:00:00. > :00:00.earlier this evening. There will be more on that and
:00:00. > :00:08.Tonight, our research reveals four times more is being spent
:00:09. > :00:15.on defences on the River Thames than on the whole of Yorkshire.
:00:16. > :00:22.A year on from the floods, we will be looking at how communities in
:00:23. > :00:26.Leeds are fighting back. Tomorrow looks a fairly nice day but
:00:27. > :00:27.what about the rest of the week? Join me for that week ahead
:00:28. > :00:31.forecast. Look North has discovered that four
:00:32. > :00:39.times more is to be spent on building flood defences
:00:40. > :00:41.to protect the River Thames - than is planned to be spent
:00:42. > :00:44.on the whole of Yorkshire. The new figures have come to light
:00:45. > :00:47.almost a year after Storm Eva devastated the region with many
:00:48. > :00:49.communities still trying In England the total flood defence
:00:50. > :00:56.building programme is currently worth more than ?3.5 billion
:00:57. > :01:01.in the coming decades. ?440 million will be spent
:01:02. > :01:05.in Yorkshire, improving and building new flood defences
:01:06. > :01:09.across the region. It is the river gateway to London
:01:10. > :01:17.and we've found that ?1.8 billion will be spent on new flood defences
:01:18. > :01:20.here beyond 2021. That's four times more
:01:21. > :01:23.than is currently earmarked to be And all of this is happening
:01:24. > :01:40.as the rivers in our Yorkshire has a long history of
:01:41. > :01:43.being scarred by flooding. The first-ever addiction of look North
:01:44. > :01:49.in 1968 was all about flooding in York. The police force have 30
:01:50. > :01:52.officers and about a dozen boats helping people like this. York today
:01:53. > :01:59.is looking almost like Little Venice. I went on someone's
:02:00. > :02:05.shoulders with some with waders on. They've taken as a way to have
:02:06. > :02:13.something to eat. In torrential rain. Storm battered westerns in
:02:14. > :02:18.North Yorkshire last Christmas. Last year was the wettest December on
:02:19. > :02:23.record. Climate models suggest that the extreme events that we saw last
:02:24. > :02:27.year should become the norm as we move into the future. Today, the
:02:28. > :02:30.Environment Agency said it is investing record amounts of money
:02:31. > :02:35.for the fences in Yorkshire that will protect over 70,000 homes.
:02:36. > :02:40.Money is spent on protecting London because it is the central economic
:02:41. > :02:44.driving force of the UK. But that is of little comfort to those 4000
:02:45. > :02:47.households across Yorkshire flooded last year and whilst London remains
:02:48. > :02:53.dry, the rivers in our region are rising. During the 1970s, the river
:02:54. > :03:00.who's had an average peak of 8.5 metres a year. In the 1980s, that
:03:01. > :03:05.pig climbed again. It broke the nine litre threshold a decade after. It
:03:06. > :03:09.has continued to rise ever since and given what happened last year, the
:03:10. > :03:13.river is now picking on average at 9.3 metres high. Other academics
:03:14. > :03:17.warned that we face some tough choices and both the government and
:03:18. > :03:18.those affected by flooding have to realise that money cannot solve
:03:19. > :03:23.everything. What happens every time everything. What happens every time
:03:24. > :03:27.we have a flood? We throw some money at it and hope to god it doesn't
:03:28. > :03:31.happen again. And it is patently obvious that the kind of sticky
:03:32. > :03:36.plaster approach we have is not up to the job. It's not fit for
:03:37. > :03:39.purpose. If you take a place like law York, it's the case that almost
:03:40. > :03:45.no amount of flood defences in cities could ever properly cope.
:03:46. > :03:49.There isn't an amount of concrete that you could apply if you allow
:03:50. > :03:55.for building all over the flood plains of forever and allow the
:03:56. > :04:00.agricultural practices, the lack of tree-planting etc to continue.
