told us that the poor road

network in Lincolnshire does make meeting targets a challenge.

However, they've secured some additional funding that will be

spent on a 126 extra front-line staff. Andrew Percy is the MP for

Brigg and Goole and is also on the Health select Committee. He's with

me this evening. The Trust has been fined �3.5 million for failing to

meet targets for the third year running. Plans for reorganisation

have been put on hold and on Friday the Chief Executive resigned. How

much confidence do you have in this ambulance service? I am very

concerned about this whole state of affairs, actually. My constituents

living in rural parts of Lincolnshire deserve the best

ambulance service and for the targets to be meant as much as

possible. We have to ask whether or not this trust is fit for purpose.

Do we need to be listening to this? Yes. Southern parts of

Leicestershire all the way up to the Humber Bridge, we need to ask, is

this trust serving our area and to these big trusts really work?

senior paramedic who we heard from there says targets come before

patient care. Is she right? You have got to have the targets. I would not

want to see the eight minute target go. For rural areas they will always

be more challenging. It is the rural areas that suffer even more if you

are not pushing the trust all the time to hit the eight minutes

targets. The paramedics are right, patients must always come first, but

targets can help to achieve that. All of this money would be better

spent on the service itself, wouldn't it? It does sound a bit of

a perverse incentive that you find a trust for not hitting its target and

then put them in the worst financial position. -- find a trust will stop

-- find a trust. Will your government relax the targets or will

you invest in more ambulance crews for Lincolnshire. We have been

increasing the number of paramedics. There are more paramedics nationally

on the front line, but there is supposedly going to be an

announcement this week of an extra half �1 billion to deal with this

crisis, so hopefully that will release more ambulances. Should

Lincolnshire have its services again? We need to find out whether

mixing these larger urban areas with rural areas is really fit for

purpose or would we be better with a more rural focused amulets service.

It is up to the commissioners ultimately, but I think we should

look at whether we should have a smaller service. Thank you very much

indeed for coming in. We'd like to hear your views on this one. What's

been your experience of the ambulance service locally? Do you

think the crews are overstretched? In a moment: Why criminals gangs are

costing our rural communities more than �5 million a year.

People living on a Grimsby estate are calling for CCTV cameras to be

installed after an 81-year-old war veteran was attacked by a group of

youths. Barney Alcock suffered cuts to his face after a confrontation

outside his home. It's claimed the boys had been throwing things at his

windows. Crispin Rolfe's report contains some graphic images of Mr

Alcock's injuries. He has that's too much of a scab, so

I have to take him back on Thursday. -- he has got too much. Recovering

after an attack. But Barney Alcock, who has dementia, can't remember how

he sustained these wounds. But it's left the 81-year-old former Korean

War veteran to be treated at home by his wife after two hospital visits.

Honestly, he cannot remember what happened. He still keeps going a bit

dizzy when he looks down. Wife Thelma, however, remembers Barney

going outside to intervene after a group of youngsters repeatedly threw

cherries at the windows of the couple's Grimsby home. I came back

in here to get the telephone to phone the police and get the lads

moved on. I got to the kitchen window and was talking to this

police lady and I saw him at the floor. I went out and had a look and

I was absolutely gob smacked at the state of him when I got across the

road. He was absolutely covered with blood, his white vest was red, and

it was all down his trousers and deliver the floor. A week on, and

the talk along the Nunsthorpe Estate is of who was or wasn't involved.

