03/01/2017 Look North (North East and Cumbria)

Nearly 240 workers are to lose their jobs at an industrial cable maker.

Birtley-based AEI Cables said the plant is running at a loss

and just 13 sales staff will be kept on at a new location.

It signals the end of manufacturing at the 175-year-old business.

Our business correspondent Ian Reeve sent this report.

This is obviously unwelcome news but not wholly unexpected.

The company has complained it has had a tough time over

It was bought in 2014 by a Dubai-based cable

manufacturer called Ducab and, at the time, that deal

was very much portrayed as having saved this plant.

But throughout 2015 the company had complained that the plant

In September 2015 the company then revealed it was negotiating

Fast forward to November 2015 and the company then conceded that

closure was possibly something it was looking at and, of course,

I can't understand and I hope that Ducab are never allowed to trade

Because they have actually sold us down the river again.

They're supposed to be our parent company yet we are having

-- go to the government for our redundancy.

When you look at the history of AEI, we have a bit of a reputation for it

We are a lot better off than some and a lot worse off

198 jobs will go before this Friday, the Friday coming up,

January the sixth, part of what it is calling

40 other people will stay working only until March.

13 sales staff will then be kept on permanently at another location

somewhere in the north-east, presumably selling products made by

The company also claimed in this statement that it has significantly

invested in the plant in the last 2.5 years but profitable production

A man from Sunderland and his wife have been found dead at a seaside

The couple are believed to have died on New Year's Eve.

They've been named locally as Robert Wells and Imogen Goldie.

There aren't thought to be any suspicious circumstances.

The police have named the man whose body was recovered

from the River Ouse in York on New Year's Day.

He was 42-year-old Craig Batters from York.

Officers are trying to piece together his last movements.

An aristocrat has denied dangerous driving following a crash

76-year-old Lady Susan Zetland, of Aske Hall near Richmond,

appeared at Teesside Crown Court for the brief hearing.

Her vehicle was involved in a collision at the Melsonby

The trial date will be set after the 9th of May.

Northumberland County Council says it's "disappointed" it's not been

given the go ahead for a garden village-style housing development.

A possible site near Ponteland wasn't named among the 14

But an area just to the south of Carlisle will have a garden village.

More from Mark McAlindon in Cumbria in a moment,

A garden village is an inclusive community and the Dissington site

will include a wide range of affordable housing.

The people who want to build a garden village near Ponteland say

that they can offer something special for future residents.

But 2000 new homes near existing properties?

Don't be surprised if people nearby get annoyed.

Many of us feel we are moving from living in a village or small

town, many of us here are living on the edge of that small town

and essentially we are going to be living in the middle of a large town

I think it is the scale, not the fact there is some building.

There needs to be building and are already has

It is just the scale of the proposed development,

Northumberland County Council told us they were disappointed the site

outside Ponteland wasn't among the 14 new garden villages

But supporters say it is only a matter of time.

The developers argue it is not a housing estate and say

there will be land around this new village.

They expect the project to get the green light later this year.

Firstly, this scheme brings very substantial infrastructure

improvements in terms of a new bypass and flood

It is also a self-sustaining community that has all its own

facilities so it doesn't put pressure on other places nearby.

While people will have those concerns, I think

David has lived here for four decades.

He is resigned to the project going ahead.

I was very upset at first, and so was my daughter,

and all the rest of the neighbours are as well.

Now I'm getting more used to the idea.

The people who own the land are confident work will start

There's a huge tract of land south of Carlisle fringed on one

side by the M6 motorway, and the main A595 route out to west

Somewhere here, one of the government's new garden

villages will be built, with the name St Cuthbert's.

An announcement that's delighted those who drew up the plans.

This will be a major event for Carlisle.

A lot of work still to be done, master planning, working out

exactly how this will work, but the government giving out

support for that is a big boost for the city.

Unlike the south east, there is no housing shortage here in Cumbria.

But, the local MP believes the city has to expand in order

I have long supported further development of Carlisle.

I think it needs to be a bigger city to support all the infrastructure

which we want to see here, leisure facilities, retail,

and you're starting to see that happen.

The arrival of Primark, the development of Marks Spencer,

the expansion of Pioneer, these are really positive signs

and I think 2017 can be a good year for Carlisle.

Although there are no clear details yet as to where any

new village would go, clearly any influx of

people will put pressure on the area's infrastructure.

Which is why a new southern bypass could be built around

the south side of Carlisle, linking the M6 in the East

It is much more likely that we will get a Southern development route.

The government have said through this process they will work

with us and give us the technical expertise and look at

This is something very different to just building new housing here.

Even agreement on where St Cuthbert's could be built

Mark McAlindon, BBC Look North, Carlisle.

No prisoner should leave a Teesside jail without either a job to go

That's the ambition of Stockton's Holme House Prison.

It's part of a multi-million-pound plan which is also giving

the governors full control over the jail and its budget,

These Holme House prisoners are making furniture for customers,

including Hilton Hotels, Kent University and the

It keeps people out of their cells, not banged up all the time.

It keeps them occupied and takes their minds off things,

Plus, it will help people to get back into work on the out.

It will keep them out of trouble, basically.

I can read, but just a little bit, not much.

I've made some qualifications while I've been here.

And the jail has a growing order book.

If we go back 18 months, 2 years ago, it was around

about ?50,000 a year, the turnover, we're now

Because we're now autonomous, the shackles have been taken off,

and we can start to expand and work more with local people.

What we would like to do is work with local industries,

we would like to invite local industries in, tell us

what they want and see if we can develop them.

Under these Government changes, Holme House will go

from being a Category B prison to a Category C training prison.

That means ambitious plans for getting almost

all of the 1,200 inmates here either into work or education.

The prison's executive governor sees the changes as a way

The more work we can bring in, the more employers we can work with.

The more men that can be out every day in our workshops, working,

then the better and the safer the prison gets, and the more we are

So, it is a real focus around work and education.

That means brushing up on basic maths and English skills to make

them a more attractive prospect to employers.

They don't want to be in here, they don't want to come back.

The only way we can support that is by educating

Time now to see how the weather is shaping

up for the new year, with Paul Mooney.

Can we expect some winter sunshine? I think so over the next couple of

days but we will pay the price with frosty nights. Tonight I went in

front is moving across the North. A lot of cloud at the moment and

patchy light rain. As the front moves south so does the thick cloud

and the rain so we have more dry clear and cold conditions by the end

of the night. Close enough to freezing for a touch of ground frost

and maybe one or two icy patches. Tomorrow has a chilly start but most

places will be fine and dry, the odd shower in parts of the East Coast.

Most places have plenty of blue sky. Temperatures. Go. -- will struggle.

So a fairly sharp frost tomorrow night. High pressure takes charge of

the next couple of days giving us frosty nights and fine dry days. A

front moves in into Friday with cloud and rain but it should clear

away with high-pressure building for the weekend keeping is mostly dry

then as well. The next few days, after a frosty night tomorrow,

temperatures well below freezing for most of us, first they looks fine

and dry, temperatures struggling even with sunshine. Friday, some

rain to the West milder later in the week. That is it

from me but coming up next is the national picture. Good evening. But

frost or not of frost, that is the weather question for tomorrow and

the answer is no, probably not because of this weather front that

is slipping south from Scotland, maybe towards the south-west where

we might have one or two pockets of clearer skies. The real cold air is

in the north, behind that cold front and that will be as significant as

we move into Thursday morning. It means that overnight temperatures

will stay just above freezing with the exception in parts of Scotland.

Around three or 5 degrees in many towns and city centres but the cold

air behind that fund