20/01/2014 Look North (North East and Cumbria)

the windscreen first thing in the morning. That is

Hello. Tonight: 130 firefighters to go and three stations to close in a

bid to save money. It is quite a devastating day. Being the chief

fire officer, you accept that you lead the organisation, but it still

does not make this job any easier. It is a sad day for our fire

service. How thousands of families could be

missing out on a ?135 discount on their energy bills.

A leading expert on gas and oil exploration warns fracking could

have disastrous consequences. If you look at your tourism and farming

industries in Yorkshire, they could suffer very badly as a result of

fracking. And more than 50 new CCTV cameras for Cumbria in the fight

against crime. In sport, plenty to mull over,

including a first victory of the year for Newcastle United, and a

draw that felt like a win for Sunderland as they come back from

two goals down to stay afloat in the relegation battle.

Tyne Wear's chief fire officer has described it as a devastating day.

131 fire fighters and six fire engines are to go to help the

brigade balance the books. Three fire stations, sports, Wallsend and

Sunderland Central, will also shut in a bid to save more than ?5

million. A new station at Benton will be opened. Unions are warning

the cuts will put firefighters and the public at risk. Our reporter is

live. This is Sunderland Central Station.

They proposed to close this and that was three months ago. Since then

there has been a public consultation. The unions believe

these cuts are dangerous. They gathered thousands of signatures for

a petition and presented their case to the fire authorities. It was then

that they found out whether it would make any difference at all to the

scale of the cuts. They gathered in force, Tyne

Wear's firefighters determined to press for a rethink on planned cuts.

After three months of campaigning they were hopeful of a change of

heart. And they did get to hear fire authority members bemoan and

question the cuts, but when it came to the vote, they pressed ahead.

Despite union protests, one in five firefighters, one in five fire

engines and three fire stations will be gone within three years. Initial

reaction is one of astonishment. I am genuinely stunned. It is not what

we thought would happen. We have spent an awful lot of time in the

last three months consulting with members of the fire service,

speaking to politicians, involving the public. They have gone for the

nuclear option and it is worse than we ever thought. It is a very sad,

depressing day. Many members said they made the decision to press

ahead with a heavy heart. The chief fire officer called it a devastating

day, and he insisted there will be no compromise on safety. We are not

going to endanger firefighters or the community. I am a trained

firefighter. I have rated and worked on a fire engine. The proposals will

be incremented in a safe and progressive manner to make sure we

are not endangering anybody's life. Tyne Wear is not the only brigade

facing tough choices and protests. People in Penrith were upset at

plans to remove a fire engine from their town. In all, Cumbria is

looking to cut five engines and close one station. Cleveland could

shed 60 firefighters and a station. Durham and North Yorkshire are also

losing firefighters. Unions in Tyne losing firefighters. Unions in Tyne

Wear is a industrial action is an option. We will have to look at

trade disputes. Safety has been put at risk because of this decision.

Cuts, now, though beginning. But it might not be the last time we see

firefighters together to register their opposition.

I understand the big unions do not want these cuts to happen but do the

brigade really have any choice? The union was arguing today that the

Tyne Wear brigade could use its reserves to stop these cuts

happening but the authorities said that would just be postponing the

inevitable. They looked at whether they could raise council tax but

they worked out they would need to raise it up to 15% a year for the

next three years to replace this money they need to save. ?8.8

million. So this ?5.4 million does not even save all of that. So they

will do things differently. The chief fire officer says they will go

to some lower level calls more slowly, possibly with two engines,

but that will allow engines to get to the major incidents in the same

time. The unions do not buy that. They seemed now to be on a collision

course with their managers. A man has been jailed for life for

murdering his partner in a hairdressing salon in North

Tyneside. Lisa Banks was 46 and worked at the Sole`O barber shop in

South Shields. `` North Shields. Robert Tiffin, who pleaded guilty to

murder, was told by a judge at Newcastle Crown Court he would serve

a minimum of 23 years. A 15`year`old boy has been arrested and charged

with a public order offence following a protest by pupils at

Redcar Academy. It came following claims that one of

its pupils, 14`year`old Mia Flood, had been suspended after shaving her

head to raise money for the Teenage Cancer Trust. In a statement, the

school said they agreed with Mia's family on arrangements for her

education should she choose to shave her head, and it did not plan to

suspend her. Thousands of families could be

missing out on the Warm Home Discount, which knocks ?135 off

energy bills for people who are in fuel poverty. Inside Out has found

out that in County Durham alone, thousands of families may not yet

have claimed it. County Durham is the black spot in

the North for people who struggle to pay their fuel bills. Sharon gets

?71 a week jobseeker's allowance over and ?22 of that goes on fuel.

You are either cold or you are hungry. Hope ground floor flat is an

insulated. An infrared camera shows the heat leaking through the walls.

