01/03/2014 Look North (North East and Cumbria)

stories on the BBC News Channel That's all from me,

Good afternoon. A project which uses hens to help

combat loneliness in the North East has won a major grant from the

lottery. The Tyneside`based charity HenPower has been awarded a million

pounds to expand its servicds. Jonathan Swingler reports.

The people at the Wood Green sheltered housing scheme re`lly like

their chickens. The featherx friends were brought in over a year ago

Alan thought the idea was a bit odd at first. Believe it or not, when

the idea was first approachdd, I thought it was an absolutelx

ridiculous idea. But it's m`de, what, 200% difference to my life of

getting out of the house. And the people involved in this project say

they have noticed the difference it makes to people with dementha. When

we take the hens, a live thhng, they take interest in it, you know? And

once they take interest... H mean, the medications have dropped in the

home, so it must be doing some good. So far, there are eight projects

running in Gateshead. But a million`pound lottery grant means

this idea is being rolled ott across the country. We looked further

afield, and into Cumbria, and we're speaking to organisations in

Barnsley, in Birmingham, in London, in south London. So it's colbating

loneliness and getting people outdoors. This could become a

regular sight. The Bishop of Newcastle says the

Government's welfare reforms have led to a crisis, with thous`nds of

people in the region relying on food banks. While the Government says its

changes are designed to bring people out of poverty, the Bishop says at

the moment they are making life harder for some of the North's

poorest people. In the relatively affluent society which we are, the

fact that people are having to resort to such measures ` they're

literally on the breadline ` we have got a crisis, and I think that the

food banks are merely putting a sticking plaster over a wound, but

it's the longer`term solutions we need. And there will be reaction to

the Bishop's comments from LPs on Sunday Politics tomorrow at eleven.

Two teenagers remain in a critical condition in hospital after a

serious two`car crash in North Yorkshire. It happened near the MOD

ranges near Leyburn on Thursday The 17`year`old driver of a black

Vauxhall Corsa has been discharged from hospital.

A popular North East wedding venue has suddenly closed. Longhirst Hall,

near Morpeth in Northumberl`nd, closed yesterday because thd company

which operates it, Hotel Le`se (Number 3) Ltd, has ceased trading.

Dozens of couples who had booked to get married there now face finding

an alternative venue. The closure does not affect the adjoining golf

club. In 24 hours' time, Sunderland

players will be getting ready to walk out onto the Wembley phtch for

the Capital One Cup final. Homes and shops on Wearside are flying red and

white flags, and more than 30,0 0 Sunderland fans are travellhng to

the match this weekend as the players take on Manchester City and

try to bring silverware back to Wearside for the first time since

1973. We will have a full rdport from Wembley tomorrow.

Let's find out what the weekend weather has in store.

Here's Jennifer Bartram. Hello there, good afternoon. It was

a spring`like morning for m`ny of us, seeing some good spells of

sunshine, but there are a fdw showers just starting to edge in

from the west this afternoon. They will be fairly few and far between,

so many of us will enjoy a fine dry afternoon, with temperatures today

up to a high of seven degreds Celsius. Now, through the nhght we

start off dry with some cle`r spells, but we will start to see

some rain edging in from thd west. It will fall as hill snow for a

time, clearing by tomorrow lorning, with temperatures overnight getting

down to three or four Celsits. That's all for now. We're b`ck with

an update plus the day's football results at around five past six

Have a good afternoon. Hello there. The first day of

March, and quite a wintry chill to the first thing, but conditions have

improved a lot, a lot of sunshine have there, so the daffodils you can

see behind me, a good sunny Saint David's day across