:00:07. > :00:09.Good evening and welcome to BBC Look North. The headlines tonight.
:00:09. > :00:16.Dozens of trees are brought down and buildings are badly damaged as
:00:16. > :00:20.gale force winds hit East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire.
:00:20. > :00:24.It is a tremendous treated coming down, but I guess we feel lucky
:00:24. > :00:26.this morning. We are still in one piece!
:00:26. > :00:30.No criminal charges for the Community Support Officer who keeps
:00:30. > :00:34.his job, after slapping a teenager. Campaigners call for a crack down
:00:34. > :00:36.on those who abuse the disabled parking system.
:00:36. > :00:46.Mild temperatures lead to early signs of spring from snowdrops to
:00:46. > :00:48.
:00:48. > :00:58.And after the stormy weather of last night, the weather is
:00:58. > :01:02.
:01:02. > :01:06.Hello. The gale force winds have batted East Yorkshire and
:01:06. > :01:12.Lincolnshire. Trees have been toppled and many properties damaged
:01:12. > :01:19.in gusts of nearly 70 miles an hour. Tonight, people are counting the
:01:19. > :01:23.cost. First, our reporter is live at one house in Hull. How much
:01:23. > :01:27.damage has there been done? You can see from the remains of the tree
:01:27. > :01:31.behind be just how severe those gales must have been last night.
:01:32. > :01:36.The wind was so strong that it has managed to rip the roots of these
:01:36. > :01:40.three trees falling out of the ground. The trees have fallen some
:01:40. > :01:47.how narrowly missing those houses. In this region we have been very
:01:47. > :01:51.lucky. Despite widespread damage, no one has been seriously injured.
:01:51. > :01:56.People have had damage to their houses, they have of course been
:01:56. > :02:00.trees fallen. Now the winds have died down, we can finally see the
:02:00. > :02:05.extent of the problems. Assessing the damage at last
:02:05. > :02:11.night's gales. Three huge trees have blown down in Shannon Foster's
:02:11. > :02:15.garden in Hull. They narrowly missed her house. I was in shock.
:02:15. > :02:24.It could have done it straight through my son's bedroom window. I
:02:24. > :02:31.am very thankful it has gone that way. You cannot see from here, but
:02:31. > :02:35.the trio was bigger than our house. But houses were also damaged. In
:02:35. > :02:38.Pinchbeck near Spalding, these homes are lost to their sides.
:02:38. > :02:43.had just gone to bed and all of a sudden everywhere show can there
:02:43. > :02:47.was a massive noise. I looked out of the window and there were bricks
:02:47. > :02:55.flying everywhere. Obviously the wind had called on to the house and
:02:55. > :03:02.brought all of the bricks down. was so scary. I was with my 20
:03:02. > :03:09.week-old baby boy and I was just about to feed him. Winds reached
:03:10. > :03:16.their highest speeds of 69 mph at Scampton. In Lincolnshire seven had
:03:16. > :03:19.-- 7000 houses lost power. We have also experienced a particular
:03:19. > :03:25.incident where a motorist was trapped for a short period of time
:03:25. > :03:29.by a fallen tree. Also a cyclist was struck by a tree. It has not
:03:29. > :03:33.reached typhoon or hurricane speeds, but they have been serious gales
:03:33. > :03:40.and they have had a serious effect. It is very fortunate that we have
:03:40. > :03:45.had no serious injuries or a loss of life. But the councils were
:03:45. > :03:51.ready and by mid-morning, fallen trees like this one were being
:03:51. > :03:56.removed. In Willerby in Lincolnshire this stable had to be
:03:56. > :03:59.righted after blowing across the road. As far as I know I think this
:03:59. > :04:05.had blown up in the air and gone across the hedge and landed in the
:04:05. > :04:09.road. And then, luckily, it had blown over on its side. The Ouse
:04:09. > :04:13.Bridge has reopened after being forced to shut last night. The
:04:13. > :04:17.strong winds should be dying down. But the clean-up job is now only
:04:17. > :04:23.just beginning. Just so you know, fallen trees will
:04:23. > :04:29.not be wasted. Councils are now going round and clearing them up
:04:29. > :04:32.and they would use the chips of the tree on public parks and flowerbeds.
