South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Authority has appointed Alex Johnson as the county's new chief fire officer.

Image source, South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Authority

Ms Johnson, who is currently South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue's deputy chief fire officer, will replace the retiring James Courtney in January.

Ms Johnson was promoted to her current role shortly after being appointed as assistant chief fire officer in 2017.

Prior to that she served with Derbyshire Fire & Rescue for more than 25 years, having first joined as a firefighter in 1992.

Ms Johnson said: "Leading this organisation is the honour of a lifetime and I will do all I can to make the service a brilliant place to work, which delivers outstanding results for the communities we serve."

A man who threatened Change UK leader Anna Soubry, referencing the murdered MP Jo Cox, has been jailed for a year.

Image source, Getty Images

Alden Bryce Barlow, 55, of Milton Walk, Doncaster, South Yorkshire, sent a letter to Ms Soubry in her constituency in Nottingham.

The message read: "Cox was first, you are next" and referred to Ms Soubry as "treacherous" and "worthless".

He was jailed at Sheffield Crown Court and given a 10-year order preventing him from contacting Ms Soubry.

He was also ordered not to go near Ms Soubry's constituency address in Nottingham.

A woman in her 60s has died after being hit by a car in Bradford.

Image source, Google

The incident happened at about 17:50 yesterday when a grey Vauxhall Astra, travelling along the A650 Wakefield Road towards Bradford city centre, collided with a pedestrian.

West Yorkshire Police said the woman was pronounced dead at the scene.

The driver, a man in his 30s, has been spoken to by police.

Officers would like anyone who might have witnessed the incident, or who may have dash cam footage, to get in touch.

All homes in Fishlake will be "clear of water by Sunday", according to an Environment Agency expert.

Image source, Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

John Curtin, the Environment Agency’s director of flood risk management, said "intense pumping efforts" have helped to significantly clear the South Yorkshire village of water.

He also told a news conference that he's “alarmed” by the prospect of further flooding across England this winter.

Mr Curtin encouraged people living on or near floodplains to sign up for Environment Agency flood warnings, explaining that only half of people living in these areas have done so.

He explained that because there has been so much rain this autumn, the land has been left so saturated that he is concerned floods are going to “get worse, more frequently, more often”.

The three months from September until now have seen near record levels of rain which has seen 900 properties flooded to date across England.

A drug dealer who "brutally" murdered a man with a machete in a row over drugs has been jailed for life.

Image source, Lincolnshire Police

Jordan O'Brien was attacked by Kieran Walker on his mother's doorstep at a house in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, on 27 March.

Lincoln Crown Court heard Walker hit his victim with such force he almost severed one leg and left the other so badly damaged it had to be amputated.

Judge John Pini QC told him he must serve a minimum of 28 years.

Walker was convicted of Mr O'Brien's murder by a jury in October.

The trial heard Walker, of Auckley, in Doncaster, had a grudge with Mr O'Brien over the loss of £2,000 worth of amphetamines.

A man has denied killing a 90-year-old man in his own home.

Image source, Google

Nathaniel Suggitt's body was found with stab wounds at his flat on Love Lane Terrace in Pontefract, West Yorkshire, on 5 October.

Glyndwr Wayman, 49, also of Love Lane Terrace, pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and robbery at Leeds Crown Court.

He was remanded in custody and is due to stand trial on 22 April next year.

Local Democracy Reporting Service

Military veterans will be guaranteed an interview for any local authority job in Kirklees as long as they meet essential criteria, the council has said.

Image source, PA Media

The move, which sees Kirklees join York as the second local authority in the region to introduce such a scheme, has been welcomed by the Royal British Legion.

The motion, put forward by councillor Martyn Bolt, received unanimous support in a vote at Huddersfield Town Hall.

He said: "If it means that we have more people in our workplace wearing veterans’ badges that will strengthen the organisation.

"It’s now a matter of communication. We need to tell our veteran community that this is there. That’s the real challenge."

This is the latest from Rotherham Council following heavy rain overnight:

A Police Community Support Officer who is still working at the age of 71 says she keeps going because of job satisfaction.

Liz Smith joined Humberside Police when she was 58-years-old and is still going strong.

Liz patrols six villages around Bridlington on a moped and says she loves being out in the community and helping people.

Local Democracy Reporting Service

Three Sheffield cremators are to be replaced completely at a cost of £2.4m because they are repeatedly failing emission tests.

Image source, Google

The cremators at City Road crematorium, which are more than 25 years old, persistently fail emission tests and don’t meet future environmental regulations, according to a council report.

Previous failures have led to two of the cremators being suspended from use over the last few years.

The crematorium risked "permanent suspension of use" if the work wasn't done, according to the report.

The project is due to be completed by October 2020

A man has been jailed for five years for a "sickening sexual assault" on a girl in York more than 20 years ago.

