18/01/2017 Look North (Yorkshire)

Good evening, you're watching Wednesday's Look North

On the programme tonight: Cruelty capital - why Yorkshire is a hot

We hear how dogs and cats are being used as bait in this

We'll find out what the RSPCA is doing to stop it.

Also tonight: A Wetherby campaigner wins his five year legal battle

to make bus drivers do more to accommodate wheelchair users.

It was always designed to be a wheelchair space and while some

people can use it when it does not needed for disabled people,

ultimately, without it we cannot travel.

A post mortem examination finds teenager Leonne Weeks died

from multiple stab wounds in Dinnington.

And why more children in Yorkshire are discovering the great outdoors

as the number of forest school grows.

The settled weather looks set to continue for the next few days but

some hope for a brighter weekend. Join me later for the full forecast.

Tonight - It's a barbaric and illegal sport which leaves

its victims horrifically injured - but according to the RSCPA,

dog fighting is still rife here in Yorkshire.

Figures released exclusively to the BBC show there are more dog

fights in West and South Yorkshire than almost anywhere

Rescue centres say the dogs' injuries are heartbreaking -

some have been used in fights, some have been stolen

You may find some of the pictures in Ali Fortescue's report disturbing.

Human entertainment at the expense of animals.

The underground world of dog fighting is vicious and bloody,

but believe it or not scenes like these are heartbreakingly

Meet Brian, a dog lover who knows all too well the devastating effects

He has actually got injuries, as you can see, to his face,

around his neck, this is the place where the dog had attacked another

Benji is not aggressive and that is why he would have been

used as bait, to test other dog's fighting instincts without being

We have seen several cases over the years and with dogfighting quite

often it is done by individuals that are fighting them

It makes me very sad to think people can treat any dog bad,

but a dog that is as beautiful in temperaments as Benji it just...

You cannot believe a person would do that.

In North Yorkshire the RSPCA received 77 calls about fights

In South Yorkshire the figure is much higher,

In west Yorkshire there were over 300 calls in ten years.

Both West and South Yorkshire are in the top five areas

for the number of calls in the whole England.

But it's not just dogs, it is thought these kittens found

in Bradford last year were also used as bait.

They are coloured in so people can bet on which one will die first.

It was horrendous and it was thinking, like,

those cats were probably minutes away from being ripped to shreds.

Dogfights are illegal and you can get up to six months in jail

for being involved in one, but the RSPCA says that is not

enough to help animals like these from being harmed.

Luckily, Smurf and Trek have now found a happy home.

The Department for Rural Affairs say they share the public's

regard for animal welfare, but at the moment this is a sport

that's popularity is plain to see, its presence in Yorkshire's

Mike Butcher, Special Operations Unit Chief Inspector from the RSPCA,

Shocking story, how do we stop this? It is very underground and very

murky and people involved in organised dogfighting are a member

of the criminal class so they are very adept at keeping ahead of the

law and it is a difficult world to penetrate and when we do get

success, I've managed to break up the gang and sees the dogs and seize

the property and paraphernalia they used, it hits them pretty hard but

they go to court and the get six months maximum which the RSPCA and

other charities say is far too low and we look for a higher sentence

because it is nowhere near enough for this type of crime.

You spoke of trying to break up the dogfight, what was that like?

Ironically the first organised dogfight we work out and were at the

right place at the right time was in west Yorkshire and we burst in and

found 17 people fighting to dogs in the pits was blood everywhere, too

appallingly injured dogs, one died straightaway. These people were

members of the criminal fraternity so they kicked off. Luckily the

police were there in force and they were all arrested and went to prison

but it is a horror fixing when you first break it up.

Looking at the picture is the Arcola fixer. Where do these fights take

place? -- VR horror fixing is. Anywhere they think they are safe.

Such as Barnes, isolated farms, industrial units, houses, one

occasion was a children's bedroom in a city centre street. Anywhere they

think they are safe. As I say, the successes are rare because this is

not the sort of animal cruelty area there is loads all offenders, the

actual dogfighting fraternity is quite small and they are tightly

knit and organised and it makes it hard for us to catch them.

