27/10/2011 Look North (East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire)

Good evening and welcome to BBC Look North. The headlines tonight.

Hospital staff in Hull are given an extra day off for getting the flu

jab. I am trying to thank staff for taking that right decision.

The council flights abroad which cost Lincolnshire taxpayers almost

�43,000. Charity shops hit back over claims

town centres would be improved if some of them were to close. Quite

often, once we have opened our shops, independents come in,

they're like the fact that we bring in extra foot fault.

And 100 years after Houdini came to Hull, we find out if this man can

recreate his famous tricks. Will it be any better tomorrow? I

will have the forecast later. It's a jab offered every winter to

certain groups of people - those over 65, people with serious health

conditions, pregnant women, and health workers. And for hospital

staff in Hull, if they choose to get the flu jab, this year they'll

also get an extra day off work. It's an idea that's come from the

Hull and East Yorkshire NHS Trust, to try and encourage more of their

workers to protect themselves from the virus. With 8,000 employees,

that could mean an extra 8,000 days off, as Gemma Dawson reports.

Preparing to have the flu jab. Jon Leyne Wedd said Castle Hill

Hospital and will get an extra day off for having the vaccine. -- Je

one works at Castle Hill Hospital. That is the bonus, but it is for

protection rather than getting the day off. Be able do not want flu.

If you are more informed, they want to protect patients. -- people do

now -- people do not want flu. hospital trust employees Nevin and

1,000 employees. 3,000 have had the vaccination so far this year.

Hospital bosses denied they are bribing staff to have the job.

trying to thank staff for taking that decision to do the right thing.

It works out for those that if a member of staff is off with flu, it

is four or five days. It is more economical for them to have the flu

jab. At this Lincoln surgery, Charlotte is having a flu jab for

the first time. She is pregnant, which is one of the other high risk

groups. I want to protect myself so there is no risk of me going into

hospital whilst I am pregnant. is what Charlotte is protecting

herself from. As well as pregnant women, the NHS recommends people

over 65, those with serious health conditions and health workers

should all have the vaccine. Hospital bosses back in Hull will

have to see if offering an extra day off in exchange for the flu

jabs saves them money. And Ray Gray from the area's UNISON

Union is in the studio for us now. This is difficult? It is. I

appreciate what they are trying to achieve. The more people who have

the flu jab, the less chance of infection spreading and less people

going off sick, but we think giving a day's clear is too much. 8,000

staff could be 8,000 days off. The Trust is trying to save money. Is

it wise? They have got to claw back �95 million over the next five

years. This could cost a lot of money. There are other ways to

reward staff. We think it has gone too far. If they will take fewer

days off having sick leave, that is a good thing. I do not dispute that,

but they rap other ways of rewarding staff. Do medical staff

made an incentive to protect themselves? Why do they not just do

it anyway? It needs to be voluntary. Not all staff will volunteer to do

it. I think the idea of an incentive that is good, but the

incentive itself I have a problem with. It is obviously working

because more people are coming forward. Yes, it is working. I do

not think the incentive idea is wrong, but we think the incentive

could be easier. What is the other way you were hinting at? Other ways

they could have rewarded staff is by giving them vouchers, giving

them some extra money. There is other ways they could have done it.

As well as a person be enough, they have to be replaced at work. Given

a voucher is the same. It is a lot cheaper than a day's LEA. What do

things staff are thinking? -- cheaper than a day's leap. There

really are mixed views. Thank-you very much. It is interesting. Let

me know your thoughts. To support the idea? -- do you support the

idea? Do you think it will mean fewer sick days? Is it a bit of a

In a moment: It's coming up this weekend, but these haunting

costumes are not just for Halloween. A man's been arrested after an

incident reportedly involving a crossbow in Lincoln. A section of

Goldsmith Walk was cordoned off earlier today, after reports of a

weapon being fired from an upstairs window. Noone's been injured.

A body's been found on playing fields near Gainsborough.

Lincolnshire Police were called to Willingham by Stow around 9.30 this

morning. 85 posts are under threat at Hull

College after cuts to its funding. An appeal's been made for

volunteers, but compulsory redundancies haven't been ruled out.