:04:32. > :04:35.East Riding council say they will be back out on the roads, but
:04:35. > :04:41.tonight they will be gritting because they are expecting some
:04:41. > :04:48.chilly weather on the way. Thank you. I will be asking Paul
:04:48. > :04:52.Hudson what has been causing the strong mints -- strong winds.
:04:52. > :04:56.Calls for stricter policing of the Blue badge scheme to help those who
:04:56. > :05:01.need it. A police community support officer
:05:01. > :05:05.who struck a teenage boy in the face is going back on the beat. The
:05:05. > :05:11.officer will face no criminal charges. However he has been
:05:11. > :05:16.disciplined. Humberside police say the slab was part of a joke. The
:05:16. > :05:20.parents of Leah waters have not seen the funny side.
:05:20. > :05:25.-- Liam Watter. The police say it was a joke, a
:05:25. > :05:32.mother says it was are sold. cannot express what I felt when I
:05:32. > :05:38.saw him. It is so mad. What right did he have to touch, let alone
:05:38. > :05:47.smack a child? On Hallowe'en night last year, Liam and his cousin were
:05:47. > :05:52.coming into this community centre. They bumped into two two PCSOs that
:05:52. > :05:57.they knew. One of them reached out and hit Liam. He was taken off
:05:57. > :06:01.normal duties and an investigation was launched. Officers had worked
:06:01. > :06:06.with youngsters at favoured local youth club and Liam said he looked
:06:07. > :06:13.up to them. I will never speak to them again. I have lost all respect
:06:13. > :06:18.for them. You are meant to look up to them and take them as a role-
:06:18. > :06:24.model, but I cannot. There has been some support for the officer in
:06:24. > :06:29.this case. But Liam's mother said that he is a good boy who
:06:29. > :06:33.volunteers with the elderly. cooks in the kitchen with a man
:06:33. > :06:37.does a few odd jobs for them. says there is no way that the
:06:37. > :06:43.contact between the officer and her son was friendly. That was not a
:06:43. > :06:47.playful smack. Not at all. This is the police investigation report and
:06:47. > :06:52.it says that the officer's conductor did fall below the
:06:52. > :06:56.required standard, but says that the slap was part of a joke. Under
:06:56. > :07:01.the lessons learned section, it says that the PCSO has been given
:07:01. > :07:04.strong advice about his role and the boundaries to be considered
:07:04. > :07:08.when building professional relationships. He will be back out
:07:08. > :07:16.on the beat this month. He should at least have been taken off his
:07:16. > :07:20.job. It would have been the same for ours if one of us had done it
:07:20. > :07:23.to him or anybody else. Humberside police told us that they have
:07:23. > :07:28.written to the family with the findings of the investigation and
:07:28. > :07:33.said it would not be appropriate to comment. But the family say they
:07:33. > :07:40.will appeal to the Independent Police Complaints Commission.
