27/10/2016 Look North (Yorkshire)

Good evening and welcome to the late Look North.

Sheffield council defends plans to turn parks into flood pl`ins

as time runs out for residents to have their say.

And after the trolleybus scheme is shelved, a Leeds MP asks why

there's no new masterplan to ease traffic gridlock in the citx.

After a damp start tomorrow, it should brighten up for most of us. I

would be back later with yotr full life forecast.

Sheffield residents have just a few days left to respond to plans to use

The proposal would see water diverted into recreation ardas

to prevent flooding in the city centre.

Around a third of people who've responded to the consultation -

But tonight the council is defending the plan.

2007, the floods that devastated Shefford. Moss of property damage

and two lives lost. No one wants to see that happen again but b`d

weather will return and rivdrs will flood. The question is wherd the

water will go. One of the places the Council thinks it could go hs here.

They want to use it as a flood plain by building up a firm owner way

water level gets higher, thdy can water level gets higher, thdy can

let flood water moving throtgh here and fill up the middle of the park.

This is what that would look like. The park would be raised at the

edges, deepened in the middle. Enough to hold 16 Olympic swimming

pools with floodwater but it's not something that has gone down well

with everyone. That's not going to happen very often but if it does and

when it does, we have a hell of a lot of water to drain away. That's

going to put the park out of action for thousands of people are quite a

long time. This part isn't the only part of the city being earm`rked as

a flood storage site. But it is the storage areas that

have got people talking. Most of the map popular public areas. It's good

if it is going to stop people's houses from being flooded btt the

park is used a lot. I run on park is used a lot. I run on

Saturday morning. What would I do? Initially, it doesn't sound like a

good idea because of taking away the park facility temporarily btt I can

see that it's more important to protect the properties if that's

what it's going to do. Thesd parks have both flooded in the past and

the hope is this could be a better way of managing that risk. Where

these parks are situated, they are on natural flood plains and in the

events we are talking about, they would be flooded anyway. Wh`t we're

looking at doing is managing that process, protecting the park and

protecting property, businesses and more importantly people's lhves The

consultation ends on Monday. Input from the Sheffield and Rothdrham

wildlife trust has been cautiously positive. Sheffield has a lot of

green spaces which are important. They already do play a part in our

risk management. This proposal is just about taking that a stdp

further. And seeing whether there are ways that parks can be tsed more

fully. Just now, river levels are low but when it rises, maybd this

winter or next, it will need to go somewhere, whether that is hn parks

like this when not remains be seen. Dewsbury Hospital's new matdrnity

unit has been officially opdned by the family of the late B`tley

and Spen MP, Jo Cox. The Bronte Birth Centre givds women

the opportunity to have thehr baby in a relaxed environment th`t's more

like a hotel than a Jo was a supporter of the mhdwife

led unit and attended a turf cutting ceremony to mark the start

of its construction. Today her mother, Jean, unvdiled

a plaque in memory of her d`ughter. She was an MP, a wife, a sister a

daughter, but most of all, she was a mum. And she knew how important it

was to have units like this in our local community.

The former Head of Finance at the Leeds Grand Theatre has been

jailed for five years for a near ?180,000 fraud.

Peter Alp was found guilty of submitting fraudulent

invoices at the theatre, which is a registered charity.

Prosecutors say Alp abused his position of trust

His co-accused Dean Oates was jailed for 16 months.

A North Yorkshire widow has delivered a petition

to Downing Street, calling for tougher sentences

for drivers who kill people after drinking or taking drtgs.

Lorraine Allaway's husband Bob was killed near Settle last October,

after his motorbike was hit by a car driving on the wrong

The driver, who'd been drinking, was jailed

Lorraine's petition has mord than hundred thousand signatures.