And from neighbours along Redbourne Road and Winchester Avenue, how to

prevent an assault like this from happening again. The call from parts

of the community is for CCTV cameras to be installed. I think it would be

a good idea. There are a lot of old people around here and I think it

would make them feel a little bit secure. There is no excuse. You do

not do that, especially to an old person. They are a lovely couple

next door. Police have issued a statement to say they have arrested

a 14-year-old boy in connection with the incident you had subsequently

been let out on bail. They are still looking for further witnesses to

come further -- forward. In the meantime, Barney Alcock says the

attack won't deter him from going out in future. But among the local

Nunsthorpe community, the assault of this 81-year-old man has been

branded as completely unacceptable. A man whose body was found in a

drain in Lincolnshire has been named. 27-year-old Aleksandr

Vasilevskij, who's originally from Lithuania, was found in the Maud

Foster drain in Boston on Friday. An inquest is expected to be opened

tomorrow. Work has begun to expand the

Accident and Emergency department at the Diana Princess of Wales hospital

in Grimsby has begun. �60,000 will be spent where the most seriously

ill patients are assessed. The hospital says it will mean more

people can be treated at the same time, reducing the waiting times for

ambulance crews. Empty shops in high streets should

be turned into homes, that's according to Lincolnshire MP and

Planning Minister Nick Boles. He believes we should worry less about

empty shops and turn them into homes and dad. Our business correspondence

has been looking at how that might work. -- instead. Nick balls need to

look no further than his and constituency to the -- Katrin

Jonsdottir needs to look no further being in a sustainable place in the

middle of town, being eyes on the street said that if anybody was

thinking of misbehaving, they would not be so likely to do so. Nick

Boldt is that you told a local newspaper that he a relaxed --

relaxed approach. His comments are controversial because he appears to

be the First Minister to suggest that in parts of our high street, we

should abandon -- abandoned retailing altogether. The government

has tried to breathe new life -- live in the towns by using retail

experts, but the project has had mixed progress. We need shops and we

need people to come into town and spend Monday -- money. There is

hardly any housing around here anyway, so it would be good.

cities like Lincoln, it is a ready happening. These offices have been

converted into homes. You're looking at refurbishment. You are not having

to release it so much Greenland. Actually, it does make sense to

revitalize and rejuvenate areas and set of letting them fall into

natural decay. This man says that turning shops into homes is a bad

idea. Let's not decrease the footfall by turning shots into

housing. Let's increase the footfall by trying to get more people in the

town. In a statement, Nick Boles was is now going to recommend that

councils concentrate their shots into one or two prime streets.

town centres could be looking very different to these proposals become

reality. -- if these proposals. This is another story we'd like your

thoughts on. Is Nick Boles right? Should empty shops be turned into

houses or flats? Will anything breathe new life into our shopping

streets? people watch on as Hull's

transformed into an arts and music festival. But will it be enough to

earn Hull the title of City of photographs coming in. It was a very

busy weekend in Lincolnshire. Saturday, waiting for the

illuminations to be switched on. Thank you very much for that's. A

very busy day on the photographs front of Sunday. This is from an air

show. A lot of planes on the programme recently. I think the

presenter was a plane spotter. Thank you very much. Another picture

tomorrow night. Let's get the around but tomorrow promises to be a

lot drier and brighter. -- little bit of rain. This little ridge of

high pressure is going to give us a bit more settled conditions. It

looks like it will continue through Wednesday as well. The promise of

drier and bright weather ahead. Tonight we will see spells of rain.

If you have your of rain as he go into overnight tonight. -- as we go

into overnight tonight for the a fresher field tonight so it will be

easier to get to sleep tonight. The sun role rise at 5:24am. Those are

a deal of dry weather on the cards for tomorrow. Clouds will bubble up

as we go through the afternoon, but more importantly, it looks as though

it will stay dry. When we see the sunshine, temperatures will be up to

19 and 20, if not 21 degrees. With a light read, it should feel quite

pleasant, and it will be a quite -- with a light breeze, it should feel

quite pleasant. Amateurs will still hover around 19 or 20 degrees --

temperatures will still hover around 19 or 20 degrees. And looks like we

are sad to see one or two more showers. For Thursday and Friday,

the showers will linger on the coast. Tomorrow it looks like it

Yorkshire and the Humber is the highest in the country. New figures

show that, while it's at a five year low, crime in the countryside still

costs this area more than �3 million a year. Emma Massey has more.

