23/09/2013 Look North (Yorkshire)

Good evening and welcome to Monday's Look North.

On the programme tonight: A landmark victory.

The disabled rights campaigner from Yorkshire who took a bus company to

court and won, in a case which could have implications nationwide. We'll

meet him in a moment. Also tonight: Honouring fallen

heroes — Yorkshire artists pay their own unique tribute to the thousands

of Allied troops who died storming the beaches of Normandy.

And they've won most triathlons around the world, so the Brownlee

brothers have decided to launch their own in Yorkshire. They're here

to tell us how it went. After a sunny start, it clouded over for the

course of the day, that gives us a signal of what may lie ahead this

week. Join me for that forecast. Our top story tonight. A disabled

man from West Yorkshire who said he was being discriminated against by

his local bus company has won a landmark court case which could have

implications for transport providers across the UK. Doug Paulley's been

awarded £5,000 after he challenged the First Bus Group's policy on

wheelchair users. Charlotte Leeming has this exclusive report.

Catching the bus is something most of us take for granted, but Doug

Paulley, it is something a Lottery. Getting on the bus itself is not the

problem, it is the fact that all too often, the wheelchair space is not

free, and an incident last February to be final straw. Coup somebody

with this chair in the wheelchair space refused to move when asked by

the driver. Because their baby was asleep in the pushchair and they did

not want to wake up the baby. So I was unable to get on the bus and was

told to get off the bus and wait for the next one. He took the company

concerned to court, and the judge said their "first come, first

served" policy for the disabled space was unlawful dissemination and

in breach of the equality act of 2010. I approached them directly,

this seemed the only way to force them to take the issue seriously,

and to make adjustments so that wheelchair users can reliably take

the bus. Disabled spaces on buses can often be taken up I chilled

and's pushchairs and current policy means that parents do not have to

make way for wheelchair users, but that will now have to change. In a

statement, First Bus told us, we recognise how important it is...

This case has wide reaching implications, not just for the First

Bus Group, but and bus companies across the UK,

operating a similar "first come, first served" practice. This is a

breakthrough and it is the number one issue for every wheelchair use

on public transport, there is no point in having an accessible us is

the service —— if the service itself is inaccessible. There are over a

million wheelchair users in the UK. First Bus Group is have six months

to enforce the new ruling. The father of the four—year—old

Bradford boy Hamzah Khan, who starved to death in his mother's

home, has said he was barred from the house after raising concerns

about the boy's welfare. Aftab Khan made an angry outburst in court

today as he was giving evidence against Amanda Hutton. She denies

the manslaughter of Hamzah by gross negligence. Our crime correspondent,

John Cundy, reports from Bradford Crown Court.

For mechanic Aftab Khan, a day in the Widnes box accusing his former

partner, Amanda Hutton, of neglecting their son, Hamzah in the

months leading up to his death. A court has heard Hamzah Khan would be

fed half a banana in the morning, half a pasty in the evening, after

that he got anything that was lying around. When his mummified body was

found lying in his cot in 2011, he had been dead for nearly two years.

Amanda Hutton has been accused by another

room with the lights off if he had been naughty. His father told the

jury of his relationship with Amanda Hutton. They met as teenagers. Their

relationship had once been very good, but it had got worse as Miss

Hutton drank large amounts of vodka and cider. He claimed the result was

a house of squalor, it stunk and was dirty. Aftab Khan became angry while

being cross questioned by the defence barrister, he said, I have

come to answer questions about my dead child, it is not about me. The

system failed my son. Everyone knows what happened, but you still try to

point the finger at me and I am not accepting it. Aftab Khan asked

whether defence why he had done nothing to report the neglect, he

replied no one would have believed him. The child that the trial is

expected to last three weeks. The teenager from Sheffield from ——

has been arrested in connection with the murder of Joe Walker, who died

from a single stab wounds in the early hours of Saturday morning. The

70—year—old man is being questioned by police.

The Shadow Chancellor and Morley MP Ed Balls has suggested Labour may

drop its support for the High Speed 2 rail link. Until now, the party

had backed the multi—billion pound project. But speaking at Labour's

conference, Mr Balls said it had been mismanaged and costs were

spiralling. Let us be clear, in tough times,

where there is less money around and a big deficit to get down, there

will be no blank cheque for me as a Labour Chancellor for this project

or any other. A North Yorkshire teenager is

believed to have taken his own life over worries about his schoolwork.

