27/03/2012 Look North (Yorkshire)

Welcome to Tuesday's Look North. On the programme tonight...

Once the best rugby league team in the world - the Bradford Bulls are

now on the brink of going bust. They are run iconic team for the

game of rugby league and it would be very sad.

Fans are asked to dig deep to save the club - we will be asking the

chief executive how it came to this. Also tonight - bravery beyond the

call of duty. Tributes to the bomb disposal

expert who died trying to save others.

And when dreams turn to nightmares - we speak to writer Kay Mellor

about The Syndicate, a BBC drama about lottery winners from Leeds.

And a full looking reservoir was listening in today's sunshine, and

there will be more sunshine tomorrow. A more details in the

forecast, and shortly. -- coming up shortly.

First tonight - one of the most famous teams in rugby league is on

the brink of collapse. Bradford Bulls say that their match on Good

Friday against Leeds could be their last unless they raise �500,000 to

solve their crippling cash problems. In a moment we will talk to the

Bulls' Chief Executive Ryan Duckett, but first Paul Ogden looks at the

background to today's dramatic For from sitting on top of the

world in 2006 to crisis headlines in 2012. And when Super League was

invented, Bradford were amongst the trailblazers. Modernising their

image, ditching of the traditional Bradford Northern name and the a

famously bullish approach. In came the crowds, the accolades and the

trophies. They won the Super League in only its second season, the

Challenge Cup in the year 2,000 and three Grand Final wins at Old

Trafford put the platform for three world club champions titles. These

days, they rarely go on the rampage. All but one of the home matches

this season have ended in defeat. Crowds are down, and come not

nearly enough to service an annual wage bill of �2.5 million. A thing

if there is a really strong competition and one club does not

mean the lead is in danger of going out of business.

-- I think. We have a great deal with be that -- the BBC and with

this guy. These club issues will occur from time to time. -- with

Sky. Lost and Dingle liabilities remain and the Bank will clearly

not be propping them up forever. Now it the Bradford Bulls' board

has resorted to asking fans and sponsors for urgent donations of

�100 each. Typically, Rugby League folk have already started to rally

The overall target is to raise �1 million, half of it in time for

Easter. A quest for success, its official title, but in simple terms

it is a question of survival now Ryan Duckett is the chief executive

of Bradford Bulls. Not so long a board they seemed to be bailed out

of the problem. Have they in a strange way caused to this problem

you have now? No, I think the stadium deal with the RFL allowed

us to tackle long-term difficulties and secured our immediate future.

Moving for what, -- for word, RBS made their statement, there were

individual guarantees with the bank but they have not found adequate

security for the overdraft and have called the overdraft at short

notice. Who is to blame?

Is it mismanagement of finances or are you just spending too much

money? Were have long-term liabilities as a club.

There have been some extraordinary costs from legal issues, well-

documented with a rival club. The economy is very difficult for all

sports club at the moment, and and -- ultimately we have

underperformed on the field. That has affected all revenue streams

coming on to that -- into the club. It has made it very difficult for a

club which -- whose honour model has -- 80 % of the Rugby League

clubs have this ornamental -- or a model, and it has created this

escalated issue. You can absolute lay guarantee that you were not

scaremongering? The Good Friday game could be the

last one unless 500 million -- by funded �1,000? That Italy one week

away. It is a serious situation, we have these liabilities.

The bank has escalated the issue for us, and it is not just

scaremongering, if we do not raise this money, and I realise it is a

big ask in tough economic times, but if people don't get behind it

the worst may happen. The worst may happen, the

suggestion is that it would do. Well, we whole become a we are

pitting an appeal out to the supporters.

-- well, we hope. The fact is, you're fine so have been pretty

good, they have helped with season tickets in the past and so on.

Are you asking too much? It is a big ask in tough economic times,

you only have to read the news for will stop there are lots of things

away from sport where there are bigger issues. We do not have the

luxury of a benefactor who can write a cheque. And if the business

camp survive... But we have to, are as an

organisation, look to try and do everything to keep us going, and it

is a drastic appeal. We felt we had no choice, things

have happened at short notice to escalate this, but we're trying to

be proactive before things progress further.

