23/02/2012 Look North (Yorkshire)

Welcome to Thursday's Look North Tonight. More protests against job

losses. Up to 1,000 more council jobs under

threat today. 2,000 in total, in just 24 hours. We're live in York,

as the city council there prepares to defy the government.

Also tonight: Questions to be answered, as a highly-respected

teacher takes his own life, in the run-up to A-level results.

20 years, where did it go? The promotional flyers from a legendary

Leeds nightclub, now worthy of a retrospective!

There has been some blue sky, but the best of the sunshine has been

in South Yorkshire, one of the Good evening, and welcome to Look

North. Tonight: The downturn in the economy is really starting to hit

home in all of our councils. Cuts to services and jobs are being

approved by local authorities across Yorkshire, as they try to

save tens of millions of pounds. Amy has more details.

This is the time when councils meet to set their budgets for the next

financial year. Their decisions have an impact on things like bin

collections, care of the elderly, and repairing the roads. But

thousands of jobs are also at stake. Yesterday, between them, Leeds and

Kirklees announced 1,000 posts are to be cut. Today, four other

councils are meeting. In Bradford, 600 jobs are at risk, as it tries

to save �29 million. The numbers are lower in Barnsley,

but 45 people still face redundancy there.

In Doncaster, 350 jobs are under threat, with all staff facing a pay

cut. And in York, where a meeting has

just started, 100 jobs are to go, and council tax is to rise.

Our local government reporter Emma Glasbey is there for us now.

Three tough decisions are being made.

You will be able to say protesters had gathered outside the Mansion

House in York. Inside, the meeting has just started. Tonight, York

City Council is setting a two year budget with savings of �20 million.

It has been a day of talking about where to make the cuts.

Caring for the elderly and frail. Cleaning the streets of our towns

and cities. And, running local libraries. Some of the services at

risk, as four Yorkshire councils are confirmed huge savings.

Doncaster, Barnsley, Bradford and York are all Labour councils but

have different ideas on where the cuts should fall. In Doncaster,

they are reducing staff pay, with talks being held. The pay cut plan

could be dropped but the council still wants to save �4 million by

changing terms and conditions for workers. Make no mistake, we don't

waste money in Doncaster any more. But terms and conditions relate to

car mileage allowance, sick pay, that will save a considerable

amount. In York, the council has decided council tax will have to

rise. It's a very difficult decision, we want to protect the

most vulnerable in society which is why we have had to increase it by

2.9% to bring �2 million to look after children and elderly people's

care. The Barnsley council leader of wants people to maintain their

own communities, instead of relying on the Council for services likely

to collections. In Bradford, the council wants to save �29 million

this year. 600 job losses are one way they plan on doing that. It is

very hard. Where we can make savings, on reducing everything we

do, we will. The vast majority of government spending are on our

people. With cuts of these sizes, it is inevitable it will affect

them. All local services are being looked at but several other

Yorkshire councils setting budgets will need to make more tough

decisions. One of the protesters is here,

councils are led -- are getting less money from the government.

don't want to let the coalition government off the hook. It is true

they are making big cuts, but the council has a choice of colluding

with that of four define them and joining our movement. It has been

done in the past, in Derbyshire at the 70s. It is possible to defy the

government. York City Council is actually define the Commons because

it is rejecting the government grant and increasing the council

tax which the government does not want to do. It is not doing enough,

in our view. We have the figures in our leaflet. Raising council tax

isn't the solution because it will hit local residents in York. Lots

of people could be taxed in this society. We are in this crisis

because of the banking system. Those people should be taxed rather

than the citizens of York. York City Council has taken the step of

allowing our TV cameras into the budget meeting tonight and we will

be the latest at 10:25pm. Councillor Steve Houghton, from

Barnsley, is with me now. When I pay my council tax, I expect

certain services, but Barnsley will be saying some will be missing. Can

you be specific? One of our big worries is the closure of an

intermediate care home where people were rehabilitated after coming out

of hospital. That is set to close. We will have less youth workers,

grounds maintenance will be reduced. The Future Jobs Fund will be

brought to an end. People will see a real difference. Why don't they

seem less in their council tax then? If it were the case of the

council tax funding local services, that might be possible. Most of our

money comes from central government which is being reduced by 30%. That

means services will have to be cut. Some people will say, the idea of

the Big Society is we should do more. Aren't you doing his work for

him? I think we have a responsibility as local authorities

to fill the gaps which will be created. That means councils doing

things in different ways. Sometimes that is sharing services with other

councils. We are working with the Post Office to put a Post Office

into a library which is good for both organisations. But it means

local communities having to do more. The only 45 redundancies in

Barnsley, is that a measure of success? We have worked very hard

with the trades unions to protect services. We have to bear in mind

there are another four years of cuts to come and it will be very

hard indeed. The We'll have the latest on that

meeting in Kirklees on the late Look North at 10.25pm.

