12/12/2013 Look North (North East and Cumbria)

Hello, welcome to Look North. In the programme tonight: Another blow for

the former cable workers sacked without redundancy pay.

Now they owe thousands of pounds for the use of the community centre

where they meet. Pay rises for MPs. We ask this

region's parliamentarians what they intend to do with theirs.

Wonder stuff. It's 100 times stronger than steel, and it's being

made in the North East. And as police crack down on bikes

without lights, we ask why so many cyclists are in the dark. I think it

is a bit patronising. I did not know about the law that you had to have

lights on your bike. In sport, we meet three youngsters

aiming for the Olympics on two wheels. And in our region, which has

no velodrome of its own, they're defying the odds to make the grade.

In 2011 they were made redundant, with no compensation. And two years

on, more than 120 former workers at the Birtley`based AEI Cables in

Gateshead have still received nothing. But the group has now

suffered another financial blow. They've been told they owe thousands

of pounds to a local community association, where they've been

holding their weekly support meetings. They say they can't ` and

won't ` pay. Our political correspondent Mark Denten has this

exclusive report. Remember these people? Two and a

half years ago they were marching for their jobs. They were sacked by

AEI Cables in Birtley in May 2011 with no redundancy and no

compensation. Because a legal procedure allowed the firm to do it.

But since then, they have been struggling. Back in August, I met

one of them. After 28 years at AEI, Bill and his wife Linda had received

nothing. Some of your feelings right now.

Just put the camera on her. And here is built today. At a weekly

meeting of the AEI workers at a local community centre. He still has

nothing. It is tough financially because you cannot do the things you

want to do. In past years, you could do this or that, no you cannot. But

while legal wrangling continues, they have a new fight on their

hands, not with the company or the legal system, but with an

organisation much closer to home. They have been told by the community

association that runs this hole that they owed nearly ?2000 for using it

over the last two years. `` hall. From now, the group has been asked

to pay ?45 every week to hold their meeting. These lads have to pay bus

fares or petrol money to get here, it is a real kick in the guts for

our cause. Whilst our association has every sympathy for the group and

has supported the group since 2011, the association has reviewed its

accounts and overall financial position, and decided that we could

not continue to allow this debt to Mike up in the name of a particular

group. The community association says the

workers will not be expected to pay what they owe before they get a

pay`out from the company. These workers say they cannot, and will

not, pay. Well, from one end of the pay scale

to the other. Our MPs are mulling over plans to hand them an 11% rise.

The independent body charged with setting their salaries believes they

should be given an increase of ?7,600 a`year ` pushing their pay by

2015 to ?74,000 pounds. Some of our MPs have already said they'd give

away that increase ` others haven't been as forthcoming. Our political

editor Richard Moss is here. So Richard, what are our MPs saying?

We sent an e`mail to them yesterday, fewer than half have responded, but

this is what they said. One said he would donate to charity, and another

said she would ask her constituents what charities she would donate to.

One said she would hand some money back to the Treasury.

Others are dead against it, but would not say whether they would

donate the money to charity. They will all be a bit wary of what

their constituents think. Yes, let us look at a particular figure here.

The annual average wage was 25,160 pounds, down 8.3% on the previous

year. The organisation that is proposing this say that taking money

off MPs' pensions and some allowances will cost the taxpayer no

more. It is an interesting one. Thank you

for coming in. An inquest into the death of a young

film maker in Newcastle has found he died from natural causes.

Lee Halpin ` who was 26 ` planned to spend a week living on the streets

to make a documentary about homelessness. His body was found in

a derelict building. Today's inquest found he died as a result of Sudden

Adult Death Syndrome ` after a pathologist ruled out any other

causes. The wife of a man who died in an

industrial steam oven has told the inquest into his death she can't

believe he killed himself. Andrea Falder ` seen here in the

grey jacket ` told the coroner her husband George would never have put

her, their children and his workmates through such trauma. The

body of 48`year`old Mr Falder was found in an autoclave at the Pirelli

factory in Carlisle in September last year. The inquest also heard he

had previously tried to kill himself, and had a history of

depression. The hearing continues. It's a product that could

revolutionise manufacturing, and it's being made right here in the

region. Graphene is a wonder material that's tougher than steel,

and more flexible than rubber. It can be added to paints, oils and

plastics and then used to make things like bendy mobile phones,

super`light batteries ` and even artificial retinas. Our business

correspondent Ian Reeve has had the first look at the Teesside facility

where graphene is made. I don't know if it'll work. But I

think I've seen the future. Here on Teesside they're making the

so`called "miracle material" graphene. It is extremely strong,

about 100 times the tensile strength of this deal `` steel, it is

extremely stiff, Ed conducts electricity higher than copper, it

also conducts heat, five times that of aluminium.

