The search is continuing for a 72-year-old man missing from York since last Wednesday.

Image source, North Yorkshire Police

Joseph Cafferkey, from Dijon Avenue in Acomb, hasn't been seen since lunchtime on 30 September.

Police say it's now known that he visited his local Post Office at about 09:25 that day, and a worried neighbour reported him missing on Friday, 2 October after he failed to attend a doctor’s appointment.

Mr Cafferkey's disappearance is described as being out of character and his family and friends are becoming "increasingly concerned for his welfare," according to North Yorkshire Police.

It's thought Mr Cafferkey, who is described as white, of medium build, with receding grey hair, doesn't have access to a mobile phone or money.

Searches for him have been taking place in the Acomb and York area, including St Nicks Nature Reserve at Layerthorpe.

Anyone who sees Mr Cafferkey is asked to contact police immediately.

A woman who set fire to an apartment and lied to firefighters that a baby was inside the smoke-filled property has been jailed for three years.

Image source, West Yorkshire Police

Fire crews used breathing apparatus and forced entry to Samantha Spencer's flat in Bradford in May.

Bradford Crown Court heard there were 28 apartments in the block and many of the residents were vulnerable.

Spencer, 29, admitted arson being reckless as to whether life would be endangered.

She also pleaded guilty to further charges of common assault and harassment towards two other residents.

The mother-of-two ran back into the block of flats when police officers arrived at Bentley Carter Apartments, but she was chased and arrested.

The recruitment drive promotes the benefits of living in "ridiculously affordable" East Yorkshire.

Thirteen people are due to appear in court this week charged in relation to incidents of disorder in the Harehills area of Leeds on Bonfire Night last year.

All have been charged with violent disorder following the incidents in the Harehills Road area on 5 November 2019.

Six police officers were injured after they were targeted by groups of people throwing fireworks and setting bins alight.

Roads were barricaded, bins set alight, and damage was caused to police vehicles, buses and cars, street furniture and buildings.

Officers used "public order tactics" to disperse the groups and make arrests, West Yorkshire Police said.

Speaking shortly after the disorder Ch Supt Steve Cotter said there was "no suggestion this was a result of tension in the community or animosity towards the police".

He added: "This appears to have been about a hooligan element of local youths seeing an opportunity on Bonfire Night to engage in firework-related disorder on a large scale."

Five men, one woman and seven male youths, aged between 15 and 17, are due to appear at Leeds Magistrates' Court on Thursday.

More than 1,300 coronavirus cases in South Yorkshire and the North Midlands were missed off official figures as a result of a technical glitch which meant nearly 16,000 cases of coronavirus went unreported.

It means the infection rate as of 1 October in Sheffield was more than 200 people per 100,000 - double what was previously thought.

The technical error was caused by some Microsoft Excel data files exceeding the maximum size after they were sent from NHS Test and Trace to Public Health England (PHE).

It meant 15,841 cases between 25 September and 2 October were left out of the UK daily case figures.

PHE said the error itself, discovered overnight on Friday, has been fixed, and outstanding cases had been passed on to tracers by 01:00 on Saturday.

In the South Yorkshire and North Midlands region 1,353 postive tests went unregistered.

Meanwhile in York the coronavirus rate has nearly doubled following the corrected daily figures.

Last week the rate had reached just over 61 cases per 100,000, but the City of York Council has now confirmed the rate has jumped to just over 114 cases per 100,000 people.

Sonia Kataria
BBC News

Two men have been arrested after a "stolen" lorry was driven the wrong way down a motorway slip road in Derbyshire.

The truck, believed to have been stolen in York last month, was followed by police officers after it was seen on the M1 northbound between junction 26 and 27 just before 04:00.

Derbyshire Police said the lorry then left the carriageway at junction 30, near Barlborough, before turning on to the southbound exit slip road, driving in the wrong direction.

Image source, @DerbyshireRPU

The Derbyshire roads policing unit said the occupants of the cab, which had cloned plates and was thought to be "linked to HGV load thefts", ran off before two men were arrested nearby.

