09/10/2013 Look North (North East and Cumbria)

Hello. Welcome to Look North. In the programme tonight: The cuts go

deeper. Durham has to look for £20 million in savings on top of the

£200 million it's already committed to.

In the shadow of a waste mountain. People living near this landfill

site say it's blighted their homes. The giant pipe that siphons water

from Cumbria to supply a quarter of the North West's needs gets its

first inspection for 50 years. The willowy figures which so

enchanted Prince Charles that he's had his favourite dog commemorated

in twigs. In sport, two of our teams take a

step closer to Wembley glory. The former Newcastle keeper with the

lowdown on the new man chosen to keep Sunderland in the Premier

League. Every service will be under review.

That's the grim news for people in County Durham as the County Council

embarks on yet more cuts. The authority says it has to find an

extra £20 million in savings on top of its existing target of more than

£200 million. That brings the total savings that need to be made by 2017

to £222 million. Casualties could include five care homes for older

people. Our Political Editor is outside County Hall in Durham now.

Just how big is the financial challenge still facing Durham? That

£222 million represents about a quarter of the Council's budget. It

has managed to find about half of that since 2011 which has caused

1500 jobs and put pressure on services, but there is still around

50% to find. That means more jobs to go and more pressure on services. I

do not think there are any services we run that have not been reviewed

already, but I think all of them are going to have to be looked at again.