This is it in powdered form. But with that list of properties, its

uses are endless. It will help dissipate heat, so take heat away

from engine blocks and engines can therefore work harder, people are

interested on `` in putting it onto flexible membranes and ultimately

making flexible phones or iPads. The company cashed in on the

excitement that surrounds graphene development. It issued shares last

month. And they jumped 40% in value in the first day of trading. For

Robert, who spent 29 years in the more traditional industry of making

heavy chemicals at ICI, the difference to his old job and

potential in his new one is mind`blowing. The potential is

almost as far as your imagination could take you, because if you keep

track of it on the Internet, everyday somebody comes up with an

application. It could potentially be involved in every aspect of our

lives. The company wants to make eight

tonnes of graphene a year, to go into a predicted world market of 400

tonnes a year by 2017. It's made in that building over there. But don't

even think about looking at it ` so secret does the company want to keep

the production process. Not surprisingly perhaps. There are only

three manufacturers of graphene in this country. But as the product

could play as big a part in our daily lives as plastic, it's

certainly doesn't want to give anything away.

`` it does not want to give anything away.

The recent deaths of several cyclists in London have again raised

the issue of bike safety. Now it's emerged that police have stopped

hundreds of cyclists in Newcastle for riding without lights this year.

The campaign in Jesmond's aimed at persuading students especially to

take their own safety more seriously. For tonight's Look North

Report, Gerry Jackson found many young people surprised that having

no lights at night is against the law. Rather worrying, Gerry?

Not every cosy cocoa and motorists realises or sympathises with how

vulnerable cyclists can be, but it seems a great many riders are asking

for trouble well after dark, zipping around without lights or bright

clothing. When the streetlights come on, basically so should yours. It

sounds so obvious, doesn't it? It used to be the stuff of public

information films, you might call it simple common sense. But in today's

traffic, "see and be seen" has probably never been more important.

So on a dark winter's night in one suburb of Newcastle, how many people

are risking their lives and flouting the law?

We have stationed ourselves at a likely spot, and we are going to see

what we can see. This is a main cyclist route between

the city centre and the student heartland of Jesmond. Our rough

estimate was that one in five riders is missing at least one light.

Around half had no reflective or high visibility clothing.

My helmet and luminous top was optional, but come nightfall, a

front and rear light is a legal requirement.

So if this is so common, you might wonder why the police don't pull

people up for it. Well, the answer is, it seems, they do.

I joined a nearby patrol to find them with no shortage of customers.

I have stopped you because you have not got any lights on your bike. Did

you realise it was an offence? You are receiving a verbal warning.

I want to emphasise to you, get some sufficient lighting on your bike.

Why do you not have them? Well, I thought reflectors were pretty much

it. If there is a car there, it is going to have lights, it will see

me. I do have them. You know it is not safe.

If you don't have lights, it is better to cycle on the pavement.

That is illegal as well. In a little over three months of

this year, the police stopped nearly 400 cyclists without lights in the

Jesmond area alone. Several dozen went on to be prosecuted for repeat

or other riding offences. But the police approach is softly, softly `

the students are even given a free bike lock. I'd tell them to think

about it from a motorist Paul `` a motorist's point of view. Can the

ABC `` can they be seen when it is dark?

The combination of a steady and a flashing light, front and back, will

make you especially visible. Extra lighting on a helmet or clothing can

only help ` but you must have lights on the bike itself. It is a war out

there between cyclists and motorists and the amount of light that is out

there. We have now got lights as bright as cars, so now cyclists are

getting blamed for lights that are too bright. So we cannot win.

Back with the police, most of the night's transgressors held their

hands up ` but not everyone thinks it's a fair cop. I think it is a bit

patronising. I did not know about the law that you had to have lights.

Dark clothing, no lights, Winter's night, you are an accident waiting

to happen. What, I have never had a crash. Not yet.