What short of majors -- what sort of measures have you taken to protect

the church? We had to put equipment up a few years ago when we were

brought for light. -- Rob for light. Installed to protect this church in

Harpham, East Yorkshire from rural crime. This CCTV footage also helped

to convict this man, seen here walking away, of stealing from this

and over 600 other churches from up and down the country. Jeanette

Corkwell and her husband farm near Driffield. Two years ago they were

burgled and were among one of 56 properties targeted that night.

not get frightened very easily will stop -- I do not get frightened very

easily, but I was stopped my husband was away. Lincolnshire was the third

worst area hit in 2012, with �1.8 million lost to criminals. Crime has

fallen significantly year after year because a lot of prevention measures

have gone into the area. As well as actively policing local communities,

police are now working alongside them in order to stay one step ahead

of criminals. We have to build a big team, and local residents are an

integral part of that team. In North Lincolnshire, at the farm watch

scheme there has been in existence for two years and they have managed

to half rural crime in that time. But there's still some way to go to

bring down this and other types of crime in rural areas to make them a

safer place to live and work. But even though rural crime figures are

at a five year low there's still work to be done to make the

countryside even safer. A Lincoln teacher has drowned while on

holiday. She was an English teacher at an academy. The Foreign Office

says it is providing consular assistance to her family.

On Friday's programme we reported how drivers in rural areas feel they

are becoming isolated because of the cost of filling up their cars. It

followed the Government's announcement it will consider

extending a fuel discount to remote parts of the country but failed to

include Lincolnshire or East Yorkshire. There was a big response.

Ian says, "If people choose to live in rural areas surely they must

those. Scunthorpe United manager Brian Laws

has challenged his players to build on Saturday's season opening wind

against Mansfield. The Iron beat the visitors 2-0l, with goals from new

signings Matt Sparrow and Sam Winnall. The manager says he's

pleased with how his players handled the match. At times it was not

pretty but we had to be determined to deal with what ever they were

going to throw in the box. There was a lot of aerial bombardment against

a big site and I think we got the bad and it shows that we can deal

with that and that we can play wind the title of City of Culture.

But if this event is anything to go by, Hull is putting up a pretty

decent fight. 160 local acts performing on ten stages with an

estimated audience of 34,000 people. For local artists from all genres,

comedians and DJs, it was not a bad We have got some amazing talent and

some great photographers. What we find ever the years is that they get

to the colleges and universities and then leave the area, but events like

this hopefully can help us towards the Colts are -- City of Culture

bed, which will hopefully help us keep our creative people in the

city. It was so busy the pumps ran dry in this pub, this pop up cafe

was rushed off their feet, all good for business and of course the bid.

It was just a massive showcase of local talent at all levels. Not just

music, but food and drink, art, design. It was a good show and I

think it could Hull pride. -- proud. There is a lot of talent in Hull and

we deserve this recognition. This is what the competition are up to.

Leicester held its annual Caribbean Carnival at the weekend, but Swansea

Bay and Dundee have held no major free events since they were short

listed. Hull has got a lot to deliver and achieve, but it has got

the people on the grounds that have proved that they can create events

that people want to come to, and we have got to share with that we have

the energy and in duty as him and the commitment of local people.

Well, with just a few weeks left before the final bid is entered, the

work doesn't stop here. The push to become a City of Culture continues.

Dundee sounds fine, it doesn't do it, and the sun. Caroline is on

Humber Street this evening. What will this do for Hull's bid to

become the UK's City of Culture in 2017?

It would not be a success on Saturday without the people. Where I

am standing now, it was absolutely packed with people. This event at

the weekend was the start of a month of a free events taking place in the

city. Every the next five weeks, there will be three festivals in the

city. It is the final push. You are from the bid team. What can people

do to get involved? Two we would like for people to bite us on

Facebook and follow us on Twitter. Just find out what is happening. Put

your ideas in. What do the people of Hull want from a City of Culture?

The more likes and shares we get, the better. It also means that

people's ideas can't get put into the mix and into the bid. Fingers

crossed. We have the festival of food and drink next week, and it

takes place in the city centre. Let's get a recap on today's

headlines: Four years after his death during the G20 protests, Ian

Tomlinson's family gets a formal apology from the Metropolitan

Police. And amulets -- amulets cruise in

Lincolnshire say they are struggling to meet their targets. There are

calls for the East Midlands Ambulance Trust to be broken up.

need to ask whether mixing up these large urban areas with rural areas

is creating a fit for purpose services or would we be better with

a more rural focused ambulance service. The weather for tomorrow,

dry and bright, with some funny style. Just the chance of a shower.

Top temperatures will be getting up amulets service. They say that

Lincolnshire needs its own amulets service. Samantha says that

Lincolnshire used to hit all of its targets. One man wonders how the

services to post to achieve targets when the government is fining them