01/05/2012 Look North (North East and Cumbria)

Hello. Welcome to Look North. Tonight: The 17 year gap in life

expectancy between Westminster and Wearside. Shocking figures from the

Royal College of Nursing. Hopes fade for an eight year-old

boy who is missing after he fell into a river.

Why these campaigning father walked 500 miles to Downing Street and

back. A former EastEnders star comes not

to raise awareness about an illness that affects 150,000 people a year.

And unravelling the petition which dates back to Queen Victoria's

jubilee. In sport, we look at how the region

will play host to a number of overseas Olympic stars.

And how Hull City are hoping to make two trips to Wembley this

month. It is a grim statistic. If you live in Sunderland you can

expect to die 17 years sooner than if you live in Westminster. That is

the shocking claim tonight from the Royal College of Nursing. The union

says average life expectancy in Westminster is now 86, compared

with just 69 in Sunderland. And it says it is alarmed that the

Government may be considering a shake-up in NHS funding which it

claims could widen the gap even further. But the Government says no

decisions have been made. He was addressing clinical

commissioners in London when the Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley,

suggested funding decisions should take into account the age of a

population, rather than deprivation. A suggestion which has alarmed many

in the North. I am horrified. It shifts health care resources from

the poor to the less poor. It would almost certainly be damaging to our

region. REPORTER: 1 do you want to see

happen? As soon as Parliament gets back we will raise it in the House

of Commons. So why the concern? Well, the North East and North West

get more money per person for health care than the South because

of a funding formula that tackles health inequalities. If that

changes to give money to places where people live longer, the

critics argue, the North could While it is narrowing, there is

still a big difference in how long you might live, depending on where

you are born. On average, nearly 65 per cent of men in the North East

are expected to live until they are 75. This compares to 72 per cent of

men in the South East. If you live in Sunderland you can expect to die

17 years sooner than if you live in Westminster. I am sure many people

are not aware and will be horrified. One reason we are trying to address

health issues is to have adequate funding to meet the needs of the

We asked for an interview with Mr Lansley. In declining, the

Department of Health told us in a The Easter Lansley has said that we

need to look at all of the data when looking at these decisions. --

Mr Lansley has said. It should be seen as a big opportunity for the

North East. The Government says no decisions have been made. And that

the Health Secretary has now asked an independent body of experts for

advice on how it the future funding formula should look.

The police have said tonight they are scaling down the search for

eight year-old Ian Bell, who has not been seen since slipping into

the River Wear as he played with friends last Friday. Ian fell into

the swollen river near his home in Willington. The search for him has

now covered more than 12 miles of river bank. Durham Police say they

have taken what they say is a difficult decision after consulting

other emergency services. Our chief reporter, Chris Stewart, has the

story. Still no sign of Ian. And that

despite the efforts of the rescue teams and the hundreds of

volunteers. It started with just a few of them. And now there are

hundreds. They arrived again today knowing what it is they are now

looking for. There comes a stage in an operation like this when the

police are forced to use a three- word phrase that nobody wants to

hear. That is, hopes are fading. It came in a police announcement this

morning. There is a guy Dan Dare who has been there all night

providing us with tea and coffee and sandwiches. There are local

people coming out and volunteering to search. It has been good

community spirit. The guy he referred to is local man Maurice

Holliday, who has turned his camper van into a canteen. He has been

joined by friends and relatives. You emptied your fridge? And put on

Facebook that if anybody could help. It is tremendous the help we have

been getting. All the people in the surrounding areas, they just came

with all this stuff. It has been a remarkable response but the outcome

they have been praying for became remote once the police used those

Police are continuing to question a man in connection with last week's

murders in Middlesbrough and Whitby. James Allen, who is 36, was

arrested in Leeds on Sunday morning after one of the region's biggest

manhunts, involving police from three forces. He is being

questioned in connection with the murders of 81 year-old Colin

Dunford in Middlesbrough and 50 year-old Julie Davison in Whitby.

They had both suffered head injuries.

A young mother has died in hospital after she was engulfed in a ball of

flames at her Teesside home two weeks ago. The 27 year-old had been

fighting for her life at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle

after suffering serious burns. She was discovered by police at her

home in Southbank in Middlesbrough on 16th April. A 34 year-old man

was arrested in connection with the incident and remains on police bail.

