28/01/2014 Look North (Yorkshire)

Good evening. Welcome to Tuesday's Look North. Tonight: The search

continues for a missing student. 20`year`old Megan Roberts has been

missing since a night out in York on Thursday. Specialist police teams

have been scouring the area by the River Ouse where Megan was last

seen. We'll be live in York this evening.

Also tonight: After a two`year`old girl died falling from a city centre

balcony, a court hears from her mother.

Take a look at this ` skills on show at the South Yorkshire School Games

trampoline final! And the labour of love which has

restored a 1950s motor to its full glory.

It's certainly been weather for ducks today, but what are the next

few days looking like? Join me for the forecast.

Good evening and welcome to the programme. Police are continuing

their search for a York student who has been missing for five days.

Megan Roberts, who is 20, was last seen on a night out with friends on

Thursday. Police divers have spent the day carrying out underwater

searches along the river. So what do we know about her last movements?

Megan had been to Popworld Nightclub on George Hudson Street in the city

centre. She left there in the early hours of the morning and was last

seen with friends on the corner of Rougier Street near Lendal Bridge at

about 2:20am. The group were spotted a short time later at the other side

of Lendal Bridge, on Museum Street, but Megan wasn't with them. Today, a

search of the River Ouse has started, with police divers looking

underwater and other teams searching the river bank. In a moment we'll

get the latest from the scene, but first our reporter Cathy Killick has

spent the day in York. The search for Megan Roberts has moved to the

River Ouse. 30 officers are working on the case ` all still hoping the

20`year`old student turns up safe and well. She hasn't been seen since

around 2am on Thursday morning. She'd been for a night out with

friends and this nightclub ` Popworld in York City centre. It's

near the river, and that's where today's searches have been

concentrated. The underwater search teams have been here for most of the

afternoon, painstakingly searching the river bank. As you can see, the

water is very murky, making that job very difficult. The reason they're

here is that this was the last place Megan Roberts was seen before she

disappeared. Police say CCTV footage shows Megan leaving the nightclub

and walking with a group of friends to the south side of Lendal Bridge.

Then, at 2:20am, the trail goes cold. She was with a group of

people, on the corner of Rougier Street, near to Lendal Bridge, at

around 2:20am. This group were then seen a short time later on the other

side of the bridge, but Megan was not with them. Students in York have

been quick to get the word out. Ben is head of news at University Radio

York. We've been sharing stories on Facebook and putting stuff on our

blog. We're trying to make students as aware as possible. It could

trigger somebody's memory. Megan is studying fine art at York St John

University. She also had a job at The Lamb Lion in Petergate.

Colleagues there can only wait and hope. The police are doing all they

can and we're doing everything we can on Facebook. We're trying to

make everyone aware. Megan's disappearance has triggered painful

memories for Peter Lawrence, who says his thoughts are very much with

Megan's family. His daughter Claudia went missing in York in 2009 and

still hasn't been traced. You've got to keep your hopes up, in the early

stages certainly. She could be anywhere. Let's not fear the worst.

What would your advice be to her family? Keep your hopes up and make

sure everything possible is being done. They need publicity. I know

the charity, Missing People, are helping. Unlike Claudia's case,

police say there's nothing to suggest there's any criminal element

in Megan's dissapearance. Everyone is hoping a body isn't found, but

with every passing day with no contact from Megan ` either by phone

or by Facebook ` the likelihood of her turning up safe and well is

fading. Well, our reporter Danny Carpenter joins us live now from the

scene. Danny, what is the latest on the police investigation? We stood

just a few hundred yards from the CCTV image. That was the last time

Megan was seen. Our understanding is that that is not her only potential

route home. She could have followed another pass across another bridge.

`` another path. Alternatively she could have gone another way back to

the city centre. It was early in the morning. There would have been CCTV

everywhere in the city. The police are looking through lots of hours of

CCTV footage in the hope of finding a glimpse of Megan. What has been

the response from the community? She was only reported missing yesterday

morning. The response has been good. Social media has been buzzing. After

the first appeals were broadcast we had over 2 million visits on our

very own Facebook page. A mother broke down in tears in

court today as she described the moment she realised her two`year`old

daughter had fallen from their block of flats. Ola Al Fatle was giving

evidence on the first day of the manslaughter trial of 45`year`old

Robert Warner, a maintenance man in the building. Ryaheen Banimuslem

fell four stories through a gap in the safety barrier. Here's James

Vincent. In June 2012, Ryaheen Banimuslem was playing in the

communal garden with her mother, on the fourth floor of the block of

flats she lived in. Her mother, Ola Al Fatle, sobbed today in court as

she told how Ryaheen had only disappeared from her sight briefly.

