:00:00. > :00:12.Good evening. Miners at Kellingley over on the BBC News Channel.
:00:13. > :00:16.Good evening. Miners at Kellingley Colliery have tonight vowed to do
:00:17. > :00:20.everything they can to keep the pit open. Union officials and workers
:00:21. > :00:23.have held their first formal meeting since it emerged that the colliery
:00:24. > :00:26.near Knottingley faces closure, along with Thoresby pit in
:00:27. > :00:29.Nottinghamshire. 1,400 jobs could be lost. In a moment we'll get the
:00:30. > :00:46.latest from Kellingley, but first Danni Hewson has this. As the first
:00:47. > :00:49.shift arrived Kellingley colliery this morning, there was a sense of
:00:50. > :00:53.disbelief, and despair. Everybody is gutted. The lads have tried as hard
:00:54. > :00:56.as they can on the ground but without money and everything, it's
:00:57. > :01:07.over. I'm 48 years old, been here 32 years, there is no jobs out there
:01:08. > :01:13.for us whatsoever. Most of the call is imported, shipped in from Russia,
:01:14. > :01:18.America and Colombia. So why is it cheaper to ship it thousands of
:01:19. > :01:23.miles, rather than driving less than five miles down the road? The call
:01:24. > :01:28.in the deep mines in the UK is getting harder to reach. Issues of
:01:29. > :01:33.geology and safety push costs up. And there was a glut of coal because
:01:34. > :01:38.of the Shelbourne America, which is forced the price right down. This is
:01:39. > :01:42.cold comfort for the apprentice started three months ago. At the
:01:43. > :01:47.interview they said there was ten years worth of coal, 15 years
:01:48. > :01:51.reserve, so 25 years, and I thought but I would be happy in this, I had
:01:52. > :01:58.been the happiest I have been in a job. And in the Commons today, this
:01:59. > :02:03.empty argued that subsidy is commonplace for gas and oil could
:02:04. > :02:10.still see the pits. Surely, you could use the same sort of system
:02:11. > :02:16.with the EU and anybody else to stop the demise and the closure of the
:02:17. > :02:21.last three remaining pits? We are working tirelessly on this. We have
:02:22. > :02:25.solution, that all parties can sign solution, that all parties can sign
:02:26. > :02:32.up to, that is value for money and that will actually work. And we are
:02:33. > :02:40.trying our best. Assurances of platitudes, either way, words are
:02:41. > :02:51.unlikely to save these two minds. `` mines. Well there's been a lot of
:02:52. > :02:55.political reaction to this today and both the local MPs agree there is a
:02:56. > :02:58.strong case for keeping the pit open. We have to do everything we
:02:59. > :03:00.can to keep the pits open. The Government is ruling out any option
:03:01. > :03:05.that goes beyond 2015 which means losing hundreds of jobs at
:03:06. > :03:07.Kellingley, and we would not have any sustainable future for the coal
:03:08. > :03:12.industry in Britain, so I think they are taking the wrong approach and
:03:13. > :03:16.that is why I have been talking to the unions about what we can do to
:03:17. > :03:20.look at other options are to keep the pits open for longer. There is
:03:21. > :03:24.lots of pressure that we can bring to bear, and the Government,
:03:25. > :03:28.thankfully, is listening. We have got to get everybody round the table
:03:29. > :03:32.to agree terms. There is a real`time pressure on this. And what is
:03:33. > :03:38.crucial is that in the next few days, we are able to agree a deal to
:03:39. > :03:42.keep these pits open, to keep UK coal going, and long term, I
:03:43. > :03:50.believe, as the miners do, that there is a future here. Our reporter
:03:51. > :03:56.Kate Bradbrook is at the Kellingley Miners Welfare Club in Knottingley.
:03:57. > :03:59.What's the latest? The mood matches the weather outside, but the miners
:04:00. > :04:05.are trying to keep up eight. A union meeting was held to keep `` find a
:04:06. > :04:10.way forward. Keith was at that meeting. What did they say? The men
:04:11. > :04:14.were a little bit down. But they have been buoyed by the support that
:04:15. > :04:21.they have received, including the cross`party members of Parliament,
:04:22. > :04:24.of all parties, supporting us, to try and get us over the difficult
:04:25. > :04:31.that we face in the short`term, at Kellingley. What are you hoping for,
:04:32. > :04:35.then? We hope to secure a short`term loan from the Government which would
:04:36. > :04:40.tide us over this period. We would pay it back once we are profitable,
:04:41. > :04:45.which would be within months, rather than any other time scale. You
:04:46. > :04:51.believe you can be profitable that quickly? It is a profitable mind
:04:52. > :04:55.with lots of reserves, and whatever we borrow, we will pay back with
:04:56. > :05:03.interest. It is a commercial loan, not closure aid. The pit is due to
:05:04. > :05:12.close in the next 18 months, but in the next few days, discussions over
:05:13. > :05:16.its long`term future will continue. More news now, and North Yorkshire
:05:17. > :05:18.Police has referred itself to the Independent Police Complaints
:05:19. > :05:21.Commission over the way it handled child sex abuse allegations about
:05:22. > :05:24.Jimmy Savile and Savile's friend, the former Scarborough Mayor Peter
:05:25. > :05:27.Jaconelli, who died in 1999. In February, the BBC's Inside Out
:05:28. > :05:30.programme spoke to five men who said they were assaulted by Jaconelli as
:05:31. > :05:34.boys. Afterwards, the force appealed for them to come forward. It says if
:05:35. > :05:37.he were alive today, Jaconelli would have been interviewed under caution
:05:38. > :05:46.and a file sent to the Crown Prosecution Service. Police
:05:47. > :05:50.searching for a missing teenager in a river in York say he may have been
:05:51. > :05:53.trying to swim across it. The 18`year`old was seen going into the
:05:54. > :05:56.River Ouse at King's Staith in the early hours of this morning. He's
:05:57. > :06:01.the third person thought to have drowned in York's rivers since
:06:02. > :06:04.Christmas. Two people have been arrested in Barnsley on suspicion of
:06:05. > :06:07.murder after an elderly woman's body was found last night. Police were
:06:08. > :06:11.called to Birkwood Avenue in Cudworth at about half past five and
:06:12. > :06:19.found the body of a woman in her seventies. A 23`year`old man and
:06:20. > :06:25.17`year`old girl have been arrested. Time now for the weather forecast.
:06:26. > :06:31.The good news is, we will have a West the south`westerly wind which
:06:32. > :06:36.will brighten things up tomorrow afternoon but it will be a damp
:06:37. > :06:40.start with some patchy rain. It will become unsettled into the weekend
:06:41. > :06:43.and into early next week. It is wet out there to the west and south,
:06:44. > :06:49.with rain spreading from the south`west, extensive fog over the
:06:50. > :06:54.hills, misty elsewhere, lo temperatures of six Celsius. A
:06:55. > :06:59.familiar start of the day tomorrow with some rain and drizzle around,
:07:00. > :07:03.that patchy rain moving North East, then the wind switches to the
:07:04. > :07:08.south`west, clearing that fog from the hills, then it will brighten up.
:07:09. > :07:14.Still, variable amounts of cloud, and just a small chance of a shower.
:07:15. > :07:22.Temperatures not that bad. Milder on the coast, looking at about 13
:07:23. > :07:27.Celsius in Filey and Whitby. On Saturday, a bit of drizzle coming in
:07:28. > :07:33.from the west, but try and white further east. A bit of uncertainty
:07:34. > :07:38.followed by wet weather late on the day on Sunday. I will leave you with
:07:39. > :07:40.a summary, and now the national weather.