And you can see more about the authorities that are planning a

rise in council tax bills, on the Sunday Politics, from midday, on

BBC One on Sunday. Also tonight: An inquest's heard

how a teacher set fire to himself in a school car park, because he

felt under pressure to get good exam results. David Charlesworth,

who taught science at Rossett School in Harrogate, died the day

after. His wife told the hearing how Mr Charlesworth believed he

wasn't up to standard as a teacher, and felt he would let his students

down. The coroner recorded a verdict of suicide.

The on 11th May, David Charlesworth set fire to himself in the car park

close to the main entrance of the Rossett School. Despite suffering

scenting 9% burns, he managed to get himself home, but died in

hospital the following day. The inquest was told how Mr

Charlesworth, a science teacher, had felt under pressure to get good

exam results to students. He told his wife he was worried he wasn't

up to standard as a teacher and might let down pupils studying for

high A-level grades. His doctor had referred him to a mental health

team but there had been made and waiting list. Today, the head

teacher paid tribute to when member of staff who had cared passionately

for the welfare and achievements of his students. From our point of

view, he was and still remains really a much loved, valued,

respected member of staff. From the students' point of view, he was

always known as Mr C. He had time for every child. Teachers' unions

say the case highlights the stress in a demanding profession. This is

the latest in a catalogue of incidences where teachers have

found the stress unbearable, believing they have nowhere to turn,

and it is distressing. It is by no means the first and sadly I doubt

it will be the last. Recording a verdict of suicide, the North

Yorkshire coroner said he would be writing to the local primary Care

Trust, raising concerns about Mr Charlesworth's difficulties in

accessing mental health services. Stay with us.

How far would you send your child to school? The campaign for a

Jewish school in Leeds gains momentum, so pupils no longer have

More news from around Yorkshire now. And the woman accused of stabbing

Casey-Leanne Kearney, 13, in Doncaster last week, is to face

trial for murder. Hannah Bonser, appearing via video link from

Newhall prison, was remanded in custody at Sheffield Crown Court.

The 26 year old, from Cusworth House in Doncaster, is also charged

with possessing two knives. The Conservative MP for Pudsey

Stuart Andrew has confirmed he will be pressing charges, following a

disturbance at the so-called Strangers Bar in the House of

Commons. The MP says he was head- butted and punched in the bar

reserved for MPs and their guests last night. The Labour MP for

Falkirk, Eric Joyce has been arrested. He's been suspended by

his party as police continue their investigations.

Emma Harrison today said she had stepped aside from her voluntary

government role as Family Champion, amid a police investigation into

irregularities at her welfare-to- work firm, A4e.

Bradford taxi driver Sabir Hussain will be sentenced tomorrow for

helping kill two men whose bodies were dumped in a country lane last

May. Hussain was convicted of the manslaughter of Imran Khan and

Amedin Kyel, but cleared of their murders, in a row over an extra-

marital affair. The man named by police as the prime suspect,

Mohammed Zubair, remains on the run in Pakistan.

The long-running campaign to keep Masham on the map of North

Yorkshire has come a step closer, after the Department of Transport

agreed to allow brown tourist signs to the town off the new A1M. Cow I

ask you to look carefully at the A 1,000 workers are tonight waiting

for results into a -- or an investigation into their employer.

30 Yorkshire's MPs have got a mild and they say the investigation is

dragging on and it is threatening jobs. -- North Yorkshire. Virtually

every one of us has at least one of these, a credit card, and lots of

us are worried about what happens if it gets lost or stolen. That is

what see pp's business is all about, helping people who hit problems.

But the company itself has had problems. The problems go back to

last year, when the Financial Services Authority announce an

investigation into the way identity theft products were sold. It says

it is looking all the way back to 2005 and says the company will need

to look again and decide whether customers need compensation. But

the City's MPs said that the investigation has gone on too long.