:07:40. > :07:44.The that is the story. I spoke to the Hull solicitor, Max Gold,
:07:44. > :07:52.earlier and asked him if it is illegal to strike a child. It is
:07:52. > :07:55.illegal, it is assault. Humberside police said that this PCSO took his
:07:55. > :08:02.relationship with this boy as step too far and it resulted in a hit on
:08:02. > :08:07.the face as part of a joke. It is inappropriate, it is wrong
:08:07. > :08:12.behaviour. There was no sign of any joking. It is a right to jab to the
:08:12. > :08:17.head of a young man. He has not been charged to any -- with any
:08:17. > :08:22.offence. He has not been charged and he will not appear in front of
:08:22. > :08:26.a court. There could be some civil proceedings and a complaint to the
:08:26. > :08:33.police authority. Some people will agree with the police particularly
:08:33. > :08:38.those who deal with difficult to use on a daily basis. They will say,
:08:38. > :08:43.quite right, too. They will say and they will say it is exactly as it
:08:43. > :08:47.was in the fifties or sixties when the odd clip around the ear for a
:08:47. > :08:52.youngster was not unknown. But this was a different civilisation and a
:08:52. > :08:57.difficult world. Rules were broken in this case. Has it gone too far
:08:57. > :09:03.now with youth claiming to know their rights and what they do is
:09:03. > :09:06.push authority to breaking point? Yes, it has gone too far. You hear
:09:06. > :09:12.exactly the same thing from school teachers who are restrained him
:09:12. > :09:16.what they can do about discipline. We are controlled by convention and
:09:16. > :09:20.European regulations where caning, for example, is a breach of human
:09:20. > :09:24.rights. I think we have gone too far, there has to be some sense and
:09:24. > :09:28.some sensibility in the way we deal with young people and put some
:09:28. > :09:32.discipline into them to help them for the future. But many people of
:09:32. > :09:36.that generation will remember getting a clip round the year,
:09:36. > :09:41.there is no difference. No, there is no difference and it worked in
:09:41. > :09:45.our time. For some reason we have gone too far. But I'm not saying
:09:45. > :09:51.what the officer did was correct. He shouldn't have done it and it
:09:51. > :09:57.was senseless. To walk away was wrong. We have to look at how we
:09:57. > :10:07.are handling people. I would like to know your views on
:10:07. > :10:08.
:10:08. > :10:18.this one. Is it like that the PCSO s -- is it right that the police
:10:18. > :10:28.
:10:28. > :10:33.community support officer took this East Yorkshire has been granted
:10:33. > :10:36.more than �3 million of public money to provide new and improved
:10:36. > :10:41.pitches that travellers. The funding as part of tens of millions
:10:41. > :10:47.of pounds being spent on sites like this across the country. East
:10:47. > :10:50.Riding will see 19 you pitches and funding to improve a further 23. --
:10:50. > :10:54.new pitches. A coroner has ruled that a young
:10:54. > :11:00.woman from a Lincolnshire was unlawfully killed by her boyfriend
:11:00. > :11:04.before he took his life. 21 year old Katy Winchester was strangled
:11:04. > :11:11.by Kurt Tyrrell before he tied a dressing gown cord around his own
:11:11. > :11:15.net. Their bodies were found after a night at last April. The court
:11:15. > :11:20.heard that Kurt Tyrrell became violent after drinking and had
:11:21. > :11:24.attacked his girlfriend before. there is a general perception that
:11:24. > :11:28.domestic abuse exists in a older couples and that is not true. We
:11:28. > :11:33.would urge people to take note from this case and if they are
:11:33. > :11:40.experiencing any physical or verbal abuse or any kind of controlling
:11:40. > :11:45.behaviour, to get in touch with us. The time is 6:40pm. But thank you
:11:45. > :11:51.for watching. Still ahead, the Olympic hopefuls preparing for the
:11:51. > :12:01.most important here of their lives. And in spite of the gales, at mild
:12:01. > :12:02.
:12:02. > :12:05.temperatures could mean that spring We saw the weather pictures in the
:12:05. > :12:15.report at the start of the programme. Martin Brown et e-mailed
:12:15. > :12:16.
:12:16. > :12:22.me at teatime. This stable was blown over. It fell on a small pony
:12:22. > :12:27.in a nearby paddock, the pony is fine.
:12:27. > :12:32.Many people have been talking about the gales that have hitters, what
:12:32. > :12:36.caused them? The Jetstream is very powerful and it has been dominating
:12:36. > :12:41.our weather for about six weeks. This was air coming in from the
:12:41. > :12:51.West, lifting over the Pennines and it causes a series of standing
:12:51. > :12:51.
