04/01/2017 Look North (North East and Cumbria)

Unions say a firm making over two hundred cable workers redundant has

It's emerged AEI Cables of Birtley wants to use a legal procedure

The Company Voluntary Arrangement would mean taxpayers

But as our News Correspondent Mark Denten reports,

After over 170 years of producing cables for everyone

from the Royal Navy to Manchester Airport,

the vast majority of AEI Cables workers here, nearly 200 people,

will be out of a job by the end of this week.

Most of the rest will follow in March.

Over 120 workers at AEI Cables had turned up for work and found

One of the sacked workers, Bill Doyle, summed up the mood.

Nobody can explain to them from the company why or how

they have been finished or the criteria used.

Back then, AEI used a legal process to

dismiss those workers, but one which meant

fraction of their redundancy payments, money which ended up

Six years on and AEI wants to do the same thing.

It's called a Company Voluntary Arrangement.

It's used where a company is in financial difficulties

and is an agreement between a company and its creditors

But the redundancy letter to staff at AEI Cables obtained by Look North

confirms AEI Cables wants to follow the same process again.

a CVA because of the significant losses which it continues to incur.

In circumstances where a CVA is proposed, employers made

redundant as part of the CVA process are directed to the Redundancy

Payments Office to make a claim for statutory redundancy pay."

The arrangement was put there in able for the government to help

people out, it was made in the teeth of the recession.

This company are using this as a ruse to get out of

How in God's name can we have the same thing

happening all over again, the same procedures and methods of getting

For Bill Doyle, it's all bringing back bad memories.

After he lost his job, he fought a four-year legal

battle with AEI Cables to try to get his

Six years ago we'd tried to go to Parliament,

Now what we have is exactly the same again, because companies are just

Well, earlier I spoke to our News Correspondent Mark Denten

and asked him what AEI Cables is saying about the

They did not want to be interviewed but they said they are certainly not

They have issued a new statement tonight.

They say the reason they have gone down this

company voluntary arrangement route is that it is flexible and allows

That will be confirmed at a creditors' meeting which we don't

have a date for but the bulk of those workers, going on to 200, will

be out of a job at the end of this week, so it raises the question

One other detail from the letter to staff is

that there were actually two offers for the factory and the company says

neither was suitable and they can't give details because they are

Cumbria Police want to speak to four boys after a 15-year-old girl

reported she'd been raped in West Cumbria.

The attack is said to have happened at around 7.30pm last

night on a grassed area near the Cloffocks car

Hundreds of people gathered in the Lake District to mark

the 50th anniversary of the death of Donald Campbell.

Mr Campbell died when his jet powered boat Bluebird crashed

as he tried to break the world water speed record on Coniston water.

NEWSREEL: It was soon after dawn that Bluebird was got ready

There was little wind, the water was smooth.

The evening before, Donald Campbell drew the ace and queen of spades.

The deadly shadow of remorseless fate.

The shadows of daybreak that day on Coniston may

have been portentous, as Bluebird soared and then

Donald Campbell's instant death was to trigger an endless tale

This morning his daughter sailed to that very spot and dropped

I know it's 50 years and we use these anniversaries as a milestone,

but every year I'm reminded, every day I'm reminded

about what a great man my father was, and why me?

Why am I so lucky to be his daughter?

Over time the names Coniston and Campbell have become

For a long time I think the village people were reluctant to sort

of make anything of it because they felt that they didn't

want to sort of impinge on what was a tragedy.

We're actually keeping the name and the legacy alive and I'm sure

The landscape here at Coniston remains pretty much unchanged

from that day back in 1967, and so it seems does the memory

of Donald Campbell too, and the stories that have

Perhaps that's why so many were here today to continue

First, a moment of solemnity at the memorial in the middle

It is a measure of the man that I know as we're all gathered

here today to pay our respects to him and preserve his legacy

that he would wish us to remember all those brave and courageous men

and women who went before him and have followed since.

What he did he did for Britain and for his own achievement,

but he also did it to prove to the wider world what could be

done, what man can do, and what here we can in England

provide the best engineering and the fastest boats

and the fastest cars and the best aeroplanes, so he

NEWSREEL: This epic age, which soon will know man's

conquest of the moon, must count its losses, too.

Great Britain mourns the loss of a great man, Donald Campbell.

Now, if you're worried, anxious or upset who do you talk to?

A friend, family member or maybe your doctor?

A partnership between Cumbrian GPs and local vicars is giving

The Listening Ear project offers people the chance

to share their worries in confidence, while

freeing up much-needed doctors' appointments.

face in the Eden Valley, relied upon by her parishioners

for advice and guidance - she also has another role in this

small rural community, one where she simply listens.

Listening Ear is listening to somebody, giving them time for them

to tell you or talk to you about something

that's on their mind, whatever that might be, doesn't

People in need of a confidential chat - whether church-goers or not -

can be referred to Sarah by the local GPs.

The surgery here has half the doctors it had five years ago,

Sometimes people just need somebody to talk to,

they don't necessarily need more expert input from the

mental health service or the other counselling services available.

As GPs we are incredibly pressurised the Times

service that we used to offer and now Sarah is able to offer that.

If Sarah feels a patient needs medical advice she immediately

It took the Temple Sowerby team around seven years to get this

scheme safely up and running but now the project is expanding

There are now 12 Listening Ear volunteers in Cumbria,

each playing a small part in easing NHS pressures, as well as curing

the isolation that's often found in this rural landscape.

Now - you may not have felt it, but there was an earthquake

off the North Yorkshire coast last night.

It was detected 100 miles to the east of Scarborough

The British Geological Survey said it had a magnitude of 3.8.

Time for the weather now, and also time for the winter

Yes, a proper frosty night ahead. Yes, overnight tonight, a widespread

frost under clear skies. One or two showers still affecting North

Yorkshire and the coast. That is where the main ice risk is.

Temperatures down as low as minus Temperatures down as low as minus

three Celsius. We could easily see minus five Celsius. So a bitterly

cold start tomorrow. A widespread frost early on. After that, a fine,

dry and largely sunny day. We will also see something, high cloud

coming from the west later on. Most places set for a fine winter's.

Temperatures struggle after that frosty start. Five Celsius if you

are very lucky. But the winds will stay very light tomorrow. We are

under high pressure at the minute. That is what is allowing that frosty

night. It will be sent out of the way tomorrow by this frontal system

before high pressure starts to build again on Friday as we head into the

weekend. So for a Friday, it is all change. More cloud, outbreaks of

rain. Some of that rain heavily for a time, especially in the West. Much

milder as well. Temperatures should reach double figures. 10 Celsius.

The weekend stays mostly dry. A lot of cloud around, especially in the

West. Maybe the odd spot of rain, but generally dry. Cloud becoming

more broken by Sunday. We have the national forecast