The men, aged 24 and 30, from Sheffield, were held on suspicion of stealing a motor vehicle and remain in police custody.

The force added the lorry was recovered and inquiries were ongoing.

Leeds indie rock band The Wedding Present are releasing a James Bond-themed covers album in aid of a mental health charity.

Image source, Jessica McMillan

The collection of 20 themes from classic 007 films will be released on the Leeds-based Come Play With Me record label on 4 December.

The covers, recorded by past and present members of the band, include their versions of Goldfinger, Live and Let Die and Diamonds are Forever.

All proceeds will go to the Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM) charity.

More than 200 lights are being removed from the A63 in North Yorkshire as part of the council's plan to save money.

Image source, North Yorkshire County Council

North Yorkshire County Council turned off more than half of the 400 lights on the A63 Selby bypass last year.

Since then, it said there had been no reported night-time crashes and suggested the street lighting had little or no bearing on drivers' behaviour.

The switch-off has saved the council almost £20,000 in the past year in electricity costs.

The lighting columns are now to be taken down, it added.

Councillor Don Mackenzie, from North Yorkshire County Council, said: “Switching lights off along the bypass has brought a significant saving and brings this stretch into line with the rest of the A63.

"Our traffic monitoring indicates the action has not changed drivers’ behaviour, so we will now take down the columns, which will also remove a potential traffic hazard.

“The reduction in carbon dioxide emissions is to be welcomed as it helps to support the County Council’s commitment to aspire to achieve net carbon neutrality by as close as possible to 2030.”

A bird, more normally seen across Africa and mainland Europe, has been delighting birdwatchers in West Yorkshire after one was spotted in Leeds.

Dave Ward, who is a volunteer at the RSPB in Fairburn and Old Moor, said it was a "rare" sighting of the hoopoe in Collingham this week.

He said: "Around 100 overfly their migration to Spain and Portugal each year, ending up on British coasts - mainly in the south of the country although there are even a few reported in Scotland at the moment.

"However, this is the first sighting of a Hoopoe in Leeds for more than 40 years, after it was last recorded at the RSPB St Aidan's site in 1979.

"This particular one has been in Collingham for a week now and seems happy just picking grubs up from the cricket pitch and local housing estate.

"Hopefully it will return to its normal territory in the near future and we wish it a safe journey.”

Local Democracy Reporting Service

Plans to allow holidaymakers to sleep in train carriages positioned on a stretch of a disused railway near Whitby have been approved.

Image source, Mulgrave Estate/Scarborough Council

Earlier this year, the Mulgrave Estate submitted an application to Scarborough council to use two carriages located at the former Sandsend Station on Lythe Bank as tourist accommodation.

Following a public consultation, Scarborough Council planning officers have now approved the plans after the Highways Authority withdrew an objection after the applicant agreed to make some changes to the scheme.

The two railway carriages will stand at the end of the former station platform near the Station House in Sandsend.

Sandsend Station opened in 1883 as part of the Whitby, Redcar and Middlesbrough Union Railway, but closed in 1958.

Image source, Mulgrave Estate/Scarborough Council

According to the plans: "One carriage interior has already been converted into two bedrooms and bathroom. The other carriage will be used for storage and is currently not converted internally.

"The carriages will sit on a railway track made up of sleepers placed on top of the existing platform."

The first carriage will be a Pullman-style former passenger carriage while the second is of a style known as a “plank truck” which were traditionally used for transporting stone and coal.

Yongqi Liang, who admitted killing another student in an attack in Sheffield city centre, is jailed.

A road in Sheffield city centre has been closed to cars to encourage pedestrians and cyclists and to make more room for social distancing.

The city council said the work was part of wanting to accelerate "active travel" schemes, external.

A rainbow crossing has been painted on Pinstone Street, which also has street armchairs, planters and false grass.

Other measures tested over the summer have included pedestrianised zones and a cycle lane on the ring road.

The council said "Pinstone Street was originally pedestrianised temporarily, using emergency active travel funds, to create space for social distancing as businesses reopened and people returned to the city centre.