There is no other way we can approach this to find a quarter of

everything we do that will need to be reduced. We will run a major

consultation that will start in a couple of weeks right across County

Durham for people to tell us what their priorities are. More details

to come, but five care homes for older people are definitely under

threat? Yes, another decision being discussed was the future of these

care homes. You may remember a protest that took place not that

long ago about the future of the council run care homes, people

desperate to save them because they were under pressure. Some did

close, but around five were kept open. It seems that the battle might

have to start again because those five are under review. Those council

homes are in Durham and other places. The cost almost twice as

much to keep in a council run home as an independent sector home. You

can see the pressure is there, but it will be uncertain times for the

Humber residents. We're used to hearing councils telling us they're

struggling to meet Government targets of course. But how do we

square that with the BBC poll, that's just been released, which

shows a majority of the public think services have improved since the

cuts started? That is right. The government has seized on this and

pointed councils in the north—east and said, you can take money out of

the system, you can make efficiencies without hitting council

services. The Conservative group leader here, although he is

sympathetic to Labour, he believes his own government have taken too

much money out of County Durham, he says that are efficiencies the

council could still make without hitting services to the public. If

you look at executive pay, better people sitting around the Cabinet

table, we are one of the highest paying councils in the country. We

announced very large capital spending, £95 million of public

money, perhaps some of these egg capital projects need to be

scrutinised carefully. One other qualification to that survey, it was

a thousand people, north—east —— the north—east council feel they have

been hit particularly hard. People living in the shadow of a

massive landfill site in Hartlepool say their homes are virtually

unsellable because of it. The site at Seaton Carew is in the process of

being landscaped. But a campaign group set up by local people says

work being carried out at a Waste Transfer Station nearby continues to

make their lives a misery. The duck pond paints a picture of

suburban bliss in this part of Hartlepool. But behind the manicured

lawns lies a row between locals and the council that's been going on for

years. It's all because of this, a massive landfill site that residents

say is too big and too close to their homes. When we first moved

into the property, we were told that the site, it was trees and

wildlife, wild flowers, we were told that was how it would remain, as a

wildlife garden, forest trails. Five years on, the landfill site has been

opened and it has probably tripled in size. We have had our house on

the market for months and have ended up taking it off because nobody is

interested. When the estate agents valued the property they said we

have lost up to £60,000. Locals say their lives continue to be made a

misery by smells and vermin now coming from a nearby waste transfer

station. Niramax was granted planning permission in 2010 to

upgrade and extend facilities here. But locals say the smell is often as

bad as when the landfill site was open. Some days, I take my dog for a

walk and I want passed the landfill site and the smell is so severe it

makes me rich and I have to turn round and cut the walk short —— it

makes me feel sick. Although no—one from Niramax would appear on camera

they did invite me onto their site. Locals accuse the company of being

in breach of planning regulations by storing these bails outside. Niramax

says they're a much greener way of processing waste. The council says

it is concerned by locals concerned but while the planning application

is being processed it would be inappropriate to comment. Although

they wouldn't provide anyone for interview, the council has issued a

statement. Back on the other side of the mound,

locals say they feel let down by the council and left unable to sell

their homes. Police searching for a missing

Darlington man have found a body. The man has not been seen since

August 15. The body was discovered close to the A1 motorway. It has

been removed for postmortem examination.

A family from Middlesbrough has staged a protest at the Foreign

Office in London calling for better treatment for relatives of people

who die abroad. Matthew Cryer was just 17 when he died outside a

nightclub on the Greek island of Zante in 2008. A UK inquest found he

had been unlawfully killed. Now his family wants other bereaved families

to get more support from Foreign Office officials. You are kind of

left feeling quite bereft and on your on and you do not feel

supported. You feel that the organisation is more concerned with

that self, the career progression of its staff and its own image not to

us, the UK citizens, but foreign governments. —— to foreign

governments. Now, have you any idea where this

might be? It's inside the giant pipe which carries water from the

Haweswater Reservoir in the Lake District to the massive conurbations

of Greater Manchester. The building of the aqueduct from Haweswater to

Bury was one of the country's biggest engineering projects. It now

supplies 25% of the North West's water needs. For the first time in

almost 50 years, engineers have been inspecting it.

Haweswater is beautiful today, but this is an artificial landscape,

where the valley and its villages were flooded to slake an expanding

Manchester's thirst for ever more water. From here to Bury a pipe

would be built to carry 400,000 tonnes of water a day.

A huge piece of engineering and foresight for the builders. We have

to turn the history pages back to 1919 for the start of this game. ——

scheme. In 1919, it got the royal consent and permission to build the

reservoir and the aqueduct. That is when they got on and started to

build the dam and everything else. The aqueduct, now 90 miles long, was

many years in the making, not reaching its full size until 1974.

The demands placed upon it have grown too. There comes a point when

you have to take the aqueduct out of service and make sure it is OK. This

is where that is the huge logistical movement of water for us, we have to

reverse what we have done over the past 40 years. All of these other

places have to be self—supporting so we can get inside and make sure it

is in tiptop condition. How to switch the water through the pipe

off has been in the planning for ten years. 100 engineers, known as

aquanauts, have been inside the aqueduct for a week now. They were

specially chosen after undergoing training in this mock pipe in

Kendal. If you imagine the dashboard or your car, the service light has

definitely come on. We are going to look into it and if we have to put

in more investment we can plan for that. If need be, we will go back

and into or three years to do any work we need to do. Hundreds of feet

underground, the restrictions are tight. Engineers must wear

sterilised suits and can't even drop crumbs from their lunch boxes in

case they contaminate drinking water. Nobody in United Utilities

has ever done that. That aqueduct has never been drive. It is surely

uncharted territory. That United Utilities are confident no major

problems will be found is down to the quality of the engineering

carried out from the 1930s onwards. Millions of people who take clean

water for granted have a much earlier workforce to thank for that.

Its roof will be covered with grass. It'll cost over £10 million. An

appeal's been launched to find almost £4 million still needed to

create The Sill, a major discovery centre planned near Hadrian's Wall

in the Northumberland National Park. Today the building's design was made

public. This is Hadrian's Wall country, an

iconic landscape unchanged in centuries. Now, to maximise the

potential of this World Heritage Site status, the Northumberland

National Park is planning the Sill Discovery Centre. Today unveiling

the ground—breaking design topped with a roof of native Whin Sill

grass. What you will see here is a new landscape discovery Centre, a

very innovative building with an innovative green roof which people

can come and walk all over. The building is designed to seamlessly

rise out of the landscape which gives people the opportunity to get

onto the roof of the building and engage with when cell vegetation and

also the wider views. It will be built right here on the site of the

existing visitor centre. One small challenge. £3.7 million is needed to

unlock lottery funding. Polar explorer Konrad Dickenson is giving

his support. It is a fantastic project. It is going to become a

gateway and springboard for a wide selection of people to engage in

what the park has to offer. At a time of austerity and cutbacks,

should we be looking at a project like this? This is the time we

should be looking at it. If fundraising goes to plan the Sill

could be open for business in 2017. Coming up: A new way to see the

Yorkshire Dales without getting out of breath.