Darlington Football Club look set to leave their stadium. It has

emerged in the last hour that the group hoping to take over the

Quakers have told the owners of the Arena they plan to ground-share

next season. The troubled club are still in administration and have

been relegated from the Blue Square Premier. The decision to move to

the 25,000 seat Arena in 2003 has often been blamed for their

financial problems. A man campaigning to see his nine-

year-old son has arrived home after completing a walk to hand a

petition to the Prime Minister in Downing Street. Mark Heslehurst has

walked 500 miles from Middlesbrough He has not seen his son Edward for

18 months after he and his wife separated and she took the child to

Cambodia. This evening he said he would do the walk again if his

pleas for help were ignored. Stuart Whincup watched him complete his

long journey. I just thought of my son, put my

head down and continued to work. I need my little boy back.

Essentially, I cannot live without my son. Mark lost contact with his

son three years ago. They were living in France when he lost his

business, his house and life savings. His wife then moved with

Edward to Cambodia, where she was born. I just need Edward back. It

has been three years and that is the only thing that has kept me

going through tiredness and pain and the many times I wanted to stop.

Just days after leaving Middlesbrough, Mark was admitted to

hospital with severe shin splints and urged by doctors to rest. But

he carried on, eventually handing over his 100,000 signature petition

at Downing Street. Four weeks and 500 miles later, he was back home.

He has been absolutely amazing. To get out there and walked to London

and then walk back again is absolutely unbelievable. The first

time I met him, his single-minded determination was the thing that

impressed me more than anything else. That is all he is concerned

about. He's not bothered about anything else apart from getting

his son back. Mark hopes the walk will raise the profile of his

problem and he wants the Government to help reunite him with his son.

His dream, he says, is a very simple one. To be able to take him

to school, sit with him when he is ill... The things I have missed and

perhaps normal fathers take for granted. I need my son back.

They affect 150,000 of us every year, but how much do we ever hear

about strokes? People who have suffered them say they often feel

neglected, or even abandoned, by health and social services. Well,

today, stroke survivors in County Durham welcomed the actress Natalie

Cassidy, best known as Sonia in EastEnders, of course, as a high-

profile cheerleader for their cause, as Gerry Jackson reports.

Lunch time at the Durham Stroke Club, with a special guest. It is a

long way from the glamour of her profession but Natalie Cassidy is a

hugely appreciated figurehead here and here is a rare and badly needed

place. It is the right you have died and then you come back to live,

because you have to start moving again, talking again, eating again.

Everything is hard at first. streak Association report says 38 %

of patients get no assessment of their needs when they leave

hospital. Most of the rest get only one in the next three years.

Natalie is here because the health Lottery Fund has donated thousands

to keep his place going. It will also provide a physio and speech

therapy that campaigners claim they are not getting enough of elsewhere.

Where is the after-care? Places like this are going to help with

that. It is important to show people these clubs are really

important. Their wives or daughters phone me up and say we are

desperate for our father or mother to get out but she will not venture

out. They are pessimists when they bought in the door, and optimists

when they walk out. The association says this is a Cinderella condition.

It gets few headlines that affects the 900 people a year in one county

alone. You are isolated. You get depressed and things like that. So

this place helps a lot of people. The long-term benefits are

tremendous. It brings back live. -- You can find out what others are

saying about that on of Facebook Page.

You are watching Look North. Still to come this Tuesday evening: Jeff

is here with the sports desk and Paul is out and about with the

weather. Join me later for the full regional

forecast and some news for dog- walkers.

Later this month, Cumbria Archive Service will put a massive and

previously unseen 85ft long document on display in west Cumbria.

The petition of 1600 names was collected in Workington in 1897 by

people hoping to open up a route through council land to celebrate

Queen Victoria's diamond jubilee. But, as Mark McAlinden reports, it

may have been a ploy by speculators to force up land prices.