You are mortal. You are flesh and blood. I appreciate that, but if

somebody pulls out in front of you, I do not think one might will make a

difference. `` one night.

The police have plenty of other things to worry about than cyclists

without lights. But if they save a life ` maybe his ` they'll think it

worth it. As I am sure some riders are

suggesting, all road users have a duty to safeguard life and limb and

flesh and blood. That is a strand of a bigger debate and a report for a

bigger night perhaps. `` a report for another night.

And there's plenty of opinion being voiced about cycling in the dark on

our Look North Facebook page. You can join in, the address is on your

screen now. Still to come tonight, Dawn's here

with the sports news. And it's probably one of the most

photographed rail routes in England. Celebrating the success of the

Settle`Carlisle railway ` 30 years after it was earmarked for closure.

Temperatures made double figures today. The mild weather is set to

stay for a few days, but it is not all plain sailing. John Mineta.

`` join me later. A Teesside woman helped by a

debt`counselling service is not only repaying her loans ` she's also

paying back the support she was given. Sue Connor was so desperate

she says she thought about killing herself. But now she's almost

debt`free. Chantalle Edmonds reports.

Mum of three Sue from Stockton has Christmas all wrapped up, but it

hasn't always been this easy. Just before Christmas 2009 her husband

lost his job and she found herself with debt spiralling out of control.

And no`one knew. I thought about taking my own life, and leaving my

children free of debt. The bailiffs and nobody else could come knocking

at the door. And it actually got to that point where I had picked my

day. Just in time, she turned to

Christians against Poverty, known as CAP, a debt counselling charity

which sets a budget with its clients and contacts creditors on their

behalf. This time of year they also give festive hampers to those most

in need. Being in debt is hard, but for many people who say they need

help, they are serious about it and they want to get out of debt. We

want to help them in any way we can. The charity has seen demand for its

services soar. This centre now has a waiting list

of between three and four months, so it will be March or April before

people currently in debt can get help.

But help they will get ` with CAP staying with its clients until they

are debt free. And for Sue, that day's almost here. I will be debt

free in eight months. It will be amazing to not have debt other than

house things. 30 years ago British Rail announced

plans to close the famous Settle to Carlisle railway, one of the last

great mainlines of the Victorian era. But campaigners fought hard to

save it ` and after a long fight, they succeeded. Three decades ago,

there were only two trains a day. Now it's a thriving passenger and

freight route, clocking up 1.2 million journeys a year. This report

from Spencer Stokes. Two of the men who helped save the

Settle`Carlisle line, reunited with a sign that was supposed to kill of

72 miles of railway. In December 1983 but Israel formally announced

the closure of the route, with framed notices at stations. ``

British rail. The first thought that came into

one's head was how come they could close such a magnificent line. All

right, it perhaps was not used by many passengers, there was no

freight, so you can see the argument, but it was really very sad

that this proposal was going through.

Closing the line would have left communities isolated and forced to

rely on cars and a patchy bus service in some of the most remote

parts of Yorkshire. It had happened to thousands of places before. But

the people here did not want to suffer, and their plight got

national attention. There was support from constituencies all over

the country, possibly an orchestrated campaign, I don't know.

But I think MPs will have been getting their ears bent up and down

the length of the land. The MP who would have the final say was on arch

Thatcherite. Would he save a line that would need

a higher public subsidy. Conservatives wanted public services

to run efficiently, but of course we also had a respect for the national

heritage and we knew it was a very remarkable and historic line.

Fortunately we managed to bring the two things together, because the

economic case for closure was very much weakened when vast numbers of

people began to travel on the line. There was a sort of closing down

sale, and some clever engineers discovered they could repair the

Victorian structure is much more cheaply than we thought.

So after six years, the Settle`Carlisle was thrown a

lifeline by a sympathetic minister. It is now a jewel in Northern

rail's climb's Crown. What does not kill you, makes you stronger. The

stations look fantastic, there are a lot more trains, and hundreds of

thousands of people using this line every single year. I think the

likelihood of us seeing in the foreseeable future a notice of

closure of this throwaway line, it is usually, hugely unlikely. `` this

railway line. `` hugely, hugely unlikely. The line is now a mixture

of antiquity and modernity. The railway that can celebrate its

past, secure in the knowledge that it has a future.

Time for sport now. Another cycling story.