"We took the decision to make the area more accessible and attractive as it became apparent that social distancing would be needed for some time."

Businesses had mixed views about the works, some saying they like the "café culture" created by wider pavements and others saying it negatively affected trade.

The council said future plans include more temporary lanes and pedestrian zones, and accelerating the Grey to Green project linking the city centre with routes like the Five Weirs Walk, Canal Towpath and Upper Don Trail.

Two hundred jobs are being created by a company developing a huge potash mine in North Yorkshire.

Image source, Reuters

Anglo American Crop Nutrients is sinking two major mineshafts to access deposits of polyhalite ore a mile deep at its Woodsmith mine near Whitby.

Once processed it will be sold globally to farmers as a natural fertiliser.

The roles include specialist engineers to non-specialist construction workers and the firm said it hoped as many jobs as possible would go to local people.

Sirius Minerals, the firm who who previously ran the mine, was taken over by Anglo American in March 2020.

The firm said the roles would become available in stages over the coming months and would include jobs working directly for Anglo American and construction contractors.

Anglo American is sinking two shafts to access the polyhalite ore that lies over a mile beneath the surface using large boring machines.

The Humber Region is to receive a chunk of £160m worth on investment to upgrade ports and factories for building wind turbines.

Image source, BOWL

It's part of the government's plans to get every home in the country powered by offshore wind within 10 years.

Boris Johnson will promise to "build back greener" in his conference speech today, announcing new investment in offshore wind energy.

The commitments are the first stage of a 10-point plan for a "green industrial revolution" from the government, with No 10 promising the rest of the details later this year to "accelerate our progress towards net zero emissions by 2050".

Mr Johnson will tell the Conservative Party's virtual conference he believes that in 10 years' time, "offshore wind will be powering every home in the country".

"Far out in the deepest waters we will harvest the gusts, and by upgrading infrastructure in places like Teesside and Humber and Scotland and Wales, we will increase an offshore wind capacity that is already the biggest in the world."

BBC Weather

Today will see clouds and showers lingering during the morning.

It'll become dry later with lengthening sunny spells through the afternoon.

Tonight, it is expected to be mostly clear, with a few patches of cloud at times and a fresh westerly breeze:

Volunteers in Bradford will be given their first dose of a new coronavirus vaccine today.

The volunteers are involved in a trial testing the safety and effectiveness of a vaccine being developed by the US company Novavax.

The trial is being overseen by a team from Bradford Teaching Hospitals.

Volunteers will be given two doses and then monitored for a year.

Doctor Dinesh Saralaya from Bradford Royal Infirmary is leading the trial.

He says: "We need to find out whether the vaccine works in all sections of society.

"So it's very important that people from a diverse spectrum of society take part so when the vaccine gets a licence we know it's been proven in clinical trials in that population."

How are independents fairing amid a dearth of blockbusters and reduced capacity due to Covid?

Barnsley sign Celtic striker Jack Aitchison on a three-year deal as full-back Killian Ludewig is recalled by Red Bull Salzburg.

Birth partners will be able to join women for pregnancy scans at a Hull hospital from Tuesday after new coronavirus protection measures were introduced, it's been confirmed.

Image source, Google

From tomorrow, partners will be able to attend the 20-week scan at Hull Women and Children's Hospital.

They'll be able to see the unborn babies on a second screen, separate from scanning machines and in the same room as women and sonographers.

Janet Cairns, head of midwifery at Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, said: "It’s not been quite as straightforward as people would imagine as we’ve had to fund the cost of additional equipment when NHS resources need to be concentrated on the pandemic.

“We’re very grateful our trust has recognised the impact this has been having on women and families and have supported our work to find a solution.

“We understand how difficult it’s been for families and we’re grateful for their patience and understanding during this difficult time for them and our staff.”

Covid restrictions at the hospital are under "constant review" by midwifery teams and will be lifted as soon as it is considered safe to do so, the trust adds.

The university figures show 307 reported cases up to Friday, which by Monday jumped to 479.