18/01/2017 Look North (Yorkshire)

Tonight the verdict on the Prime Minister's exit Strang. Join me now

on BBC Two. Good evening and welcome

to the late Look North. Tonight: Yorkshire Bank announces

its biggest closure plan ever - with 18 branches due to

shut in our region. Yorkshire is a hot spot

for dog fighting in the UK, the illegal practice

leaves its victims horribly maimed. The quiet and cloudy conditions look

set to continue but of hope through the weekend. Join me live for the

updated forecast. A glimmer of hope. Yorkshire Bank has announced

its biggest closure plan ever - which will see the number

of branches reduced by a third. The company says it's in response

to a rise in online banking. 18 of the branches

are in our region. It means that a total

of 200 jobs are at risk. Our business correspondent

Danni Hewson joins us live from the former

headquarters in Leeds. As you say this is the biggest

branch closure plan the bank has ever carried out and will seek the

number of branches cut by one third, taking them to under 100. It is the

latest in a series of changes for the bank first established in

Halifax in 1859. Two years ago it demerged from their parent company

when a buyer could not be found the Clydesdale and Yorkshire bank group

was floated on the stock market and just last year a smaller series of

branch closures was implemented. Bring us up to date. What is the

reason behind it? It is down to the fact more of us are doing internet

banking and in a statement tonight Yorkshire Bank said the changes will

help customers to interact with them whenever and however they want. Many

other banks have done some of restructuring but that is of no

comfort to the 200 staff now faced with redundancy and Unite said not

all customers want digital. There is a significant proportion

of society who do not want internet banking, do not want to do banking

on the telephone and who actually need and value face-to-face customer

service and we believe the industry, an industry that, let's not forget,

was bailed out by the British taxpayer to the tune of tens

of billions of pounds less than a decade ago, has a responsibility to

ensure people have retail banking in What will it mean to the customers?

It will leave some places without a bag altogether, the particular issue

for rural areas and in some cases it is 20 miles to the needed branch.

The closures are right across the region and all will be gone by the

end of the year. The bank says customers will be given 12 weeks

notice of branch closures and they will help them find alternate ways

of managing their money. Next 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. Rescue centres say the dogs'

injuries are heartbreaking - some have been used in fights,

others have been stolen 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 In other news, a murder

investigation's underway in Halifax after a man died

following an attack. He was found fatally injured

at a house in Athol Close Two men, aged 33 and

25, are in custody. A post-mortem examination has

concluded that the teenager whose body was found in an alleyway

in Dinnington on Monday died Leonne Weeks' family have

released a statement saying they are devastated at the loss

of a beautiful daughter and sister. An 18-year-old man has been arrested

on suspicion of murder Pupils at Leonne's school have

been getting special support. 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. A man from Wetherby has won

a victory for disabled travellers Five years ago Doug Paulley couldn't

get on a bus because a woman wouldn't move her pushchair out

of the way of the wheelchair space. He took the fight all the way

through the courts, and now bus drivers will have to do

more to prevent people blocking The bus drivers union,

Unite, has asked for more If Doug tomorrow gets on a bus

and is refused access because the driver does not require

someone to fold their buggy, then Doug is entitled to damages,

and so is every other disabled service user trying

to access that service. It is a matter for First

whether they change that policy, or any other bus company

across the country, but if they do not they find it

will be a very expensive problem In North Yorkshire, firefighters

have been sent home without pay because of a dispute over

new style fire appliances. The vehicles are called TRVs

and some firefighters in Scarborough This is the new tactical

response vehicle now Scarborough is the first place

in the country to have one and it is already

at the centre of controversy. The Fire Brigade Union

says it should be manned by four firefighters,

North Yorkshire Fire Service said it only wants three

firefighters crewing it. When union members refused to staff

it on Monday bosses sent the men One of the firefighters who refused

to crew this tactical response vehicle was actually the only

firefighter on shift qualified to operate this

aerial ladder platform. That meant this vehicle was then put

out of action and the nearest aerial ladder platform was 25 minutes away

and would have to come The union claims the new vehicles

are not adequately staffed On Monday in Scarborough

we had a situation created by the Chief Fire Officer

which meant that people and the public of 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 now

where if staff are unwilling to ride them they are unfortunately

in breach of contract and we will continue to send

them home without pay If they refuse to ride

in the tactical response vehicles then there is no other word

for them to do. The other fire engine

at Scarborough was fully crewed, so it is not like we have another

response vehicle for them to crew, so until they are able to fulfil

the contract that will continue The new vehicles and crewing

arrangements are to be introduced Meanwhile, the dispute shows no

sign of being resolved And now trying to catch up with the

weather. Very grey And now trying to catch up with the

weather. Very grey and very boring. There will be some brightness later

on. Tomorrow is mostly dry and cloudy with high-pressure dominating

our weather and subtle changes through the weekend. Hopefully we

will see some breaks materialising late on Saturday and especially on

Sunday. The main story is a lot of fine weather. Some drizzle showing

up on the picture and some mess over the hills. But it is frost free will

stop so for Thursday it is cloudy and a bit damp at first, otherwise

in other dry and nondescript day with a lot of cloud and perhaps a

bit of brightness. The light and variable breeze and top temperatures

of eight Celsius. Thursday evening, and Thursday night, cloudy, mostly

dry, some drizzle in places, light and variable breeze and frost free.

Further ahead, Friday is again cloudy but mostly dry, so this

Saturday but subtle changes in the wind direction might encourage some

breaks. Early next week it is settled and eventually by the end of

next week we get more wet and windy weather back.

next few days, no great changes over the next few days, more sunshine on

the way. Despite high-pressure sitting across

the country so only slow changes in the weather, we have had a variety

of different weathers, for example this beautiful sunset in Southampton

which was shared by a Weather Watcher, but grey and misty in Derby

thanks to an awful lot of cloud around and very little deviation by

day or night from the rather grey routine.

That is because we have a weather front, albeit very weak and very

little