I have got 101,500 people who have signed my petition, or asking for

the same thing. They are all asking for a minimum term of ten ydars in

jail. And not ten years, with five years served. Also, for people to

lose their driving licences when they kill somebody on the road like

that. A Leeds MP has called on thd city

council to provide a 21st cdntury public transport system,

rather than spending Liberal Democrat MP Greg Mulholland

says he fears the ?170 millhon left over after the government rdjected

a trolleybus system will be The local authority says

Mr Mulholland isn't being rdalistic. For years, Leeds has planned big

transport schemes but turning vision into reality has been far from easy.

In May, a ?250 million trolley bus scheme was thrown out by thd

Department for Transport after a decade of planning. The govdrnment

had promised 173 million for the trolley bus scheme and ministers say

that funding is still avail`ble for a transport solution from Ldeds But

now, a row has broken out how over now, a row has broken out how over

how the money should be spent. There is a profound lack of leadership at

the top of Leeds City Counchl when it comes to transport. Here we have

an unprecedented opportunitx and a one-off opportunity to finally get

started with a mass transit scheme of some kind, that the council

themselves say they support but yet they seem intent on squandering this

opportunity and spending thhs money opportunity and spending thhs money

on a number of smaller scald schemes which will not change Leeds

transport in the way we all know it needs changing. But planning a

21st-century transport systdm takes time and Leeds doesn't have the best

track record. Remember this? ?4 million was spent developing super

Tram in the 90s but that was scrapped when costs began to rise.

So what is the alternative? According to the council, spending

money now to improve existing services. Greg is way off. Hs got it

completely wrong. He's asking for the. We've been told we've got to

spend this money within the lifetime of this Parliament. That puts huge

constraints on us. We want to deliver a big scheme at somd stage,

I think. That is what the pdople of Leeds deserve. But you cannot

promised things within a matter of if you lose that you cannot deliver.

The cities have forged ahead. Nottingham and Edinburgh both have

tramlines. While the row rulbles on about the best solution, yotr

journey to work gets slower and slower.

Onto sport and England have won the right to host

the Rugby League World Cup again in 2021 - with 80%

of the games being played in Yorkshire and Lancashire.

The tournament will be the biggest since 2000 with 16

There's also a funding boost for the sport from the government.

12 venues will be chosen from a list of 15.

England beat off competition from the USA and Canada.

That is great news. For rugby league in general and England have the

World Cup here is going to be massive for the sport. Hopefully

they will get a big turnout and big crowds. It's great for Englhsh rugby

league. We're trying to get the game to grow. It's massive. It would be

great to get the opportunitx. It's fantastic for England rugby league.

The settled weather looks sdt to continue over the next few days It

looks like it would be a decent weekend. But we will start tomorrow

with a little bit of dampness around and that's because we got a cold

front sinking southwards. Tomorrow, after that grotty start, it should

brighten up quite nicely. South Yorkshire hanging onto more clout.

As we make our way through the week, high-pressure dominates. Sunshine

may be at a bit of a premiul. We will continue on the relatively mild

theme from mid week onwards next week, things will start cooldown. At

the moment, we've got this very weak cold front sinking southwards. It

might bring the odd heavy spell to the hills but quite cloudy.

Temperatures pulling back to about 11 or 12 degrees. Another mhld night

to come. You can see dampness quite quickly moving away southwards.

South Yorkshire and North Ddrbyshire will remain cloudy tomorrow. The

best of any brightness with some sunshine across West and north

Yorkshire. Certainly an improvement here with temperatures getthng up to

around 13 or 14 degrees. Looking a little further ahead across the

weekend, as I mentioned, a lot of dry and settled weather to come

thanks to high pressure but I'm afraid it will be fairly cloudy The

best chance of any brightness in the east where we may just see the

clouds parting at times. More clout on Monday. Rain on Tuesday. Cooler

from the middle of next week. That's it from the late team.

fine and dry and on the mild side. My colleague Helen Willetts has with

the national picture. Good evening. The dry October

weather is set to continue into the weekend. It's been kind if you've

been on half term. Not that I'm promising this sort of weather for

all. Isn't it lovely, taken on the Isle of Wight. Our top temperature

was 17 Celsius, not too far away. What a lovely and to the date here