If the company were to go down because of the problems caused by

the FSA not announcing its conclusions, you could have many

people losing the insurance cover they have paid for. That is why it

is important to get the announcement out. A crisis was have

reached this week when the company ceased trading on the stockmarket.

There are worries that any compensation bill could top �100

million. The business has said it could drive them under, threatening

around 1,000 jobs in Europe. It is a time bomb here, and the outlook

could be bleak for the company. And if it is bleak for them, it could

be just as bleak for their 1,000 or so employees.

Campaigners who want a high school for Jewish children in Leeds are

going up before the government today. At the moment, at some

children make a 90 mile round trip to Manchester every day so they can

have a faith based education. There are concerns that such a journey

could have an impact -- a negative impact on their learning. The start

of a long journey to school. It is 7 o'clock am in Leeds and it will

be well over an hour before these commuters are sitting in the

classroom. For parents who want their children to have a Jewish

education, King David's is the closest dead -- closest that the

nation -- destination. These two girls have been making the trip for

years. It is a problem getting here. Once you're on the bus you were

talking to your friends and it is absolutely fine and you listen to

music or have you back best and it is like a social. Back in Leeds,

and many of these Jewish primary pupils will soon be making the same

journey. But not for long, perhaps, because plans for a Leeds Jewish

has cool are being developed. The new school would be a free

school developed by the government and it would be built here. It

would be that children would continue their Jewish education by

moving just a few metres instead of travelling all the way to

Manchester. I think we are failing our children because those children,

over their academic career, will spend an academic year travelling

to and from school. I am not a teacher but that cannot be good for

any child's education. To me, it is failing our children. In Manchester,

the application is not accepted. King David's do not think that the

school will be big enough. The it would be great to have a Jewish

school on every street corner -- it would be great to have a Jewish

school on every street corner. It is not unusual. Londoners take the

overground and underground every day to go to school to -- to school.

If the plan goes ahead, these children may have a secondary

education in a Jewish school much closer to home.

Fingers crossed for them. Before 7 o'clock: Nightclubbing in the 1990s.

The promotional artwork from one club is now the subject of an art

exhibition. And we will be talking about the

mild weather and meeting a were new friend. Hello! $NEWLINE City of

Leeds diver, Becky Gallantree, has qualified a place for the Olympics

in the 3m springboard event at the World Cup. She finished 9th in the

preliminary round to make it through to the semi-finals. It

follows her team mate, Sarah Barrow, winning bronze in the synchronised

10m platform. She and partner Tonia Crouch were lying in eighth place

going into the final round of dives but produced a stunning effort to

lift them up into bronze. It is being held at the aquatics centre

in the Olympic Park and is their first major competition of the year.

After a mistake on their fourth dive the medal came as a bit of a

surprise. It took me a while to realise. I was not sure what was

happening. We heard the crowd and heard them shouting for us so we

knew it. It was really good. $NEWLINE Leeds triathlon World

Champion, Alistair Brownlee, has torn his Achillies just months

before the London Olympics. The 23- year-old has to wear a protective

boot for a month. But his coach says though it's not ideal he's not

overly concerned as Alistair was due to have a break from training

anyway. Sheffield's Shelley Rudman is

looking to add the skeleton World Championship title to the World Cup

one she got just a couple of weeks ago. Her campaign in Lake Placid

has certainly started well. She was quickest on the first run, but

slipped back to third after the second. There are two more runs

tomorrow. North Yorkshire's champion jockey,

Richard Hanagan, is to ride for one of the big race horse owners,

Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum. He is currently based at Richard Fayee's

yard in Malton, but will take up his new role at the start of April.

$NEWLINE Bad night for York city last night. They lost 2-1 at home

against Gateshead. I am too upset to linger on this, lets move on.