We'll be hearing from the football manager who swears he'll never turn

the air blue again. There is Stormy weather on the way

for eastern areas, including our region.

It's an ancient craft that's still very much in demand. For one

practitioner, it's work fit for a prince. Emma Stothard, whose studio

is in Whitby, sculpts animals from willow. One of her latest

commissions was for Prince Charles, a sculpture of his favourite dog.

From these talented hands, amazing things are being made. For a must.

Art, bending and sheep in Willow is now part of her work. Dramatic

sculptures made with techniques that date back thousands of years. In her

workshop in Whitby, the latest commission is beginning to to life.

I am working on a pheasant and I am using the Willow like drawing. Each

strand is interwoven. It is quite tough but it is soaked in water

first saw it becomes supple and pliable. Emma's work is now being

sold around the world. In Yorkshire you will find several PCs hiding in

the woods. —— examples of her work. People love them. People want to

touch them and have their photograph taken. They want to come along and

enjoy them. Emma's work has received royal approval. This started with

the grants from the Princes trust and to thank its patron she has made

him a Willow structure of his favourite dork which now sits in the

grounds —— dog. I asked if I could make him his favourite gift and I

was asked to make his beloved dog. Yorkshire has found itself a royal

connection, art and nature which survives and thrives in all kinds of

weather. Such patients. —— patience.

He was caught on camera swearing and shouting. The football manager

filmed barking at his players at a time the Ebac Northern League was

trying to stamp out swearing. It was so worried that bad language was

stopping families attending games that it sent secret shoppers to spy

on its games. But now, one year on, the manager says he's changed his

ways and become an ambassador for the League.

Still vocal, still passionate. But Paul Bennett says he's now calmer

and more relaxed. If you don't believe him, this is what he was

like last season when he was filmed by Look North. BLEEP It was a little

bit embarrassing to watch that back. I think referees will back me up

that I have improved. It has changed my whole approach. I have been,. I

am nice and calm nowadays. The Northern League says Paul's

transformation shows what can be achieved. This is a lot to do with

your programme because he saw himself and he thought, I am not

like that, and he realised how awful it sounded. He thought he had to

change and he suddenly discovered —— you suddenly discover that behind

the nonsense is an articulate lad who enjoys himself a great deal more

now he has stopped ranting and raving. Hopefully we can make

improvements because we have children watching and they do not

want to hear that and their parents do not want to hear that. So

committed is Paul now to the cause of stamping out swearing, he wants

to become an ambassador for the League.

Now the sport. The Johnstone's Paint Trophy may not

be the most glamorous of cup competitions, but for our lower

league clubs it represents their best chance of Wembley glory this

season. Last night a place in the last 16 was up for grabs and it was

League Two's Hartlepool who stole the show.

More heroics from Hartlepool in the Football League Trophy. After

despatching League One side Bradford in the first round, they were at it

again last night against other team a division above them, Sheffield

United. Just one goal enough as Cooper's side progressed courtesy of

a strike from James Poole, his third of the season and second in as many

games. I thought we looked solid. Sheffield united hit the bar in the

first minute. After that I thought we settled into it and I have to say

I thought we looked solid and dealt with most things that they threw at

us and we looked dangerous on the counterattack. Carlisle United are

another team who've undergone a turnaround in fortunes in recent

weeks and they also booked themselves into Saturday's draw for

the northern section quarter finals. After a goalless draw at League Two

Morecambe, they eventually won 4—3 on penalties, preserving new manager

Graham Kavanagh's unbeaten record since he took over the job. But York

City are out. An own goal by Chris Smith gave League One Rotherham a

1—0 lead at the interval and a second—half penalty followed by Alex

Revell's header saw the visitors gain revenge for their exit at the

hands of the Minstermen in last season's competition.