The group, which runs sites in Hull, Goole and Harrogate, employs 2,000

people. Lincolnshire County Council says

it's tightened its rules after tens of thousands of pounds were spent

by staff on overseas flights. New figures have revealed more than

�42,000 has been spent on overseas travel over the last two years,

more than any other authority in the Midlands. On one occasion, more

than �6,000 was spent on a trip to America. Siobhan Robbins reports.

This was the reaction when Lincolnshire County Council

announced it was having to cut millions of pounds from its budget

earlier this year. Day centres like this one in Grantham could see it

severs is reduced. So news that ten of thousands has been spent by the

council on flights hasn't been well-received. Those people are

there to represent us. Between 2009 and 2011, Lincolnshire

County Council spent �42,000 on flights, the highest amount in the

That includes a �6,000 business class trip to the USA. All this at

a council which now has to save �125 million in the next four years.

It is an abuse. That individual is no longer with theirs. I cannot

justify it. I would not attempt to drive. Sadly, people do abuse

positions of trust and that is what happened here. We started when we

found out that we have rules in place to make sure these things do

not happen again. Tokoyo, New Zealand and Canada were

also on the list of buiness or world class destinations. The group

behind the research says authorities need to be more frugal.

When there is not much money, do not travel business-class. Look for

the best deal, and if possible, do not take the flight.

Council leaders say the system's been tightened up to stop further

abuse, but it's little comfort to those who's services may be cut.

Why was it allowed to go on for two years?

Workers at BAE systems in Brough have staged a protest today against

the loss of up to 900 jobs. Union members binned company "fair play"

leaflets outside the main plant, claiming that BAE had treated staff

badly in it's handling of the announcement. - - its handling. The

focus now is whether the site itself can be saved. We will carry

on pushing and saying they should be work coming on this site. We

have the work force and the capability, and the right sort of

people who can build anything. This facility is fantastic. We do not

want to lose it. We will keep pushing the company to put work on

this site. We will continue to follow that story.

Lincolnshire's famous Vulcan is being honoured this evening as one

of the UKs best engineering achievements. The bomber was a

familiar sight in the county's skies during the Cold War. It joins

the likes of Tower Bridge and the Channel Tunnel in getting the

Engineering Heritage Award. Shoppers and businesses in Lincoln

have called plans to route more trains through the city centre as

"ridiculous." This is currently the scene in Lincoln for up to 40

minutes an hour, as the level crossing shuts to allow trains

through. But now, because of work elsewhere on the rail network, an

extra 42 trains will also be routed through Lincoln. It will happen for

the next three Saturdays. It means the barriers could close for up to

90 times a day. On this I'm joined from Lincoln by David Mitchell,

who's the secretary of the Lincoln small business action group. David,

good evening. A barriers be insured for up to 90 times a day. What

impact could this have on the city centre? Good evening, Peter. First

and foremost, they are being shut for the next four weekend. They

will be 80 trains going through when you include the local services

and the 42 diverted trains. We also have major roadworks in Lincoln.

The City has been gridlocked since last Friday. It is going to be

disastrous. This work has to be done. A few mutterings through

Lincoln, are you worrying it will affect businesses -- a few more

trains through Lincoln. I am also concerned about passengers, people

who will be taken from Lincoln to Newark Castle, taken on a bus to

new work Northgate, then get a train to London, which will come

back to Lincoln. We know what a lovely city it is, but people do

not want to see it two or three times. I came on Saturday from

Doncaster on a journey which took two hours. There was a family with

a two-year-old boy, and they had been travelling since half past two.

If these trends were not going straight through, you would change

your true. -- trains. If a few were stopping, they would be bringing

people and I would change my train, yes. When I spoke to you at

lunchtime, the gentleman from the council was excellent. He said they

possibly would not have done the road works at the same time as the

rail works. There is no co- ordination at all. Here at Lincoln

Central Station, to their shame, they have not even got a poster

warning people that they could get to court abandoned. We are second

rate here. I said at lunch time we are bottom of the dustbin.

Mitchell, thank you. Another one you might want to comment on.