Image source, North Yorkshire Police

David Raymond May, 55, was sentenced at York Crown Court on Thursday.

May's victim was aged about six or seven when the attack happened between 1996 and 1998, and was first reported in 2018, North Yorkshire Police said.

He had denied the attack until the first day of his trial on Wednesday when he pleaded guilty.

May, of St Phillip's Grove, York, was made subject to an indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order that will restrict his access to children after his release.

He will also remain on the sexual offenders' register.

A 71-year-old man has died after the car he was driving crashed into a tree near Doncaster.

Image source, Google

The man's gold Rover 75 is reported to have left the A614 Thorne Road in Blaxton and collided with a tree yesterday morning, police say.

The collision happened between the roundabout and Vulcan Way, as the car was heading in the general direction of Hatfield Woodhouse.

Emergency services were called at about 10:15 and the driver was pronounced dead at the scene.

Officers want anyone who might have witnessed what happened, or who might have dashcam footage, to get in touch.

Catalans Dragons' home Super League match against Leeds Rhinos on 30 May 2020, will be played in Toulouse.

Actress Jean Fergusson, who is best known for playing Howard's not-so secret girlfriend Marina in Last of the Summer Wine for 25 years, has died aged 74.

Fergusson, who was born in Wakefield, played the opinionated Marina in 216 episodes of the show from 1985.

She also appeared several times in ITV soap Coronation Street, most recently playing the part of Dorothy Hoyle until 2011.

The actress's death comes after that of her former Last of the Summer Wine colleague Juliette Kaplan in October.

BBC Science and Environment

Almost 10,000 new homes could be built on some of the most flood-prone areas of England, a Greenpeace investigation has found.

Image source, PA Media

They include hundreds of new-builds in Sheffield and Doncaster, the towns hit hardest by the latest floods.

The Environment Agency told the BBC that virtually all planning applications last year followed its advice on flood risk.

The Greenpeace study comes as hundreds of flood-hit homes in South Yorkshire are still evacuated.

More than 5,000 homes have been proposed in high-risk zones of Lincolnshire, where roads and thousands of acres of farmland have been flooded in the last few days.

The research also highlighted a 3,100-home "new town" near Stainforth, less than two miles from Fishlake, the village where hundreds of people have been forced from their homes because of flooding.

Police are asking for help in finding a 14-year-old girl who went missing from Hull on Wednesday.

Image source, Humberside Police

Brooke Cornick was last seen just after 16:00 in Belmont Street.

Officers want anyone who has seen Brooke, or might know where she is, to get in touch.

A big community clean-up is planned for a Doncaster town tomorrow after it was hit by floods this week.

This weekend, volunteers are being asked to help get people back on their feet by cleaning up the streets and affected houses.

Starting at Town End, people are being asked to bring mops and cleaning products and work their way through the town.

CCTV images of a man have been released after two people were "violently assaulted" during a theft at a cash machine in Leeds city centre.

Image source, West Yorkshire Police

A 24-year-old man was using a cash machine at West Point, in Wellington Street, just after 02:00 on 12 October when he was approached and told to hand over his wallet, police say.

The victim refused and was knocked unconscious before the suspect searched him and stole his wallet.

The victim’s friend, also aged 24, chased the suspect who then hit him with a hammer before running off along Whitehall Road towards Holbeck.

Both men were treated in hospital.

An attempt was later made to use the victim’s bank card and the suspect was filmed on CCTV.

Officers want anyone who might recognise the man in the images to get in touch.

BBC News Travel

There are several problems on Yorkshire and Lincolnshire's rail services just now due to flooding.

TransPennine Express services are currently suspended between Sheffield and Scunthorpe due to flooding in the Kirk Sandall area, near Doncaster.

Train operator Northern is also unable to run services between Doncaster and Goole due to the Kirk Sandall flooding.

Northern trains between Doncaster and Scunthorpe will run at a reduced speed, not calling at Kirk Sandall.

Passengers needing to stop at Kirk Sandall are being asked to use rail replacement buses between Doncaster and Goole.

Disruption on these routes are expected to continue for the rest of the day, according to National Rail Enquiries, external.

Meanwhile, rail services are also affected between Sheffield and Lincoln Central/Gainsborough Central/Retford/Worksop, and also between Leeds and Lincoln Central.

This is due to flooding near Kiveton Park, which means trains have to run at a reduced speed, with services delayed up to 30 minutes, cancelled or revised.

Local Democracy Reporting Service

More than £300,000 is to be spent tackling graffiti in York.

Image source, LDRS

Under new plans graffiti on house walls will be cleaned off for free, but businesses will have to pay for the service.

Tags on company property and utility cabinets will cost £57 per square metre to remove.

The plan, which will see £337,000 invested in tackling graffiti over the next four years, was agreed at a City of York Council meeting on Monday.