22/02/2017 Look North (North East and Cumbria)

A reminder of the day's main story... The

One of the worst acts of cruelty ever seen.

The opinion of a vet after two men plead guilty to a "barbaric"

attempt to kill a pet dog, by hammering a nail

into its head, leading to angry scenes outside court.

Did you drive a nail into the dog's head?

The chemical company importing fracked shale gas from America

The challenge facing local authorities as council

And the best friends who are now multi-millionaires after scooping

In sport, one of the region's leading cricketers is going to call

it a day at the end of the coming season after a 20-year career.

And the new fans' forum aimed at getting supporters of one

of our Premier League football clubs singing with a united

It was a shocking image - a pet dog left for dead

in a woodland grave after having a nail driven through its skull.

Today the men responsible faced a court on Teesside

to admit their part in attacking the animal - a terrier called Scamp.

Their defence - the dog was sick and they were merely trying to put

We should warn you, Peter Harris's report contains upsetting

Still alive when discovered, 16-year-old Scamp had been

the victim of an attack described as "barbaric."

Brought here to Kirkleatham woods near Redcar, its owner hammered

Michael Heathcock, here on the left, thought it was for the best.

He and his friend Richard Finch then buried it.

As they left court, Finch was confronted

I've got a dog what's blind and everything!

No way I'd put a nail in his BLEEP head.

He then explained his friend had said he couldn't afford a vet.

You don't know what you're talking about.

I didn't know, I told him to go to the vets.

I didn't know he hadn't been to the vets.

He was listening to some idiot in the town and come up

You could face jail as a result of this.

So, I face jail for going to support my mate and while he did

this terrible thing, I'm going to have to face jail.

The court heard when the dog was found in the woods by a passing

walker it was still alive, it was semiconscious.

A vet said it was the worst case he had ever come across.

Now, the men's own solicitor said they had been extremely naive,

that they were concerned that they wouldn't be able to pay

the vet's fee and so they took matters on themselves.

Doing so, they now accept, was stupid.

Heathcock, it's claimed, had been upset as Scamp's health

They'll be back at court for sentence on 1 March.

So, Peter, what more was said in court?

It is upsetting to listen to the details. We heard the dog was hit

with a hammer probably about six times. The defence was that

Heathcock was worried about the bill. It was said in court he hadn't

really properly checked what that would be an Finch said they could

have gone to the people's dispensary for sick animals but the dog was

incontinent so they didn't want to take it on the bus so they had a

plan to deal with that in the woods. It was left for dead, found by

someone else, taken to a vet and put down. We heard that even the staff

at the vets were distressed by what they saw when this poor dog was

brought in. More than 600 jobs have

been saved on Teesside, after one of its biggest chemical

companies converted its plant The gas - often seen

as controversial - is shipped from America and used

at Sabic's Wilton site. The company claims the move saves

money as well as jobs, at a plant that had been

at risk of closure. Our business correspondent

Ian Reeve reports. The very heart of Teesside's

Wilton chemical site. Known as the Cracker,

this plant takes in gases and liquids and turns out ethylene

and propylene, the building blocks for many of our everyday items -

packaging, shampoo, detergents. And from today the Cracker has been

modified so that it can process fracked gas -

shipped from America. And that, says its company

owner, is good news. They really brought this from this a

near-term future and in some concern, whether or not we would be

here in the next year or year and a half, took in a position where all

of a sudden we are making plans for the next 20 years.

But what if it was fracked gas from this country -

probably coming in the years ahead and possibly more controversial.

If this comes close to us, they would definitely study it. We will

seek whether or not the opportunities arise and whether we

can use that. The move to US fracked gas

though means the 630 And Emma, an apprentice,

now has good prospects, It has given me a lot of hope and

anticipation for when everything gets up and running to its full

potential because it is going to make Teesside the capital but it

used to be. 60 years ago the Queen

visited the Wilton site - The Queen's visit was a mark of how

important the site was. The Cracker is now owned

by a Saudi Arabian company. But today's news -

that the plant is here for another generation -

probably merits more The fiance of the Northumberland

children's author Helen Bailey has The writer's body was found

in a cesspit beneath their home Ian Stewart, who's 56,

was also convicted of fraud, preventing a lawful burial

and perverting A former slaughterhouse near Redcar

which residents protested about, saying it made their lives a misery,

is to be flattened. Councillors gave the go-ahead

for the former abattoir in Boosbeck It'll be replaced with

around 70 new homes. The Great North Air Ambulance

Service says early results of a trial using plasma on-board

it's two helicopters - The teams already carry blood -

and now frozen plasma is also taken to emergencies,

so rapid blood transfusions can be In the last five months,

three patients have survived purely because of the on-board plasma

trial. the cost of care for the elderly

and disabled is rising, partly So in response, the Government has

permitted local authorities to add a so-called social care precept

to council tax to meet that bill. Our political correspondent

Luke Walton reports. At 94, Doreen still enjoys a good

song over her knitting. Just one of the many organised

activities at this Cramlington home It keeps their mind active. It

allows them to engage with other residents. It is team-building.