Night clubs come and go. In my day, when I was a right raver, Guppy's

in York, Scene 42 in Scarborough and Cinderella Rockerfellers in

Leeds were the places to go. I do not remember any of those but I was

a regular at Roof Top Garden in Wakefield, Speed Queen and Mint in

Leeds.What I would have made of a club called Back to Basics, I do

not know, especially when you look at some of their promotional flyers

over the last 20 years! The art work, much of it

controversial, has been reworked and reprinted and is now on show at

The Leeds Gallery at Munroe House. Some of the flyers have already

been on display at the Barbican in London. Our reporter has been along

The club has been going for 20 years, have a making it one of the

longest running clubs and the world. Many of the fires used to promote

the club had become iconic in their own right. -- the flyers. The

promoter and graphic designer have collaborated on the flyers since

the club opened in 1991. Subversive, funny, and very often political,

the original art work has now been reproduced for a new exhibition in

Leeds. Everybody remembers the flyers because at some point they

would have had one of them on their walls. The flyers are regularly

push boundaries surrounding taste and decency, but it is those

involving images of the Queen that has probably caused the most effect

It is kind of crude and garish and offensive. I am amazed that he has

managed to keep all of the flyers for so long. I used to have them on

my wall as a kid. That was my first encounter with the club, before I

was old enough to go out. If you are an old raver and you fancy

owning a piece of history, a number of limited prints are available to

buy at the exhibition, which runs from now until the middle of March.

Big fish, little fish, cardboard box. Canister! You must remember

those! May have got a club night soon. I remember the Birdie Song.

That'll do me. You cannot have not noticed the

change in the weather today. Has spring sprung early? I am sure Paul

will have a view on that. A new blog maybe! In the meantime, Ian

White has been out in South Yorkshire where, believe it or not,

it has been hotter than the Med. Blue skies, glorious sunshine.

Surely this cannot be February. It is a far cry from the sub-zero

temperatures Yorkshire was enduring a couple of weeks ago. These people

are looking for some winter sun. They are going to Tenerife but they

did not need to go too far because Doncaster is warmer than the South

of France and even parts of northern Africa. Just look at these

temperatures. Rome could on the manage 14 Celsius. No one could

beat Doncaster. A daily check of the statistics from the weather

station but the temperature at a massive 18.3 degrees Celsius. Staff

say they cannot remember it being the smiled in February. I have

never known it to be the swarm. You might have the odd day at 10 or 11.

-- this warm. It is probably confusing the insects and birds.

You can hear the birds singing in the background and they will be

starting to nest and even start starting to nest and even start

starting to nest and even start laying eggs if it keeps up like

best. In Doncaster town centre, people enjoyed a lot -- drink

outside. A few weeks ago we were freezing cold and there was ice on

the cards and things but it is lovely. It is always warm in

Doncaster. We are always a warm here, mate! A new arrival at a farm

in Leeds. She doesn't have a name yet and she was born on Valentine's

Day. She was enjoying the mild weather. It was a bit of a surprise

because we did not think she was in foal. Are you think all the weather

is milder? Yes. We love being out and the sun and that. The damp

weather does not do the animals any good. Fingers crossed the mild

I cannot help but have a wry smile because our big boss is going to

Barcelona and it is warmer in Doncaster.

We will tell you what face she pulled! I am only joking. Here are

some pictures that had just come in. We have had a return of the

lenticular clouds. For here are some shots from Birstall. There

have been some fabulous clouds out there. Keep the pictures coming in.

You can send them in on Twitter or just email. Let's look at a top

temperatures that we have recorded this afternoon. Very close to

record levels. Finley outside Doncaster had 18 degrees but

Sheffield city centre got 17.2 degrees. 3 If you think the average

for this time of year is eight and the average Indian is higher than

that, you will realise these respect -- in June is higher than

that, you will realise these were fantastic temperatures. We will

have some patchy rain courtesy of a cold front and behind it pressure

will build. It looks as they many places will have a fine weekend

with sunshine and temperatures should be in double figures. Not

too bad for the Further Outlook. It was cloudy at first and you can see

how the further -- cloud melted in Yorkshire. North Yorkshire has been

disappointingly cloudy today but there have been temperatures of 15

and 16 degrees. Ever the next few days, there will be some outbreaks

of cloud which will produce some rain and drizzle across the

Yorkshire Dales. Further east it is dry and another mild one.

Temperatures in Selby will be quite mild and will stay breezy

throughout. The sun will rise and the morning at 7:07am. The high

water times are 5:56am tomorrow morning. Quite a breezy start

tomorrow with mostly dry whether. We will have patchy rain through

Yorkshire through the morning and able Clear And the after noon will

become quite nice. Everywhere should be -- clear in the afternoon.

It will be quite breezy and temperatures will be well above

average. 12 is possible in Thirsk and into your work. -- York.

Looking further ahead, a chilly night on Friday night, and high

pressure in charge for the weekend. The breeze will be in the west, so

quite pleasant it during the day. Variable cloud and sunshine through

the weekend. There will be the risk of some patchy rain at the