Convictions are bullied because it is hard to catch them but what can

people do to safeguard against it. -- convictions are law. The main

thing is giving us information because the hall idea is to piece

together the pieces of information we get from sources. We are pretty

much helped by the police and other charities. The RSPCA takes the lead

on this and it all comes to us eventually and the idea is to look

at the jigsaw and get the last piece together and be in the right place

at the right time, so information coming into ours is what we need.

People should not approach these people, just let us in the police

know about that. -- the police and Tonight - The story of one man's

long battle to change the law Doug Paulley from Wetherby has won

a victory in the Supreme court - five years after he was unable

to board a bus because a woman refused to move her buggy

from a priority wheelchair space. Now drivers will be requried to do

more to prevent people But they won't have a legal right

to physically move them, In a moment we'll speak

to Doug's lawyer, about how ruling will be enforced,

first Charlotte Leeming Leaving the Supreme Court to cheers

and applause after a five-year legal battle, Doug Paulley's

face says it all. A win for him and all disabled

people wanting to catch the bus. His fight for the right

to travel started in 2012. He could not get on a bus

from Wetherby to Leeds because a mother with a pushchair

would not move. He was left on the kerb-side feeling

frustrated and humiliated, It is great that after five years of

fighting and campaigning by so many people that we have got

the ruling that says that disabled people

do have the rights to catch a bus

and the bus company must make all reasonable efforts

to make that possible. The court decided that bus

company First Group's policy requesting but not

requiring able-bodied passengers to move

is This disability group

in Leeds welcomed Each person in this room has

experienced what Douig went What I would want see

is the wheelchair and the buggy So it should be my priority,

but I stress only when it Doug has always insisted

this case is not about wheelchairs against buggies,

and the parents we spoke to today If his wheelchair is a priority

I will move out or come out of the bus.

A wheelchair is seen as a priority I would wait and let the disabled

person go first because I always think, I always put them first

before me and my son. Doug Paulley has made

history today with this Although it may lead

to a significant cultural change it is still

a partial victory. Basically bus drivers are being told

they must do more to force able-bodied passengers out

of the wheelchair space, but they do not have the legal power

to remove them, so it's still very much relies

on the goodwill of passengers that could lead to some very difficult

situations for drivers. Doug's lawyer Chris Fry

joins us now from London. There is substantial progress made

in this decision, we know what established the principle that

disabled passengers have effective and enforceable rights for priority

for the wheelchair space. For five years we have had to fight to

establish this principle. We accept that but the people who will enforce

it is the drivers, they will be the ones to make this judgment. Do you

not think that is a bit too much pressure on them? Not at all.

Drivers are routinely asked to engage in managing situations and

buses. We heard evidence from bus drivers that they would throw some

off for eating a cabal, they would throw somebody off a bus for smoking

-- eating a cabal. They would throw them off for anti-social behaviour.

So this says you should treat just as seriously someone refusing to

move following a reasonable request from a driver, you should take just

as seriously the rights of the wheelchair user to access the

service in the same way you do those other policies. It does not even go

as far as that. Doug did not ask for someone to be kicked off the boss,

he asked for the policy to be changed so the driver moved people.

How will this ruling change things? How quickly bus companies react is a

matter for them but from a legal perspective, any passenger that now

was refused access because of this request and retreat policy that was

previously in place, can allow enforce their rights legally. If

Doug tomorrow gets on the bus is refused getting on a bus because

someone will not fall them buggy, he is entitled to damages. It is a

matter for the bus companies but if they do not they will find it will

be very expensive to sort it. At the end of the day it is not about the

financial position, it is about what is morally right. Accessible

transport is an important part of an inclusive society and what Doug has

done is, not just for his benefit, but for the benefit of others simply

trying to use public transport to get around.

Thank you very much indeed for joining us.

Later on Look North: The cost of loneliness -

How Yorkshire's economy is affected by people feeling isolated

The teenager whose body was found in an alleyway in Dinnington

on Monday has been formally named as Leonne Weeks.

A post mortem examination has concluded she died

Her family have released a statement saying they are devastated

at the loss of a beautiful daughter and sister.