That is the red and yellow. I do not know what to say. It is shocking.

Sharon probably qualifies for Warm Home Discount, ?135 a year off her

electricity bills. Vulnerable pensioners get it automatically.

People like Sharon must apply for it. But she has never heard of it.

How does it make you feel that you did not know about this? Stupid.

Most of those we spoke to in County Durham who may qualify had heard for

it either. The energy companies who were supposed to pay it were not

much help. They have little idea how many qualified. We asked the big six

how many customers in Durham were eligible to claim. Only one, NPower,

had figures. It estimates between 6.5 and 9.5 thousand customers are

part of the broader group eligible for WHD. But just over 1000 claim

it. If that is typical for energy companies, then between 19000 and

30,000 households in Durham could be missing out. It is claimed the

Government could solve this problem. Why not give it

automatically to those who qualify, rather than those who qualify having

to find out? Site pensioners `` pensioners automatically get it. But

we are trying to make it as simple as possible. The Government has a

target to eliminate fuel poverty by 2016. Critics say as energy prices

rise, that target will not be reached. We will soon find out.

And if you are keen to know how you can save money on your energy bills,

what Inside Out tonight on BBC One at 7:30pm, at two families from

Tyneside and Cumbria go head`to`head to try to save cash without changing

their energy supplier. Still on energy matters, a leading

expert on gas and oil exploration is warning any move towards fracking in

Yorkshire could have disastrous consequences for tourism and

farming. Test drilling is already taking place on one site in the

Yorkshire and there have been expressions of interest in other

sites. It looks innocuous but this is great

Yorkshire's had its first brush with the fracking industry. Samples from

deep underground have been taken for further analysis to see if lucrative

shale gas can be extracted from this site near Pickering. It is expected

to be the first of many such sites, with the shale gas stretching right

across the region and the Government offering councils cash incentives in

the form of business rates. There has been much resistance amid fears

of water pollution and earthquakes, and one oil and gas expert fears it

will harm the countryside. If you look at your tourism and farming

industries in Yorkshire, they could suffer very badly as a result of

fracking. And so consequently, you are left with a legacy of thousands

of gas wells abandoned, leaking, agriculture destroyed and tourism

wrecked. What is fracking? It works pipe drilling deep underground,

getting water, sand and chemicals into the rock and collecting the gas

that escapes. We are just beginning to look at the potential value of

shale gas. In America it has brought down gas prices, but there is

growing evidence that in some cases, fracking has had major health

indications, a situation companies wanting to do fracking in the UK say

could not happen here because of tight regulations. There has been

evidence of some contamination caused because the gas well has not

been constricted properly, and there is absolutely no evidence it could

because by fracking per se. But companies like IGas will be largely

self regulated and we have discovered that the health and

safety executive will not be carrying out site visits to inspect

the gas wells unless there is specific cause for concern. It is

not possible for an inspector to stand in the corner of every single

factory in this country, or in every single chemical plant. The onus of

responsibility rightly have to be based on the owner and operator of

that site. But even if fracking becomes a reality here, not everyone

is convinced it will solve our energy needs. We might be lucky to

get 1% at. It might be 0%. We have to be realistic. It is hard to

imagine a big shale gas injures three `` industry in a country so

densely populated. This board shortly and also still to

come, fighting crime, how more than 50 new CCTV cameras are to go up in

Cumbria. And a weather warning in the forecast.

Tune in later to see the areas which will be affected.

Roadworks lasting 30 weeks got under way in team Valley in Gateshead this

morning. The scheme by Gateshead Council will see the road widened to

accommodate bus lanes. It will be completed just before other

roadworks by the highways agency will start in August, and last a

year and a half. ?1 million will be spent on CCTV cameras in Cumbria.

Many are no longer be teeny monitored `` no longer routinely

monitored. More than half ?1 million will come from a home office grant

which will be added to funding from the councils themselves.

We are all used to them, keeping watch and helping to fight crime,

but many CCTV cameras have fallen victim to cancel budget cuts. Now a

?500,000 home office grant will update and in some cases start the

camera network. If you can bring people to justice, this is a tool

that is a good step in the right direction. We know it is a difficult

time for authorities but we have to penalised those who commit crime and

surely that is money well spent. 54 cameras will be provided across the

county at a total cost of ?1 million. The Home Office is giving

more than half ?1 million towards it, and Cumbria assessment six

district councils will plug the remaining funding gap. About a year

ago I made grants for ?100,000 for anti`social behaviour to each of the

six district councils. Depends on what they spent it on in their

applications to this office, but we are now in a situation where

district councils will have to make a contribution of some form to the

capital but the running costs will be borne by the constabulary. In

Carlisle, cameras only record now. Real`time monitoring was stopped to

save money. A one`off payment from the council of ?89,000 will get them

a brand`new set of cameras. The output of the cameras will be

monitored by the police. That will be at their headquarters in Penrith.