:12:51. > :12:56.waves. It is unusual to get gusts of around 70 miles an hour. It is a
:12:56. > :13:02.powerful jet stream and in fact, in the last six weeks, it has been the
:13:02. > :13:10.second most westerly set up in 139 years. It gives you an idea of how
:13:10. > :13:14.unusual the last five or six weeks have been. Very good, and tonight?
:13:14. > :13:24.It is still windy out there, but thankfully nothing on the magnitude
:13:24. > :13:30.
:13:30. > :13:36.of last night. We will look at Western parts of East Yorkshire, we
:13:36. > :13:44.have no real observations. It was a powerful storm. Things are
:13:44. > :13:48.improving. Tomorrow will be dry with sunshine. There will be some
:13:48. > :13:58.patchy rain and drizzle on Friday night. The weekend is looking quite
:13:58. > :14:02.
:14:02. > :14:05.promising. Much more settled. It is still windy. It is still gale force
:14:05. > :14:15.winds in coastal areas. De winds will ease as we head through the
:14:15. > :14:25.night. There could be a slight frost in some places. Watch out for
:14:25. > :14:31.
:14:31. > :14:40.that risk of a few icy patches. It might be frosty first thing
:14:40. > :14:50.tomorrow, otherwise drive. The afternoon it will be cloud over. It
:14:50. > :14:50.
:14:50. > :14:56.should stay dry. From temperatures up to eight or nine Celsius. That
:14:57. > :15:05.is quite a relief. The weekend is not looking too bad. Much of the
:15:05. > :15:10.weekend looks fine with intervals Two people were distressed that we
:15:10. > :15:17.did not here they come own explanation last night. They wanted
:15:17. > :15:20.on the I player! -- they want it on the I player.
:15:20. > :15:24.And I can go into more detail now if you want!
:15:24. > :15:27.A I would love to chat, but we must move on.
:15:27. > :15:31.Olympic hopefuls from East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire have
:15:31. > :15:37.been training after the festive break. Luke Campbell, the Hull
:15:37. > :15:42.boxer, faces a tournament in February. Lincoln swimmer Lizzie
:15:42. > :15:50.Simmonds faces her big test in March. More from Simon Clark.
:15:50. > :15:56.The intensity is unrelenting. Meeting after meeting, day after
:15:56. > :16:04.day, Lizzie Simmonds is trying to find that age first for the
:16:04. > :16:08.qualifying event and then for the Games. There is no second chance
:16:08. > :16:15.for qualification. A lot of the time, you just have to be focused
:16:15. > :16:21.and dedicated. You appreciate this will benefit you in the long run.
:16:21. > :16:25.It may seem tedious at the time. keep things fairly consistent. The
:16:25. > :16:32.training will be relatively similar to what she has done the last few
:16:32. > :16:35.months. The Olympic facilities and nearing completion. The target for
:16:35. > :16:40.all elite hopefuls. For one young man, his Olympic dream was not
:16:40. > :16:47.inspired by a huge stadiums, state- of-the-art arenas on massive events.
:16:47. > :16:50.He was stimulated by what lay beyond this humble doorway in Hull.
:16:50. > :16:56.Boxer Luke Campbell has the pressure of qualification behind
:16:56. > :16:59.him by winning a world silver medal last year. He has found himself
:16:59. > :17:09.enjoying a higher profile as a consequence, but his focus never
:17:09. > :17:16.wavers from the main event. 2012 is here now. People think at the end
:17:16. > :17:26.of 2011, the Olympics is next year, but it is here now, it will be upon
:17:26. > :17:29.
:17:29. > :17:33.us very quickly. These are two from our area who hope 2012 will be
:17:33. > :17:37.realised their Olympic dreams. Now, it was designed to give the
:17:37. > :17:42.least able people somewhere to park, but the Blue badge system is being
:17:42. > :17:46.abused. In Lincoln, disabled motorists said they often cannot
:17:46. > :17:49.part because people with fake badges or without one at all at
:17:49. > :17:54.taking up places. Today is a good day for Barry
:17:54. > :17:57.Fippard. He is able to get a disabled parking bay on visiting
:17:57. > :18:02.the shops. Often, they are being used and abused by able-bodied
:18:03. > :18:09.drivers. You are not always able to get one, because other cars are
:18:09. > :18:19.parked there. Mostly, they are people with blue bodies, -- blue
:18:19. > :18:22.