We can get the very latest on the story from Tom Ingall.

Tom - there have been a number of developments

Indeed. Not least of those is the fact Leonne Weeks has now been

formally identified. Her body was found in an alleyway in Dinnington

on Monday and the postmortem concluded she was killed from

multiple stab wounds. You can infer from that the police got a very

difficult job working through this investigation. Now she has been

formally identified a number tributes have appeared, notably from

her family who says she will be dearly missed. We also spoke to the

principle of her high school who own the move to the school in the last

month and her previous school she had to deal with the loss of five

young people in a car accident and now she is helping the students cope

with the loss of Leonne Weeks. Leonne was a lovely,

lively girl, some people who knew her knew the other side

to her, that she had an effervescent one of the things that is probably

most significant about her is she was a truly loyal friend and truly

loyal to her family. She was months away

from doing her GCSEs so it is unbelievable we have lost

a student on the edge of what is going to be the rest

of their lives. There was a second arrest today,

Tom? That's right. We have been reporting the arrest of an

18-year-old man on suspicion of murder. Police have had extra time

from the course to question him but to date there was news of a second

arrest late last night of a 26-year-old local woman who was

arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender. Thank you.

Yorkshire Bank is to close 39 branches, 18 of them in our region.

All branches will shut by the end of the year.

The bank says the closures come because of an increase

Nearly one third of all the branches will shut their doors.

A tribunal that found a former Leeds heart surgeon guilty of misconduct

has now ruled that it does affect his fitness to practice.

Nihal Weerasena - seen here on the left -

made various failings in the care of five children and one adult

The Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service will now decide

An inquest into the death of a Castleford woman who died

in Crete in 2010 has recorded a narrative verdict.

That means only the circumstances of death have been noted,

Chelsea Hyndman, who was 20, died from severe abdominal injuries

Her boyfriend Luke Walker was later convicted

of the Greek-equivalent of manslaughter,

At today's inquest in Wakefield, the coroner said he couldn't rule

differently to the Greek court, but stopped short of

finding Chelsea's death was unlawful killing.

In North Yorkshire, firefighters have been sent home

because of a dispute over new style fire engines.

Some firefighters are refusing to crew them.

On Monday, two firefighters were sent home from Scarborough

after refusing to operate the new TRV there.

It resulted in other equipment being put out of action

because there was no one left to operate it.

This is the new tactical response vehicle now and service in the

doctor. Scarborough is the first place in the country to have one and

it is already the centre of controversy. The union says it

should be staffed by four firefighters and North Yorkshire

Fire Service only 13. When union members -- only want three.

One of the firefighters who refuse to prove this vehicle was the only

firefighter on shifts qualified to operate this aerial ladder platform.

That meant this vehicle was put out of action and the nearest aerial

ladder platform was 25 minutes away and would have become problem --

Bridlington. The union says the vehicles are not adequately staffed

and dangerous. On Monday we had a situation created by the Chief Fire

officer which meant people and public in Scarborough were down to

one fire engine and did not have any high-rise rescue capability. When

our members were at work prepared to ride them with sufficient numbers.

