09/09/2013 Look North (North East and Cumbria)

Hello and welcome to a new week on Look North. In the headlines this

Monday evening: The clean—up continues. Cars washed away and 16

homes under water in East Cleveland's flash floods. We cannot

keep letting this happen. Eventually, we will not get any

insurance. First day at school. The merged

private and state schools which reopened this morning, as an

Academy. Remembering Flodden, 500 years after

a Scottish king died on an English battlefield.

And delighted fans are bowled over as a former pit village wins the

coveted cup at Lord's. In other sport though it's been a

pretty dismal weekend. Carlisle Manager Greg Abbott is sacked after

the Blues' bad start continues. It seems incredible. The first day

of heavy rain after the long, hot summer and suddenly East Cleveland

was knee—deep in floodwater. Friday's flash floods in Saltburn

pushed cars towards the sea as people scrambled to escape. A bridge

was washed away in Skinningrove. And in Redcar — where a new flood

storage reservoir was completed just last year — 16 homes were flooded.

—— 60. Again! As the clean—up continues, we have two reports from

the flooding front line. First, here's Stuart Whincup: the

destruction led to some dramatic pictures.

Swept away. The driver had just got out, and watched helplessly as his

car floated down the road. This is Valley Gardens usually there's just

a small beck running here. I've never seen anything like it.

Cleveland Fire Service received a month's worth of calls — 230 — in

just one night. The driver of this van had to be rescued from its roof

when he got stuck. I came down to go under the bridge, trying to go

backwards, and it just gets Benning, and then within two minutes the

water rose another foot and a half, and then the band just started

floating further in, and then it just sank, because it covered the

whole cab. Now three days after the flash floods the huge clear up

operation continues. It is only when you watch here that

you walk a bit cheesy extent of the damage caused by 80 hours of

flooding on Friday night —— that you see the extent. These are massive

holes. They stretch 100 yards along these roles. —— roads. Some

businesses were lucky and avoided major damage. But they still don't

know how. I have not really seen anything like it before. It was just

like a big lake in the end. Seeing the water down here, you have to

weather about whether you've got any work left. Bridges were destroyed

and countless roads were flooded. For all the damage to properties and

disruption, the emergency services said it was just down to luck that

nobody was seriously injured. The worst of the damage was here, we're

60 homes were flooded and some have been flooded for the third time in

the past four years and that despite Northumbrian water spending £300

million on nearby flood defences. Our economics reporter has this

report. Being flooded out of one's home is

surely traumatic enough. But for Steve Joslin his misfortune has been

doubled. I am not insured. I only moved six weeks ago. My own fault

for not informing them, but when they informed them this morning,

they said that if I had told them last week, they would not take me on

because they do not take on properties that have been involved

in flight. So I have got to sort this out myself. It's my fault. The

residents of this small Redcar street say the flood defence

measures installed by Northumbrian Water in 2009 are inadequate, hence

the damage to their properties on Friday night. Probably about eight

o'clock that night, in their —— there was about eight or 12 inches.

The defence is in the form of a massive tank. It's buried in this

field alongside the affected houses. And it should see excess water drain

into it if the sewerage system can't cope. The residents here are not

convinced that Northumbrian Water has invested enough money in the

flood defences, with pre—tax profits last year of 200 and million —— £212

million, do they have point? Invested £300 million in that area

and it serves not just that area, but elsewhere as well. We were

confident that under normal conditions, that system would have

been able to store the water and then return it rain had subsided,

but in this instance it was too extreme and it over from the system.

Northumbrian Quarters as they will carry out an investigation, with a

hoped—for reporting date of six weeks' time.

Well, were the floods in East Cleveland the result of a

particularly unusual weather event? Paul Mooney is here. How bad was the

rainfall that evening? It was especially bad. Some places had over

two and have inches over the course of the day. That is an awful lot of

rain. You can see it on the radar on Friday, with the bright green

colours being the heaviest. You can see that becoming more persistent

around that area, so they really did have an exceptionally wet day. The

Met Office have records going back over 100 years. In September we

would normally expect about 50 seat millimetres, and on Friday alone we

had over 44 millimetres. That makes it the wettest September on record.

And is this evidence of a changing climate? These events do seem to be

becoming more frequent. We remember thunderous Thursday that affected

Tyneside last summer, where we had one month of rain and a couple of

hours in places, but whether another be attributed to man—made climate

change is going to have to be reviewed over a much longer time

scale. And how would you advise those planning our flood defences?

