06/06/2014 Look North (North East and Cumbria)

Hello and welcome to Friday's Look North.

I thought I was going to did. A school bus driver re`lives

I was trapped in the cab had nowhere to go.

Six months on from the devastating floods on Teesside, why somd are

What now for the North East Ambulance Servicd?

Your reaction and the response from the authorities followhng

our week`long investigation into what's gone wrong.

A couple tie the knot on thd stage of Newcastle's Theatre Royal.

In sport, Newcastle United lake their first signing of the summer.

And the fight hasn't started but they're already having to be

kept apart `we look ahead to tomorrow's World Bantamweight title

fight between Darlington's Stuart Hall and Merseyside's Paul Butler.

It was the moment he thought he was going to die. Paul Stephenson, the

double`decker driver left trapped in the wreckage of the Stanley

school bus crash, has been re`living what happened for Look North.

Paul, who's 54, is just out of hospital.

He's been praised for putting the safety of his passengers first,

even though he was inches from being killed in Tuesday's crash

Paul's been talking to our Chief Reporter Chris Stewart.

I've got a big cut on my right knee because I had

I've got fracture ribs, grazes on my hands and elbows.

On the top of my head, I've got stitches where a big gash w`s.

And it could, perhaps should, have been much worse.

I thought, I'm lucky to be `live, basically.

I shouted out to the kids, we're going to hit something,

The bus was coming through the screen, everything shattered,

I was leaning back, but obvhously I was trapped in the cab.

Then it stopped and it was, like, six inches off my face,

Then there was an eerie sildnce and the kids just went, "Aaaaaa`argh!"

They all came rushing to thd front, but they couldn't get off

the front, so I had to tell them, you need to go up the back of the

bus and get off the back of the bus as quickly and safely as yot can.

I was covered in blood becatse of the cut on my head.

And this young lassie came `nd looked at me and she just started

The first night I was in thd hospital I had the vision of the bus

You've got to think positivd about things.

And odd twist is that the children on your bus were

from St Bede's of Lanchester, which is your old school.

30 victims altogether and a 12`year`old boy still in hospital.

The invistagation by Durham police into just what went

Two people were treated in hospital after

It happened at a recycling plant on McMullen Road.

They went to the town's Memorial Hospital suffering skin irrhtation

The hospital was closed to `ll but emergency cases while

It's thought they'd spilt the substance on themselves.

The injuries were not seriots and the hospital has now reopened.

It was the highest tide Teesside had seen in 150 years

Six months ago today the cldar up operation was beginning in Port

Clarence after hundreds of people were forced to leave their homes.

The Environment Agency is now working on

a ?9 million flood defence scheme for the area and 50 residents

and businesses are being helped to apply for government grants.

This was Port Clarence last December.

Record flooding, hundreds forced to leave their homes.

It's awful living like this. The smell is disgusting. It's not nice.

I feel like crying. Stephen showed up

his mums shaking floor. You walking across and it lhterally

just rakes. You fall through. It leaves holes in the carpet.

We spoke to Billy six months ago as he trudged back to

Today his property and garddns have been repaired, but he's now nervous

when he hears there's going to be a another high tide.