An inquest heard that 17—year—old Jake Pirie jumped in front of a

train at Northallerton station last February. It was on the day he was

due to return to boarding school. The coroner recorded a verdict of

suicide. Plans for a 46—mile pipeline through

the Yorkshire countryside have gone out to a public consultation. The

proposed pipe would take carbon dioxide emissions from both Drax

power station near Selby, and Hatfield near Doncaster, to the East

Coast. The gas will then be stored in porous rock under the North Sea.

A farmer from North Yorkshire has been told he needs planning

permission for a sign placed in his field that directs traffic from the

A1M motorway to the town of Masham. Masham has been without a sign from

the motorway since 2009 when major roadworks began, and it was hoped

that the giant homemade version would help boost trade in the town.

But as Spencer Stokes reports, it's fallen foul of planning rules.

The sign that must not be seen, originally placed next to be able ——

the A1M, this work of art has been ruled to be illegal because it does

not have planning permission. It was put next to the motorway to boost

tourism but has had to be towed out of sight. They said people were

distracted by the sign. It is a nice sign. I cannot see any reason why it

should be removed, it is bureaucracy gone mad. The original road sign

went when the A1M was upgraded. The cost of anyone has been put at

£30,000 and Masham was told it would have two peoples of the Council is

calling for the Government to fund a brown tourist signed by the does not

like the home—made version, saying it is visually intrusive and out of

keeping with its rural surroundings. 11 miles away in Masham, businesses

say trade has fallen by 30% and a petition to keep the new sign has

attracted or than 3000 signatures. Some of those have signed were

wedding guests who could not find Masham. You like the number of

people who were inconvenienced, having missed the sign, some of them

missed the ceremonies, what does that mean for the rest of the

Akcakale there must be many people dissing the junction. With the Tour

de France heading here next summer, Masham says it needs a sign, either

this one or something a bit more operational and a lot more

expensive. I had a hard time getting to Masham

recently. I was sent several miles past the town so I can see why that

sign might be crucial. But first, it was one of the

decisive moments of the Second World War. 150,000 Allied troops storming

the beaches of Normandy. But D—Day came at a terrible cost. Thousands

fell in on one of the French beaches where

they died. Joe Inwood was there to see a unique project by artists from

Yorkshire, honouring the fallen. The Normandy beaches, everywhere,

reminders of the 9000 who died on DJ. This weekend, —— on D—Day, their

sacrifice was a member by volunteers, led by two artists from

Bradford. All around us, there are the relics of the Second World War,

but the one thing that is missing is the people that actually died. This

is the sacrifice and the loss that you have when you have these

conflicts. To represent those sacrifices, 9000 silhouettes, each

one raked by volunteers, including Monica from Bradford. She has

experienced the cost of war first—hand when her son was killed

in Afghanistan. It has been very emotional. Just watching everyone

take part in it, I took part myself and it really hit home. Also on the

beach this weekend, two men who experienced DJ itself. —— D—Day.

George was a British servicemen who helped take the beaches, as

watched from the town. Coup you can talk about 100 people dead, 500,

1000, 2000, 50,000, but what does it mean? Nothing. Because you cannot

visualise it. I do not think anyone who sees it

will be under any illusion of what happened on that day.

People came not just from France and Britain but all across Europe, right

around the world. To take part in something global, subbing

representing peace, and to create something spectacular. —— something

representing peace. You have made a very big statement.

It is there, right before you. That is about 9000 people. I was kind of

holding it together, and a plain flew past, which we did not know

about, and it kind of just... Broke me.

It is quite emotional, there are six of mine on the beach and I have

waited for the water to come and wash them away. Lets hope to god it

never happens again. It must not happen again. And that was the

message of this work, 9000 figures representing 9000 lives. Fleeting,

precious and as quickly as they had appeared, lost to the waves.