She followed her round the corner but couldn't see her ` all she found

was another group of women, pointing at the floor. A glass panel from the

safety barrier was missing and Ryaheen had fallen to her death. The

family had moved to Sheffield from Iraq in 2011. Ryaheen's father was

being sponsored by the Iraqi government to do a physics degree.

Her mother explained, through an interpreter, how they always checked

the glass panels because some had been broken before. On that day, one

of the panels just round the corner was missing. The building's

maintenance man, 45`year`old Robert Warner, seen here on the left, is

accused of moving it to help fix another part of the barrier, but

never replaced it. He denies one charge of manslaughter by gross

negligence. The trial is expected to last three weeks.

Later on Look North: The recycling firm who dumped tonnes of rubbish.

The waste was left at Leeds and Goole ` and two brothers are given

suspended jail sentences. There's a big recruitment drive in

Yorkshire to find more adoptive parents. More than 850 children in

our region are waiting to be adopted and the number is predicted to

increase. One group says it's because of high profile abuse cases,

as Olivia Richwald reports. Let's call them Anna and James ` two young

children removed from the family they were born into. Their real

names and faces have been hidden. Last Spring, they were adopted by

Hannah and Alistair Ronaldson from Sheffield. Hannah's own mother and

brother were also adopted. To take two children out of a desperate

situation and into your family... To love them and give them a new

name... Make them part of your family... It's been wonderful. There

have been difficulties but we feel well suited to parenthood and the

children have been longing to be part of a permanent family. For us

it's not a secondary option or a plan B, it's a great thing to do.

We're really proud to have adopted them and we hope they'll grow up

being proud that we've adopted them as well. Yorkshire is unique ` all

of the local authorities here work together to try to match children

with new parents. It's one of the reasons why adoptions here are

increasing. In 2008, 370 children were adopted in this region. By

2013, the figure had increased to 510. But the number of children

needing new homes is also rising ` in part due to high profile neglect

cases like that of Baby Peter, who was tortured to death in 2007. I

think that gave everybody a terrible shock. As a result, social services

are trying to identify those children a lot earlier. Anna and

James have settled in well in their new home. But more than 850 children

in this region are still waiting. A big recruitment campaign for new

adoptive parents is planned in the next few months.

In other news now... Two men from Leeds who drove at more than twice

the maximum national speed limit have escaped a prison sentence.

These shots show 21`year old Daniel Richardson and 26`year`old James

Burrow driving at 144mph on a Saturday lunchtime on the A19 in

North Yorkshire. Such dangerous driving could have meant a prison

sentence but the men, neither of whom had any previous convictions,

were given 300 hours community work and have been banned from driving

for three years. Never before have we had two vehicles coming so close

together on a dual carriageway. It's highly inappropriate for that road.

They're putting other road users, and the passengers in their

vehicles, at risk. The first set of figures for the

government's Help to Buy Scheme show that more homes were bought in Leeds

through the scheme than anywhere else in the country. 230 purchases

were completed in the city between the launch of Help to Buy at the

beginning of April and the end of December.

Lifeboat volunteers rescued 1,000 people last year. Whitby had the

fourth busiest in the north. Many stations were affected by the recent

storms. The line up for this year's Live at

Leeds Festival is due to be announced within the next hour. The

band currently topping the UK singles chart, Clear Bandit, have

already been confirmed on the bill. The festival takes place over the

May bank holiday weekend with more than 150 bands playing at 20 venues

all around the city. Now in its eighth year, the event is gaining a

reputation for showcasing bands on the cusp of fame. Alumni of the

festival... We've had people liked Ed Sheeran, Jake Bugg and The 1975.