:04:01. > :04:04.Without change, it is not a question of whether the auction will flood
:04:05. > :04:07.again but when. On Look North every night this week
:04:08. > :04:09.we're revisiting the Yorkshire communities devastated
:04:10. > :04:12.by the Boxing Day floods to see how they're recovering and planning
:04:13. > :04:16.for a flood-resilient future. Tonight, we've been looking
:04:17. > :04:19.at Leeds, where more than three thousand homes and businesses
:04:20. > :04:21.were affected and where work is well underway to try
:04:22. > :04:23.to prevent a recurrence. Our reporter James Vincent
:04:24. > :04:42.is on Kirkstall Road As many people know, one of the main
:04:43. > :04:48.routes in and of Leeds. For a few days last year, this place became
:04:49. > :04:53.part of the river. Water completely covered the four lanes of traffic we
:04:54. > :04:57.are used to on the way in and out of Leeds city centre. I visited a
:04:58. > :05:03.restaurant on the right just after the floods. They were chucking
:05:04. > :05:05.everything into a huge skip. Everything was completely ruined.
:05:06. > :05:11.That's an example of one of the businesses affected here. Flood
:05:12. > :05:14.to detect Leeds city centre just to detect Leeds city centre just
:05:15. > :05:20.down the road. But what about the rest of Leeds?
:05:21. > :05:30.Leeds have never seen flooding like it. It was the highest ever recorded
:05:31. > :05:34.level. More than 2500 homes and nearly 700 commercial properties
:05:35. > :05:38.were flooded. Near the city centre, there are new defences. Phase one is
:05:39. > :05:42.nearly finished. That should protect 3000 homes and 500 businesses. But
:05:43. > :05:47.there are no guarantees about phase two. The work going on behind me is
:05:48. > :05:53.a project being led by Leeds City Council. They are installing a
:05:54. > :05:58.movable weir. In a flood event, those movable weirs will fall down
:05:59. > :06:02.and that will create extra capacity for the flood waters and help the
:06:03. > :06:08.water move safely through the city. My name is David Long. I'm the
:06:09. > :06:14.manager for the climbing lab in Leeds. The water came in up to chest
:06:15. > :06:18.height. We've had to delay the opening. A year later, the climbing
:06:19. > :06:21.lab is up and running but wings are still tough. We cannot get
:06:22. > :06:26.stand-alone cover. The initial quote, if we did qualify, which we
:06:27. > :06:31.probably wouldn't, came back at something like ?10,000 a year. For
:06:32. > :06:34.our business is unaffordable. We are having to look at it because the
:06:35. > :06:39.cost of that faces having to close the business in the event of a flood
:06:40. > :06:44.is something you have to weigh up. The ITV Studios is where they keep
:06:45. > :06:49.Panic set in as water came into the Panic set in as water came into the
:06:50. > :06:53.floor on Boxing Day last year. We've implemented a system which consists
:06:54. > :06:57.of an early warning system monitoring water levels and leave
:06:58. > :07:02.the building. There are a series of pumps that we have out in the
:07:03. > :07:07.corridors and the basement to pump out any water that does make its way
:07:08. > :07:09.in. We've also got a number of defence barriers which cover the
:07:10. > :07:15.access points into the archive. The key thing is we don't get any water
:07:16. > :07:18.into the film and tape storage areas. This Indian restaurant was
:07:19. > :07:23.one of the businesses which had to close. They do plan to reopen but in
:07:24. > :07:26.the meantime, it has been turned into a community centre providing
:07:27. > :07:33.help and a team of over 1000 volunteers. A lot of it is clearing
:07:34. > :07:37.flood debris but some of it is cleaning fly-tipping, improving
:07:38. > :07:41.access and bringing them back into people's lives because it was
:07:42. > :07:44.something people had turned their back on. There is a lot of work to
:07:45. > :07:49.do as Leeds continues to clear up the city centre. It should be
:07:50. > :07:51.protected next time but there is no guarantee we will see new flood
:07:52. > :07:56.defences that will help the rest of the city.