We saw him briefly in that report, now let's talk to Andy Moss, one of

the sand artists behind that D—Day work. Getting something like that

right is very difficult. How codgers were you you had to do it? Obviously

we did a lot of preparation, but one thing we could not anticipate was

how many people would turn up. We took a coachload of people from

Bradford, and another we could rely on another 20 to 30 people. But look

how many people did. This is what was so moving about it, because

people came from all other the world, people from Germany, America,

Australia. People from Israel. For everyone to work together on a piece

that looks like it is about a tribute about people that died in

war, but the great thing about this piece is that it is about peace, it

says, it is a strong statement about peace because it shows what happens

in the absence of these. That is why we did it on world peace Day. It is

an amazing achievement and I imagine that the timing must have been

crucial, to get 9000 stencils down on the sand before the tide came in,

how difficult was that? The irony is, it is one of the easiest jobs,

practically speaking, that I have worked on. It feels great but it

does not —— the film is great, but it does not speak enough about the

emotion, unless you were there, it is hard to explain how special it

was for people. The idea of a group of people who specifically wanted to

say something about peace and produce a strong message, coming

together and achieving that, it is incredible. Briefly, anything else

in the pipeline for you? We have drawn attention to September the

21st, world peace Day, it has been going since 1999, so next year we

ought to do something else. Lets have some sport news now.

Yorkshire's Gary Ballance has been called up to England's test squad

for this winter's Ashes series in Australia. Ballance has played just

a single one—day international so far for England, but joins his

team—mates, Jonny Bairstow and Joe Root in the squad. Tim Bresnan will

travel with them as he continues his recovery from a back injury. The

Chairman of selectors said today that Ballance's inclusion shouldn't

come as a surprise. But what was the reaction of the man himself?

Mainly shock, just a massive surprise. I was not really expecting

it. But it was a great feeling. Now let's turn to football, and

three managers in South Yorkshire who are under the cosh. Our two

Sheffield clubs and Barnsley have all made poor starts to the season

and the men in charge are having to answer difficult questions about

their future. Ian Bucknell reports. On loan Jesse Lingard got them

started and eat do not stop. It ended in awe—1 defeat to Sheffield

Wednesday. Dave Jones says it is not right to question his position. It

is hard to swallow, but you have to take it. You have to big and you

have to be strong. We owe our supporters something from today's

performance. Across the city, Sheffield United lost 1—0 at home to

Preston. That is their fifth defeat in a row, manager David Weir says he

is still the right man to lead the club. I have been doing a lot of

things right. But we keep fighting, we keep believing in what we are

doing. We keep looking for the answers. So, that continues to be

the message. Barnsley's habit of getting hammered continued with a

5—1 defeat to Watford. Their boss wants to make changes. It is a group

of players I have trusted for several months, and they have let us

down, they have let us down as a club and as a group. I am not in

denial, I will not accept complacency, which I said from day

one. Today was a complacent performance. But we did have two

winners at the weekend, Bradford beating Gillingham and Chesterfield

are still unbeaten and clear at the top of League Two after this goal

was enough to beat Oxford. You can watch the highlights of all our

teams on the Football League Show. We know the line—up for the Super

League semi—finals after the controversial club call actually

threw up a story. Warrington got to choose their opponents after being

the highest placed team straight through to the semi—finals. Despite

labelling it a gimmick, they became the first team not to just go with

the lowest placed league finisher as their opponent. They picked table

toppers Huddersfield, leaving Leeds to go to Wigan.

And after a second consecutive golden point victory, John Kear's

Batley Bulldogs are through to the Championship Final, where they'll

face his old team, the Sheffield Eagles. That is it from me.

Olympic triathletes Alistair and Jonny Brownlee hosted a triathlon of

their own in North Yorkshire at the weekend. About 1,000 competitors

took part in the running, swimming and cycling event at Fountains

Abbey. The Brownlee brothers are here with us, and we'll hear from

them in a moment, after this report from Shirley Henry.

A triathlon born and bred in Yorkshire, this is the first ever

Brownlee triathlon. It was about creating an event that would be a

fantastic legacy. It will hopefully encourage people to be outside and

enjoy being in these beautiful surroundings and get them into

triathlon. The event at Adams Abbey began —— Fountains Abbey, began with

a 400 metres swim. Followed by a ten: Otter bike ride through the

medieval deer park before culminating in a 2.5 kilometre run.

