20/02/2014 Look North (Yorkshire)

winning combination. And that is all from us for this

evening. Now on BBC One, it First tonight, within the last

couple of hours councillors in Bradford have agreed to set a budget

which will see them having to save more than a quarter of what they

currently spend. Earlier today councillors in Doncaster also had

painful decisions to make as all our local authorities decide how much

council tax we will have to pay for services. Here's Joe Inwood with the

details. Thank you Harry. Well Labour`run

Bradford Council have agreed to make cuts of ?115 million over the next

three years. 650 jobs will go and at the same time council tax bills will

go up by 1.6%. And the council leader has warned it obviously can't

be done without affecting the quality of people's lives. We do

need a discussion with residents that says, what do you want the

council to look like? What services us to prioritise in future? If these

cuts carry on we will not be able to do what we have done in the past or

what we are doing now. It will totally change the whole face of

local government. Meanwhile in Doncaster this

afternoon councillors agreed to make cuts of a ?109 million. 1,200 jobs

will be lost and council tax bills there will go up by 1.95%.

Not surprisingly there were protests outside the council building from

various groups concerned about the cutbacks. All seven council`run care

homes will close as well as day care centres and libraries. The Mayor of

Doncaster said she empathised with people upset about today's news. Of

course I empathise, it could be my mum or dad or brother or sister, and

I know that when it is your personal laughter and in those homes it is

very, very closely emotional to your heart.

The Local Government Association says all authorities are striving to

keep council tax down but at the same time are grappling with the

difficult task of protecting vital services. Back to you, Harry.

A controversial plan that would see big changes to how children's and

maternity services are provided at the Friarage Hospital in

Northallerton is to go ahead. Doctors say it's the only way to

provide sustainable care ` while campaigners believe it could

threaten patient safety. Our health correspondent Jamie Coulson reports.

In the peaceful Yorkshire Dales village there is anger brewing.

These mothers who have all relied on Friday to hospital in the past are

upset that plans that would see children's maternity services scale

back. I had my first child and got to Northallerton, he came out and

his court was round his neck and he was blue. If we have to go to James

Cook the chances are he would not be here. It is scary. It is a long way

to the Friday anyway and to know that you could potentially have to

go even further, it is a scary situation. Local NHS managers

confirmed that in the future they want the maternity unit run by

midwives, not doctors. I risk births would go elsewhere. There would be

an end to govern its children's care. And assessment unit would run

from 10am till 10pm. The plans have been controversial and have led to

protests in Northallerton. Doctors leaders argue the current services

are unsustainable to few patients to support the number of doctors needed

to provide safe care. The Friarage serves a population of over 120,000

people, but under the changes high risk births of very privileged

children would have to go to Middlesbrough, Darlington, Harrogate

or York. International evidence says children should be looked after when

they are very sick in big units with lots of well`trained staff who do

believe emergency things everyday. So when people say they think the

Friarage is a world`class service guessing it's not? It has been but

does not compare any more because other services have increased their

standards. People would be better going elsewhere? Yes. The local NHS

hope to have an exchange is by October but campaigners say they

will fight on. Three of our Bishops are among forty

Christian leaders calling on the Government to end what they're

calling a "hunger crisis". They claim a rising number of people now

rely on food banks. The criticism of spending cuts and benefits changes

which came from the Bishops of Wakefield, Sheffield and Doncaster

was made in a letter to the Daily Mirror newspaper. The Government has

responded saying it would be wrong not to cut waste while still

providing a safety net for the most needy.

The girl who died after apparently falling from a window at her home in

Bradford on Tuesday morning has been named as Amrita Kaur. She was

twenty`two months old. The child's mother, who's 36, was found

unconscious beside her daughter behind their home in West Bowling.

She's been arrested on suspicion of murdering Amrita but remains

critically ill in hospital. Police say they're not looking for anyone

else in connection with the incident.

Two men who were arrested yesterday on suspicion of murdering a car

dealer from Bradford have been released on bail. Sajid Saddique

hasn't been seen since he disappeared from Shipley seven years

ago. The bailed men are aged forty`eight and fifty`two and are

both from Bradford. Rugby league and tonight we have two sides likely to

be battling it out at the front of the table. Wakefield have played the

Bradford Bulls in the local derby. Radford got off to a great start

with a try scored after 11 minutes. Wakefield kept in the game with a

try midway in the first half, the score `` scored by Peter Fox.

Crucial try came and in the Douglas Bradford winning.

Now if you're an avid Look North viewer, or simply interested in many

of the services the BBC provides ` would you like to have a say in how

it spends your licence fee? The BBC Trust is looking for people of all

ages and backgrounds from Yorkshire to join its regional audience panel.

It meets three times a year, it's unpaid but you do get your expenses.

To find out more and get an application pack simply go to the

website or call 0800 092 6030. The closing date for applications is

Friday the 7th of March. Time for the weather.

Sunshine tomorrow but one or two showers. Sunday looks miserable,

Saturday the better day. It will be easier from this point on so

tomorrow there will be some sunshine around but also a few blustery

showers as well and you can see the strength of the wind on the pressure

chart for tomorrow. The isobars are more tightly packed and they have

been and that will be a scene through the weekend. Out there this

evening and overnight the odd shower but mainly bright conditions and a

cooler nights than of late, a touch of frost with temperatures down to

two degrees or three degrees. A chilly start to tomorrow, decent dry

and bright spells out the risk of a few showers that could be heavy and

somebody. Temperatures in seven degrees or its degrees. I will leave

you with the summary. Good evening. You may have had the

latest from the Met Office about the rainfall we have had this winter,

the wettest winter on record. It is sometimes difficult to visualise the

numbers. Let me explain how much rain we had. If you think about a

stretch of land across the UK, we had about half a metre of rainfall

falling so far this winter. That