31/03/2017 Look North (East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire)

The man in charge of Hull's year as City of Culture

says it's been more successful than he could have imagined.

Today is the end of the first season of events,

and businesses ranging from breweries and restaurants,

to theatres and galleries say they've seen record-breaking

increases in visitors, and a change in perceptions of "brand Hull".

Our culture correspondent, Anne-Marie Tasker, reports.

The events that opened City of Culture

were the UK's most visited attraction that week.

And since then, people have kept coming.

The Mercure and Ibis hotels say they've had 52% more bookings

Hull trains says it saw a 15% increase in journeys

to the city in January and February.

And 83% of Hull residents surveyed said they'd visited

the city centre in the evening compared to 43% a year ago.

I was as confident as you could be based on your experience

But you would be in egomaniac if you thought that the reaction

And that's helped this brewery in Hull

Although it's delighted that City of Culture's put Hull on the map,

it feels small businesses could be more included.

There's still some niggles with regard to small businesses

getting involved with City of Culture.

some things are not necessarily happening at the right time.

What differences have you seen to "brand Hull"

I think Hull is now up there with Made In Yorkshire.

So Yorkshire would be the thing you would put first and foremost,

but now it is equally on the same platform.

And artistic events like the Blade, and the unveiling

of the Lorenzetti painting have drawn crowds.

Museums and galleries have had almost six times as many visitors

Though, of course, the Ferens was closed then.

the gallery's had more visitors than in the whole of 2014.

And the twice-yearly Heads Up Festival

says ticket sales went up by around 40% this year.

Tomorrow, season two begins - with events like the musical journey

across the Humber Bridge and an art show inspired by a urinal.

The question is, will the next three months

prove as much of a record breaker as the first three of 2017?

Police have urged caravan parks and guest house owners

to be vigilant as a missing woman and her two sons

may have checked in under a different name.

Officers believe Dylan and Louis were taken

by their 42-year-old mother, Samantha Baldwin,

from Nottingham on Monday and are treating it as an abduction.

said Miss Baldwin poses a risk to the children.

The family have links to Lincolnshire.

Operations at Boston Pilgrim Hospital were cancelled

It was caused by a faulty fridge on the ninth floor.

Several wards were evacuated and nine staff members were treated

Managers say operations will go ahead on Monday as planned.

Plans for a ?20 million development in Grimsby town centre

It will be built as an extension to Freshney Place shopping centre.

It includes a new cinema and restaurant complex

and is expected to create hundreds of jobs.

but the Skegness lifeboat crew is now fully operational

and their new boat will be officially named at midday tomorrow.

The vessel arrived in the resort in January

thanks to a huge legacy donation from Joel and April Grunnill,

Phillip Norton has been out with the crew.

Just after 8am on a Sunday morning, and the Joel and April Grunnill

is launched off the beach at Skegness.

You have your days where it is quite rough, and you think,

I'm a construction manager in my day job,

so it's a nice change to have something different to do

at the weekend and relax and meet new people.

The crew have been training hard since taking delivery

of the lifeboat in January, and today, they're meeting

colleagues from Hunstanton, so they can get used to working

with the new vessel, which can be tricky at times.

We cover a long distance across the wash.

Skegness have got the better capability

Often we work in conjunction with Skegness -

we can get there quickly, assess the situation with the back-up

of Skegness to do the heavy work, the real work.

We have been travelling at around 28 knots across the wash

Since this boat came here to Skegness in January,

to make sure she is fully operational.

The lifeboat was largely paid for thanks

to a ?1.5 million donation by late crewmember Joel Grunnill

for those who worked alongside him on rescues,

I am really pleased his name will be on the boat.

It is just a pity that he is not still here to see it.

After a few hours, we're heading back,

and time for one last little trick from this new lifeboat.

To save turnaround time, this is how she's brought back ashore.

It is pretty much like a controlled crash.

The impact is great on everybody inside.

It took us by surprise when we first started with this boat.

With the emergency boat, we did nothing like that.

Tomorrow, the Joel and April Grunnill will be officially named,

who have already taken this lifeboat to their hearts.

A lot of dry weather to come over the next few days

The exception perhaps being tomorrow -

we are looking at the risk of a few showers,

some of which could be on the heavy side.

after perhaps the odd shower this evening,

Broken cloud, and a little cooler than it has been

Temperatures dropping back into single figures.

Tomorrow, there will be some good dry, bright and sunny periods.

But there will also be a scattering of showers.

With just light winds, these showers could be slow-moving -

even the odd heavy, potentially thundery one as well.

You will notice they are very well spread out,

so lots of dry, bright weather in between.

Even though it won't be quite as warm as it has been,

it will still feel pleasant in the sunshine.

It looks like it will be largely dry and fine for Sunday.

Hello. There the weekend is here and Sunday looks like being the better

day of the two. We're going to start the weekend, a new month, with

sunshine and April showers. Those fade away overnight. Saturday night

could be chilly. It points to a fine day on Sunday. This picture was

taken by a weather watcher to end the day in Dundee. This one is

probably my favourite of the day. This was taken at Yarmouth in the

Isle of Wight. Here we could catch showers overnight. Probably going to

be dry in Dundee. You can see where the wet weather is, in the

south-west and into Wales. That could be heavier eier at times.

Clearer skies for Eastern parts of England. Not as warm as last night.

Not cold by any means. Tomorrow we start the day with sunshine and

showers for Wales and the south-west of England.