Leigh Centurions name former Featherstone Rovers boss John Duffy as head coach after his exit from Rovers on Tuesday.

A Hull MP is calling for tolls to use the Humber Bridge to be completely scrapped and motorists allowed to travel free.

Image source, PA/Anna Gowthorpe

Charges were halved across the Humber earlier this year, with the number of journeys subsequently increasing by more than a third.

Meanwhile, motorists will be allowed to travel free on the Severn Crossing from next month.

The Labour MP for Hull North, Diana Johnson, has told the House of Commons it's time to make the Humber crossing free.

She said: "It's the right time to scrap the Humber Bridge tolls once and for all."

Local Democracy Reporting Service

More than £50m will be ploughed into new council homes in Leeds after councillors gave the go-ahead.

Image source, David Robinson/Geograph

Plans to build 358 new houses across the city were put to decision-makers last night following a relaxing of government rules on borrowing money to fund housebuilding.

The authority hopes to have the homes finished by 2021 and claims it is already looking at future sites to build further social housing.

The total cost of the scheme is expected to be £54.8m.

Of this, £38m would be borrowed from the government's Housing Revenue Account, £6.3m would come in the form of a grant from Homes England, while £10.4m would come from money the council made through right to buy sales of council houses.

A man and a woman have been arrested after shots were fired at a house in Huddersfield.

Image source, Google maps

The incident happened at about 20:00 on 11 November on Peridot Fold in Fartown.

Officers found damage "consistent with a firearms discharge", but no one was injured in the incident, police say.

A 34-year-old man and a 32-year-old woman, both from Huddersfield, have been arrested and remain in custody.

The remains of Roman babies have been found during a crowdfunded dig at an archaeological site in East Yorkshire.

Image source, Dig Ventures

A fundraising appeal was launched to dig at the field in Driffield after metal detecting enthusiasts found silver coins there in 2015.

An archaeological dig on the site has now unearthed a wealth of Roman finds, including the remains of two houses, one dating from the time of the earliest Roman settlements.

Image source, Dig Ventures

Pieces of Roman bowls, mosaics and tiles have also been recovered in large quantities, together with the remains of the three infants who had been buried in "neonatal graves".

These discoveries have been taken away for further analysis and Dig Ventures plans to dig there again in August next year.

Local Democracy Reporting Service

Every option will be considered to try to keep York's city centre Post Office open, according to a union representing staff.

Image source, Google

Paul Clays, the regional secretary of the Communication Workers Union (CWU), said local businesses were "enraged" by proposals to move the branch into WH Smith on Coney Street.

Mr Clays said: "We will consider every avenue to try to keep that Post Office open.

"WH Smith is advertising jobs for counter workers at £7.35 per hour. All that expertise and years of training providing a public service is now worth £7.35 an hour."

The Crown Post Office, built in 1884, is one of the last surviving Victorian purpose-built post offices still in use today.

Last month, a Post Office statement said: "We propose to franchise up to 40 branches to WHSmith (York is one of the branches), but this is subject to consultation."

A spokesman for the Post Office said it was "not immune to the pressures facing all retailers" and added there will be no changes to the services available in York following the move.

Post Offices in Beverley, Harrogate, Northallerton, Scarborough and Selby could also be relocated.

Children at a school in Hull were kept inside and away from the windows after a report that armed men had been seen nearby.

Police received a report of three men carrying "a weapon or weapons" near a shop on Bude Road in Hull at about 13:15.

Kingswood Academy was advised and officers performed an extensive search of the area, although no weapons were found, police say.

There was no risk to the wider public, according to Humberside Police, and Kingswood Academy has posted this message on Twitter:

Twenty people died when a previous incarnation of HMS Sheffield was lost during the Falklands War.

A Leeds gymnast has set a new Guinness World Record by propelling himself 19ft 3.1ins between horizontal bars.

Ashley Watson, 26, set the feat at Leeds Gymnastics Club, with two independent witnesses present and a chartered surveyor measuring the distance.

Watson, who has been in the Great Britain squad since he was 15, was "surprised no-one had tried it before" and succeeded on his eighth attempt:

A man has been jailed for life after being found guilty of the attempted murder of his housemate in South Yorkshire.

Image source, South Yorkshire Police

Grant Stanfield, 26, originally from Harworth in Nottinghamshire, stabbed his housemate last year, leaving him with severe injuries to his neck and back.

The attack happened on John Street, Thurnscoe, in November 2017.

Stanfield left the scene with the victim's phone, stopping him calling for help, a court heard.

He was eventually stopped on the A1 and arrested by South Yorkshire Police.

He was sentenced at Sheffield Crown Court yesterday and will serve a minimum of 12 years.

Big indoor venues could play a role in next year's Freedom Festival in Hull, it's been confirmed.

