0110 BLUE PROG FLYNN SAFFY

The NHS is urging people to get vaccinated for the flu as cases have risen and vaccine hesitancy is a concern. Yorkshire has the worst bank access in the UK, leading to more reliance on online banking. Mayors in nine counties are banning junk food advertising to combat child obesity. Revive Reuse has opened a new location in Leeds, offering budget-friendly pre-loved items and work-based training programs. Leeds City Council has set objectives to become more sustainable on National Green Cities Day. Efforts include promoting sustainable food choices, reducing car usage, and planting trees for better air quality. On the hour, every hour, this is Leigh Radio News. Good afternoon, it's half past three. I'm Saffron Carroll. And I'm Flynn Connolly. This is Leigh Tax Radio News. On today's programme, the NHS urge people to get vaccinated with flu season on the horizon. Yorkshire is named the worst county for bank access and there's a new band on the scene in Leeds. As winter approaches, the dreaded flu season returns. Since COVID-19, the level of flu cases has risen whilst the number of jabs received has fallen. Sophie Nicholson has more. The NHS are campaigning to get winter strong to remind those at risk to get flu vaccinations amid the rising cases since COVID-19. Annabel Johnson, the Director of Primary Care for the north-eastern Yorkshire region, expresses... Just wanted to highlight the importance of your flu vaccine. If you are age 65 or over, you've got a long-term health condition, you're pregnant, live in a care home, you're a carer, or you live with someone who's got a weakened immune system, please, please, please, get that jab. It's offered on the NHS every year in autumn and early winter, so it's coming up. This campaign follows after 18,000 flu-related deaths were recorded over the past two years. Practice nurse Lindsay Perrin explains... I've been involved in the vaccine rollout for decades, actually, and in the last few years, I feel it is more important for people to get the flu vaccine because people are generally in worse health than they ever were before. But I know that there is a high level of vaccine hesitancy, as we call it, which since the COVID pandemic, some patients believe that, controversially, we're giving them vaccinations for all the reasons, and there's a level of patients that are declining vaccines because of this. Since the noticeable lack of vaccinations, an at-risk patient, Howard Goodenough, shares his opinion on the importance of flu jabs. I'm a bit concerned, really, because everything that you read says that the incidence of flu is getting worse, and that it's more contagious every year. As somebody that is a little bit vulnerable due to health conditions, it is really worrying that these strains seem to be getting worse. I think it's more important than ever that vaccines are distributed and that people like me can take them as soon as possible. A recent report has found that Yorkshire has the worst bank access in the country. Nine constituencies in Yorkshire are without a single banking branch, meaning more people are having to switch to online banking. Two members of the older, wiser, local senior group in Headingley gave contrasting opinions about online banking. Everything now, you should be talking to a computer and you're getting nowhere. You're in a queue and you can't get through or something. It's actually become chaos. It's great. It's convenient. We wouldn't switch up and still go to banking in the flight, you know. It's ideal. Yeah, I enjoy it. I like it. Dr Karen Horwood, a senior town planning lecturer at Leeds Beckett University, explained the social issues around bank closures and how minority groups may be worse affected. People who have less money, who have less income, who don't have a car at all, and so are less able to go and try and find a bank somewhere else and need it to be nearer to where they live. Women are also more likely to be picking up some of those caring responsibilities, so are also in a position where they might be more likely to need to use those banks and also find it more difficult to go and find a bank, for example, to travel into the city centre to use a bank, because perhaps they've got several kids in tow that make that much harder. Access to the technology to do those things online, having access to the Wi-Fi at the right speed, all of those things, of course, disproportionately affect people who have less money than others. So through any kind of issue that you're looking at in a planning context, in a spatial context, it's always worth thinking about how different groups of people are disproportionately impacted, because it's never as simple as, here's an issue, it will affect everyone. It's always the case that here's an issue and it will affect different people differently, and we need to always think about that when we're considering that issue. Mayors across nine counties, including West Yorkshire, are taking a stand against junk food advertising. This comes off the back of celebrity chef Jeremy Oliver's campaign, Add Enough. In the UK, it is estimated that around one in every five children aged 10 to 11 are living with obesity, according to the NHS. Obviously we've got an obesity crisis, and it's a looming crisis, because most people in Leeds and most people across the country are overweight, and that includes children. That was Councillor Fiona Venner, Chair of the Health and Wellbeing Board. Evidence has shown that advertising of junk food has contributed to this. Cameron Sharpe is a PE teacher at Ickley Grammar School. Yes, banning advertisements on junk food can have a big impact on a lot of kids. I know at my school getting a train bus every single day to school, and seeing that there's a new flavour of McFlurry or a new flavour of pizza at Domino's is a massive impact as to why they might want to try it. However, mayors across nine different