22/12/2016 Look North (Yorkshire)

Here on BBC One, it's time for the news where you are.

Good evening and welcome to the late Look North.

Tonight - the sound of bells returns to York Minister after three months

of silence due to a row between the ringers and church.

And facing Christmas without a bridge; we look

at the impact of last year's devastating floods on Tadcaster.

And a very windy day to come tomorrow with gales or severe gales

expected. I'll be back later in the programme with all the details.

Next tonight - the bells at York Minster have rung

out for the first time in nearly three months.

They were silenced when the bellringing team

was removed in October, after one of them was accused

of indecently assaulting young girls, although no charges

It is unclear where in Yorkshire the new bellringers have come from.

Well, this is a row that has meant the bells in the tower at York

Minster have remained silent now for more than two months but it has

created a lot of noise here in York. Finally tonight, some progress. This

is the sound York has been missing for the last two months. For

centuries, the bells of the Minster have chimed out across the city. In

October, they stopped, but tonight, a temporary fix. It is exciting. The

very thing I said to you two days after the group posted down, that we

were hoping before long the bells would win a game and we are very

grateful for the courageous and ringers from within the city and

across the country who have come forward to help us by ringing over

this period of time. There they go again, such a glorious sound,

singing the glory of God. The group were dismissed after one of the

ringers was accused of indecent assault against a young girl. No

charges were ever brought. Since then, the Minster has struggled to

find people to ring the bells, citing intimidation toward anyone

who tried to step in. The Minster say that they are now working

towards a permanent solution with a new team after the original group

say they have nothing to do with the intimidation. We will be recruiting

a new group in the New Year, so this is a special interim for this

festive season to make sure that anyone coming to worship and the

citizens of York, they know there is a very special server happening for

Christmas tonight. This time, because of the way the process is

going to happen, we are looking forward to recruiting a band that

will abide by the Church's process. It was great to hear the bells again

and be service was wonderful as well. And the row that has been

going on? The dispute? I am glad it has finished. It is nice to have

them back. I thought it was absolutely wonderful. Wonderful,

wonderful news. It makes Christmas, I think. It is the time for

forgiveness, so let's hope that is what has happened and they have

sorted things out. So, the congregation who were here at -- at

the carol service tonight are pleased to have the bells ringing

tonight. It has been a difficult journey though. The Minster has

faced criticism for how they have dealt with the dispute. A

spokesperson for the bell-ringer said they have been advised not to

comment any further but at the weekend they put out a statement

where they said that the case highlighted by the Minster resulted

in no charges and was tantamount to a waste of the court's time. We

don't know yet when the bells will ring again. The Dean of the Minster

has said she is hopeful they will ring at other Christmas services to

come. Thank you. A new report out today says last

year's Boxing Day floods cost Yorkshire's economy

more than ?500 million. It says 4000 homes and 2000

businesses were affected. And a year on, ?207 million has been

committed by government and councils towards new flood defences

but another ?25 million is needed to accelerate more flood defence

schemes - with 90,000 homes and

buisnesses still at risk. Well, all week we've been back

to those places most badly affected. The town was split in two -

after its road bridge over the River The reopening of Tadcaster's Road

Bridge was described as a national priority. But, almost a year run,

work to repair it still is unfinished. The repercussions of

what happened here last December are still being felt. At the town's

medical Centre, insurance costs have increased by almost 1000%. There is

an annual premium this year of ?39,500, with a ?100,000 excess, as

compared to last year where our premium was ?3425 with a ?2500

excess. So you can imagine we feel we are being somewhat unfairly

punished. In the aftermath of the floods, the town hosted Prince

Andrew who saw for himself the devastation. We have been trading

since 1851. One of those businesses affected was this iron mongers. How

high did the water penetrate last December? It came to about this

level here. About three feet deep here and about four foot deep at the

bottom level. It has been a tough year for many traders. They hope the

bridge reopening will get all businesses back on track. Town seems

to be recovering pretty well but the bridge will be the big thing, when

the bridge reopens that will reunite the town and hopefully make things

busy again. Across the road, the butcher 's estimate trade is down by

around 25% because of the bridge closure. But they say they are

optimistic for 2017. The bridge will make a massive difference. We will

have traffic bags, have people looking into shops and thinking, it

is a nice place to visit. It will be a massive difference for us. It has

been a turbulent 12 months for Tadcaster but there is a discernible

feeling of optimism here. It may have divided the town, but its

legacy has only brought the town together properly.

So when will the bridge re-open and why the delay?

Phil has been speaking to David Bowe from North Yorkshire County Council.

There has been a number of issues but I think, as you can see, it's an

incredibly complicated structure to rebuild. We are working to the

programme that was to effectively not open for Christmas but to open

for the end of December. That is what we are working for a year after

the collapse. The high river levels and complexities with the National

rail bridge further downstream has caused water backing up to Albert

and that slowed our operation down and we are where we are. We have the

warning of storm is coming over the next few days and people will be

nervous about that. Will it have an impact on levels here? It's not.

Although there will be some heavy rain, it will be fairly transient

and it will not hit the wall, so we have no particular concerns about

flooding. One can we expect to see road traffic across this bridge? --

when can we? The 27th of January is when we hope to have traffic

crossing the bridge again. As I said, a lot of conjugated work on

the masonry, particularly on the arch barrels, but the guys who are

working on the bridge are throwing everything at it.

Network Rail has released astonishing footage to try to warn

The pictures show a cyclist coming within inches of being hit

The man waited for a train to pass before pushing his bike

across the tracks, but then realised, with less

than a second to spare, that another train was coming

When I saw the video, I was just so shocked at how close they call this

one was. It emphasises how tragic these incidents can be. The

gentleman in this video got lucky. I have had the heartbreaking task of

having to tell families that their loved ones and coming home for the

sake of what is essentially a few seconds. It is not worth the risk.

Shocking pictures, and they? Yorkshire has taken in more Syrian

refugees than any other area in England, according

to Home Office figures. 403 came here in the 12

months to the end of September under the "vulnerable

persons resettlement scheme" - mainly to Leeds,

Bradford and Sheffield. The government pays

?8,500 per refugee - towards housing, healthcare

and other costs for their People who worked in Grimethorpe

colliery have gathered in the Barnsley village to pay

tribute to miners who died at work. More than 150 miners

lost their lives at Grimethorpe between 1894 and when it

closed in 1993. More men from the village died

in Grimethorpe Colliery A minute's silence was held

at the memorial at St Luke's church. A very windy spell of weather, both

tomorrow and over the Christmas weekend. Christmas Day itself looks

very mild indeed so we are not looking at a white Christmas. But a

very windy one. Tomorrow we have a warning font gales if not severe

gales in exposure. You can see why. This poorly cold front, very tightly

packed isobars. It will bring some heavy rain. That will be later on in

the day but it is not the rain we are concerned about. It is the

strength of the wind. Through the course of this evening and

overnight, the odd shower, but they will fizzle out. A quiet, calm night

with a touch of frost in shelter, with temperatures dropping back to

one or 2 degrees. A bright start to tomorrow, some sunshine and mainly

dry conditions for the morning. Later in the day, we see this

squally cold front pushed through very quickly with some very heavy

rain, squally winds and gales with gusts of up to 50 mph, possibly even

locally 60 or 70 mph. By the end of the day, there will be clear spells

and showers. The wind is the worry with the weather, not the rain,

although that will make for difficult driving conditions later

on. Temperatures getting up to itself, it's not white, but it's

warm. Temperatures could reach 15. I suppose you could say today was

the calm before the storm. A winter chill,