The former Newcastle goalkeeper Steve Harper was back at St James's

Park today to hand over the cheque. The proceeds from his charity

football match. One of the starters was Paolo Di Canio who lost his job

as the court just days later. He is well placed to talk about the

successor. Almost 51,000 supporters flocked to

St James' Park. Teams representing Newcastle and AC Milan proved a big

draw, with the Sunderland coach at the time Paolo Di Canio the target

for special treatment. 11 days later, he was out of a job, so

fortunate timing. He played a fantastic part in it, one of the

best players on the pitch. I thought he might have scored and took the

edge of the night. It was great of him to come along and I am sad for

him that he lost his job. As for his successor, Parker spent a month

working under him. They were just one or two players short of being a

Premier League side. He has a very difficult job now. Players will

working for him. He has the management style of knowing who

needs an arm around them and he is not scared of giving people a

rocket. He has a difficult first game against Newcastle but I can see

him doing well. Today was about saying thank you. Six good qualities

—— six charities are richer tonight. Next year's Tour de France is coming

to North Yorkshire for the first time ever and the route will take on

some of the most picturesque parts of the deal, which is why one couple

have come up with a great idea, to travel the route on a motorised

tricycle. Why have two wheels when you can

have three? With an engine on the back, this couple are way ahead of

the game in making the most of the Tour de France, long before it comes

to Yorkshire. We are focusing on Yorkshire for next year. We say that

you can experience the exact same route as the cyclist do on the

tricycle but without the sweating. These cyclists have been sweating

doing a section of the tour route and are very excited about the

world's biggest cycling event coming to Yorkshire. Cannot wait for it to

arrive. The planning is well underway. Well done is to Yorkshire

for bringing it here. The Tour de France starts for the first time on

the beginning of July the 5th and six. It is predicted millions of

fans will like the route, bringing unprecedented numbers of visitors to

the county. Stage one starts in Leeds before weaving through west

and north Yorkshire, making its way through the Yorkshire Dales before

finishing in Harrogate. Stage two starts in York before travelling 200

colonic towers, heading west towards Harrogate before going through ——

finishing in Sheffield. Combining the love of the vehicle with the

love of the Yorkshire veils. People always want to stop and talk to us.

—— Yorkshire Dales. I have been driving on the roads for many years

but this gives you a whole new perspective. It is almost like

flying over the countryside, but come next summer when hundreds of

support vehicles to send it is going to be all about pedal power instead.

—— vehicles descend. Stormy weather on the way for some

of us. A big change took place in the weather today, because these

weather fronts moved from North to South.

An hour later, there was a major transformation. But that wind was

picking up as well. Tomorrow, gale force winds, perhaps severe gale

force. Sherry for many of us. —— showery. Cold date in store. ——

night. It is going to be too windy for Frost. The northerly wind picks

up across the North Coast and North Yorkshire in particular. We have the

Met Office warning for the strong wind tonight and tomorrow. It will

continue to bring showers to eastern areas through the day. Most other

places escaped with a largely dry day. It is not going to feel warm.

One of the main features is that wind along the north—east coast.

Busts of 50—60 mph combined with the high tide and that could result in

localised flooding. —— busts. The low pressure will swivel around

and the high—pressure wins at least until the weekend. If you are out

and about in Cumbria over the next few days, a lot of dry weather,

gradually clouded over as the head through the weekend. It is always

going to feel cooler in the north—easterly wind. Eastern areas,

always stronger winds, so feeling colder. The main risk is those gusty

winds tonight and tomorrow. Half a billion spent on an

electronic border system that is not working.

Durham County Council considers more spending cuts.

Good night.