A £45m scheme to replace all of Bradford’s street lights with LED lighting is set to begin later this month.

The Smart Street Lighting Project is expected to see 56,500 lights upgraded to LED bulbs, and about 15,600 ageing lighting columns replaced.

A new report on the scheme says the work will be rolled out one ward at a time – with work in Tong running from next week to early May.

Other wards in the south of Bradford will follow, with Bowling and Barkerend after, then Little Horton.

The work will move then move north and is due to end in the Bingley Rural ward in March 2024, according to Bradford Council.

The project will drastically reduce the authority’s energy bills, with the new lights proving more environmentally friendly, it adds.

BBC Radio Bradford

Proposals to build up to 30,000 new homes in the Bradford district could damage an "important heritage landscape", campaigners say.

Image source, Google

A new Local Plan sets out potential sites for housing across Bradford, including the village of Thornton, where the literary sisters were born.

The proposals are currently open for public consultation until 24 March, external and, if approved, would be implemented over the next 20 years.

Michael Stewart, who founded and runs the Bronte Stones Heritage Walks, which attracted celebrity attention when it started three years ago, says: "In this particular spot, you will basically see the backs of people's houses and fences.

"People from all over the world come here and they stop and take photographs. It's the first part of the trail where they see the moors they've come to visit."

However, Yvonne Carmichael, from South Square Arts Centre, in Thornton, says: "It's really great to think about more people moving to the area who might like to get involved in community projects

"They've got to build the houses somewhere, but similarly we can see how lots of new housing is going to have a real impact."

Chelsea-Leigh Richardson, 21, says she became mum to her four siblings overnight when her mum died.

Up to 20 cars were vandalised earlier this week on one West Yorkshire street, leaving residents with hundreds of pounds' worth of damage, police say.

Image source, Karen Cusworth

The vehicles, on Waterloo Road in Pudsey, were "keyed" late on Monday night or early on Tuesday morning.

Residents say they've been left "fuming", with one - who wished to remain anonymous - saying they were "shocked at the sheer amount of damage".

The victim said it would cost about £400 to have their car resprayed, adding that for some people the damage could cost thousands.

Image source, Freya Wood

A spokesperson for West Yorkshire Police said: "Two male youths have been arrested on suspicion of criminal damage and released while an investigation takes place."

Anyone who witnessed anything suspicious at the time, or who has any information which might assist the investigation, is being asked to contact police.

Sheffield United say they will support striker Rhian Brewster after he becomes the latest player to subjected to racist abuse on social media.

Manager Barbara Sykes and assistant Julie Paul-Slack abused vulnerable people at a Rotherham care centre, a court heard.

Tim Daley
Journalist, BBC Radio Leeds

The annual LGBT+ Pride event in Leeds has been cancelled for the second year running because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Image source, Leeds Pride

Organisers say the 2021 street parade will not be going ahead because they can't guarantee the safety of attendees due to the fact it is an open celebration which can't regulate numbers.

They also say they can't be sure that government gathering restrictions will be able to be relaxed sufficiently in time for the event which was scheduled for 1 August.

Pride has been running in the city for five years and now attracts 50,000 people to the streets of Leeds with 100 floats helping to create the spectacle.

Smaller so-called 'satellite' events, however, are expected to go ahead in the city because organisers will be able to regulate attendees.

Organisers said uncertainty about event management made it "impossible" to offer a Covid-safe parade.

The event has been moved to the August Bank Holiday, but will be fenced-off and ticket-only for the first time.

A Russian cosmonaut has made an appearance at a Yorkshire university seminar from the International Space Station.

Image source, The Pushkin Institute

Dr Shane O'Rourke, from the University of York, was discussing a Russian poet when station commander Sergey Ryzhikov joined the Zoom call.

He read some of the works by writer Mikhail Lermontov being analysed during the session.

"It was amazing, it was so clear and everything worked perfectly," Dr O'Rourke said.

The seminar was organised, external by the Moscow-based Pushkin Institute, State Space Corporation ROSCOSMOS and the Moscow region governorate library.

Dr O'Rourke said: "The theme of the seminar was poetry and the cosmos and somehow they managed to persuade someone in the space agency to do this hook-up.

"What they didn't tell us was that he would appear on camera.

"He was on air for about 20 minutes. He told us the space station was flying over South America and very soon going out over the South Atlantic ocean."

Dr O'Rourke said the space station seemed to be a bit cramped with "lots of low arches".

Annabelle Smith, who has lost three jobs during the pandemic, is offered a job by a panellist.

Local Democracy Reporting Service

Leeds City Council has spent almost £900,000 in the past year equipping employees to work from home due to the Covid-19 pandemic, a document has revealed.

Image source, Google

An investigation is set to finish next year into ongoing work by the authority to sell off a number of its office buildings and instead to equip large parts of its workforce to work from home instead.

A document updating councillors on the authority’s “agile working” and “estate rationalisation” work is set to go before members of the council’s Strategy and Resources Scrutiny Committee next week.

It claims most staff surveyed were happy with the support they were receiving from the authority, and that the inquiry should be completed next year.