The high`tech system will be able to send the images seen there to the

hand`held devices of officers working on the ground. The cameras

should be up and running by the end of the year.

If you like shoes, you'll have heard of a company called Pavers. They're

based in York but now they have plans to expand in India. The

company is already the first foreign manufacturer allowed to have wholly

owned operations in the country, but now it wants to massively increase

its chain of stores there. Our business correspondent, Ian Reeve,

reports. York shoe company Pavers does rather

well in this country. It sells up to three million pairs of branded shoes

a year. But it has big aspirations here. In India, Pavers has 45 stores

and 120 concessions. But it wants to build up to a combination of 5,000

over the next 15 years. We always thought the retail was quite poor

and disorganised in India, so we thought we might have a chance of

giving a good job there. The potential is really unlimited. We

measure it against China, where we have had a relationship with a

company from 20 odd years ago, when we had a small factory to now where

we have 18,000 shoe shops. In India, the union flag adorns the shoes.

This very English brand even makes the news. So after this must haves

in your wardrobe, get set to give your shoe collection a twist. The

Englishness of Pavers appeals in India, especially to the young. 70%

of its population is under 30. The union Jack is a very obvious symbol,

distinguishing us clearly from what is offered locally in India. It is

the Government's aim to double trade with India by 2016 and exports grew

by 20% last year, growth that can at least in part be traced to this

company. On to sport now, and on a Monday

night that means it's time for Team Talk.

Well, Newcastle are enjoying a sunshine break in Abu Dhabi ` reward

for their victory at West Ham which ended a run of four defeats in a

row. Yes, their first win of the New Year

came against former Newcastle manager Sam Allardyce ` never a

favourite with the Magpies fans, and having a torrid time this season. He

could really do with Andy Carroll back to full fitness. The former

Newcastle striker did get a bit of a run`out later, though. But Newcastle

were totally dominant in the first half, Yoan Gouffran setting up star

man Yohan Cabaye ` lovely control there to put them ahead. In fact,

Newcastle had no fewer than 12 shots on goal. Sissoko unfortunate not to

score there, but a fabulous cross to set up Loic Remy for his 11th goal

of the season, a year to the day that he scored his first Premier

League goal for Queens Park Rangers against...West Ham! The Hammers got

themselves back into the game on the stroke of half time against the run

of play ` a lucky deflection for Carlton Cole and unlucky for Mike

Williamson who got the last touch. Big Sam wont worry about that but he

will worry about misses like this. Andy Carroll at least has an excuse

having just come back after eight months out. But it was the big

Geordie who gave away the free kick that lead to Cabaye's second goal in

the fourth minute of stoppage time ` and he's a master at this isn't he?

A hugely important part of Newcastle's success and with eleven

days to go Alan Pardew must be praying he can keep Cabaye in this

transfer window ` but ultimately delighted to get back to winning

ways. In the first half I do not think we

could have played any better. We were really kicking ourselves at

half`time to only have one goal in it. They had a lot of quality on the

bench, Morrison coming off the bench, so we had to show another

side to us in the second half. 36 points is a fantastic total and we

look forward to the second half of the season.

Well, Newcastle did their neighbours a huge favour with that win over

West Ham ` Sunderland now level on points, down at the bottom, with the

Hammers and Cardiff City. But they had to work hard to escape what

looked like being a damaging home defeat by Southampton. That's right

` Gus Poyet out of his seat for most of a dreadful first`half. It was a

12.45 kick`off ` and the early start seemed to catch Sunderland half

asleep. An awful kick out. Very nearly got caught out by that one.

And poor marking for this corner meant there was a second for the

Saints. But within 90 seconds Sunderland were back in it. That was

the beginning of the fightback. It all in the second half as well.

Gardiner here set up Adam Johnson. He suddenly started scoring goals,

and with his right foot, as well. But Gaston Ramirez, not on two feet.

Lucky not to get a red card. Not so lucky, though, was Wes Brown's

former team`mate Manchester United captain Nemanja Vidic, sent off at

Chelsea yesterday, which means he'll miss the Capital One League Cup

semifinal second leg with Sunderland on Wednesday night.

And Sunderland tonight confirmed they've signed Argentinian defender

Santiago Vergini on loan for the rest of the season.

Now, in the Championship, Middlesbrough are just five points

off the play`offs, Dawn? Yes, that's five wins out of the

last six League games. And it was largely thanks to on`loan keeper

Shay Given that Boro didn't drop two vital points at the very end,

against struggling Charlton. Boro's Spanish boss, Aitor Karanka, has

certainly made a difference at the Riverside, but he admitted his side

didn't play well. An early lead always helps, though, and players

like Emmanuel Ledesma are never afraid to try their luck from

distance ` the bounce deceiving the keeper there.