Still ahead tonight: Calls to cap the number of charity shops on the

high street. And he was the world's most famous

escapologist who visited Hull 100 Tonight photograph was taken of a

flock of geese at Witton in of Lincolnshire. A stunning picture.

It's now time for the weather. you have a nice lunch time? Dave

spotted you looking at a bigger book about airplanes. When is he

back? It can't be too soon for me! You can't do a single things -- a

Mist is going to clear first thing tomorrow and will see plenty of

sunshine. It is not going to be a breezy day at all. All the cloud

we've had, it has been given as spots of rain. It won't be long

before the rain clears out into the North Sea and the cloud will break

as well. We will have light winds and clear skies overnight. This is

a risk of a touch of ground frost across parts of each -- East

Yorkshire. The sun will rise tomorrow morning at 750 3am and

will set at 5:36pm. It will be a chilly start tomorrow and there

will be some dense mist and fog in places. It will list -- lift in the

morning and the rest of the day will be dry and fine. Light winds,

variable nature and temperatures are going to be just below average.

As we head through the weekend, Saturday sees the best of the

bright this at first but cloud will I showed three pictures or a rather

than the usual one and that did the damage. See you tomorrow.

A charity in Lincolnshire has hit back at suggestions that capping

the number of charity shops would help revitalise town centres.

Retail expert, Mary Portas, is advising the Government on

improving our high streets and says that's one way to breathe life into

them. Across the whole of Lincolnshire and East Yorkshire,

there are currently 339 charity shops. In Hull city centre alone,

there are 44, while in Lincoln there are 26. Anne-Marie Tasker

reports. Lincoln's High Street is home to

some of the city's 26 charity shops. And they all get a discount in

their rates, boosting the charity's coffers. But one charity says its

23 shops in Lincolnshire aren't damaging town centres, but helping

them. Charity shops bring foot fall into an area that is generally

quite quiet. We take over units that have been empty for a number

of months and was the have opened our shops, we have found that other

independent shops come in. But the role of charity shops is being

questioned by this retail guru, Mary Portas. I could not imagine

anybody buying anything of those shelves. She's famous for boosting

businesses, even charity shops themselves. And now the

Government's asked her to do the same for the High Street. One of

her suggestions is capping the number of charity shops to allow

other businesses to prosper. But do shoppers think it would really make

a difference? It is a difficult one. Charities need the money anyway. I

don't really buy into that. I would spend it elsewhere if the charity

shops did not exist. It helps the local people. But charity shops

don't seem to be doing any harm here. Louth has 10 of them, but is

still busy and bustling. And the town centre manager says giving

other businesses rate relief would be more useful than limiting

charity shop numbers. That would lead empty units in certain towns.

That is not getting rid of the problem. We need to look at

business support for all sectors of businesses. Those that are starting

up and doing well. That need to be looked at. Another idea is to

shorten charity shop leases, so towns aren't overrun by them for

years at a time. But in these hard economic times, not all shoppers

think that's a bad thing anyway. I'm joined on this now by Tim

Danaher, the editor of Retail Weekly magazine. Charity shops on

our high streets keep money in the local economy and often take the

place of shops which have been standing empty. They're surely a

good thing for our high streets? Charity shops to a great job but if

there are too many of them, there's a problem because any high street

needs a good mix of retailers. The key issue here is that there is not

a level playing field. If somebody wanted to start a new shop, he has

to pay the full rates, whereas a charity shop could be run by an

enormous international organisation like Oxfam and it only has to pay

20 %. The danger is, if you have lots of charity shops, it might

reduce the attractiveness of a high street shoppers and get in the way

of independent businesses run by local people on a commercial basis.

But if you take away the charity shops, you will have even more

boarded and vacant shops? But if you create the conditions where

people can start entrepreneurial retail services. If somebody was

told, you can have this shop for a few years and pay a fraction of

business rates, maybe those people may be encouraged to going to those

empty shops instead. To you think people are scared to say there are

too many charity shops? Charity shops to a brilliant jobs and there

are a lot of shops that are unattractive mix on the high street

but the key thing is having that next. We want a variety of shops

and our high-street. What can be done to stop the number of boarded-

up and bacon chops? -- vacant shops? We need to reduce the risk

and encourage people to be entrepreneurial and help them out

with a business costs. And this might be another one you

want to comment on as well. Do you think that too many charity shops

are bad for the high street? Text and e-mail us in all the usual ways.