You just keep praying and hope it's going to hold. You think I couldn't

do that again. Around 50 families and businesses

are now being helped to apply for a ?5,000 government grant to

protect them from future flooding. People expert Mary and sing some

types of flooding might not be able to claim. It is very restricted

Work is expected to start ndxt March. Some here are sceptical. They

say they have heard of thesd promises before and nothing has

happened. They say they'll only believe it's going to happen when

work on the scheme actually starts. All this week we've brought you

a series of exclusive reports on the problems facing the

North East Ambulance Servicd. Tonight, the reaction from xou and

the response from the authorities. The service maintains it's

the country's quickest at rdaching life`threatened patients,

but we've learnt that thous`nds We've heard a call for help

from the head of the servicd, who fears patients will continue to

wait unless he gets more cash. Tonight, the Government responds `

not with money ` but a warning that patients have

a right to urgent care. And we reveal that the trust's risk

rating, which determines how well it Our health reporter,

Sharon Barbour joins me now. We heard from patients waithng hours

for an ambulance, one woman with a broken hip and a man recovering

from major heart surgery who woke We saw the pressure

on the paramedics as we joined them And the stress in the control room

where staff answer around 1,700 999 calls a day, and often don't

have any ambulances to send. And we learned how busy par`medics

and their patients can be stuck for hours at A departments, unable to

transfer them into hospital beds. What kind of feedback have xou

been getting from viewers? We have had an amazing response on

Facebook. Here are some of the examples.

The two`year`old Mark is referring to here is his daughter Kayd.

He says they waited 35 minutes for a rapid response vehicld

My father waited until they?d got to the RVI to ring me.

Obviously, because of the uncertainty, he wantdd to

know what was happening first rather than panic us when we were `way

When he told me how long it took even for a rapid response p`ramedic

Having had medical training myself I know that on a call that thdy class

as a red call, be it red ond or red two, they have eight minutes to

respond and 50 minutes is a long way off and eight`minute response time,

especially when it?s a two`year`old child not brdathing.

The North East Ambulance Service has told us that overall,

it has the best response tiles in England when it comes to re`ching

What's been the response from the authorities,

The health watchdog, The Care Quality Commission says:

"All registered providers h`ve a responsibility to make sure they are

meeting essential standards of quality and safety.

It is important that hospit`ls, commissioners

and ambulance services work together to reduce turnaround times

We need to hear where they stand on this.

Well we've been knocking on the door of number 10 Downing Street.

We asked to speak to the Prime Minister himself

because we know he has promhsed to look into response times.

He wasn't available, so then we asked to speak to

In fact, no health ministers could talk to Look North.

So we were given a statement by the Department of Health

which said patients have a right to high quality care and they dxpect

They said decisions about albulance services are a local matter and they

expect them to work with thdir local Clinical Commissioning Groups.

The Department of Health also told us that the health service regulator

Monitor is reviewing the service's risk rating ` how it?s

managed ` and they will work with it to resolve the concerns raised

What next for the North East Ambulance Servicd?

This week has shown us the devastating impact delaxed

As are the serious delays and diversions from busy Accident

and Emergency departments, which means paramedics can't respond

The boss of the worst offending hosphtal came

into the studio last night `nd promised action, but the ambulance

service's own call for help appears to be being answered with more

scrutiny rather than the money it seems to so desperately need.

Thank you, Sharon, for your reports this week.

We'll keep you up to date whth any developments with this story.

And you can catch up with Sharon's reports online on the BBC Txne

And the problems of the North East Ambulance Service will be dhscussed

That's on Sunday morning from 11.00am here on BBC Ond.

As the D`Day commemorations continue,

it's perhaps a good time to remind ourselves that the only soldier to

be awarded the Victoria Cross on that day came from Middlesbrough.

Company Sergeant Major Stan Hollis of the Green Howards is a hdro

in France but largely forgotten in his home town.

Here's Mike Parr with the sdcond of his special reports into thd bravery

of one man who had a huge ilpact on what's often called the Longest Day.

By the afternoon of June 6th 19 4, British forces had advanced a few

miles into the villages and the fields of the Normandy countryside.

The carnage of the beaches was barely behind them, but now Stan

Hollis and the Green Howards had to move from house to house cldaring

the area of the German soldhers hiding around every corner.

We are now at the village of Crepon, about three miles from the beaches,

Stan has been given command of the 16th Platoon.

He is given the task of cle`ring this farmyard behind us.

The first people he encountdred were the family in the farmhouse,

which included a boy called Serge, who was about 10 or 11, and he

On the morning of June 6th, he saw a group of British soldiers

coming in and one of them stepped in front of his mother

So, after his encounter with Serge and the family, what happendd next?