And he was making his debut for Chalrton, as well. Yohann

Thuram`Ulien ` but he did make amends, with two saves here from

Muzzy Carayol. That second killer goal wouldn't come.

Charlton felt a bit hard done by. They didn't think Simon Church had

fouled Shay Given in the box. And they weren't happy at the straight

red card for Rhoys Wiggins for his foul on Dean Whitehead ` but the

referee in no doubt. And with the last play of the game,

Given made this great double save ` no parrying into the path of the

opposition, catching the ball and smothering it, great technique to

hang onto victory! I'm sure Aitor Karanka will want to hang onto him

if he can. Worrying times for Graham Kavanagh

at Carlisle. Two points off the drop zone now. It's not that his side

didn't create chances against Colchester. They should have taken

the lead before Sanchez Watt put the visitors in front ` awkward bounce

for the keeper. An own goal got the Blues back in it, but when Watt

scored his second, you sensed this wasn't going to be Carlisle's day.

Kavanagh's concerned about what he called "schoolboy defending" ` the

crowd not impressed either. Max Ehmer made up for his earlier own

goal near the end, but it wasn't much consolation. You do not put the

ball in, like we didn't, you are going to be under pressure. Six

chances in the whole game and they scored four goals. We had many more

chances and we did not put the ball in the debt. The manner in which we

conceded today was extremely poor. Yes, and it didn't help that Pools

were down to ten men after just two minutes at Fleetwood. A horrible

tackle from young Jordan Richards, and off he went. No real argument,

and it was uphill from then on. Well, they held out for 67 minutes,

only for big Jon Parkin ` universally known as "The Beast"

because he's not the slimmest of centre`forwards ` to show he's got a

decent touch. Very nice finish, that one.

It was. And then Mikael Mandron, on`loan from Sunderland, set up

Fleetwood's second, just a couple of minutes later. Pools have lost three

in a row now, and are just five points above the relegation zone.

So it's a big game at Victoria Park this weekend, when they're at home

to York City, who were frustrated by Bristol Rovers' keeper Steve

Mildenhall in their goalless draw at Bootham Crescent.

And well done to Colin Cameron, the new Berwick Rangers boss, whose

first game ended in a thumping 4`0 win over Stirling. Yes ` a great

start for him. Basketball finally, and there was a

double success for Newcastle Eagles at the weekend. They were pushed all

the way at Sport Central on Friday night, hanging on to beat Cheshire

Phoenix by 103 points to 100. They followed that by winning 101`73 at

Essex Leopards in the BBL Trophy, to earn a home quarterfinal with either

London Lions or Worcester Wolves. Sadly, Durham went out of the

competition, losing by 90`81 at Plymouth.

And that is the sport. Time for the weather.

Another weather warning to start the forecast but first, some pictures.

They show the situation as it developed over Newcastle earlier

today. Our headline for tonight, frost and fog. A weather warning in

place for North Yorkshire over Newcastle earlier today. Our

headline for tonight, frost and fog. A weather warning in place for North

Yorkshire overnight and clear to develop, first of all to

Northumberland and then to North Yorkshire. Particularly the Team

Valley and the Wear Valley. There could be frost on the grass, as well

as fog and mist first thing tomorrow morning. Really slow to clear and

lingering right through the morning and through until lunchtime in many

parts of the East of the region. Through lunchtime, things clear for

a time before it becomes clear later on. Chillier than today. But the fog

has lifted for most places. The temperatures in the high 30s, low

40s in Fahrenheit. It is already raining across Northumberland and

Cumbria, and as we move westwards across the Pennines, six or seven is

the high here but not feeling pleasant in brisk South easterly

wind, blowing in that range through tomorrow tea`time and into the

evening. The big picture showing that rain continuing to splash its

weight used with across the UK through Tuesday evening. `` splash

its way through to the East. On Thursday things will gradually start

to calm and there should be drier weather by the end of this week,

although still generally low pressure dominating the forecast.

What does that mean in detail? Let's take a look at the towns and cities

across the few days after tomorrow. Temperatures not quite as chilly and

we are expecting some sunshine as well, especially on Thursday. In the

North East, a better chance of some sunny spells on Thursday but gloomy

here on Wednesday as wet weather crosses the region, brisk wind as

well, but not quite as cold as it will be tomorrow. So a weather

warning in place from tonight through until tomorrow morning for

fog in North Yorkshire and with those temperatures below freezing,

some of that frog could freeze as well. `` some of that fog.

The headlines: Lord Renard has been suspended from the Liberal Democrats

for refusing to apologise over allegations of sexual harassment

which he has always denied. The Tyne which he has always denied. The Tyne

Wear Fire Brigade has confirmed cuts of 131 firefighters and six by

engines. The chief fire officer said it was a

devastating day. That is it for now. See you then.