It is a feat of effort and skill to unravel this fascinating piece of

local history. This 85ft, handwritten petition lay

undiscovered for nearly 100 years before archivists realised its

importance. It is May 1897 and 6,800 people in Workington have

signed their names and addresses to a petition to Workington Town

Council to petition the council to extend Oxford Street survey can

have a procession down there for Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in

the June. The route was to go through some allotments, but was

this really an example of Victorian People Power? People wanted a way

through here for the Jubilee Parade but Archive lists suspect it was

actually wealthy landowners who put this petition together, forcing the

council to buy their land and make them even wealthier. We suspect

this was manufactured by the landowners. We think these people

are speculators sitting on the land and looking for the right time to

sell it to the council. They failed in 1897 but a route was opened up

some years later. However, from next week, people will be able to

see the petition at the archives office and see if their forebears

were among those hoping to celebrate a previous diamond

jubilee. Now, it is best known for its waxed

jackets amongst of the country set but now the Tyneside company

Barbour has set up an academy to entice young people into a career

in the closing industry. The South Shields-based business

will train 50 students at a time with the prospect of a job in what

in recent years has been a dwindling sector. Our business

correspondent, Ian Reeve, reports. A sight to gladden the heart. 150

machinists beavering away, actually making something, here in a factory

in the North East. And what is being made is the famous Barbour

waxed jacket. But the company is now trying to find the next

generation of workers by setting up an academy. 50 students, some

unemployed, will attend for up to year. It is all companies'

responsibility at the moment, with youth unemployment, which is such a

tragedy. If you have the opportunity to help young people in

this way it is great and other companies should try to follow our

lead. At the end of the course every student will get an interview

at Barber. 20 year-old Abigail Ward has her fingers crossed. It is

something I really want to do. I have grasped the opportunity with

two hands. I am doing the training and I will have fully get the job

at the end of it. -- hopefully. if Abigail is successful, she will

be helping to stem a skills shortage in the textile industry, a

reflection of its dwindling regional presence, something the

college delivering the academy lessons wants to reverse. About 15

months ago and they had a problem with the 15 -- with the skill of

their staff. Today is the culmination of a lot of work to try

to encourage people into the textile industry. Barbour, then,

will be able to look in-house for new workers, to keep its workforce

at 450. But, perhaps more importantly, it will be more than

doing its bit for an industry that, in the main, seems to have packed

up and gone abroad. That is something to be applauded.

Football season. Not quite at an end. Some big games still to come.

Huge gains, yes. Newcastle and Chelsea away tomorrow. And

Newcastle and Sunderland could both have a big say in the Premiership

this season. Bat has almost got you interested.

Almost! May is a huge month for York City.

Already in one Wembley final, the FA Trophy, they could be back there,

eight days later, for the Conference play-off final, battling

for the right to return to the Football League. That is if they

can overcome Mansfield in the semifinal. The home leg is tomorrow

night. And that is not all. A decision on their plans to move to

a new ground is due in little more than a fortnight. Exciting times,

as Andrew Hartley reports. We are absolutely delighted with

the season. It has been tremendous. To be in an FA Trophy final at

Wembley and also to be in the play- offs with the potential to go to

Wembley again is amazing for York City. The success we have to put

down to our manager, who has been absolutely at standing. Some of the

York players made an early visit to Wembley last week to see it ahead

of the FA Cup final. People keep saying to me you are not mentioning

the trophy but I have gone the other way. It is a motivational

thing for the players that we talk about why have we got to the trophy,

how have we got to Wembley? By being a good side. May is a huge

month for York. The council meets on the 17th to decide whether to

give the club probation to build a new 6,000 capacity stadium on the

outskirts of the city. All our fans realise that to give the club the

future we need and to progress, unfortunately, we need to leave

this lovely historic Heron that we have.

-- historic home. On to basketball and Newcastle

Eagles' player-coach Fab Flournoy has been named BBL Coach of the

Year. The Eagles have won three trophies this season and remain on

course for a clean sweep. They face Cheshire Jets in the two-legged

semi-final of the play-offs this weekend. It is the fourth time Fab

has won the award in his 10 years in the hot seat at Newcastle.

Some of the world's top teams will be coming to play Olympic football

in Newcastle but did you know some of the world's elite athletes will

be in the North East to sharpen up before the Olympics? The trial and

cannot badminton team will be in Durham. Sunderland is playing host

to athletes and swimmers from Grenada, including a world champion.

We went to Wearside to see how the team will be looked after.