The investigation was started as some members had been concerned at the effects working from home could have on the productivity and well-being of council employees.

The report states: “Covid-19 has, of course, been extremely challenging and the term ‘unprecedented’ is not out of place when considering the impact both on people’s lives in the city, but also in terms of how the council reacts and restructures in its response to it.

“There are very few positives to be derived from living through such a tragic pandemic, however what it has served to highlight is the potential for greater organisational change which takes greater account of work life balance and mental health and well-being."

The report adds that the council has spent £895,000 on 8,472 new pieces of equipment since the beginning of the pandemic to allow people to work from home.

More than 50 hot air balloons are to take to the skies above York this summer in a four-day festival, it's been announced.

The Balloon Fiesta site on the Knavesmire will be fenced off, meaning the event can follow government guidance around the coronavirus pandemic, organisers say.

The Fiesta was originally planned for May this year, but will now run between Friday 27 August and Monday 30 August.

In 2019, the event saw 35,000 people visit over three days but organisers say they're expecting more than 50,000 visitors over the four days in August this year.

Referencing the famous song by Prince, they add: "We want to party like it’s not 2020!"

A former builder is supplying fresh greens and herbs grown in his underground farm beneath Sheffield.

Tens of thousands of bags of litter have been picked up by a group of volunteers in Leeds in one year - with some of it having sat in hedges and ditches for over two decades, according to the community cleaners.

Image source, Litter Free Leeds

Litter Free Leeds, a group set up to tackle the problem of littering and fly-tipping in the city, says in total about 60,000 bags of litter have been handed in to Leeds City Council since March 2020.

Sandra McLean, Litter Free Leeds co-ordinator, says: "We ordered 30,000 of our distinctive purple community litter bags last March and we'd run out by December.

"We placed another order for 30,000 bags and we have already run out again."

She adds that some of the litter being found in Leeds dates back to the 20th Century: "I was out doing a quick litter-pick on Wetherby Road in Leeds and I found a Captain Crunch 20p crisp packet with a best before date of October 1999."

Scientists at Sheffield University say they aim to "pandemic-proof" the NHS supply chain with a new scheme to reduce the risk of future shortages of essential equipment.

Image source, PA Media

Many health and social care organisations reported having trouble getting hold of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to keep staff safe during the first wave of Covid-19.

The University of Sheffield says it's making a system to more effectively analyse NHS data to decide whether suppliers really are capable of fulfilling their order.

It's thought the system could reduce the risk of future shortages of essential products and services during times of national crises.

Leader of the project, Ziqi Zhang, said: "What we're trying to do is create a real-time risk rating platform.

"This will tell us what products and services they offer and their capacity and credibility in supplying these products and services."

Harrogate Town forward Aaron Martin extends his contract with the League Two club until the summer of 2023.

BBC Radio Bradford

A street in Keighley is being named after a pioneering politician who was born in the town, Bradford Council has announced.

Image source, Google

Margaret Wintringham Close will be part of a recent housing development off Spring Gardens Lane (pictured).

It's named after the UK's first female Liberal MP, and one of the first women to ever be elected to the House of Commons.

Margaret Wintringham was born in Oakworth and studied at Keighley Girls' Grammar School.

After being elected in 1921, she campaigned for equal pay for women, state scholarships for girls as well as boys, and women-only railway carriages.

The street-naming is part of a Bradford Council and Civic Society campaign called "Pioneering Bradford Lasses", aiming to improve gender balance when publicly recognising historical figures.

On the 12th anniversary of the disappearance of York woman Claudia Lawrence, her friends are warning that whoever was responsible for her going missing could still be a threat.

Image source, North Yorkshire Police

The chef, 35, failed to arrive for work at York University on 18 March 2009.

Police believe she was murdered despite her body never being found.

Claudia's friend and former housemate Jen Cook (pictured above outside Claudia's home) said: "The only difference between me and Claudia is that I made it home and I make it home.

"The fact of the matter is that history is full of girls going missing, people going missing and we all must be vigilant."

Ms Cook added that anyone with information which could help police piece together what happened to Claudia should get in touch.

"It's now time to just come forward. It could be totally insignificant, but if it's that one thread that unravels this entire mystery then it just means we can all find some peace," she said.

BBC Radio Bradford

A fund to help students in Bradford get through the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdowns has raised £28,000 so far, the city's university has announced.

Image source, Google

The University's Covid-19 Hardship Fund was set up in December, and raised £5,000 on its first day.

Before then, an existing university hardship fund had been used to support students, but the number of applications increased "exponentially" as restrictions continued, the university said.

Hundreds of students have now been helped by the cash in the form of one-off payments and food donations, as well as other support.

Image source, University of Bradford

PhD student Michael Westfield (pictured above) says: "The Emergency Covid-19 Hardship Fund has been an invaluable resource that has definitely helped my academic progress.

"By providing financial support through a challenging transitional phase between work and alternative sources of funding for further study during lockdown, I consider the Hardship Fund as an integral factor for my recent success in transferring to PhD."