The value of services like this is plain to see,

but with more people needing support - debate over how we pay for it.

The home's owner says rises in national living wage have

And with half of residents funded by the council,

There aren't the level of the increase is coming through on a

regular basis to match the cost that I incur on an annual basis but I

think from the desert issue for a central government and local

authorities are struggling as much as we are.

And though they're increasingly adding a special supplement

to council tax to pay for it - experts say that's worth less

Those areas that have the highest social care bills at the same areas

that have the lowest council tax so it doesn't help them meet the gap.

Under government rules, councils can raise council

tax by just under 2% without a referendum and add to that

a further 3% precept to pay for social care,

Many of the region s councils plan to raise bills

by that maximum amount, including not just Northumberland,

In other local authorities, including Durham, Cumbria

and Middlesbrough, bills are due to rise by a slightly lower

Here in Northumberland, Labour councillors warn

It is a bit smoke and mirrors to be honest, so there is not extra

funding. The Government are doing is they are reducing the national

funding for social care and what they are saying to local authorities

as you can raise that money yourself.

The Government insists it is committing extra resources,

and local Conservatives say Labour is no position to complain.

Year after year they keep claiming they are not getting enough money

from central government. I think they have to look at themselves. The

amount of money they are wasting is quite dramatic.

How to find and fund the care we want for our loved ones.

A question that preoccupies families and increasingly local and central

Luke joins me now. What is the wider impact of these strains on social

care? They have been very significant. One has been the

councils have had to slash spending in other areas like parks and

libraries to protect adult social care as best they can. But still

overrule funding for care has gone down. One impact that that has been

the NHS with all the news about bed blocking and hospitals claiming they

cannot discharge patients because they can't find the care they need

in the community. The Government says it is committing an extra ?900

million into social care, when the Chancellor jumps up in a few weeks'

time to deliver his budget, councils will be hoping that he has some

extra money on this front. Northumberland councillors have been

debating their council It'll probably go up by almost 5%,

the highest rise for years. Those same councillors also may

agree to loan more than ?8 million to the Alnwick Garden,

which was created by Gerry Jackson is at Northumberland

County Hall for us tonight. The councils are predicted to pass

that council tax increase of 4.99%. The maximum permissible by the

Government. One of the most politically charged aspects of this

is the proposal by this council to lend ?8.5 million to the charitable

trust that runs the Alnwick Garden to build a play village on the edge

of it. The garden of course closely associated with the Duke and Duchess

of Northumberland, one of the richest couples in the land. After a

number of strong and they might say impassioned interventions by members

in the budget meeting here this afternoon and perceiving, without

warning that part of the budget has now been withdrawn, at least

temporarily, by the Labour leader of the council so it can go before a

risk assessment panel. Whether it will be reintroduced before the

budget is due to take affect is not clear. What is clear is that this

has become so politically volatile that a number of people in their are

now done right cost out of this, if not uneasy. -- hostile about this.

A lot of people, residents are unhappy that taxpayers' money

is going into a project, into probably one of the biggest

pockets, wealthiest man in the North East of England,

It may not be his actual application, but it is

the Alnwick Garden and it should stand on its own and there has been

very little scrutiny, or what we would call diligence,

We should also remind ourselves that it is a charitable trust

that runs the garden, not the Duke.