:07:57. > :07:59.And tomorrow night we'll be live in York to assess
:08:00. > :08:00.the recovery there. Join us at 6.30pm.
:08:01. > :08:03.A brief look at some of the day's other stories.
:08:04. > :08:06.A man who stabbed his ex-girlfriend more than 30 times has been told
:08:07. > :08:09.he'll spend at least 26 years behind bars.
:08:10. > :08:13.Tapiwa Furusa attacked 22-year-old Leigh-Anne Mahachi in
:08:14. > :08:18.Spotswood Close in Gleadless Valley back in Apri, as she left her
:08:19. > :08:21.Spotswood Close in Gleadless Valley back in April, as she left her
:08:22. > :08:25.Police say she died in an unprovoked, selfish
:08:26. > :08:28.Leigh-Ann's family say they will miss her forever
:08:29. > :08:31.and they have been left devastated by her death.
:08:32. > :08:33.Meanwhile cold case detectives in West Yorkshire have launched
:08:34. > :08:36.a fresh appeal to find the killer of a Mytholmroyd
:08:37. > :08:40.88-year-old Agnes Ogden was smothered to death
:08:41. > :08:42.in her home but her killer didn't steal anything.
:08:43. > :08:45.Police think someone who lived nearby knows who's responsible.
:08:46. > :08:50.They've asked anyone with information to come forward.
:08:51. > :08:53.North Yorkshire power station Drax has been given the go ahead
:08:54. > :08:58.to complete its part-conversion from coal to biomass.
:08:59. > :09:01.Half of the plant now produces renewable electricity
:09:02. > :09:03.through burning wood pellets, saving 12 million tonnes
:09:04. > :09:08.Drax says that with support from the government it could convert
:09:09. > :09:20.You are up-to-date with the news. I will leave you with a weather
:09:21. > :09:30.forecast. Potentially quite stormy for the
:09:31. > :09:35.Christmas week. It is going to be fairly bright tomorrow. Some
:09:36. > :09:39.sunshine. Watch the jet acid piles in from the west by the end of the
:09:40. > :09:43.week. It means some heavy rain and severe gales through Christmas Eve
:09:44. > :09:49.and Boxing Day. We will keep you posted with that one. There is a
:09:50. > :09:53.look at Friday's chart. It is wet and windy Friday night into
:09:54. > :09:58.Christmas Eve. At the moment, fairly quiet. A bit of drizzle and patchy
:09:59. > :10:06.light rain in places. We are looking at those of around 4 degrees.
:10:07. > :10:12.Tuesday morning off to a cloudy and damp start. Mischievous in places.
:10:13. > :10:16.As the breeze picks up, we will see decent breaks developing. Sunshine
:10:17. > :10:22.for all of us through Tuesday afternoon. Top temperatures of 6
:10:23. > :10:28.degrees. The wind will take the edge of the temperatures. It will feel
:10:29. > :10:32.quite chilly. Tuesday evening is looking fairly quiet at first but
:10:33. > :10:35.then a weather front will bring some rain in from the West so it turns
:10:36. > :10:40.wet and windy on Tuesday night into Wednesday morning. At main weather
:10:41. > :10:45.front is out of the way by first light. A number of showers piling in
:10:46. > :10:49.from the west and Wednesday's temperatures will be around about
:10:50. > :10:54.eight Celsius. Sunshine and showers on Wednesday. Thursday is not
:10:55. > :10:58.looking too bad. Dry with some sunshine. Friday, a dry and bright
:10:59. > :11:00.start. Rain by the end of the day. Severe gales are possible over the
:11:01. > :11:16.Christmas weekend. That's it. Heavy weather is brewing, it will
:11:17. > :11:22.not reach us just yet. It will take a good few days before the stormy
:11:23. > :11:24.weather reaches us. At the moment, it's just potential, nothing is
:11:25. > :11:25.certain, but it will