Sunderland University City space is a brand new purpose-built facility

with everything on hand bat an Olympic team needs and who better

to show us around than Steve Cram? City space will be the main hub for

the team and as well as training, they can eat here, socialise and

relax. If I know the athletes, it will be rooms like this that they

will spend most of their time in because even if they are not

injured they will want to spend time with the physio. They will

work with the British team as well during the Olympic Games. The nose

such luxuries for Steve back in 1980. He competed then in the

Moscow Olympics. There was no support system around. No idea of,

or would you like to come to spend some time here and get used to

shiver through and climate? None of that. You went there three or four

days beforehand. Times change and training camps are now part of the

Olympic picture, good news for Sunderland. We are very pleased to

have the team from Grenada here, athletes, swimmers and boxers and

perhaps even a taekwondo performer. It will be a very exciting camp,

quite a dour first camp. There is one athlete in particular that

Steve Cram is really excited to meet. The fantastic 400m runner

called Kirani James. He is a massive talent. He is already the

Bob Champion. I have spoken to him already about Sunderland and I have

told him how good the football team is, etc. More often than not it is

about getting them in the right frame of mind so February if he

does come to spend time here, we will be able to help him with that.

-- so hopefully. Crunch time is approaching for all

the athletes hoping to take part in London 2012. Among them are two

local rowers, Kat Copeland and Rachel Gamble-Flint. They started

rowing at the same school on Tyneside and are competing for

Great Britain and the summer's World Cup.

The Great Britain training camp in Italy Ed of the sport's World

Championships. These brothers are the most likely to be in the final

Olympic squad. Among them are Kat Copeland and Rachel Gamble-Flint.

They started rowing together at the school on Teesside. The reason why

we have gone on and carried on our rowing careers was because it was

Southend-on-Sea to begin with -- because it was such fun to begin

with. Even in the hard winters and when it is raining you know it is

worth it. We did our first international event together when

we were 16. Both were part of Britain's Junior squad last summer.

Catt was promoted after claiming a gold medal at the world and 23

World Championships. Rachel is that his senior squad for the first time.

Everyone on the squad is really close anyway but having people you

have known for years is like having an old friend you can go and chat

to. They are competing in the three World Cup regattas, starting at the

beginning of May. Success could see them competing in London 2012.

Could meet -- they could be medal winners.

When I lived at the coast there was nothing I love more than walking

the dog along the beach. But if you want to do that you might want to

The 1st May, it is where many of our beaches become out of bounds to

dogs in the summer months. Here in South Shields, dogs are not allowed

now between 8am and 6pm. The rules and regulationss changed around the

region so it is worth checking. The spring weather so far has thrown

everything bar the kitchen sink at us. Let's have a recap before we

look at what is coming in the near future. Marx was a month that was

quite exceptional. It was very warm and very dry. That week of heat

wave meant the temperatures averaged out a couple of degrees

above average. The rainfall is just a fraction of what we would

normally expect. It was all chained by the time we got to the end of

April. A couple of degrees below average. Many parts of our region

saw two or three times the average rainfall. And what about May?

According to the gate is information from the Met Office, it

looks as if changing conditions will prevail through the coming

months. Rain at times and temperatures tended to be on the

cool side of average. Back to the shorter term and the next few days

through the rest of the week there will be a lot of cloud around. It

will be on the cool side. There will be patchy rain at times. By

the tail end of the week and the weekend things could be called a

McChrystal. Tonight there is a blanket of cloud around. -- things

could be colder still. The combination of the blanket of cloud

and the North East wind tonight means that the temperature it

should not Dick too cold tonight. That takes us into tomorrow morning.

Wednesday is a bit of a dull start to the day. A lot of cloud around.

Still patchy rain but much of that will peter out through the morning.

An improving picture for the afternoon. The cloud lifts and

brakes. Most places see some brightness. On the North East coast

temperatures will probably stay in single figures but quite a change

when to go further West. Get over the Pennines into Cumbria, a bit of

sunshine through the afternoon. The north-easterly wind will probably

Blair again tomorrow. Very gusty conditions in parts. The pressure

sequence for the next few days shows that Wiki back north easterly

wind foreign couple of days and eventually it is replaced by a cold

northerly. Thursday, mostly dry. The best brightness in the West.

Bit more cloud perhaps and things start to call down by the tail end

of the week. -- cool down. Why A final look at the headlines. An

influential group of MPs have branded Rupert Murdoch not fit to

run a major international company. The damning report from the media

committee said News Corporation had misled them about the extent of the

phone hacking scandal. The Royal College of Nursing is

concerned that the Government is planning a shake-up in NHS funding