24/02/2014 Look North (North East and Cumbria)

question is whether the Games will deliver a

Good evening. One of the region's top police officers says he wants to

see the Government provide free heroin for addicts. Speaking

publicly on the subject for the first time, Durham's Chief Constable

Mike Barton says it's the only way to beat the drug gangs. On tonight's

Inside Out programme, Mr Barton explained why a scheme in Denmark

offering addicts freedom from prosecution could be the way forward

here. It's a stance that will undoubtedly

make him unpopular with many politicians, but he says the money

we spend locking up drug addicts would be better spent on trying to

help them recover which led to the fact`finding mission to Denmark. I'm

here to see something different. Drug consumption rooms where addicts

are given free injection kits and a safe environment to shoot up. But he

wants to go much further than that. As well as a safe environment like

that available to addicts in Copenhagen, he wants to provide free

heroin and he says addicts like this 22`year`old woman help prove his

point. What will make you stop, do you think? I really do not know

because I've been through a lot of death and I have overdosed myself a

lot of times. I don't get scared. I hope that maybe there comes a time

when I feel I want to be clean. She is part of a much bigger problem.

She blows ?600 that she gets from the state every month on drugs,

gives it to her drug dealer. What I'm suggesting is that ?600 should

go towards her recovery so she is free from drugs and the state

provides the heroin so we take ?600 out of the drug dealer's pocket. Mr

Barton also faced one of his biggest critics. What is the answer then?

What are you advocating because I am up for it? I will tell you very

simply. I'm advocating the pursuit of the possessors of drugs, rather

than the pursuit of dealers as your primary purpose. If anybody is

caught in possession of drugs, they are arrested and prosecuted and if

found guilty, they are punished in a fashion, both to deter them from

future action and to deter other people from possessing drugs. This

is what you do not do. He knows the criticism will not end there, but he

says an angry debate is better than no debate at all.

And you can see the full report from Inside Out, on the BBC iPlayer, for

the next seven days. The former Newcastle United player

Nile Ranger has gone on trial accused of rape. The 22`year`old

striker denied the charge at Newcastle Crown Court. It's claimed

the offence took place at a hotel in the city, as Andrew Hartley reports.

Nile Ranger arriving at Newcastle Crown Court with a companion. The

trial was told that Mr Ranger and his alleged victim had been friends,

they had been in regular contact by text. They met at the Empress Bar in

Newcastle City Centre on a Tuesday night in January last year. The

court heard the woman remembers dancing and drinking for the first

hour of their date but has no memory of what happened until she woke the

next morning in a bed in a hotel room with Mr Ranger lying next to

her. The jury was shown CCTV footage of the woman and Mr Ranger arriving

at this hotel in the Jesmond area of Newcastle in the small hours of

Wednesday morning. The prosecution says the footage shows that the

woman fell out of a taxi and was left lying on the pavement for some

time before Mr Ranger assists her into the hotel. It's claimed this

footage shows the woman was incapacitated through drink or

drugs. The court heard that Mr Ranger admits having sex with the

woman but says physical contact was totally consensual. He denies the

charge of rape and the trial continues.

Heavy rain has caused problems with flooding in Cumbria. In Carlisle, a

flood warning was in place on the River Eden after it burst its banks

making the road through Rickerby Park impassable. Firefighters also

pumped water from a close in Ellenbrough. Standing water also

caused problems on the A595 near Cockermouth. And two golf courses in

Carlisle were underwater. Newcastle Airport says up to 7,000

jobs could be created by a new business park there. The initial

phase of the development will see six new office blocks created on

land close by. Today the plans got the backing of a government

minister. It's a thriving airport, it's going

places, it's got international flights to Dubai now and we are very

optimistic about having further flights to the US. So I think

Newcastle airport is a good example of how an effective and successful

regional airport can be part of the whole local economy.

The government's thought to be on the verge of ordering a fleet of new

combat aircraft, bringing big benefits to a company in County

Durham. The order could secure 24,000 jobs nationally, including

some here in the region. Our Business Correspondent Ian Reeve

reports. This is the Stealth combat jet that

the Ministry of Defence is on the cusp of ordering. It's American, but

the government will tell us it's good news for manufacturing here.

The F35 will bring jobs to companies like this one in County Durham,

supplying engine parts. We've done a lot of design work,

we've created... Some of our products are absolutely unique and

manufactured nowhere else in the world. So we provide something that

is very distinct into that programme.

500 UK companies will build 15% of the new jet, but just two are based

in the region. This one and a paint company. For Steve, 23 years in the

business, he attributes his involvement in the programme to

becoming ever more sophisticated. Going way back when, to make a tool

or a pressed gasket, you were having to file stuff down to size. Now, we

have a machine that can cut to within microns.

More than 4,000 F35s will be built and sold around the world. `` 3,000.

Each boasting something made in this tiny part of County Durham.

Football, and Sunderland will meet Hull in the FA Cup quarter final in

a fortnight. They beat Brighton 2`1 in their fifth round replay tonight.

So as we saw, it's been very wet for some of us. How's the back end of

February looking, Paul Mooney? February looking, Paul

Unsettled. Low pressure is in charge of the weather through tomorrow. And

for much of the coming week. One area of rain moves from West to East

tonight. Again, it is those saturated areas of Cumbria that has

seen that heavy rain. I mostly dry start tomorrow, some decent bright

spells through the morning. The next batch of snow showers comes in from

the west. `` next batch of showers. For Wednesday and Thursday, further

blustery showers, especially in the West. The best of the brightness

will be more rain overnight into Thursday.

Good evening. We have a spell of wet and windy weather working across the

British Isles. Today brought many of us some decent spells of sunshine

and it brought us some decent temperatures. In fact, our warmest

day of the year so far. At the moment, though, things have

changed. This is the gap in the satellite picture. Now, this curl of

cloud looks like a snail's shell, it is an area of low pressure that is

sweeping wind and rain across us. It's pushed into the west already

and is now making rapid progress eastwards, moving into eastern

England through the small hours Strong, gusty winds around the Irish

Sea