13/04/2017 Look North (Yorkshire)

Good evening and welcome to the late Look North.

Rail unions announce strike action on one of Yorkshire's busiest

weekends when we host the Tour De Yorkshire.

And a new chapter for Bretton Hall - the West Yorkshire drama college

And the Easter weekend is nearly upon us, a full forecast shortly.

Rail passengers are being warned of potential disruption on one

Members of the RMT union working for Virgin East Coast will walk out

for 48 hours on the 28th and 29th of April.

The same days as the Tour De Yorkshire.

Meanwhile, staff at Arriva Rail North are to hold a 24-hour strike

on 28th April in a row about driver-only trains.

The East Coast Main Line is Britain's flagship

railway, carrying thousands of people every day.

The planned walk-out by members of the RMT working

for Virgin Trains East Coast is part of an ongoing row about the role

The dispute follows changes introduced by Virgin last month,

meaning a single person takes over responsibility for customer

In other words, a train manager supported by a team.

The RMT claims safety is being compromised and that Virgin

has implemented the changes without formal agreement.

The union says striking is a last resort.

If we were to strike on a Monday to Thursday,

we would be accused of hitting the regular commuter.

There is never a good time to strike, we do not want to strike,

our members lose money, but both ourselves and

the travelling public know that this strike is all about their safety

Virgin Trains has said it plans to run a near-normal timetable

during the strike and claims the changes will have

The company has also assured the union there will be no

But with the strike due to take place on the weekend

of the Tour De Yorkshire, what sort of impact is it likely

It definitely will make a difference because, like,

during the holidays like yesterday, we took the grandson to York.

It is just a busy time of month, everyone is around here.

People love cycling, everyone is always out

and about at weekends, it is just going to

Will the strike have any affect on you?

But it comes on the weekend of the Tour De Yorkshire,

do you think that will inconvenience people?

Because I live in Leeds, so it will be big time.

Welcome To Yorkshire has said that the advice is to plan ahead.

Ironically, today it announced Virgin Trains as one

RMT members working for Arriva North have said that they also will be

taking industrial action on the 28th of April in a row over proposals

It follows similar action by members of the Rail Maritime and Transport

union in a long-running dispute with Southern Railway.

Next tonight, how effective are traditional fixed

According to the Chief Constable of North Yorkshire Police - not very.

His comments come as the force invests in a fleet of mobile safety

camera vans that will catch people speeding through rural villages.

In West Yorkshire the highly visible fixed cameras occupy 144 locations.

In South Yorkshire there are 46 fixed cameras.

North Yorkshire is the only force in Yorkshire without any,

but mobile vans can be despatched to 213 locations across the county.

Here's our home affairs correspondent, Spencer Stokes.

A quiet street on the edge of Harrogate, and today's chosen

spot to catch speeding motorists from new, smaller vans.

The police are here because of pressure from residents,

who say drivers are regularly breaking the 30 mph limit.

After minutes of arriving, local concerns are confirmed.

The driver will receive a ?100 fine and three penalty points.

Or the option of going on a speed awareness course.

You have to think where we are currently at the moment,

we are outside a park, we've got a school down the road,

Lots of houses, easy for children to come out of those houses

Time for everyone to start slowing down and hopefully we'll achieve

Six of the new agile safety vans will now join North Yorkshire's

fleet of larger mobile camera vans, so there will be a total

of 12 vehicles patrolling the county's network of roads.

Traditionally, North Yorkshire Police's safety cameras have been

on the county's main A roads, catching motorists

This is about changing the focus to suburban

areas and rural villages, where motorists might not expect

to see a police officer and a safety camera.

It's seven years since the first mobile cameras were introduced

in North Yorkshire, and the number of people killed or injured

on the county's roads has fallen from 478 in 2010 to 371 in 2015.

And what makes North Yorkshire unique is the lack of fixed cameras

that have become a common sight across the rest of the country.

That's something that is not likely to change soon,

Fixed cameras are not as effective as people may think.

