16/02/2014 Look North (Yorkshire)

Good evening. A Yorkshire MP has said councils struggling with budget

cuts should consider selling off their art collections. David Ward,

who represents Bradford East, told the Sunday Politics programme that

desperate times called for desperate measures. The council leader is

opposed to the idea, while Kirklees Council is already considering

selling off some of its artwork. Here's Louise Martin.

Art, is it creative inspiration or a billion`dollar industry? In these

times of austerity should councils in West Yorkshire consider selling

the family silver worth more than ?250 million? Among the works in

West Yorkshire collections are Lowrys, Henry Moores and Francis

Bacons but is now the time to sell? Mehboob Khan is the leader of

Kirklees Council. He says whilst artwork is important, they are

selling off other assets like buildings and land and selling art

could follow suit. Expert advice will help us to make

decisions on what we should hold on to and what we could safely sell.

The decision will be made in an open and transparent manner by the

Cabinet and all the councillors can take part and contribute to the

debate around those decisions. But at odds with him is David Green

the leader of Bradford Council. He's hit back at suggestions they should

part with any of their pieces. It is worth remembering that many of these

councils are looking for multimillion pound savings on their

budgets. The artwork has been left to the

trust of the people of Bradford and we are the guardians of that work,

not just for this generation but for future generations, and so have a

duty to protect it and ensure it is available as widely as possible.

Desperate times call for desperate measures and you cannot have any

area of the council's budget or assets where we cannot go. When you

are cutting youth services and social care, must look at every part

of the council's asset base. Kirklees Council says they will be

looking over the summer to see which ones they could sell.

Onto sport and Sheffield United have made it to the quarter finals of the

FA Cup. The Blades came from behind to beat Nottingham Forest 3`1. Chris

Porter scored in the 90th and 92nd minute at Bramall Lane to secure

victory. Their reward is a home quarter final against Sheffield

Wednesday if the Owls can overcome Charlton in their fifth round tie.

Onto this afternoon's Superleague results. Castleford made a winning

start to the season with a 36`18 victory at Bradford. Leeds Rhinos

also won comfortably, away to Hull KR. Tom Briscoe scored three of

their tries. Wakefield lost 14`18 at Salford.

Yorkshire`based Snowboarder Zoe Gillings has vowed to compete in

another Olympics despite narrowly missing out on a place in the

Snowboard Cross final. The 28`year`old has recovered from

career threatening injuries and funding cuts to take part in three

Winter Games and her latest appearance had plenty of drama.

Faith Wilkinson reports. Fast, furious and not for the

faint`hearted. She's gone too big. The Japanese

rider has gone down and she almost swept out Zoe's tail.

Zoe Gillings, here in yellow, was almost taken out in her snowboard

cross quarterfinal but finished third. Through to the next run.

Beautiful race. Celebrations but it is straight onto

the semifinal and more drama. Battling for second and third.

Making a move. A fall for favourite put Gillings

neck and neck for third and a place in the final. But she missed out by

the narrowest of margins. I thought I had got through at one

point as one of the official guys said I was through but it turned out

I wasn't. It was a real shame to miss out on the final by that small

amount but I rode as hard as I could so that's all I could do.

She finished ninth overall and will compete in another Olympics.

Definitely want to do another Olympics. No question whatsoever. As

long as I can get the funding and results keep coming in, I don't see

why not. I'll definitely go for it. A cruel finish maybe, but Gillings

is ready to return. Now, if you're an avid Look North

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would you like to have a say in how it spends your licence fee? The BBC

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application pack, simply go to the website or call 0800 092 6030.

application pack, simply go to the It was certainly a lovely day for

many of us out there and as we go into this evening we will see some

clear skies and that will bring a touch of frost here and there. You

can see those skies are fairly clear. We will see some frost but

the cloud will start to thicken ahead of this area of rain moving in

from Monday morning. Temperatures dropping back to one or two degrees.

The wind will be fairly moderate from the south`east. It is a wet

start to Monday morning. Light and patchy with the odd heavy burst. As

we go through Tuesday and on into Wednesday, it stays mostly dry with

the chance of a shower here and there. Lots of cloud around. The

next rain will be coming in for Thursday.? we are back with the next

update at 11:20pm. Good evening.

Whilst we are talking about wet and windy weather in the week ahead we

will lose the extremes of last week. The first glow of the week will

approach overnight. Clear skies will cause temperatures to fall awake,

and