:18:22. > :18:26.badges, but often they do not have them. It is frustrating. The bottom
:18:26. > :18:30.one here is a fraud, and was created by somebody presumably by
:18:30. > :18:35.downloading something of the internet. Lincolnshire Police
:18:35. > :18:44.cellars one of the biggest problems is forgeries. Fans can be in excess
:18:44. > :18:50.of �1,000. -- fines can be in excess of �1,000. One couple were
:18:50. > :18:53.fined 1,500 pounds between them. The government are introducing new
:18:53. > :18:58.electronic blue badges. With a hologram and special printing, they
:18:58. > :19:01.look more like driving licences and a difficult to forge. Lincolnshire
:19:01. > :19:05.County Council will own forces scheme, but they are not convinced
:19:05. > :19:12.it will solve all problems. It will not necessarily eliminate them. It
:19:12. > :19:18.will allow us to have more control. The information will be held in a
:19:18. > :19:22.national database. Weekend checks serial numbers. The new scheme is a
:19:23. > :19:28.big step forward. What it cannot control his abuse of disabled bays
:19:28. > :19:37.on private land, such as in supermarket car-parks. Which means
:19:37. > :19:41.for Barry, a trip to the shops may still be stressful. Joining me now
:19:41. > :19:45.with Daniel Macintyre from the charity Disabled Motoring UK, which
:19:45. > :19:48.represents the interests of Blue badge holders and disabled
:19:48. > :19:54.motorists. What do you think of people who use disabled parking
:19:54. > :20:03.spaces with no badge, or one which has been forged? Quite frankly, it
:20:03. > :20:09.is despicable. These people are often quite lazy people. They are
:20:09. > :20:14.depriving a disabled person or being able to reduce that space.
:20:14. > :20:21.For his disabled person, it might be that been able to park in that
:20:21. > :20:26.space is the only way they can go to work or do their shopping. It
:20:26. > :20:30.might be that because an able- bodied person has taken that space,
:20:30. > :20:34.a disabled person might have to go home and not bother. The government
:20:34. > :20:41.says this new electronic blue badge will make it harder for people to
:20:41. > :20:49.forge passes. Do you think enough has been done? Yes. The new batch
:20:50. > :20:56.is fantastic. For Disabled Motoring UK welcome the changes. I think
:20:56. > :21:06.what is also needed is more on enforcement. In theory, the rules
:21:06. > :21:06.
:21:06. > :21:11.should have been adequate to enable people to be able to park, but...
:21:12. > :21:17.What happens if it is a non Council car-park? If it is a private car
:21:17. > :21:25.park? There is very little enforcement of those spaces if it
:21:25. > :21:30.is on private land. The council or police are not able to do anything.
:21:30. > :21:36.Some supermarkets did take matters into their own hands. They hire
:21:36. > :21:39.private security firms to patrol the car parks. When a person is
:21:39. > :21:48.identified as having used a disabled parking bay that should
:21:48. > :21:53.not, they are being called out, and given a bit of a telling off.
:21:53. > :22:01.good to talk to you. That might be another one you want to get in
:22:01. > :22:05.touch about. Police have arrested five men in Hull for a series of
:22:05. > :22:10.suspected metal thefts, including lattes City care centre. Dove House
:22:10. > :22:14.Hospice looks after patients with life limiting illnesses, and was
:22:14. > :22:17.one of three places targeted. The charity said the theft of two
:22:17. > :22:23.manhole covers could have endangered staff, patients and
:22:23. > :22:33.families. It is not great when people steal from us, especially
:22:33. > :22:33.
