Rob Rose
BBC Yorkshire Live

Traffic chaos which caused "gridlock" in Sheffield city centre during the Christmas lights switch-on yesterday evening is being blamed on numerous factors.

Richard Eyre, head of city centre events in Sheffield, said road closures, safety precautions and the new retail quarter now under construction contributed to the delays people experienced.

Mr Eyre added that the council had "some real lessons to learn":

A former Scarborough teacher has been jailed after admitting a string of sex offences.

Image source, North Yorkshire Police

Martin Fisher admitted indecent assault and making indecent images of children.

Fisher, 63, taught for two decades at Scarborough Sixth Form College.

He pleaded guilty to three charges of indecent assault on a man over the age of 16 between 1986 and 2001 and seven charges of making indecent images of children.

Police say he groomed his victims by inviting them to his home where he gave them alcohol and showed them porn videos.

He sexually abused them while pretending to give them physiotherapy and massages.

At York Crown Court today, Fisher was jailed for three years, given a 10-year sexual harm prevention order, and placed on the sex offenders' register for life.

A television producer accused of grooming a child for sex after being targeted by so-called paedophile hunters has appeared in court.

Kieran Creaven is said to have flown from Ireland to Leeds to meet someone he believed to be a 13-year-old girl but was in fact a fake online identity.

Mr Creaven, 55, who works for the Irish broadcaster RTE, appeared at Leeds Magistrates Court earlier where he was bailed to appear at Leeds Crown Court on 12 December.

He is charged with attempting to meet a child following grooming and attempting to cause or incite a child to engage in sexual activity between 1 July and 18 November.

Despite Yorkshire experiencing a few drops of the wet stuff today, it's still managing to look a bit spectacular.

BBC Weather watcher Sami described this pic of Wakefield as "fire sky."

Mandy managed to catch a glorious glimpse of blue sky over Penistone in South Yorkshire.

Meanwhile as the temperature struggle to rise above freezing yesterday afternoon, Chaz captured a watery sun doing its best to illuminate a choppy sea in Whitby, North Yorkshire.

A "Chat and Play" session as part of the Jo Cox Commission on Loneliness takes place at Dewsbury Children's Centre today.

A recent report from Action for Children revealed over half of parents have suffered from loneliness.

The charity is working with the Jo Cox Commission to encourage communities to connect, as well as providing support for parents and children suffering from isolation.

Police say cannabis plants, worth hundreds of thousands of pounds have been discovered at a house in a remote part of West Yorkshire.

Image source, West Yorkshire Police

About 200 of the plants were found by police, each plant can be worth £1,000, and were found at an "isolated property" in the Shelf area of Calderdale.

Officers described the house where the plants were found as a "sophisticated commercial set up " likely to be generating cash for criminal gangs.

A police spokesperson said "This shows that no matter how safe they think they are we are committed to tackling and not tolerating organised crime groups in Calderdale".

Police are investigating reports of two cats being shot with air weapons in York.

One cat had to be put down after being shot in Haxby on Saturday afternoon.

Another died after vets discovered pellets in its body following an incident in Strensall on Thursday night.

A North Yorkshire Police spokesman said: "These are clearly very distressing incidents and our thoughts are with the owners of the cats."

Sheffield United midfielder Paul Coutts will miss the rest of the season with a fractured tibia, says manager Chris Wilder.

Historic England says textile mills across West Yorkshire are disappearing fast - despite massive public opposition to their demolition.

Image source, Mark Davies

A new report says there have been more than 100 fires at buildings in Bradford since 2010 but that 90% of people say that mills are an important part of the nation's heritage, story and character.

Catherine Dewar from Historic England said: "With their ability to accommodate wonderful homes, workplaces and cultural spaces, our historic mill buildings deserve a future and should not be destroyed."

Historic England says that it wants public support to "galvanise owners and developers to see the potential in historic mills" and avoid them being demolished.

Rob Rose
BBC Yorkshire Live

Earlier I mentioned that the Christmas light switch on caused traffic chaos in Sheffield - but I don't want you to think that I'm being "Mr Negative".

Because this year's light switch-on saw an impressive 37,000 people turn out for the festive event.

It's the highest number the city council has recorded over the past few years.