Hadrian built a wall 2000 years ago and he didn't come

They have been talking in there for nearly four hours and if they do

stop talking we will bring you an update in our latest news at

10:30pm. Whitby Wildlife Sanctuary looks

after more than 2000 sick birds and animals every year,

but they need bigger The centre which is run

from a family farm has now been given the go-ahead to build

a dedicated hospital They're now asking the public

to help raise the ?120,000 needed to build the hospital,

through a crowd funding site. With an ever-increasing number of

sick and injured animals coming in, Alexandra decided to leave her job

as a teacher to dedicate herself to her sanctuary on the farm. And with

space now getting tight she has been given the go-ahead to build your

dream animal Hospital. This is what we call the rehab -- rehab said. It

is getting extremely cramped. Now we take over 2100 rescues a year. We

are looking at expanding and building a hospital completely

dedicated to the wildlife rehabilitation and rescue. So, we

work with all manner of a life. In fact this one came in just this

morning. She was a pheasant that has been hit by a car. We have does them

up on pain relief, but we will have to see how we get on with him. The

new wildlife hospital will also help to educate young people about how to

care for sick animals. The plans are now in place. Now Alexandra only

needs the money to make it happen. We are planning on raising ?120,000

to cover the cost of the bill, electricity, plumbing, gas,

including some important pieces of kit and equipment we will need as

well. The whole Golding will be very multiuse and combine education with

animal welfare and conservation. So it is all very exciting, so we are

really hoping we can get this in and make it a reality. We have got the

land available and ready, we just have to raise the funds. And the

fundraising quickly enough Alexandra intensity hospital to be up and

running within the next couple of years. -- intends the hospital.

As we prepare for Storm Doris, we've got some good news from a farm

in Cumbria which was devastated by Storm Desmond in 2015.

Raisgill Hall near Tebay suffered around ?100,000 of damage

after a landslide swept through the farm.

Now repairs are complete and the finishing touches

are being done to a new building which will make this year's lambs

Weeks old and trying to find their place in the flock,

these lambs will soon be moving to new a home - one

There is about 130 Borno now. We are kind of in this spell of the middle

before the big flood starts. The problem is we can't get anything for

flooding. If anything happened we wouldn't be covered by insurance.

This is the reason for that lack of insurance.

A 13,000-tonne landslide which spread through the farm at

That coupled with flooding from the river meant 2016 was a year

But putting right isn't enough here - protection

After an hour or two there is rain banging on the window you feel a bit

uneasy. Moving 300 sheep or a lamp with the complete nightmare with

nowhere to put them to. To avoid that nightmare,

Steve's built a higher flood wall and he's moving the lambing shed

uphill well away from the river. As you can see we are virtually

there. We have just got the last bits and pieces to do and with all

the sheep in here on Friday, peace of mind appear. As far as Desmond is

concerned it was dire when we were among adults but this is the silver

lining. -- among it all. So, out of the darkest

weather comes a strong future for this farm -

good for Steve, his flock and the next generation

of the family who'll continue Time for sport and the end of an

era. Let's start with cricket

for a change, and the Yorkshire seamer Ryan Sidebottom,

who's 39 and took 1000 wickets, has announced he'll retire

at the end of the forthcoming county season, bringing to an end a 20-year

career, which started and will finish with his native

Tykes. Sidebottom won five

County Championship titles, three with Yorkshire

and two with Notts. He played 22 Tests for England,

taking in total nearly 80 wickets. He also won the ICC World Twenty20

title with them in 2010. I have been very fortunate

throughout my career to play 20 years, being able to hang my boots

up and retire on my terms. Obviously I am very happy and very proud. I

think just lots of great memories. Winning trophies, representing my

country and my county. And making numerous amounts of friends and

playing against and with my heroes. Football now, and a pilot scheme

to bring together a host of different Middlesbrough

supporters' groups to strengthen links with the club and discuss some

of the big issues affecting fans has The independent Boro Supporters'

Forum will hold its next meeting in March, by which time it's hoped

the team will have edged a little Middlesbrough head coach

Aitor Karanka would just Staying out of the bottom three

and continuing the Boro's march towards at least a Wembley

semi-final, although Huddersfield or Man City might have

something to say about that. While the first team were being put

through their paces, a former Supporters Club chairman

was working on a constitution for the new fans' forum -

which isn't replacing any individual groups, but is aimed

at giving the Riverside It is anything from season prices,

travel, safe standing, even the music at the stadium. It is about

issues of fact not only Middlesbrough fans but fans

generally. One of the things that has happened last season was the

introduction of the ?30 cap on away travel for Croatia game. We just

decided the best thing to do was to get us all together and see if we

can get our thinking caps on and see whether we could move forward on a

number of substantive issues. While top-flight football is funded

far more by TV money than gate receipts these days -

clubs and television companies still have an incentive to take

fans' views on board. Sky and BT and all these people have

come on this and they realise how important it is that the fans turn

up the game. Without the fans there is no atmosphere and no match. I

know there has been changes in the stadium, texture, the fans have got

to be sitting the sides this out of the pitch. Even the away fans. While

unity on and off the pitch is a vital requirement if you're hoping

to stave off relegation, Middlesbrough need a bit more, they

need to start taking their chances. Selhurst park would be a good start.

We need to go to Crystal Palace this weekend and hopefully try and win.