One thing is for sure, these events, these horrible events affecting

homes and businesses in our region year in and year out, the way they

are planning and began developing and managing them at present does

not seem to be working. Thank you. The Newcastle United football fan

who made headlines after being accused of punching a police horse

has appeared in court, and denied a charge of violent disorder. Barry

Rogerson, who's 45 and from Bedlington, will now appear at

Newcastle Crown Court in two weeks' time. He was among 24 football fans

charged with violent disorder, after the Magpies lost to Sunderland in

the Tyne—Wear derby in April. The controversial new Kings Priory

Academy on North Tyneside opened its doors today. The merger between the

private King's School in Tynemouth, and the former local authority—run

Priory Primary, is the first of its kind in the country. Supporters say

it'll bring huge benefits to local schoolchildren. But North Tyneside

Council says the new Academy is taking pupils away from other

schools in the area. Andrew Hartley reports.

Summer's over. For Lucy that means back to school. Lucy's one of 1200

children starting life at the King's Priory in Tynemouth. There's a lot

of excited and proud parents. It is the first day of a new school. I am

really happy. It is making friends and meeting new people. But this

school is like no other — a unique merger of a council—run primary and

privately funded independent school. Labour—controlled North Tyneside

Council opposed the merger, worried about the knock—on effect on other

schools. But last month it decided not to pursue a judicial review,

ending a year of bitter political wrangling. It's the start of a

brand—new chapter here. For the pupils there is a mood of great

excitement, and for the parents, a sense of huge relief that all of the

uncertainty is over. King's School had seen a big fall in pupil numbers

in recent years. Critics claim a failing private school has been

bailed out by a Conservative Government to the tune of £5 million

of taxpayers' money. It is quite the opposite. This represents a

fantastic deal for the taxpayer in reality, and of course, parents have

the added advantage of not having to pay fees, so what we're doing is

opening up the school the community. We here want to work with the local

schools and to help to provide a beacon of education in the local

area. But that's not how they see it at other schools nearby. This place

says it's already setting high standards. The impact of the

amalgamation of the two schools down the road is that we will have extra

places here, but that is an opportunity for other parents in

North Tyneside to come and see what we're doing, and I think everyone

knows that we are doing very, very well. A £10,000 education now

available to all.A former private school competing for state pupils.

The question is: just how will the local authority react? The ball's in

their court. 500 years ago today, King James IV

of Scotland and 10,000 of his fellow countrymen were hacked to death at

Flodden in north Northumberland by a small English army fighting for

Henry the Eighth. The flower of Scottish nobility died at Flodden on

September the 9th 1513. Today, the Battle of Flodden was commemorated

by people from both sides of the Border. Mark Denten is at Flodden

now. Yes, we're just a couple of miles away from the Scottish border.

We are near the border. It is perhaps a curious place for people

to be gathering this evening for a service. They are gathering because

500 years ago today in those fields find me, two nations met in

violence, carnage, and blood. And today, those two nations came

together again but this time an act of commemoration. A paper's lament

for the lives lost on a Northumberland field 500 years ago.

The Battle of town—mac was a massive and bloody loss of life. It is

thought some of the 15,000 who died here are buried under these fields.

It was a huge event. It was the last big battle between the Scottish and

English. It is a great milestone in British history. So at 4pm, the time

the battles that 500 years ago, a group walked the battlefield,

including this man from Seattle. We just found that both of us who have

ancestors who fought and died here, so, just could not avoid coming

year. We had to be here. In the two and a half hours it took to walk the

battlefield and learn some history on the same spot at the same time

500 years ago, thousands died. Today, generations on, they were

remembered. Well, as you can see, there have introduced Letty from

English and Scottish people, remembering those who died ——

tributes left here. We can speak now to the director of this group.

Inevitably, we see the sole tyre, we see Scottish flags and Scottish

people here today, but this is also very important for the north—east

because people could be heard, people who fought for those areas as

well. Absolutely. The people who set off from Stockton and Penrith and

Carlisle all came across two new Castle. Newcastle was a big muster

point. They then moved and sweat behind the Scottish forces —— came

across Newcastle. And the striking thing is that there are no

re—enactments today. It has been a very sombre day. Absolutely. It is

for personal reflection. People have been taking time to consider what

happened. And we will end with a service that will take place in a

few minutes time. Thank you very much. Later today, there is a

service, and another service here tomorrow, bringing people together

in commemoration of the conflict. Thank you.

You're watching Look North. Still to come: Dawn has the latest from

Carlisle United after the sacking of Greg Abbott. Plus, the cricket team

from a tiny village in Cumbria who've triumphed at Lord's by

winning the national Village Cup. The farming minister has criticised

Cumbria County Council for selling its publicly—owned farms. The

criticism comes as young farmers say European Union subsidies mean older

farmers are hanging on to land in retirement, making it difficult for

younger people to find a foothold in the industry. Chris Jackson has been

investigating for tonight's Inside Out.