And thanks for your response on the views to the changes to North East

Lincolnshire's recycling scheme. The council wants to charge �25 a

year to anyone who's got a brown garden waste bin. The authority

currently collects 50,000 brown bins. We had an enormous response

on this. John tweeted, "I thought the council wanted people to

recycle more! Charging �25 to collect bins is not going to make

people use them". Trish got in touch with her view. "I think it is

disgusting, wanting to charge us for recycling our garden waste. The

council get money from the garden waste we recycle and still want to

charge us!" And Nathan texted, "Why not use what would go in the brown

bins as compost? Save yourself a bit of money and grow your own

veg." Hull City's unbeaten run comes

under threat this weekend against Nottingham Forest, who haven't lost

since they changed their manager. The Tigers themselves are unbeaten

in eight league games following their dramatic win over Watford,

which included a first goal at the KC for Aaron Mclean. It is good

form and we need to keep that going. All we can do is worry about

ourselves. We just need to make sure that we keep the consistency

and keep the performances and will be fine.

It all started when a North Lincolnshire woman couldn't find a

Halloween costume to flatter her curves. But now, Dawn Lancaster

from Winterton has turned a dress making hobby into a successful

business. With Halloween and Whitby's Gothic Weekend looming,

she says she's never been busier. Amanda Thomson has more.

They look like they've stepped through time, but these gowns have

been created in a North Lincolnshire conservatory. Dawn

Lancaster's gowns are all one offs and they can be found at every

medieval pageant, historical re- enactment and even the famous

Whitby Gothic, due to take place this weekend. It has been really

crazy. October is the best month for me but it's the busiest. I am

constantly sewing and doing stuff. I have been inundated for

Hallowe'en costumes and Gothic Austens. I have been really busy

but I have enjoyed every minute of it. What started as a hobby eight

years ago is now an online business, satisfying a demand for dresses for

all occasions. I feel really good in it and the fact that nobody else

will have a dress like this makes me feel better. I phoned me and

asked her to her and make one for me and raised some money for the

local castle. It is wonderful and I really feel the part. It is amazing.

Dawn's now looking forward to the end of October and a well earned

rest. Amanda Thomson, BBC Look North, at Winterton near Scunthorpe.

Tonight marks a rather unusual anniversary. It's exactly one

hundred years to the day since the famous escapologist, Harry Houdini,

first performed in Hull. He had strong ties to the city, even doing

one stunt when he jumped, shackled, into the Humber! Tonight, a group

from the Magic Circle will be attempting to re-create one of his

famous routines. Simon Spark has the story.

As far as escapologists go, Houdini is the undisputed icon. But he also

had strong links with hell. This film even finch -- featured the

city. The Magic Circle are celebrating 100 years since he came

last to hell. He started off as a king of cards. It was the

sensationalism of his escapes. Despite worldwide fame, Harry

Houdini performed here in Hull five times during his career and each of

those performances will have been near to where I'm standing now near

the Palace Theatre. The theatre was demolished in 1966 and it has now

disappeared into the Deeney style. For tonight's celebration, a modern

Houdini will himself be challenged to escape Houdini style. He just

doesn't know what's in store for him yet. Houdini said never get

into something you can't get out of. That is my motto was well. I am

really hoping that my skills will rise to the challenge. This is a

straight jacket used to restrain the criminally insane. I am going

to be put inside of this and the difficult part is getting out.

100 years on and Houdini's legacy and association with Hull and as

tight as ever. -- are as tight. Let's get a recap of the national

and regional headlines. Relief as European leaders strike a last

minute deal to tackle the debt crisis.

And hospital staff in Hull are given an extra day off for getting

the flu jab. And tomorrow's weather: Mist and

fog will slowly clear to leave a dry day. Plenty of sunshine, top

temperatures of 13C. Tracey has said, I work for the NHS

and do not need -- need in the centre to have a flu jab. If staff

don't have the flu jab and are off sick, why don't you stop this sick

pay? Michael says staff should look after their own health. Ryan on