20/04/2017 Look North (North East and Cumbria)

Good evening. night

Almost a year and a half after the floods of Storm Desmond,

nearly 300 householders in Cumbria are still waiting to move back home.

Other people have been forced to return

to bare and unfurnished property

because insurance companies will no longer pay

for temporary accommodation elsewhere.

Some say it's left them feeling stressed and ill.

From Carlisle, Mark McAlindon reports.

Cold, bare houses with the comforts of home stripped out were a common

sight in the weeks after Storm Desmond.

Except this is Debbie Kirsopp's Carlisle terrace

I needed to get on because no friend that the insurance was pain hasn't

stopped and I could not afford to pay a mortgage and rent as well, so

I have had to come home and make the best of a bad job.

with constant headaches, high blood pressure,

when she'll stop living rough in her own home.

I sometimes go to the swimming baths so I can get a shower in the

morning, and I will maybe go to somebody's house for my tea, my

brother, my mother's my partner's. Anybody that will have me that has a

shower. Sometimes get a better as well so it is a more comfortable. --

I get a bed as well. Cases like Debbie's leave some

to fear the real numbers of those still out of their homes

after Storm Desmond are higher

than the official 283. We are seeing unbelievable problems

of people trying to manage that sort of experience on top of being

flooded originally, so at the moment they are not coping well at all. On

experience, we are looking at a minimum of two years before they are

going to be one. -- going to be home.

Another is Ann Hume, whose riverside cottage

her insurance leapt to ?1,000 a month, a sum she couldn't afford.

At which point it is going to be on the goodwill of friends.

At which point it is going to be well over a year and a half? I

thought I would be back in within maybe six months, seven months

maybe. But it has been over a year, so I have just got to fight on and

see what I can do myself. returned home after the latest

floods is better than in the past, but that's little consolation

to those still waiting. Hopes that Northumberland's Coty

factory site might be given a new lease of life have been raised

in Parliament this evening. 400 jobs are set to be lost

with the closure of the cosmetics The Labour MP for Blyth Valley,

Ronnie Campbell, called a special

debate in the Commons. If the government was to give

somebody a bit of incentive in this case, and I would like to hear the

Minister, here what he has to say and what incentives are available if

any to get somebody involved in this factory and get it started up again

and give them employment rates back again to those people who were

working there. A soldier accused of the murder

of his ex-girlfriend has told a court her throat was cut

as he tried to defend himself. Lance Corporal Trimaan Dhillon

told Newcastle Crown Court he'd gone to Alice Ruggles'

flat in Gateshead in October last year

to collect his belongings. She'd ended their relationship after

discovering he was cheating on her. Lance Corporal Timaan

Dhillon told the court he had gone to see

Alice Ruggles the day she died, because he wanted to get

his belongings back. But he told the court

after searching for his things, he went to leave her flat

in Rawling Road in Gateshead, Lance Corporal Dhillon described

a struggle in which Alice lost After coming round, the defendant

claimed he told Alice he was planning to meet another

woman that night. who took the knife again

and came towards him. He said that as he tried to defend

himself by deflecting her arm, and the defendant said he had

to remove the knife from her neck. He said, "This is the point

when I held the knife on my chest, "and the initial thought

was to stab myself." Lance Corporal Dhillon said panic

stopped him ringing for help. Throughout the trial,

the prosecution claimed Dhillon but he told the court that Alice had

been violent to him and accused him of

looking at other women and ended the relationship when

she found out he'd been unfaithful. The proseuction alleged that LCD had

been stalking Alice he'd gone to her house

unannounced just weeks before

her death because he thought

she might have been testing him and he wanted to prove

that he was bothered about her. The defendant admitted hacking

Alice's Facebook account to try to work out if she was seeing

other people, because that, he said, would be the 'last straw'

for their relationship. Tomorrow he will be

cross-examined by the prosection. A group of traders in

a Northumberland town have been fined by magistrates after refusing

to pay a business charge. The Hexham Business Improvement

District is designed to boost it's paid for by charging traders

on top of their business rates. But more than 100 firms

have refused to pay it, saying the new scheme

won't help them. And today, Northumberland Council

took them to court. Our News Correspondent,

Mark Denten, reports. Mechanics, beauticians, hoteliers,

all small business owners from Hexham. But not in Hexham today,

they were heading for a courtroom instead. They have all refused to

pay a new business charge in the town. They say it simply will not

help them, so today they were summoned to Newcastle Magistrate's

Court. It feels like a bullying tactic, actually. I don't really

want to be here and away from my business, but I have to. At the

heart of this row, Hexham's business heart of this row, Hexham's business

improvement district. It is a scheme to boost the economy of the town,

but it is also an extra charge for businesses on top of their business

rates. Northumberland councils says 89% of it is being paid by other

traders in Hexham, but not these ones. So today, they face

magistrates. There was then an extraordinary stand-off for

and a half. They are sure of the and a half. They are sure of the

court wanted the traders to come in individually into the courtroom.