:22:33. > :22:43.when people have worked hard to raise money. We are expanding, and
:22:43. > :22:44.
:22:44. > :22:48.that is another �2 million project. Staff at a charity shop in
:22:48. > :22:53.Lincolnshire that was targeted by metal thieves say they are
:22:53. > :22:56.delighted the store has reopened. Piping stolen from the air
:22:56. > :23:00.ambulance shop in market raisin caused a flood, which severely
:23:01. > :23:05.damaged the building and stock. Repairs are being completed at the
:23:05. > :23:07.sight more than a month after the incident. Last night, we told you
:23:07. > :23:12.how Lincolnshire County Council has changed some of its green man
:23:12. > :23:17.crossing signs to green figures. It has backed a lot of controversy.
:23:17. > :23:20.Some say it is political correctness gone mad. There was a
:23:20. > :23:30.lively response after the programme, and when we talked about it on the
:23:30. > :24:00.
:24:00. > :24:06.Thank you for all of those. Now, despite the strong winds we have
:24:06. > :24:11.been talking about, we have had some very mild temperatures. 13
:24:11. > :24:21.Celsius was recorded on New Year's Day at Coningsby. Some experts say
:24:21. > :24:27.
:24:28. > :24:34.We might have experienced winds of 69 mph in Scampton overnight, but
:24:34. > :24:42.in Burton Agnes, spring has sprung early. How do we know? Because the
:24:42. > :24:46.snowdrops have arrived. We will need to clear the past. Getting
:24:46. > :24:51.prepared for this year's snowdrop walk at Burton Agnes Hall. It is
:24:51. > :24:56.not until the beginning of February, but, in contrast to this time last
:24:56. > :25:00.year, snowdrops and not any peeping through but flowering. There would
:25:00. > :25:04.land will be covered in a blanket of snow drops. We are always
:25:04. > :25:07.relieved to see the snowdrops are appearing. We know a lot of our
:25:07. > :25:11.visitors will be keen to see them. We cannot predict when everything
:25:11. > :25:19.will be there. It was -- it is always a nice relief to see them
:25:19. > :25:23.here. Elsewhere in the gardens, there's more signs of spring.
:25:23. > :25:30.have an eye race here. It cauliflowers at the end of February.
:25:30. > :25:34.I have another flower which normally flowers later. The early
:25:34. > :25:38.buds on trees along with blossom is spreading through other parts of
:25:38. > :25:45.East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. But not all kinds of wildlife take
:25:45. > :25:49.too kindly to a change in temperature. Frogs, for example. If
:25:49. > :25:56.they started to lay their spawn in the next few weeks, and we had a
:25:56. > :26:01.cold spell in February, gradually be frogspawn count would diminish.
:26:01. > :26:04.The frogs would not be replacing themselves. For most of us, the
:26:04. > :26:12.thought of warm weather on the horizon is present. That will all
:26:12. > :26:17.depend on Mother Nature. Lovely. Let's have a recap of the headlines.
:26:17. > :26:21.A male nurse is arrested at a Stockport hospital. He is suspected
:26:21. > :26:25.of tampering with medical records. Dozens of trees are brought down
:26:25. > :26:35.and buildings at badly damaged as gale-force winds hit East Yorkshire
:26:35. > :26:41.
:26:41. > :26:45.and Lincolnshire. Tomorrow's We were talking about that story
:26:45. > :26:51.were up eight teenager was slapped. Someone says, how pathetic, a
:26:51. > :26:55.policeman tries to have a laugh and gets in trouble over it. Someone
:26:55. > :27:00.else says, give the man a pat on the back and let there be no
:27:00. > :27:06.compensation involved. The answer, if you or I had done the same thing,
:27:06. > :27:09.we would have been arrested with an assault charge. Ben says, many
:27:09. > :27:15.teams do express inappropriate behaviour, I do not think what the
:27:15. > :27:22.officer did was wrong because it is highly likely that teenager
:27:23. > :27:30.provoked him. Simon said, the officers should be discouraging