Ryan Duckett, thank you very much indeed. Good luck. Tributes have

been paid to a bomb disposal expert from Huddersfield who died trying

to defuse a bomb in Afghanistan. Bradford Coroners Court heard today

how Captain Lisa Head was killed as she attempted to detonate IEDs in

Helmand last April. She had been knocked off her feet by a previous

partial detonation but went back and was defusing another when the

explosion happened. She survived long enough to be brought home, but

died later in hospital. Colonel Bob Seddon knew Lisa Head well, and a

little earlier he told me about his friend and colleague. I say softly

so during the course of her training and also down at the Royal

College of Science at Shrivenham. I also saw her undergoing

preparation for Afghanistan. She struck me from the would call as a

very sharp and effervescent character, keen to get on and she

was a first-rate ammunition Technical Officer.

As we now know, the try digger then to have been unveiled at the

inquest, a very brave one. Undoubtedly, what struck me a about

Lisa was her selfless commitment. Right until the very end she was

thinking about others, the battle group she was working within

Afghanistan, the effect on IEDs on her team. Presumably, she was also

very much more moved to, as many of the soldiers I have spoken to have

been, about the effects on the Afghan people?

Yes, in Thailand. Whilst we in the West tend to focus

on the coalition casualties, the most casualties caused by IEDs are

on the Afghanistan population, particularly children. -- yes,

entirely. There will be some watching tonight's who say that

this merely proves that war is no place for a woman, and a young

woman, at that. I would emphatic late is a agree

with that. Lisa was highly qualified. -- I

would emphatically disagree with that. As a tribute to her, just

some of her kind of personality so that we can realise how important

she was to those who served with her.

She had an abundance of the quality as I look for in a first-rate

technical officer. Her selfless commitment was

uppermost, determination, she was intelligent, forthright, she was a

superb leader of men, and I spoke to her just after she employed --

deployed to Afghanistan in Northern Ireland, and she did a superb job

in Northern Ireland. She was dealing with IEDs in Northern

Ireland and was ready for the challenge Afghanistan paused. You

have to remember Afghanistan bomb disposal is one of the most

dangerous jobs in the world. She was superbly trained and at the top

of her game, and she paid it the ultimate sacrifice. Thank you very

much. Stay with us. Later on the

programme... It's the end of an era - the

forensic science lab which helped solve some of Britain's most

notorious crimes for over 30 years is closed.

A Sheffield MP is calling for assisted dying to be legalised

after his father committed suicide. Speaking in the Commons with

emotion in his voice, the Sheffield Central Labour MP Paul Blomfield

said it must now be a question of when the law is changed, not if.

Holding back tears, Mr Bonfield said there will law should be

changed. I am sure that we would drop him to

end his life when he did was the fear that if he did not act when he

could he would lose the opportunity to a toll.

If the law had made it possible, I am sure he would have shared his

plans. He would have been able to say goodbye. He would have been

able to dine with his family around him, not alone in a carbon monoxide

filmed garage. Talks to avert a strike by bin

workers in Sheffield have broken up this afternoon without a decision.

On Friday members of the GMB union voted to take strike action over

pay but talks will resume later this week with Veolia, the company

who provide the service on behalf Two multi-million pound deals which

could create hundreds of jobs in Yorkshire have been agreed between

companies in our region and firms in South Korea. Weir Valves, shown

here, which is based in Elland, has won a �17 million contract, while

Dave Brown Gear Systems in Huddersfield has signed an

exclusive deal with Samsung. The first order alone is worth �10

million. The announcement has been made by Deputy Prime Minister Nick

Clegg, while on a trade visit to the country.

