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.

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".

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.

Do you recognise the man in these pictures? Police want to speak to him after a van was attacked and damaged in a Lincolnshire town.

Image source, Lincolnshire Police

The windscreen of the van, which was parked on a driveway on Beccelm Drive in Crowland, was smashed at about 22:00 on Monday night.

Officers believe a set of bolt cutters were used to break the glass.

Image source, Lincolnshire Police

Anyone who recognises the man in the pictures, or who saw any suspicious activity in the area at around the time of the incident, is being asked to contact Lincolnshire Police.

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!"

BBC Sport

Head coach Daryl Powell is to leave Castleford Tigers at the end of the 2021 Super League season.

Image source, Richard Sellers/PA Wire

Powell, 55, took over at his boyhood club in 2013, succeeding Ian Millward, and turned the Tigers into a side challenging for honours.

He led the club to the 2014 Challenge Cup final, and won the League Leaders' Shield and reached a first summer-era Grand Final in 2017.

"For both me and the club, it is the right time," Powell said.

"It gives the club time to plan for the future, I thought the timing was right and I wanted to make a proactive decision, for both parties it gives us that time.

"I am massively motivated this year, I have loved being a part of the club's history and helping players to grow and develop, and I would really love to finish off in a positive way with a Grand Final win and close a chapter that has been such a special time in my life."

Tigers chairman Ian Fulton added: "After some lengthy conversations that started at the end of 2020, both Daryl and the club felt that with a number of coaches and players out of contract at the end of the year, 2022 would be the right time for a new face to come in and take charge.

"The process of appointing that person will be incredibly thorough and has already begun internally."

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

BBC Weather

A dull day today for Lincolnshire, with widespread cloud.

There is a chance of some drizzle or light rain developing under thick cloud cover through the day, but this will be showery in nature.

Tonight will see widespread cloud persist, but it is expected to remain dry throughout.

Light and variable winds:

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."

There have been no blanket "Do Not Resuscitate" - or DNR - orders in place in Lincolnshire's hospitals, the county's hospitals boss has said.

The Care Quality Commission care watchdog has said that individuals' human rights may have been breached in more than 500 cases in England where DNR decisions were made during the pandemic.

Some 508 such decisions made since March 2020 were not agreed in discussion with the person or their family, a report has found.

The Care Quality Commission is calling for improvements to care planning.

An NHS spokesman said decisions should be made in consultation with families.

Andrew Morgan, chief executive of United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust, says the trust's policy is "absolutely not to have any such blanket arrangements".

"They are taken on an individual basis," he added.

An audit would now take place on some cases to "assure ourselves the policy we've got is the one that's being applied", Mr Morgan said.

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."

BBC Weather

A dull day today, with morning fog. Areas of light rain or drizzle will develop under thick cloud cover, but will become increasingly intermittent through the day.

Tonight will see widespread cloud, but it is expected to remain dry throughout:

Local Democracy Reporting Service

More than 1,000 trees in the Wakefield district are to be cut down due to ash dieback, it's been confirmed.

Around half of the district’s ash trees are believed to be infected with the disease and Wakefield Council has now approved plans to cut down those affected.

The council says it's due to the safety risk the trees pose to the public from falling branches.

A tree will be replanted for every one cut down and the overall scheme will cost just over £500,000, according to the authority.

Speaking at a cabinet meeting where the plans were signed off, Councillor Michael Graham said: "I think this is the right time to take this action and invest this money into tackling the problem.

“From what I’ve seen, there’s no solution to the disease - the tree’s either resistant or it isn’t.

“It’s devastating news, but I think we’ve got a really good strategy here which can tackle it.”

The council says it will replace all the chopped trees as soon as possible - and close to where the old ones stood.

The incident was attended by a bomb disposal team after chemicals were found at the property.

Acting head teacher Nicola Waites said Bricknell Primary School was to close for a deep clean.

A man has been arrested following reports of an attempt to "grab" an 11-year-old boy, police have said.

Image source, Google

The man was arrested on suspicion of attempted abduction following the incident at a field on Pontefract Road in Snaith, East Yorkshire, on Monday.

The boy ran home and was unharmed but "understandably shaken", according to Humberside Police.

Det Insp Andy Crawforth thanked people who had come forward with information.

He added: "I want to reassure those in the local area that our teams are continuing to patrol and we have also undertaken door to door and CCTV inquiries."

The arrested man remains in custody, police said.

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.

Several homes in a Lincolnshire village were evacuated after chemicals were found during a fire earlier today.

Image source, Google

Officers were called to an address in South Witham at about 11:25 this morning and a 63-year-old man was subsequently arrested on suspicion of arson, according to Lincolnshire Police.

Chemicals were found at the address and some of the rooms were inaccessible, police said.

As a result, the bomb squad was called to help officers "as a precaution" and several homes in the direct vicinity were evacuated.

The incident has now been "safely concluded", Lincolnshire Police said.

The incident was not terror-related, the force added.

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.