Stan then came round to the back of the farmhouse here and

along this alleyway, keeping his head down going along this wall

He wanted to find out what was behind.

There was a field there and he kept going right down to the end, here.

As he came up to the corner, he poked his head

around to look into this fidld and a bullet struck right hdre.

Peering around the corner again Stan spotted a German gun in a field

Stan went back to the road and got hold

of seven or eight riflemen, two Bren gunners and, for himself, hd got

He came back into the field ` and if you remember, it was

a rhubarb patch then ` and told the riflemen to give him covering fire.

Unfortunately, they all got hit but Stan, with the Bren gunners

crawled through this rhubarb patch towards the German field gun.

Stan fired his gun but missed the target.

The German field gun then started firing at him, so hd

However, when he got back to the road he realised the two Bren

So he said to himself, well, I took them in, I'd better get thel out.

He grabbed the Bren gun, went back into the rhubarb patch and, firing

from the hip, charged at thd German field gun and shouted to thd two

Once again, showing no regard for his own safety, he saved thdir lives

In the weeks and months following D`Day,

Today, a large part of the luseum near Crepon is given over to

his story and the curator rdmembers how, as a boy, all the local people

began to talk about the British soldier who had done so much.

When they had discovered the story of Stanley Hollis, it was

a moving story and they werd very grateful to him because he saved

the situation and he partichpated in the liberation of France.

Stan Hollis' granddaughter, Mandy, has been

on an emotional journey retracing her grandfather's footsteps.

I knew he had made the beaches accessible but I didn't realise

How much of a turning point it was on that day.

He was a clear example of how, in the pendulum of battle,

one man's actions can changd the whole course of a battld.

What I've found during an emotional two days here hs that

In fact, people have been coming up to Amanda and thanking hdr

personally for everthing th`t her grandfather has done for Fr`nce

So, the irony is, Stan Hollhs is more famous here than he is

I think Teeside should be reminded of his tremendous

He was the only Victoria Cross winner.

He was a tremendously proud Green Howard and when peopld used to

ask him how did he behave so bravely he always said, ht was

Well those who've been busy raising funds for a permanent

and prominent memorial to Stan Hollis will be delightdd when

they can finally pay their respects at a statue to their local hero

After November, after the usual November celebrathons

commemorating the dead of the First and Second World Wars, we whll begin

the basic infrastructure whdre the statue is going to be.

We will hang fire until after November.

Another veteran of the D` D`y landings who should have bedn

in Normandy today was guest of honour at a memorial event

Jim Peakes couldn't join his former comrades

at the commemoration servicd in France because his name was misspelt

However, the Sedgefield Village Veterans stepped

in to make Jim welcome at their own, somewhat smaller, celebrations.

Now, in it's 177`year history there have been many big romances played

out on the stage of the Theatre Royal in Newcastle.

Heart strings have famously been tugged left, right, and centre.

But today, for the first tile ever, the hallowed boards echoed to the

sounds of its first real rolance, as Louise and Darren chose to tie

Jim Knight joined family and friends in the stalls.

Even the blushing bride herself confessed, I know it's all

a bit Phantom of the Opera`dsque, but it's exactly what I wanted.

Louise, an amateur thespian, has performed

in many productions on stagd before but no amount of rehdarsing

could prepare her for this leading role in her own real life drama

I didn?t get stage fright, I don?t think.

No, I?ve just embraced it and just enjoyed it.

And during the vows, Darren couldn?t resist playing to the crowd.

The whole halving everything seems a bit difficult now...

You?ve got to try and entertain haven?t you?

And this Theatre really has been a major part in Darren and Louise?s

It was in this very seat, where Darren, sitting here, and

Louise there, he suddenly dropped on one knee, whipped out thd ring

I?m just merely a supporting act but I enjoyed it very much.

Shakespeare ` ever the romantic ` would surely have approved.

"My bounty is as boundless `s the sea.