We had The 1975 at The Cockpit last year. There were thousands of people

running up the road to see them. It's always been a great thing to

see small bands perform before they break and become the biggest ones

about at the moment. Police stopped a motorist for

speeding on the M62 in West Yorkshire, only to discover that she

was a learner driver accompanied only by her pet parrot. Drivers with

a provisional licence are, of course, only allowed to drive if

they are accompanied by a qualified motorist and are banned from

motorways. The female driver was pulled over by officers near

Junction 22 of the motorway. Next tonight, the former directors

of Leeds Paper Recycling have received suspended jail sentences

for illegally storing thousands of bales of waste. Instead of recycling

the rubbish, Thomas and Jamie Todd dumped it at warehouses in Leeds,

and on the dockside in Goole. Neighbours complained about an

infestation of flies and pungent smells given off by the waste. Joe

Inwood was in court. Stinking. Covered in flies. It was less than

100 metres from businesses and homes. They told their customers

this rubbish was being recycled. In reality, it was filling up two

warehouses in Leeds and another location in Goole. In Goole, they

talked about a plague of flies. People in Leeds said you could smell

it from these apartments. It hung around. For days on end. It was

putrid. Horrible. The Environment Agency were already investigating.

When he first visited the warehouse in January 20 12th of just a few

hundred bales of rubbish. `` 2012. By the end of the year over 10,000

were being stored there. Soon after, Thomas Todd and Jamie Todd were

charged. Both men pleaded guilty. They are suspended jail terms. They

have been ordered to do community service. The judge said he had been

caught in the horns of a dilemma. `` they had been. They had a business

base thought they had to run. But they wouldn't do things properly.

The land they were renting is now owned by the canal and River trust.

Clearing out to feel warehouses of rubbish cost them more than ?1.4

million. As for the company, it went into administration last year. Many

jobs were however say. A family business destroyed by two people who

thought that breaking the law would say that. `` save it.

Before 7pm, a touch of star dust... Hi, I'm Denise van Outen. Join me

later on Look North, to find out why I'm in Yorkshire! And a Barnsley

garage is the unlikely home of a gleaming 1950s car.

Trampolining is something many of us have had a go at some time or

another ` but messing around in the back garden is a far cry from the

Olympic Sport it's become. Today in Sheffield, 130 youngsters were

taking part in the South Yorkshire School Games Trampoline Final and

they also got to see one of the best in action. There were a range of

ages and abilities, and a couple of world champions to boot ` all taking

part in a sport growing massively in popularity. It keeps me active and

occupied. It's good to keep you sporty. I love doing this sport `

you get used to it and better at bouncing. I like it because it's

different and nobody else does it. It's fun. You learn new skills. It's

unique and not many people do it so it's exciting to improve. How

important is a day like today for trampolining? Exceptionally. These

events create awareness and interest. From that you get people

taking part outside of school, and hopefully in squads in the future.

The School Games is a multi`sport event that runs throughout the year

with a couple of big finals. But today was trampolining's day. A

local World Champion dropped in to give an idea of what you can

achieve. These are different to outdoor trampolines. These are much

bouncier and higher. When you're under instructions from your coach,

it's a lot safer and you can progress faster. Also in action was

Lucy Horan who recently became World Synchronised Champion in the 11`12

range. So what got her into the sport? It was on Look North! I

thought I might as well have a go as I do gymnastics! So just think,

there might be a future World Champion watching right now! Look

North can make dreams come true! They make it look so easy!

She's shimmied in Strictly, presented on prime time and trod the

boards in the West End. Now Denise Van Outen has turned her hand to

writing and is in Yorkshire for the opening of her one`woman show. Some

Girl I Used to Know is a romantic comedy featuring tunes from the 80s

and 90s. Stephanie Canworth is a successful businesswoman who begins

to question her marriage when she receives a message from her first

love on Facebook. The show premieres at the West Yorkshire Playhouse on

Thursday. You've decided to debut here. Is there any particular reason

why you chose this venue? I love Leeds! It's a really cool place.

People are really warm. It felt like the right place to start ` because

I'm on my own, I felt I needed an audience who would almost cuddle me!