There were many success stories at last year's Olympics in London. One

of them was the GB cycling team, who picked up in 2012 where they left

off four years earlier in Beijing. And there's clear evidence that the

12 medals won are still inspiring the next generation ` even in our

region, where there's no velodrome for track cyclists. Mark Tulip

reports. A bitterly cold night at the

Excelsior Academy. This specially arranged get`together on Tyneside

involved young riders from three North East clubs, with road and

tracks racing, might buy cling around the disciplines. But is the

sport still benefiting from the legacy of London 2012? In terms of

competition, the number of youth riders on bikes has doubled since

the Olympics. We have seen here rose on the TV, and the young riders want

to emulate that. `` heroes. One of those is 15`year`old Jake who

participates in the GB cycling development programme. Jake and

family spend a lot of time on the road. He is currently travelling to

Glasgow and Manchester, to get a five hour round trip. Sometimes we

see Jason Kenny training right next to us, and it shows you that cycling

is not like football, you can't train close to the professionals,

other sports are not like that. But could the region one day boast its

own velodrome? It is our number one priority in the

region, the problem is the funding. We have some funding available, but

there needs to be match funded by the local authority. `` it needs to

be. At least, and biking, facilities are

on the doorstep. `` at least for mountain biking. There are two

forests nearby. New line Sunderland play fellow

strugglers West Ham on Saturday, knowing time is running out to get

the valuable points they need to get them out of the relegation zone

after the weekend defeat to Spurs left them rooted to the bottom.

Meanwhile a buoyant Newcastle boss Alan Pardew is up against his former

club Southampton, who are just one place and three points behind the

Magpies. Even without the suspended Yohan Cabaye, who scored the goal at

Old Trafford which saw Newcastle win there for the first time in more

than 40 years, Pardew feels home advantage is key. You want to put

teams on the back foot before they arrive. And certainly Southampton

will be looking at tapes of us and fearing what we can do, and that

gives managers a headache in how they agreed to set the team up, and

gives you perhaps an advantage. We will look to exploit that on

Saturday. I think it is daunting for other teams when there are 50,000

Geordies in a good mood, roaring. Now, just before the weather, I'm

sure you've noticed that signs of Christmas approaching are increasing

daily. More and more houses are starting to light up. And one of the

best displays of lights started last night.

The Enchanted Parks event, which is held in Saltwell Park in Gateshead,

had its official switching`on ceremony.

It features works of art ` live performances and sculptures ` some

of which are produced by students from Newcastle, Northumbria and

Sunderland Universities. Around 20,000 people are expected to attend

the display, which is on every night until Sunday.

Time for the weather. Still not Christmas weather.

A gorgeous sunrise today for many of us, and also higher temperatures. We

will use this industrial picture, thank you to Stewart for that. The

temperatures were pretty remarkable this afternoon as well, 13 Celsius

at Newcastle airport, 55 Fahrenheit. As we head into tomorrow there will

be a lot of cloud around. Maybe a little bit of late rightness, but

the temperatures once again very, very mild. `` rightness. The air is

coming right up from the south, and despite the fact we have weather

fronts coming over the top of us, that southerly wind is keeping

things very mild. A fair amount of heavy rain this evening, some drier

interludes, but we will keep cloudy skies. Temperatures just dipping

into single figures. Tomorrow it is a cloudy start, most places stay

cloudy through the day. Bands of rain coming in from the west. Tail

end of the afternoon, perhaps some writer whether getting into western

parts of Cumbria, `` brighter weather. The wind turns a bit more

south`westerly rather than southerly later on tomorrow. The picture for

the next few days, a bit of a gap early in the weekend, becoming wet

and windy from the West. A gap again to start Sunday of before the next

Atlantic brings in wet weather from the West. We will see that wet

weather spread in from the West through the second half of Saturday,

and it will become very windy. Next week, I think we will start to

see temperatures in the daytime back into single figures and a return to

colder nights and maybe some wintry showers as well. You can keep up to

date with the weather app. You can also listen to your BBC local radio

station. Now a final look at tonight's

headlines. 22 emergency helicopters have been

grounded after a fault was discovered on an EC135. It's the

same model of helicopter which crashed into a Glasgow pub last

month. And another blow for former AEI

workers, sacked without redundancy pay. Now they owe thousands of

pounds for the community centre where they meet.

That is it for now, we will be back for the late News at 10:25pm.