Richard is the kind of person the farming industry needs. He is

bright, young, and ambitious. But he's turning his back on dairy

farming in Cumbria and heading to pastures new. So, what will you do

in New Zealand? Will be working on it and sheep farm on the South

Island. I'm very excited. Richard believes he's been forced to move,

as an EU subsidy means that farmers are not paid for how much food they

produce, but how much land they own. And that does not encourage them to

retire, freeing up land for people like him. There's so much subsidy

going into agriculture that farmers can stay on the land without

actually having to work. I mean, I call a Single Farm Pension. It would

be farming into old age where you don't have to do any work. They're

not forced to rent out that land to younger people like myself and make

it profitable. The suspicions of everyone are confirmed in this

report. It states that the subsidy has had a stifling effect on the

market for tenancies. But these are not the only farming opportunities

that have been disappearing. We have discovered that councils who owned

farms have been selling them off to raise funds. Cumbria used to own 14,

and it is planning on selling six of them.

The farming minister says he is frustrated by the use subsidy but in

the meantime, councils should not be selling off their farms. Some

councils are showing how it can be done. Some are not. I think they are

wrong. A spokesman for the County Council says that owning farms was

not part of the council's core business and last year enough money

was raised from the sale to build a new primary school. Richard, the

frustrations for waiting —— of waiting for older farmers to move on

have simply become too much. He is now in New Zealand starting his new

life, and young farmers say that others will follow.

Also on Inside Out tonight: how waste plastic in the sea is killing

our sea birds and how Roker Park inspired a Cumbrian man to make a

career taking photos of football fans across the country.

Now, in a moment, Dawn joins me for "Team Talk". But first a story about

a sporting dream come true. Yesterday, Cleator Cricket Club from

west Cumbria triumphed in the National Village Cup Final in an

extraordinary match at Lord's. In a nerve—racking run chase, Cleator

overcame Rockhampton from Gloucestershire — their

nerve—tingling, one—wicket win coming after they looked to have

thrown the game away. The victory sparked a pitch invasion and wild

celebrations. Mark McAlindon was there.

At the end, there was pandemonium. Players joining friends and family

for one huge party. Why? Well, moments earlier, the captain had

lifted the trophy, fulfilment for a cricketing man. Absolutely

unbelievable. The emotions, so many friends and so many good people in

the team, and the way the game is gone, and with everything that's

happened, as I say, what dreams are made of, to play at Lord's, and now

we have come to Lord's, Duffield urging to play, and then had the

match and the dream result. Earlier, the team had arrived full of nerves.

The toss was one but it was Rockhampton piling up the runs.

Cleaton took it back, but faced a daunting chase. We were three down.

The opening ball from their side went very well. Our backs were

against the wall. Eventually, it was down to the last pair to get a

single and get the team over the line. 50 years I've played for

Cleaton, and how can you be today? How can you be there? The best day

of my life. Seriously. The best day of my life. It was a phenomenal day.

It was the best result we could have ever had! It's just been immense!

For people of the tiny former mining village, this is an incredible

achievement. It means everything. To play today in front of a crowd like

that, everyone who supported us was fantastic, it was just a brilliant

atmosphere, and to play on that hallowed field, it was just

wonderful. I can die a happy man. The party is likely to go on long

into the night. What a great story! Cricketing

success for Cumbria — and the county's main football team is

making the headlines in tonight's "Team Talk".

We start tonight with news of the second manager to leave one of our

professional football clubs already this season — the first to leave a

league club, with the other being Anthony Smith at Gateshead, who're

in the Conference. Yes, and it's Greg Abbott, who's

parted company with Carlisle. A club statement just after ten o'clock

this morning, said the board had met after Saturday's home defeat by Port

Vale, and taken the decision after then meeting with Greg, who hadbeen

one of the longest—serving managers in English football.

He had — look at this — up until a few hours ago, only Arsene Wenger

and Exeter's Paul Tisdale had been in their post longer than Greg

Abbott. and Exeter's Paul Tisdale had been

in their post longer And his departure means Tony Mowbray now

moves up to ninth spot, and Alan Pardew sneaks into the top ten for

his three years at Newcastle. It was beginning to look inevitable

though, wasn't it, given Carlisle's dreadful start to the season? Just

two points from their first six games, starting with those thumpings

by Orient, Bradford and Coventry. And the board said they were worried

about the effect results were having on "the business" — reflected by

falling attendances — the gate dipped below 4,000 at the weekend.