So it's a one`woman show. It's a brave move doing that? It's scary

and it's the most petrifying thing, but at the same time I think once

I'm on stage it's fine. After five minutes I settle into it. Is there

added pressure, not just being on stage on your own, but also having

co`written it? It's very scary and I'm very passionate about it because

it's my piece. I think that makes it more daunting, because there's

nobody else to blame. How much of it is taken from personal experience,

and relationships? The character is fictional but the heart of the show

is me. It's everything I've experienced as a woman ` I've been

in love and out of love... Heartbroken... I've had to pick

myself up off the floor. All of those emotions are channelled into

the character. The nice thing about the show is that because she starts

talking to the audience in a Shirley Valentine style, she starts

reminiscing about the 80s and the 90s. And you've got lots of 80s and

90s songs in there ` some classics! Music is a big part of my life. I

love pop songs. Some people think they're too cheesy to be cool, but

when you strip them down and listen to the lyrics and melodies, some of

them are beautiful. A lot of our viewers will know you from being on

Strictly, what was that like? Amazing. It's the best thing ever. I

hadn't danced since I was a kid. It's a brilliant feeling. I came to

Leeds to do the tour and I had a brilliant time, although I have to

say it was very different to my one`woman show because there was a

big group of us. There were after parties as well! That won't be

happening! What's been the highlight of your career so far? This, because

it's something I feel really passionate about. I love performing

it. Hopefully I'll be able to write this down as one of my highlights in

years to come. A talented lady! She is good on a bike! She's done a 350

mile ride for charity. She said to wear two pairs of padded cycling

shorts. Thanks for that! Finally today, a story of a labour

of love from Barnsley. Graham Wall has spent the last year and several

thousand pounds restoring a vintage car in his garage. Built in 1955, it

is the oldest Morris Isis on the road. And it had been languishing in

the back of his garage for over a decade. Our reporter Tom Ingall went

along for a ride. Life's mission statement ` every man

should have something vintage in his garage, and if you're going to

tinker... Tinker with something worthwhile! Graham, I'm really

excited you've invited me for a trip out. Fire her up and let's see where

the road takes us! That was incredible, thank you!

Let's be honest, it is persisting down, shall we say, today. This car

isn't licenced for the road, and the only track we could take it on has

turned into a quagmire. Besides, vintage cars weren't made for

driving in the rain, you know! It has taken Graham around a year to

rebuild this Morris Isis. Dating from a decade when we've never had

it so good, it would have cost around ?1,000 originally. I'd pay

that just to look at it today! We've replaced the rear wings... The front

wings have had to be repaired up. There's been rechroming. It's also

been made to run on unleaded. It's a classic ` a British classic.

Everybody knows Morris Oxford but not so many about Morris Isis. These

are photographs of the two variants ` the saloon and the estate. Without

dancing around the subject, Sandy Hamilton is very much a Morris man.

Were they a successful car? I'm guessing maybe not, because you

don't hear much about them? No. They were built for a period of three

years and there were probably just under 12,000 built in total. There

are fewer than 50 surviving now. It's the oldest one on the roads.

It's probably about the 500th one that was built. Even the onboard

entertainment is vintage ` the radio takes a whole trip across town to

warm up. By which point, it's time to go back to the garage. You

wouldn't want to spoil it, would you!? Incredible. My first card was

Ford Anglia! Now time for the weather. Here are

some of your photos. Holme Moss here. This is from a few days ago.

Keep the pictures coming in. It will be cloudy for the next 24

hours. More rain around. A temporary cold snap. It will turn colder.

There will be a few showers on Thursday but the rain will be back

in permanently on Friday. You can see the atmosphere spinning around.

There have been some outbreaks of rain. It is more of the same for

this evening. Showers, and sometimes longer outbreaks of rain. Some dry

periods and their but not for very long. `` in there. Temperatures down

to three or four Celsius. Tomorrow is another cloudy day and

that will be a scattering of showers. They could well emerge to

give longer outbreaks of rain. It could turn out that wintry over

higher ground. `` turn a bit. At times tried by tomorrow evening.

Eastern areas may be dry in the afternoon. Temperatures coming in at

around five or six Celsius. Already a warning in place for Wednesday

night and that is for ice and that this for as unforced. Thursday looks

likely to quiet day. A lot of cloud and it could be thick enough for a

few showers but more towards the coast. Friday has a dry start but

the winds coming later on. The weekend looks unsettled. That is the

forecast. Thank you. For our scenic ride, it's going to be raining!

Enjoy your evening. Goodbye.