The Christmas lights were officially switched on from the Peace Gardens yesterday evening and visitors enjoyed entertainment such as Santa’s Grotto, fairground rides and of course a traditional Christmas market.

The army officer in charge of overseeing the development of Europe’s largest military base has said more homes will need to be built in North Yorkshire to accommodate its expansion.

Catterick Garrison will see an increase of approximately 50% of personnel - about 3,000 people - over the next 15 years.

Major General Richard 
Wardlaw OBE attended the Catterick Strategic Development Group meeting, where he discussed the changes.

He said: “Catterick remains a major Army Garrison and where we plan to increase the number of Service personnel and their families over the next decade.

“This means we need to provide additional living, working and technical accommodation."

Leader of Richmondshire District Council, Councillor Yvonne Peacock, said: “We need to make sure there are sufficient housing and community facilities to cater for members of the military community now and in the future.”

Yorkshire Post

A Dewsbury teen is hoping to be crowned World Teen Supermodel after being chosen to represent England., external

Image source, Yorkshire Post

Police have confirmed two pensioners have died after their car crashed into a tree near Settle in North Yorkshire.

It happened on the A65 near Austwick on Saturday.

The driver, an 87-year-old woman from Morley, Leeds, sustained serious injuries and was taken by air ambulance to Preston Hospital, where she later died.

The passenger, an 89-year-old woman, also from Morley died at the scene.

The A&E department at Pontefract Hospital is to be turned into an Urgent Treatment Centre by April to reflect the range of conditions that can safely be treated there.

Image source, Google

The facility will continue to be open 24 hours a day and will be staffed by doctors and nurses who deal with urgent but not life threatening cases.

The local NHS say the majority of patients will not notice any changes in the way they receive care.

Urgent Treatment Centres are run by doctors and nurses who are experts in managing patients who have urgent but not life-threatening emergency care needs.

A mum from Leeds, who lost twin baby girls to cancer, is backing a campaign to renovate a house for families to live in while their children are being treated in hospital.

Candlelighters want to raise £250,000 to undertake major renovations on a house they've bought near to the Leeds General Infirmary.

It's so that parents can stay with their children if they're unwell and have to spend long periods of time in hospital.

But a lot of work needs to be done to the property with refurbishment of the bedrooms, bathrooms and kitchen needed to take place before it can be used - the charity hope to have it open by the middle of next year.

BBC News Travel

If you've been held up in the roadworks on the westbound M62, this is why, but looks like they're about to get it out of the way:

Women are being advised to sleep on their side in the last three months of pregnancy to help prevent stillbirth.

A study of just over 1,000 women found the risk doubles if women go to sleep on their backs in the third trimester.

Grace, a mother from Bradford lost her first baby when she was 35 weeks pregnant - She was not given advice about sleep while pregnant and has since taken part in the survey of maternal sleep positions.

It's been announced that Gabby Logan will step down as chancellor at Leeds Trinity University.

Image source, Leeds Trinity University

It's a role the TV presenter has held for five years and the university has announced today she'll stand down on 6 January.

Her last official engagement will be at the university’s graduation ceremony on Wednesday 6 December but no replacement has been announced.

Prof Margaret House from Leeds Trinity University said: "We have been honoured to have Gabby as our first Chancellor- they will certainly have big shoes to fill!”

Rob Rose
BBC Yorkshire Live

People have taken to Twitter to vent their frustration after they became stuck in Sheffield city centre during the Christmas light switch on event yesterday.

Some people claim to have been stranded for more than two hours in the John Lewis car park on Burgess St:

We've contacted Sheffield City Council about the issues people faced.

Researchers at Sheffield University say charging a minimum price for alcohol could save the NHS in England £62 million pounds a year.

Image source, Getty Images

Last week Scotland won a legal case to introduce minimum pricing on alcohol.

The move is not a tax or duty increase but is a price increase in the strongest cheapest alcohol, with any extra profit going to the retailer.

Professor Petra Meier, Director of the Sheffield Alcohol Research Group at Sheffield University said if the minimum price was implemented in England, in the first year alone there would be 165 fewer deaths, and 12,000 fewer hospital admissions.

The whisky association claimed the move was a "restriction on trade" and there were more effective ways of tackling alcohol misuse.