It was the club and the effect that poor results for having on the club

and the attendances and the viability of the club that made us

move when we did move and may just talked much more seriously than we

did talk. It is a club issue more than anything else. The final straw

for the board was that 1—0 home defeat by Port Vale, the goal coming

in injury—time — agonisingly for the Blues, who'd missed a great chance

themselves, just before Tom Pope scored Vale's winner. That sealed

Greg Abbott's fate, but as well as the low point, we must remember the

highs, Dawn? Yes, two trips to Wembley, for the Johnstone's Paint

Trophy final — the second one, against Brentford, which they won,

of course — one of the great days in the club's history. But Greg himself

is history now, coach Graham Kavanagh is in temporary charge, but

who's in the frame to be the next Carlisle manager? On the one hand,

they could do with an experienced manager to steady the ship and on

the other hand, they can maybe do with somebody with a bit of it wild

fact, Alan Shearer priced at 40 21 with one bookmaker, there are some

other names out there as well. Peter Murphy is exceptionally popular as a

player, and would he be the job that the colony ticket to get the fans

that? —— would he be the one that the club needs to get the fans

back? Well it was a pretty dismal weekend

in League Two as well, although at least Hartlepool scored their first

league goal of the season. Yes, but it was in injury—time, and the game

was almost lost. But they might have had one a lot earlier if the

goal—line technology that's used in the Premier League had been

available here — Christian Burgess with the shot — did it cross the

line? Hard to tell, but it wasn't given, and Pools paid the price in

the second half. They did. Wycombe brought on

19—year—old Max Kretzschmar, who's never scored a League goal in his

life. Until now! Hence the celebrations. And having scored one,

he did it again! Just when Pools thought they'd turned the corner,

after that 5—0 win over Bradford in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy. They

did finally score themselves — James Poole with the header — they're

second—botton of League Two, and on Saturday they're at home to

Accrington, the only team below them. Not much joy, either, for York

City, beaten 2—0 at home by Wimbledon. Manager Nigel Worthington

called it a "less than average performance" and said "we were

sloppy all over the pitch — it's simply not good enough." Not a happy

man. By contrast, his predecessor at Bootham Crescent, Gary Mills, made a

winning start in his new role as boss of Gateshead, just a few days

after stepping into the job at the International stadium. Josh Walker

picked up both the goals in a 2—1 win over Hereford — and that lifts

them up to 17th in the Conference table — four places above the

relegation zone. And not the start the Falcons were

hoping for in their first game back in rugby union's Premiership Dawn!

No — a win for former Falcons boss Gary Gold and coach Mike Ford on

their return to Kingston Park but the weather absolutely appalling and

spoiled the game. Mike's son George Ford kicked Bath ahead after just

six minutes, but when the Falcons had a chance to draw level Phil

Godman pulled his kick wide. That might have made a crucial

difference, but even when Ford nailed another penalty Newcastle

were only 6—0 behind at the break. The talented young ten put Bath

further ahead with about twenty minutes to go. And even though

Newcastle defended well and had some good breaks, Bath played the

conditions better and when Antony Perenise crashed over from a rolling

maul it was game over. The Falcons gave away a penalty try at the end

to add insult to injury and while they'll be disappointed not to get

anything from the game, they weren't completely outplayed. Plenty to work

on. We saw the rain. Is the more pain on the way?

completely outplayed. Plenty to work on. We saw the rain. Is the There

is. We have had more than our fair share of rain in places today. I

think if we look ahead at the coming week I think it is fair to say it is

unsettled and very changeable. It will be quite windy at times as

well, but they will be some gaps of the Somme Drive, decent weather.

Today this rain came in the form of showers that were very localised ——

gaps that will be dry. The showers will become less

frequent as we had to the evening and through the course of the night,

they will gradually become more confined to the east coast. Many

places will become more drive. And the West, we will see clearer skies

overnight when temperatures could take a bit of a dip and easily go

into single figures. They could go as low as six or seven degrees. That

went always stays stronger and more fresh along the north—east coast as

we head to the night. Tomorrow, this will still be some rain. The rain in

the east will become a bit more widespread near the east coast, but

elsewhere, it looks like a mostly dry day, and in the West, that is

where we will see the best of the brightness, so some sunshine for

many. It looks like the bad weather will be confined to areas east of

the A19 throughout the day. Income react we could see 17 or 18

degrees. That is 64 Fahrenheit. Always a few degrees cooler in the

east where you are more exposed to that northerly wind. That is really

strong and lasting then that close. It will make it feel bitterly cold.

That is the picture for tomorrow. You can see the Northern Railway, at

the next band of rain will coming from the West on Wednesday. A little

gap under that high pressure for a time, before the next system comes

in later in the week. By Friday, we are beginning to brighten up again

as the pressure builds, but very up and down through the week

weather—wise. If you are out and about, be prepared for centuries. As

I said, most of the Rainier that the schools, many places dry, the best

afternoon temperatures in the West. Temperatures struggling. On

Thursday, it'll start off dry, but eventually being will come the West.

Things will brighten up again on Friday. Unsettled, to say the least.

The summer has gone. Carroll will be back here at half past six tomorrow.

Join her and the rest of us. Have a great night.