We are at the point that staff are unwilling to ride them then they are

in breach of contract. We will continue to send them home without

pay until they agree to write them. So you will send them home? If the

refused to ride the vehicle there is no other work for them to do. The

other five injured was fully staffed so it is not as if that is another

vehicle for them to use soap until the fourth of the contract that is

the case. The new arrangements will be introduced in other pounds in the

coming weeks, while the dispute shows no signs of being resolved in

the near future. Loneliness could be costing

the Yorkshire economy New research says social

isolation has a huge impact I'm going to give it back to you now

because going to let Computer club is one of the most

popular mornings at this sheltered It means a busy couple of hours

for Glenn, who helps out here. Last year he moved back to Yorkshire

into sheltered accommodation It feels a bit daunting,

actually, because you don't I felt very much outside

of the community because it's a very insular community

in a lot of respects. I mean, groups like this are trying

to break those walls down Research out today says loneliness

has a big impact on our economy. The Centre for Economic

and Business Research estimates that social isolation could be costing

?2 billion every year in Yorkshire. That's because when we feel lonely,

it can affect our health, our well-being and even how

long we live. You're twice as likely to die

prematurely if you're lonely It increases your dementia,

hypertension, it's twice as bad as being obese,

it's similar to smoking. This women's group in Bradford has

been set up in response Now these ladies meet up every week

to plan events where the local For some of them it's

been life changing. Even though I am a chatty person,

you know, I kind of got stuck in a rut kind of thing and now I'm

just like this group's This research had already caught

the eye of the murdered MP Jo Cox. It was an issue she was passionate

about and a loneliness commission in her name is to be launched

in Parliament later this month. And it hasn't been the best of weeks

for Barnsley, has it? After watching star

striker Sam Winnall leave for Sheffield Wednesday,

the Reds were dumped out of the FA Barnsley managed a second half

equaliser from Angus MacDonald. With the score still level at 1-1,

into extra time they went. And it was Blackpool who snatched

the 2-1 win in the very last minute, to set up a fourth round tie

with Blackburn Rovers. According to Sheffield Council

the city has the most trees of any city in Europe, so it's not

surprising the number Sheffield Hallam has even introduced

a forest school module to it's I've been to Eccleshall

Woods to find out more. If you go down to the wood today

you're in for a big surprise. Children from the school in a

mission to get muddy and explore. This is forest school, a

Scandinavian ethos encouraging children to leave the classroom in

all weathers to from nature and encourages independence and grows

confidence. The build dens, they commit potions

and mud pies do climbing, lots of physical activity. And when they get

more experience they can use tools to make things. What did you spot

this morning? A birds and some hedgehogs. Pine cones. We spotted a

worm. After all that's popping it is snapped time and that means building

a fire. Did anyone bring any fire? Not me. I'm hoping that -- this

dragon's breath will jump into the air and make a fire! It's coming.

What are the rules of sitting near the fire? No touching. What is your

favourite part of forest school? When you have hot chocolate. Is

there any left for me? Yeah. So where is the evidence all this

actually works? A survey conducted found 90% of children said they

enjoyed outdoor learning more and teachers agreed and said they found

children were more engaged in classes and 85% said it has a

positive impact on the children's behaviour. In Sheffield the number

of schools like this is on the rise and Sheffield Hallam University and

the first to offer forest school qualification alongside early

childhood studies. The students I work with who will do this work and

lecture theatres and seminar rooms and were not getting outside and I

wanted them to have that passion for the outdoors because they are the

future in terms of working with our children.

After a busy morning the explorers will certainly sleep well tonight.

Who wants to play hide and seek? Yes!

That's what I call playtime. What have you got for us? More of

the same. Settled weather. Winter seems to have missed us for the time

being. Where have a at the pictures you have sent in. That a beautiful

one. Thanks for that, Gary. The second picture is of a gloomy

looking beach on the North Yorkshire coast. Send us your pictures at the

e-mail address. The headline for tomorrow, similar today and the same

for the day after. High pressure in charge and it will not move. Subtle

changes over the weekend. By Sunday summer brakes feel coming in from

the south-west so Sunday should be brighter. It remains a fine into

early next week. You can see the extent of the cloud on the satellite

picture. Some glimmers of brightness across the Yorkshire Dales but

essentially cloudy and more of the same overnight. The odd spot of

drizzle, mysterious and places but essentially dry, cloudy and frost

free. The sun rises in the morning at

around eight to 12. They're on the high water climbs. Some mysterious

first thing in places and the odd spot of rain, otherwise dry. -- some

mist frosting. Essentially that cloud will remain right across

Yorkshire and into the Midlands. Even light and variable breeze. Not

feeling too bad, temperatures if anything above average. Generally

eight Celsius. Looking into the further outlook, Thursday into

Friday is dry and rather cloudy, Saturday is dry and cloudy but by

Saturday afternoon we may get some brakes and if all goes to plan

Sunday could be dry and bright and we may see some blue sky with some

sunshine. That is the exciting forecast tonight!

That is it from us. Enjoy the rest of the evening. Goodbye.

Hello. I hope you're well. I really do.