Competitors took part in heats, depending on their age. Because of

injury, Alistair was not able to compete in all the events, but the

crowds were not left disappointed. I couldn't compete, but I tested the

course. You have to put a bit of a show on for the crowd. What the

event that might the event attracted people from all walks of life, one

couple even chose to get married after the race. Play together, stay

together. The Brownlees organised this on the wedding day. What else

could we do on our morning? The brothers now plan to launch more

events right across the country. Well, Alistair and Jonathan are here

with us now. Great success, people looked absolutely exhausted and

exhilarated, what was it like two it was a fantastic day, it was all

about encouraging people who had not done triathlon before and people who

had just get out more and be more active and enjoy triathlon. I think

most people enjoyed the experience is not the race. Why back a certain

criticism that was made between you two brothers earlier, have you got

over that? We have. Just about. Thanks for bringing that up! No we

have got over it, we are just about talking now. The final race

London, you were so close to winning, when he called you an

idiot. He said he was going to give you some real stick when you got

home. That London race was great, great to go back on the Olympic

course again, competing in front of all those people again, but it is a

shame I couldn't become World Champion. What you two have achieved

is remarkable. The BBC coverage of your triathlon adventures, you have

transformed the sport. You must feel rather pleased about that. I think

we do. We are very proud, it is a sport we have always been passionate

about. As long as we are proud of getting more coverage, I think it is

fantastic, there are people who are enjoying doing triathlon and

enjoying coming to watch it. It was a great day at Fountains Abbey. Over

5000 people came. A fantastic legacy. What was it like to finish

that on home turf in a place you know very well? Fountains Abbey is a

beautiful place and to finish the season at home was perfect. It is a

place we have been too many times before as kids, we had been walking

around, it is a beautiful place. Finishing in Yorkshire is the best

way to finish. We should talk about the great support your family give

you. Absolutely. I think you have to go back for the best part of 20

years when they first took us to swimming training and then running

training, then a race somewhere else, Newcastle one weekend and

Dover the next. Incredible support from our parents and grandparents.

Even now, her parents travel quite a bit to supporters. —— to support us.

They coached us at school. It has been countless numbers of people as

well. We have talked a lot about triathlon taken off Tom how many

people were first timers at the race? Cull about a third of all

those people were first timers. Over 300, which is brilliant. Most people

were locals. Cull that's really special. That is really special. We

look forward to encouraging more people who have never done triathlon

before to have a go. Lovely to talk to you. Let's take a look at the

weather forecast. Let me show you three pictures that

came in. Yesterday, 24 degrees along the Yorkshire coastline. Pretty good

going for the end of September. The next one, this is Drax at sunrise,

and the M62. distance. This one is fantastic,

Halifax. The wane house tower just sticking up.

Tomorrow looks rather cloudy, mostly dry, unfortunately, although high

pressure will dominate much of the weather this week, a lot of cloud

will be trapped underneath it, so sunshine is at a premium. You can

see that bank of cloud nudging up from the south—west. That said,

Easter and areas have seen a lot of sunshine. It has been another lovely

day along the coast. That is going to change. So, I doubt this low

cloud will get you, or the clear skies will fill in. Either way you

look at it, it will be a great end to the day. —— grey. Temperatures

down to 13 Celsius. The sun will rise in the morning at 6:55am,

setting at 7:01pm. It is a grey start, Misty in places, even some

dampness, especially towards the coast. Essentially, a dry, quiet,

autumnal type of day. This cloud may break up in Western and Southern

areas later. A bit of sunshine coming through. But most places will

keep a lot of cloud. But we can't complain for the end of September.

tomorrow in Scarborough. The best of that amateurs from West Yorkshire

southwards, down towards the big district. Chesterfield could get 20

tomorrow. A week weather front might introduce to the role patchy rain on

Thursday. But a lot of dry weather this week, light winds, cloudy with

some brief sunny intervals. Some breaking news. West Yorkshire

Police say there are numerous road closures around Huddersfield

tonight. It follows reports of an armed siege this evening. At the

moment, no other details are available, but the incident is

ongoing. We will have the latest in our late bulletin at 10:25pm. That's

all for now, thanks to Alistair and Jonathan Johnny us. They are looking

at the camera correctly now! Enjoy the rest of your evening, good

night.