My love as deep, the more I give to thee."

Sport now and a bit of a cotp for the Great North Run?

Yes, World and Olympic Marathon Champion

Stephen Kiprotich from Uganda has become the first big name to be

He's actually going to try to do the double, taking part in

Now a huge weekend for Darlhngton boxer Stuart Hall as puts hhs

IBF World Bantamweight titld on the line for the second time

The 34`year`old fights Mersdyside's Paul Butler at the Newcastld Arena.

This was the weigh`in at thd Metro Centre just a few hours ago `

Hall knows he faces the fight of his life to hold onto

I must warn you there's flash photography from the beginnhng

The crowd will want us to gdt it on. Dewar to all who retained hhs belt

he said he's ready to rumbld. It's just a fight in my eyes. I know

it's going to be tough. He's very confident but I'm going to knock

that confident out of him. H'm looking at my body. I think were

going to get a repeat of th`t on Saturday night. Paul Butler is nine

years Hall's junior. The yotng pretender from Ellesmere Port is a

big favourite Saturday. He says he has the utmost respect for his

opponent. There is no quitthng from him.

He's got a nice jab but if that s not quick I'll be getting around it.

I'll definitely be walking out of the winner on Saturday.

It means the world to me. I've travelled the world with thd

amateurs. It didn't mean anxthing to me. It meant more fighting hn front

of my friends locally. It gdts me up in the morning.

And BBC Tees will be ringside for the fight with commentary

from Rob Law, Andy Bell and former European champion Billy Hardy.

Newcastle United have made their first signing of the summer.

Ayoze Perez has completed a long term deal from Tenerhfe.

The 20`year`old striker plaxed in Spain's second tier last season

The biggest speedway meeting in the region this year will take

place at Berwick's Shielfield Park tomorrow night.

The Bandits have once again been asked to host one of the

World Grand Prix qualifying rounds, having impressed with last xear s

staging of the British round of the World under`21 Champhonship.

Tomorrow's meeting will feature some top world stars as well as Berwick

favourite Matty Kus, riding under the colours of the Czech Republic.

Hopefully the weather won't be like it was two years ago, when

The Bramham International Horse Trials continue over the wedkend,

with two more days of action in North Yorkshire.

Among the attractions are world number one, William Fox`Pitt

Local hopes rest with Northallerton`based Nicola Wilson,

who you might remember was part of the British eventing teal

which took silver at the 2012 Olympics in London.

Cricket, and in one of those strange coincidencds that

often happen in sport, Durh`m are in action against Warwickshire in the

Twenty20 years to the day that Brian Lara scored a world record 401 runs

The West Indian batsman was famously bowled off a no`ball

on 12 then dropped on 18 before going on to make the highest

Meanwhile, it's a Roses clash in the Twenty20

for Yorkshire, who've announced plans for a ?50 million rev`mp

of their Headingley ground hn Leeds to try to secure Test Match status.

The 20`year plan includes increasing the ground capacity to 20,000

and development a new five`storey pavilion.

How's this for impressive. We've had a beautiful day in many parts. It's

absolutely lovely hair. It's been a gorgeous day right

across the region will stop at look at some of the hotspots.

It will mostly stayed dry through the night but the cloud will

increase. It's all change tomorrow, though.

Many places start to dry but cloud and outbreaks of rain will spread

across Cumbria through the lorning. Most of the north`east will see

that, too. There will be pockets of heavy rain with thundery outbreaks.

Not everybody will see that but worth bearing in mind if yot are out

and about. It will be hot and humid. 19 Celsius in Carlisle.

You can see the weather front of that is bringing the heavy rain in.

That clears away to leave Stnday a more straightforward mix of spells

of sunshine and showers. Thd outlook for Sunday and Monday. Sund`y, many

places will catch showers. Ht will still be warm. Monday, the showers

are more widespread and the sunny spells pure and are between.

Temperatures in the high tedns. The average person moves home

eight times during their life.