The line-up for this year's Tramlines Festival in Sheffield has

been announced. The free festival is expected to attract more than

the 150,000 people who went last year. Among this year's highlights

will be Sheffield-based rapper Roots Manuva. Tramlines takes place

from the 20th to the 22nd July. Next tonight - from the Yorkshire

Ripper inquiry to the hunt for Shannon Matthews - the world-famous

Wetherby Forensic Science Laboratory has helped solve crimes

in Yorkshire and around the world. But this week it closes its doors

for the final time. Our Crime Correspondent John Cundy has been

given exclusive access. An industrial estate in Yorkshire

market town, this building has housed a vital forensic work in

some of the country's biggest forensic investigations. At times

it has been a world leader, but after this week no more. The once

busy forensic labs, the massive save some which housed guns, drugs

and crime could -- crime critical swabs, all lie empty. All this

because the Government forensic services been privatised. The

previously closely guarded DNA treatment Lab, which led the world

in its day. I can bring you here now because the machines are not

working. For a while this Laboratory had a

worldwide reputation, not bad for a little market town just outside

Leeds, but for a while we were regarded as Waddle bidders in DNA

technology. This search four years ago for the

vet -- then missing double Shannon Matthews was one of the major

investigations which has involved the Wetherby team. In the past 35

years, scientist Julian Leach has seen that and much more. One of the

big just was the Yorkshire Ripper. The very fast ripple effect of

realising the final piece of the jigsaw had fallen into place to

solve that crime was something I will never forget. Once for 300

worked at Wetherby. Even now at its closure it is 200

and only a fraction of those are getting jobs in the privatised

service. How is our you? Devastated a.

I thought I would be he -- be here until I retired. I have a lot of

affection for the people I work with, so it will be a hard day on

Friday. What the Home Secretary opened all those years ago has

finally come to an end. Before 7pm...

The Brontes as you've never heard them before - Europe's oldest

Choral society puts the words of One of the region's finest stately

homes has received a boost with the completion of a �6 million

renovation project. Part of the run-down stable yard at Hardwick

Hall in North Derbyshire has been restored and now features

restaurants and shops. As James Roberson reports, the Duke of

Devonshire says his ancestor - Bess It is aware of arriving at

Hardwicke never before favoured by Dukes, but the Duke of Devonshire

came this week to the stately home in at North Derbyshire to see the

radical changes in the stable yard. They are the culmination of a

seven-year project to redevelop the visitor's entrance to Hardwick Hall.

These buildings have been on the Buildings at Risk register for some

time and we wanted basic repairs. Then it was to get them into a good

use. People are now going to see a view they have never seen before.

For more than two years, the stable yard has been a building site, but

now it is almost complete thanks to the �6.5 million found to renovate

the 16th century buildings and convert them into shops and

restaurants. Visitors can hire the cottages and

enjoy a new vistas. This is an investment that none of late looks

after extraordinarily important buildings but gives Hardwick Hall a

viable financial future by ensuring people can come here and have

access to all of the best houses in the -- one of the best houses in

the country. I think there is at least six new

things you have invented for us... Opening the development, the dear%

his ancestor, Bess of Hardwick, would have been pleased by the

renovation. I think she would have been a

thriller, because she loved value for money.

To see these buildings which were falling into dereliction until the

National Trust realised they had ideas which would help me get a

more enjoyable day out here, she would have been thrilled with that.

While the whole supply will only be open from February-October, the new

stable yard will be open all year round and bring new access to the

estate, too. In sport, Sheffield boxer Kell

Brook has confirmed he will fight again at the city's Motor point

Arena on July 7th. It follows his victory earlier this month at the

same venue against Matthew Hatton. His opponent for the bout has yet

to be confirmed. What would you do if you won the

lottery? Well, that's the subject of Yorkshire screen-writer Kay

Mellor's latest drama series, which begins tonight on BBC One.

The Syndicate - which is based in Leeds - follows five workers at a

cut-price supermarket, whose lives are turned upside down after their

numbers come up, and it stars several familiar faces.

The have identification? Are if we decide to go public which

newspaper as we look being? I should thank all of them.

I don't mind the local paper's reporting it come but I don't think

we should let them all Noel. Why not? I just don't.

Why would mention our name is. Yes, but not your addresses. Some

people will know all did you love, so we will have good of about

strategy. What is up? I just got one p people

knowing our Business. You should be jumping for joy, you

have just want a lot of the! It is not as simple as that for

some of us. What we would like, Leo...

My Name Is Leanne. We would like all winners to be happy with the we

AB are proceeding. I always love your work, looking

forward to would, but money should buy happiness.

Does it in the The Syndicate? I don't think so, the people to pay

to a but a, it doesn't buy love. It can buy you out of debt, it can

buy an ice house, it can buy you things but it cannot buy a French

ship, either. It is a cautionary tale this. -- it cannot buy

friendship. They have got money and it with stem into a totally

different economic sphere, but there is a downside, as well.

you have used the same former at as you did in fact friends, each of

them get an episode each and we get to know how it has affected them.

I love being able to do although into a character.

