North Yorkshire Police has confirmed it has received reports of historic child abuse within football.

Elly Fiorentini
BBC Local Live, York

Earlier I told you about St Leonard's Hospice in York being rated as "outstanding" by inspectors from the Care Quality Commission.

Inspectors from the health watchdog spent two days looking at the services provided at St Leonard's and how they were managed.   

The top rating highlights the Hospice's "high quality care and support for patients consistently provided".

Staff there have been celebrating with a "Mannequin Challenge" - a video craze featuring people imitating mannequins and freezing for the camera while music plays in the background.

Ambulance waiting times at Yorkshire hospitals' accident and emergency units double in a year

Abbie Dewhurst
Weather Presenter, BBC Look North

A dry afternoon to come, although with more cloud than of late. 

Some good spells of sunshine are likely to develop at times.

Becoming breezier with a top temperature of about 7C (45F). 

Joanita Musisi
Reporter, BBC Radio York

Us Brits are well known for many things and one of them is our tendency to form an orderly queue.

We queue for everything: the supermarket, the loo, the shops, the post office and, particularly around this time of year, panto tickets.

A study out today shows on average during our lifetime we spend seven months queuing.

I've been to Boroughbridge and queued up to meet a woman dubbed North Yorkshire's "Queen of the Queues": 

More on the news that engineers in Ripon finally hope this week to start filling in a large sinkhole which appeared in the back gardens of a row of houses earlier this month.

In total, 12 homes were evacuated on Magdalen's Road after the appearance of the 30ft deep hole on the night of 9 November.

Residents of the four closest properties are still unable to move back in, but it's now hoped they should be able to return early in the new year.

Here's a look back at the shocking scene just hours after the sinkhole first appeared:

Image source, PA

The top stories from our York newsroom this lunchtime include:

• North Yorkshire Police becomes the latest force to confirm it's investigating historical sex abuse claims in football
• Paramedics in North Yorkshire are struggling to reach seriously ill patients quickly enough, a BBC study shows
• Services at York's St Leonard's Hospice are rated as "outstanding" by the health watchdog the Care Quality Commission

BBC Radio York

More on the news that North Yorkshire Police has become the latest force to confirm it's investigating allegations of child sexual abuse within football. 

It follows widespread publicity surrounding allegations of abuse within the sport.

Here's BBC Radio York's Nathan Turvey with what we know so far:

Jonathan Cowap
Presenter, BBC Radio York

It's National Tree week, external and events organised by the Tree Council are going on all over the country. 

The week-long appreciation of trees first began in 1975 and is the UK's largest tree celebration, annually launching the start of the winter tree planting season.  

Here in North Yorkshire, the arboretum at Thorp Perrow, near Bedale, is offering some special events to help you appreciate their nationally and internationally famous collection of trees.

I've been along to meet the arboretum's curator, Faith Douglas, who says their events look at trees in a different way - quite literally:

Andrew Barton
BBC Local Live, York

There are just hours to go until it's December, which means that tomorrow you can open the first window of your Advent calendar.

For one shop in North Yorkshire, that's something which is going to prove a little more complicated this year.

Little Eden, in Easingwold, has converted its whole shop window into a huge Advent calendar, with each of the 24 boxes hideing the story of a local hero nominated by the community:

Image source, Little Eden

Joanita Musisi
Reporter, BBC Radio York

Have you ever thought about how long you spend at the pub? 

For many of us, our local is a huge part of our communities and our lives, but have you ever wondered how much of your life you might spend there?

According to a report out today, we spend more than a year at our local hostelry - 368 days to be exact.

I've been to Boroughbridge this morning, at one of the pubs in the town, to check out the theory:

Julia Lewis

More now on the work which is expected to start soon to fill the Ripon sinkhole.

Engineers say they're hoping to start the job of filling in the huge hole that appeared in the city three weeks ago within the next few days.

The work involves removing debris and filling the hole with a concrete "plug".

I've been talking to Alan Milburn, the man in charge of making the hole safe, who says he hopes the work will be finished by Christmas.

That means residents in the four houses closest to the hole could be back in their homes by early January.

He explained to me the work involved in filling the hole - and it's clearly a big job:

Nathan Turvey
BBC Radio York News

More on the news that North Yorkshire Police has become the latest force to confirm it's investigating allegations of child sexual abuse within football. 

It follows widespread publicity surrounding allegations of abuse within the sport.

The force says it's been contacted by Operation Hydrant, which was set up when it became apparent that forces around the country were investigating allegations of sexual abuse in the past involving persons of public prominence or within institutions. 

In a statement, North Yorkshire Police says: "We urge anyone who has been a victim of sexual abuse and anyone else with information, to please contact police, regardless of how long ago it happened."

North Yorkshire Police say they are investigating allegations of historical child sexual abuse within football.

More to follow...

Elly Fiorentini
BBC Local Live, York

Staff at York's St Leonard's Hospice are celebrating today after it was rated as "outstanding" by the health watchdog.

Inspectors from the Care Quality Commission spent two days looking at the services provided at St Leonard's and how they were managed. 

Image source, St Leonard's Hospice

The top rating highlights the Hospice's "high quality care and support for patients consistently provided".

It also praises the "extremely clean and tidy premises" and the "high quality of meals" and the environment. 

St Leonard's boss Martyn Callaghan says he is delighted with the rating and is "proud to head such a great organisation, supported by so many different organisations".

BBC Radio York

More on the news that there's been a big increase in the amount of time patients in North Yorkshire are waiting with ambulance staff to be transferred into A&E. 

The figures show delays at York and Scarborough hospitals are among the worst in Yorkshire.

The total number of "wasted hours" for 2015-16 at North Yorkshire's hospitals stands at about 8,000.  

Mark Inman, head of emergency operations for the Yorkshire Ambulance Service in North Yorkshire, has told BBC Radio York the service is doing all it can to deal with the problem:

Julia Lewis

I just had to share this picture taken during my cycle ride to work this morning.

It's the sunrise over a frosty Millennium Bridge in York, just before 08:00.

It took my breath away - that and the cold!

Andrew Barton
BBC Local Live, York

Engineers say they hope to start filling in a huge sinkhole in Ripon by the end of this week. 

Twelve homes were evacuated over safety fears when the 66ft by 33ft hole - which is about 30ft deep - swallowed two gardens in Magdalen's Road earlier this month. 

Residents of four properties closest to the sinkhole are still unable to move back in and Yorkshire Water engineers have been unable to repair a sewer damaged by the appearance of the hole because it's still unsafe. 

Now it's hoped homeowners who were moved from their properties should be allowed back in in the New Year . 

Alan Milburn, senior engineer with Subsidence Management Services, told BBC Radio York: "Later this week contractors will be roped up and lowered into the hole to remove plants, trees and garden furniture from the hole."

One outhouse is also set to be demolished, concrete will be poured into the hole and a reinforced earth bank built behind the houses. 

Once work to fill the hole is completed, Yorkshire Water is expected to repair damage to the sewerage system caused by the collapse.

Abbie Dewhurst
Weather Presenter, BBC Look North

It'll be a dry day with some good spells of sunshine later.

Becoming breezier with a top temperature of about 7C (45F). 

Watch my full forecast here:

Image source, Avon and Somerset Police

The body of a man found in the River Avon in Bath has been formally identified as 19-year-old Henry Burke.

Henry, from Ripon in North Yorkshire but who grew up in Buckinghamshire, was found in the stretch of the river off Old Orchard on Saturday.

Avon and Somerset Police said a post-mortem examination has confirmed the cause of death as drowning.

Officers say they're are treating the death as unexplained but they do not believe there are any suspicious circumstances.