People change their behaviour 15 seconds before,

This way of deploying mobile vans means we are in a position

to constantly make sure people are alive to the speed

they are going, how they are behaving on the roads.

I know, evidentially, this is saving lives.

And the fact we are deploying it and other people aren't,

I'm determined we keep the people of North Yorkshire safe.

The van is small, but the camera can see 800 metres down the road,

making these mobile units a very useful safety tool on North

Spencer Stokes, BBC Look North, Harrogate.

A bus driver who knocked down and killed a teenage girl

in Sheffield and seriously injured her boyfriend has been

Summer Seymour, who was 15, and 17-year-old Jake Ford,

were run over as they crossed Haymarket in 2015.

Driver Paul Brown, who's 51 and from Fir Vale,

pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving.

Football, and in the Championship, Barnsley have lost to Wigan 3-2.

The Tykes were 2-0 up until the 71st minute when the Latics fought back.

It leaves Barnsley 13th in the table.

For over 60 years it was a hub of creativity,

attracting generations of artists and performers.

And in that time Bretton Hall College produced

some well-loved stars, including screenwriter Kay Mellor,

playwright John Godber and the actors Mark Gatiss,

Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton.

But the campus closed in 2007 and today the last

of the accommodation blocks were demolished to make

They were home to some drama students who have

since become household names, but now these '70s accommodation

As they are cleared, the splendour of Bretton Hall

The Grade-II listed mansion, built in 1720, stands

in the Yorkshire Sculpture Park and it is now to become

a hotel, the latest phase in its rich history.

We've got lots of great attractions in Wakefield

but not enough hotel space, so I think it is probably the best

location in the country, actually, for a new hotel and this will be

There's some wonderful listed buildings here, not just the hall,

But there are perhaps some less appealing structures on the site

and they block out this vista that we have not seen for many

years, which is from the east side of the mansion.

The buildings have all been empty for ten years since the closure

Former students, including TV dramatist Kay Mellor,

It was a special place and dearly loved.

David Newland spent five happy and creative years here.

For me, it is my sense of coming home.

We have a word in Welsh called "hiraeth", which is a wistful kind

of longing for homeland and my hiraeth, although I am

very happy where I am, is when I come back to Bretton Hall.

My other half cannot understand it at all,

but there is just something magical here that kind of draws you back.

David and other alumni are already planning to return once the grand

In college days, this room was the principal's office

and students only got to see it if they were in trouble,

but the developers see this as an ideal spot for a wedding.

The developers are keen to respect both the setting and the history

They hope to open by Christmas next year.

Cathy Killick, BBC Look North, Wakefield.

You cannot beat those beautiful views on a beautiful Easter weekend.

Time for a check on the weather. Whenever there is an extended

weekend like this coming up I always feel more pressure on the weather

forecaster. It is not looking too bad. It is a settled story over the

next couple of days, more on that shortly. Tomorrow it will be cloudy

and, yes, there are outbreaks of rain in the forecast but I would

stress, not all of us will see this. We start to see the rain moving from

the West overnight, name following on high ground on the Pennines, for

example, as it moves over this high ground. But it will fizzle out so we

will see some showers reaching further towards the East but this

will be lighter. Those tonight of seven, eight Celsius. Not

desperately cold. Good Friday looks like this first thing, cloudy, here

comes that rain again, coming in from the rest, quite persistent, and

this pipeline of thick cloud and rain is courtesy of a weather front,

highs of 11 or 12 Celsius tomorrow, quite breezy as not blustery at

times. The best of the brightness across the North and East of

Yorkshire. As for the weekend, Saturday will be the better day,

pretty cold and high pressure keeps things settled. Pulling in cold air

from the North, you might catch the odd shower. Sunday is more cloudy

with some rain and Monday is looking settled as well. That is everything

from myself and Amy tonight. I We will keep you updated. Now with

the National Outlook, Tomasz Schafernaker.

Good evening. It's not exactly cracking whether this Easter. I

think the main message is there's going to be a lot of dry weather,

just a little bit of rain from time to time. Not so bad overall across

most of the UK, wherever you are