We need the points. We are getting the odd point which might be keeping

is above the relegation zone but I would much rather sit more

comfortable in my chair and knowing exactly where we were. I am not sure

but aspiring to be the fourth bottom team is necessarily the right

aspiration. Now, whisper it quietly

but Gateshead Football Club are inching towards a play-off place

in the National League. It didn't seem likely a few weeks

ago, but this is what a fourth win Neil Aspin's men won 3-1

at York City last night, bringing to an end the Minstermen's

five game unbeaten run. Defeat for relegation rivals

North Ferriby by leaders and FA Cup In rugby union, Newcastle Falcons

prop Ben Harris and wing Arriving at Kingston Park will be

the Canada and Scarlets Born in South Africa,

he's known as DTH for short, which - if you can see his full name

on the screen - came He's 30 years old, a qualified fire

fighter and has scored 23 tries I think I will call him Daniel. That

is a very good idea. Just before the weather,

some happy news, especially for two best friends from Sunderland,

celebrating a multi-million Paula Barraclough and Lorraine

Smith, won a total of ?15 million They say they can now live the life

they've always dreamed of, They have been best friends for

nearly 20 years and now they are multimillionaires. Paula and

Lorraine skipped over ?15 million in Saturday's Lotto draw. It still

hasn't sunk in. It can't get your head around it. Winning the lottery

you wonder what it would feel like, but your head is spinning, you just

can't take it in at all. It is a sickly feeling, isn't it, because

you can't believe how six numbers can just change your life. Lorraine

only bought the lucky dip ticket from a newsagents as she was waiting

for a bus to work to arrive. The following morning she checked the

numbers. I just went, I am seeing things, I hallucinating, they just

started to feel sick. I rang Paula straightaway! I was in bed on Sunday

morning and the phone rang and I said you had better be bringing to

tell me we have won the lottery because it is a quarter past seven

in the morning and she said we have. They say the wind won't change them.

I will still keep down to earth people and just be ourselves. It is

a lovely feeling, it is, but once it settles down, get back into as much

normality as we can. I do think it will change us. They plan on

celebrating by flying first class to Las Vegas. But Lorraine, who works

as a care home cook, said her first purchase will be less glamorous. A

new frying pan. I think I could think of something

other than a new drying plant but each to their own. It is all about

Storm Doris tonight but the big question is how bad is it going to

be here? Quite a complicated picture as Storm Doris moves through. But we

take you through the impact is likely to be. Gusts of 50-60 mph,

heavy rain until snow. A number of weather warnings at the moment so I

will take you through where they are. The first one is per rain

affecting parts of Cumbria. This will be heavy and persistent but

further north into parts of Northumberland and the rain morning

turns into snow. We could see a couple of centimetres of higher

ground. Across parts of North Northumberland we could well see

10-15 centimetres of snow so there is an amber warning here. Rain and

snow is not the only problem, also a problem of wind. This yellow area

here is where we are expecting the strongest gusts, 50-60 mph, a little

bit further south and amber warning gusts of 70-80 mph for a time.

Through the night tonight, we start of dry but we can start to see the

first signs of Storm Doris moving in from the West. Outbreaks of rain

turning quite heavy for a time during the night and that snow

arriving as well in those areas that are mentioned. It will be a wet

night. Quite windy. The temperature dropping to around three or four

sources. First thing tomorrow morning during rush hour it will be

a wet night. Quite windy. The temperature dropping to around three

or four sources. First thing tomorrow morning during rush hour

it's going to be quite a tricky picture. Surface water flooding,

spray on the roads. Hill snow across parts of Northumberland and

generally it will be a wet and windy picture first thing tomorrow

morning. We could see some travel disruption during the morning. It is

going to be a wet day all in all. We start to see the rain pushing into

all parts, winds swirling round. They pick up strength through the

day so we could see gales or severe gales around both coastlines.

Temperatures tomorrow around 10 Celsius at best. Storm Doris does

start to pull away as we head through Thursday night and into

Friday. There will be a few showers behind, some of these could be

wintry turning to ice as they go through the night into Friday

morning. Temperatures holding just above freezing. Providing itself it

is not too bad. Much calmer day. We will see some spells of sunshine,

the winds starting to die down as well. A little bit of cloud moving

in later on but temperatures on Friday getting up to a high of

around seven or eight Celsius. Further wet and windy weather behind

me coming in as we go through the weekend. Temperatures around 10

Celsius and some outbreaks of rain. You can keep up-to-date with all the

weather warnings by going to the BBC Weather website. Thank you. I think

you will have an update on the late news tonight as well. That result

from us for tonight. Have a good night. Bye-bye.

Good job, guys. We totally nailed it.

This year, fundraising kits are going to be sent through the post.