Festival organisers say they're continually trying to grow the three-day annual event which has attracted 660,000 people since 2013 and is worth about £21m to the local economy.

They say talks are ongoing to see if performances could be held in places such as the Bonus Arena and City Hall in the future.

A 25-year-old man who took a 15-year-old Doncaster girl on a week-long "excursion" as police searched for her has walked free from court after a judge said he "behaved entirely properly" during the trip.

Thomas Fallon, of Mayfield Grove, Harrogate, admitted child abduction and was told by the judge that he had been "very foolish".

However, he added that according to the teenager "he behaved entirely properly towards her in a way that's, perhaps, unusual in this day and age.

"It's most unfortunate that it's actually a crime, but it's an unhappy situation, for everybody concerned."

He said there was evidence that Fallon had encouraged the girl to return home during the "excursion to Scotland" but she did not want to go back.

Fallon was jailed for three months by Judge Jeremy Richardson at Sheffield Crown Court, but released immediately due to the amount of time he had spent on remand.

A CCTV image has been released by police after a man was raped in Doncaster town centre earlier this year.

Image source, South Yorkshire Police

The attack's thought to have happened at about 04:15 on Saturday 8 September, with the victim being a man in his 20s.

He was walking along East Laith Gate when he was approached by an unknown man.

They're then believed to have walked together before taking a short cut through a car park near Hallgate, where the attack took place.

Anyone who recognises the man in the picture is being asked to contact police.

No leaks have been found by engineers investigating reports of a gas smell across Hull.

Several schools are reported to have shut as a precaution today, with Bricknell Primary School closed this lunchtime and parents being asked to pick up their children early.

Investigations by Northern Gas into the cause of the smell are continuing.

Robert Hope, operations manager at Northern Gas Networks (NGN), said: "Emergency engineers have responded to reports of a smell of gas in the HU5 area of Hull and are currently carrying out investigations.

"Anyone that smells gas should call the National Gas Emergency Service immediately on 0800 111 999."

Songs inspired by the poems of Emily Bronte will get their live premiere at Leeds Town Hall next month.

Image source, The Unthanks (Crrt)

The Emily Brontë Song Cycle has been recorded by band The Unthanks who took 10 poems and turned them into songs.

The song cycle was written and recorded using Emily Bronte’s piano at her home in Haworth by composer and pianist Adrian McNally and singing sisters Rachel and Becky Unthank.

It was commissioned by the Bronte Society and can be heard at the Bronte Parsonage Museum in Haworth and in a live premiere at Leeds Town Hall on 21 December.

A number of schools in Hull have closed following reports of a gas smell in the area.

Image source, Google

Parents at one of the schools, Bricknell Primary, were sent a text message asking them to come and pick up their children.

The message said the school was shutting following “advice from the local authority”.

We've contacted Northern Gas for comment.

BBC Look North presenter Harry Gration received an honorary degree from York St John University today.

The university posted a Twitter video of Harry, who trained to be a teacher at St John's College which was the precursor of the university:

The security service, MI5, has admitted it made mistakes in tracking the bomber who carried out last year's attack on Manchester Arena.

Five people from Yorkshire were among 22 people killed in the suicide bomb attack at an Ariana Grande concert.

A report by the Intelligence and Security Committee said MI5 recognised it had moved "too slowly" to establish how dangerous Salman Abedi, 22, was.

The head of the government's Commission into Countering Extremism, Sara Khan, says she's shocked by today's revelations.

She says: "I hope the government listens very carefully to what the Intelligence and Security Committee say."

Ms Khan says there should now be an examination of the government's counter extremism strategy.

Three griffon vultures, brought up in East Yorkshire as part of an international conservation project, are getting ready to fly free.

Image source, South Cave Falconry Centre

The vultures; known as George, Zippy and Bungle, were born at the International Centre for Birds of Prey in Gloucester, but raised at the South Cave Falconry Centre as part of a scheme to save the species.

The birds, which have a 9ft-wide wingspan will be freed in Eastern Europe.

It's thought their numbers in the wild in Eastern Europe decreased because of an overuse by farmers of a growth hormone fed to cattle.

When the cattle died and the vultures fed on them the drug caused the birds to have organ failure. The hormone has since been banned.

The vultures, named after characters in ITV children's series Rainbow which ran from 1972 to 1997, are due to be released early next year.

Local Democracy Reporting Service

Sheffield's parks could get millions of pounds of new investment over the next few years, according to a new report.

Image source, Google

Sheffield has 74 public parks and nearly 1,000 other green spaces across the city, but the parks and countryside service has seen its budget cut by 30% over recent years.

Now, the council's Cabinet has agreed a new five-year strategy to raise more money from parks.

This could include private sponsorship, hosting more events, opening up cafes and renting space for bouncy castles and rides.

There are no plans to sell off any parks for development.

It's estimated that about £8m could be available across the city over the coming years.