08/01/2017 Look North (East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire)

Good evening.

Organisers say more than 340,000 visitors have come to Hull over

the last seven days, smashing all expectations

for the opening week of City of Culture.

And after a week of fireworks and light displays, today the latest

art installation was moved into place, a 75-metre wind

turbine blade in the heart of the city centre.

Here's our culture correspondent, Anne-Marie Tasker.

It was City of Culture's surprise event, and you couldn't have

got one much bigger.

A 75-metre long, 28-tonne wind turbine blade, transported

into the heart of Hull city centre and transformed into a work of art.

Hull, in 2017, is where they are made so you get

a self-evident sculpture.

Where else could this happen?

It's made here, made by the people of Hull.

We'e got a symbolic form and an actual form of its power,

then it becomes self-evident, logical.

It makes sense to me.

The operation to move it from the factory began at 1.45am,

the two miles taking around four hours.

And the journey posed some real challenges.

All 75 metres of the Blade have got to squeeze around this tight bend.

They've already taken out the streetlights,

the traffic lights and the barriers, but they still only have a few

metres to spare between the court building and King Billy up there.

By 10am, the supports and cranes were ready to start lifting it

into position and it had drawn quite a crowd.

It's amazing.

It's amazing, just like the last week has been totally amazing.

A massive, massive positive for Hull.

I think it should stay for longer than two months,

because I think it's really good, really.

It's quite daunting, seeing its size out here

when you're used to seeing it inside the factory.

Bringing it out into the daylight, it's even more impressive.

As a local girl, I'm quite thrilled that, for me,

this monument is quite iconic but I'm part of the next piece

of Hull's iconic structure so I'm proud as anything.

The Blade is one of a series of sculptures being shown

during City of Culture, and the impact of this one

came as a surprise even to the people who'd planned it.

He did an artist's impression of it but nothing prepares

you to actually seeing it in situ.

It's an incredibly beautiful thing.

Hours later, the blade was finally in position and it will stay

here to be seen touched and driven under for the next 10 weeks.

Anne-Marie Tasker, BBC Look North, Hull.

And if you want to see how the story of the day unfolded, step by step,

you can go to our Facebook page for lots of videos following

the blade and its journey throughout the city.

Police are appealing for witnesses following the death of a 23-year-old

man in Lincolnshire.

They were called to the A1104 at Miles Cross Hill near Alford

at about 5am yesterday morning after reports of a man

lying beside the road.

His death is currently being treated as unexplained.

Volunteers have been collecting Christmas trees

in Lincolnshire today, which they hope can be used in flood

defences along the east coast.

The collection in Cleethorpes is part of a wider plan co-ordinated

by the Environment Agency.

It's hoped hundreds of trees can be used to help coastal flood defences.

They'll be put in place in the coming weeks.

We do it for charity.

We ask for ?5 a tree, so it's a big money raiser for us

and we use it for local charities.

This year we've come up with the idea of using the trees

to stabilise the sand dunes along the coast, especially

around Mablethorpe, etc.

I'm a big believer in recycling so I like to see things

being reused rather than wasted.

Also, the whole thing about protecting the coastlines

and the sand dunes was a really good thing to me.

Really what I'd like is a similar project for next year.

A quick look at the Rugby result.

Hull KR beat Hull FC 40-16 to win the Clive Sullivan trophy

in a pre-season friendly at the KCOM Stadium today.

And now the weather, with Jennifer Bartram.

Hello, there.

Good evening.

Quite a lot of cloud around this evening and overnight.

There may still be some patches of mist and fog developing

and we are going to feel the winds picking up as we head

through the night tonight.

But it is going to be generally mild, the temperatures dropping

down to 5 or 6 Celsius.

First thing tomorrow morning, it's a cloudy and misty start.

Dry to start with but we'll see this rain pushing in from the West,

clearing later on in the day.

Tomorrow's top temperature, 9 Celsius.

That's all from us for now.

We're back in the morning with your first bulletin

of the day, at 6.25am.