But you have to keep the story are going, keep The Syndicate going,

because we visit them each week. This episode is Stuart's story, he

is played by Matthew McNulty, who is fantastic. Next week's is

Denys's story, she is a newcomer, Lorraine Bruce. I like her. She has

fabulous. Isn't she a slight heart? She is

just brilliant. What was so good about her is, she

has not really an non-person. And the make-up to diva, awful teeth...

Glasses, frizzy hair, box. But she and breasted, add weight and till

you see her in episode two, she is incredible.

But she was unknown, really, and the BBC said, if you think she is

the right person, goal with her. I was really thrilled by that. You

have to work harder if further be DEC, don't you?

In the old days it was 45 minutes, you have to write another word now?

Yes. How much longer is this going to be? It back but I love that.

I love the fact there are no commercial breaks. You can just

absorb yourself and the story and almost forget you are watching

television. You can imagine you are a lottery winner. It is a great

cast, Joanna Page, and Timothy Spall, that is a bit of a coup.

is, I sent him episode one and to Mac, he said he was relate and

traced it -- one and two, he said he was really interested.

He is the store manager, and yes, when he read a persona three, he

said he would read it three first before he committed. I knew that I

had been quids in because episode three was his story. And you

haven't finished it yet, you are still writing it. He has, I am

still writing episode four and five. It is starts tonight! But it is

odds four and five I am still putting of the music's on and

making sure the collar is right. It is quite daunting, I have to make

sure it doesn't catch upon me, you will? Well, we won't keep you. 9pm,

will you what it? Of course we will, we love you. You are nervous of the

new series. By Noel, I a man anxious wreck!

-- I know all, I am an anxious row The lives and words of the Bronte

sisters from Haworth have been transformed into art, film and

drama many times since they were first penned on the moors in the

1800s. But this weekend they will be sung by Europe's oldest choral

society, based in neighbouring Halifax. Olivia Richwald has had a

sneak preview of the performance today - where else but up on the

These are the words of a poem written by Anne Bronte, apt to be

sung by eight Europe's oldest choral society. The group was

founded in 1817, around the same time Emily, Charlotte and Anne

They lived in very high and conditions, by up they had this

very strong faith. It is seeing, I cannot give you my

heart, but take it. Each movement ends with an affirmation of faith.

The Halifax Choral Society is almost 200 years old, but its

membership is still being bolstered by the younger generation.

heard, not yet, but by another set of sisters. Chloe is just 16. Being

a member it feels different to other choirs because I feel small

when I go to rehearsals, and I may be small, but I have a baby got on

me. It is beautiful, a gorgeous setting, and I think it really give

you a sense of where everything came from. It gives you perspective

when you are signing a peace. It makes you focus on this. Sharing

the stage and the limelight at Halifax's Victoria Theatre will be

these new statues of the Brontes. Unlike the three sisters, it is

hoped the audience will be moved by the performance. Fantastic. It was

not at Wuthering Heights, it was blue skies, I like the moors when

they are a little wilder. Dr me about the weather. -- talked

Dr me about the weather. -- talked to me a boat the weather.

A lot of people think they have colds, but silver birch tree pollen

is very high at the moment. Are people allergic? Yes, I used to

be grass pollen, now I am tree pollen allergic. The let me show

you three pictures, the first is a beautiful sunrise this morning, and

then Canon Hall was looking beautiful, the gardens are glorious.

But there is a downside to this sunny weather, this was this

afternoon, a fire that took hold Let's look at the top temperatures,

Skipton was the hot spot this afternoon with 23 Celsius. That may

have been a local record, but across Yorkshire we still need to

be 25 Celsius that was set in Wakefield in 1965. But it is

exceptionally warm for the time of year. Tomorrow will again be sunny

and very warm. If you want to set your barometer, 1035 millibars.

There is not a cloud in this guide now, a very warm end to the day.

This evening very little happening, the air is very dry, so we are not

even expecting any mist. Rarely across low-lying parts of Dr around

Don that there will be a touch of air frost with temperatures around

one Celsius or four Celsius. The sun will rise at 6:48pm. Tomorrow,

a glorious late March day, dry, clear and sunny all day long.

Subtly, the wind will be in a different direction. That means the

coast will be in every -- will be every bit as warm as inland. 20

Celsius expected along the Yorkshire coast tomorrow, 22

Celsius across parts of West and South Yorkshire, perhaps North