They refused unless they could come in individually into the courtroom.

They refused unless they could, and altogether. Eventually, the traders

were allowed into the courtroom together. They were each given

liability orders of ?185, for the original levy and court costs. They

are still defiant. Basically what it means is the council insist that we

all them the money and they send a liability order of, which gives us a

certain amount of time to pay that and if that is not the case, they

will send debt collectors in. So you are prepared to see debt collectors

come round? If that aside for the council wants to take it then I am

afraid so. Northumberland councils as it has taken the traders to court

with regret, but the business improvement district in Hexham has

already generated ?102,000 to boost the area's economy.

The former Middlesbrough and England footballer Ugo Ehiogu is in hospital

after collapsing at Tottenham's training centre,

where he coaches their under-23s side.

The 44-year-old spent seven years at the Boro

and was part of their 2004 Carling Cup-winning side.

So far, there's no update on his condition.

ahead of the Tees Valley Mayoral elections on May the 4th.

An audience at the Macmillan Academy in Middlesbrough

questioned the main parties on issues including jobs,

Among the topics discussed was the question

does the Tees Valley even need a mayor?

Now, the Tory Government has imposed it on us with the help and support

of five Labour councils, to something in an area that doesn't

exist called BT is valid. They have brought Durham into our area. We

don't have Cleveland, we don't have Teesside, this is a complete

nonsense. Give us a referendum, let the people have our say and I think

you would find it would be overwhelmingly that we do not want a

mayor and this devolution. And you can watch the candidates

respond to that question and many others in our

special programme It's coming up immediately

after the news here on BBC One. Before that, we need to find out

what the weather has in store Thanks very much. Well, some

unexpectedly prolonged sunny spells today. Northumberland coast was the

warmest place in the country at 18.6 degrees. There are still some gaps

in the cloud in the east this evening, and through the night.

Elsewhere, it stays cloudy with some patchy rain at times and there is

enough cloud and breeze to stop the temperatures anywhere dropping much

below about eight Celsius. That is the way we start tomorrow. A lot of

cloud in the hall. Any brightness in the east will tend to feed through

the day as the cloud filled in. Early patchy rain in the West

becomes more located to the east of the Pennines later in the day and we

will see temperatures a shade cooler than today, with more cloud

generally, and the brisk west to north-westerly breeze. House

tomorrow afternoon, 14 Celsius, 57 Fahrenheit. High pressure stays in

charge of the weather on the hall. That is the weather front that

brings tomorrow's patchy rain. As that clears away, mostly dry for

Saturday. Old nights to come Friday and Saturday night, and then through

Sunday this next frontal system eventually brings some rain from the

north-west and freshens up the wind as well. As we head into the

weekend, Saturday, most places dry, from bright spells. Not a huge

amount of sunshine. A bit cooler after that cold start, just about

making double figures to the afternoon, even with those light

winds. Another cold night on Saturday night. A dry, bright start.

Eventually some figurine coming in for the north-west later in the day

as those westerly winds started to freshen up again. Top temperature,

tell Celsius. That is the way it is looking as they headed towards the

weekend. Here is the summary for tomorrow. Helen has the national

forecast. week for much of the UK and for more

about that and the UK outlook, Helen Willetts.

The sunshine make such a difference this time of year, only 12 or so

degrees under the cloud today but 19 in eastern Scotland not far away

from St Andrews. Also in north-east England, where we had the majority

of the decent sunshine. Even under cloud it was dry for the most part.

We have this week whether forgiving showers in the south. This weather

front starting to pep up in the North, it'll change the feel of the

weather for all of us in the coming 36 hours. Through the night very

little changes, cloud comes and goes, there will be missed a shallow

fog south of the M4. Possibly the odd pocket of ground frost here and

there. You can see the rain gathering further north and already

by the time we get to morning we have colder air in across Orkney and

Shetland with a