counties, including West Yorkshire, have pledged to ban junk food adverts on buses and trains in the next few years. This comes after celebrity chef Jamie Oliver began his campaign, Add Enough, in 2018 to stop the relentless bombardment of junk food adverts. Trying to combat child obesity is a challenging one, because we only get an hour, maybe two hours max, of their physical education time a week. We do inform them and we do try and promote healthy lifestyles. However, as the cost of living continues to rise, those who are most deprived are finding it harder and harder and harder and harder to make ends meet. It's not just about making ends meet. However, as the cost of living continues to rise, those who are most deprived are finding it harder to make healthy choices. Councillor Venner expressed her understanding. She continued to explain how the lack of free school meals is also having an impact. There needs to be universal free school meals, because we know that the threshold at which you can claim school meals is too high. With junk food companies spending 27 times more on advertising than the government does on healthy eating, the banning of these adverts is a welcomed enforcement. The ban is set to take place in March 2027, once the combined authorities have taken control of the bus services. Revive Reuse, a company committed to reselling pre-loved items at budget-friendly prices, has now launched its third location in Leeds. The company chose to expand further after Hunslet residents requested a Reuse shop in their area. Councillor Ed Carlisle is a Green Party member. He believes the Revive stores help people to be more mindful about their spending. I'm thinking differently about how they get stuff and how they buy stuff, rather than necessarily thinking I'm just going to get a bit more debt. The Revive stores are providing really valuable ways for people to save money. As well as tackling poverty and protecting the environment, Revive also aim to combat unemployment by offering work-based training programmes to prepare volunteers for the world of work. Mags Ashman is a volunteer and training coordinator at Revive. We offer volunteering opportunities to members of the public. We also have people on work experience from local colleges, so they're getting experience in the work field. Also sometimes people from the job centre, if people have not had any work experience for a very long time, or they've never worked anywhere, it helps that they've done some voluntary work. It gets them used to being in a work environment. Revive work in partnership with Leeds City Council to help collect donations left at household waste recycling centres. Items range from furniture and clothing to toys and kitchenware. High Park resident Caitlin Emms is pleased to see that a new Revive store has opened near her. I'm really glad they've opened a store in Hunslet. The other two were a bit out of the way for me. I love the concept of being able to get cheap, affordable items, but also doing something for the environment. I think it's sustainably friendly and helping local charities. With Hunslet being the third Revive location in Leeds and the fifth in West Yorkshire, they hope that other regions will follow in their footsteps and introduce eco-friendly initiatives such as this. It's National Green Cities Day and Leeds City Council has put together a list of objectives to become more sustainable. Five targets have been highlighted which the people of Leeds could try and actively follow today so we can all work together towards a greener future. The list includes Waste Not Want Not, eat nutritious foods that are good for the planet, find new ways to produce, sell and serve food, supporting our local farmers and buying food sustainably. Dr Fiona Fyland from Leeds Beckett spoke about what she did with the council to encourage a better environment. We were interested in understanding, I suppose, why people were leaving their cars for short journeys. So we had a focus group of people to understand the context of their driving. Why would they get into a car and drive? Another effort to combat this in the city was to plant 1,200 trees near the A61 to act as a barrier to the emissions from the road. The University of Leeds are currently tracking the air quality changes since they have been planted and hope to help make a more sustainable city. Speaking to Dr Jim Parker, also from Leeds Beckett, he spoke about how green spaces help to cool cities down, encourage biodiversity and are great for health and wellbeing. These are just a few of the myriad benefits from urban green space. Yorkshire County Cricket Club say they are confident they can make an impact on their return to Division 1 of the county championship. Our reporter Ben Dinning has more. As the scoreboard ticks over to 350, Yorkshire ended their two-year absence from Division 1, sealing the final bonus point needed to secure their promotion. Having reduced their visitors to 147 all-out after a day-one washout, the Holmside racked up their second-highest inning total in first-class cricket. Their malice score of 726-7 was underpinned by James Wharton's career-best 285, whilst Adam Live matched Northamptonshire's score off his own bat at the top of the order. Yorkshire commentator Jonathan Doidge outlined what promotion means for the club. This season's promotion comes on the back of a five-game unbeaten run for the club, with many seeing it as a coming of age for much of the young side. Doidge gave us his prediction for the 2025 season. Many Yorkshire fans see their recent success as reaping the rewards for investing in local talent. I don't think they should still do it. It's a very old-fashioned thing, but I think it was something unique about Yorkshire. The icing on the cake for Yorkshire fans came before their own promotion was secured, when Red Rose rivals Lancashire had their relegation confirmed, an hour prior to Yorkshire's all-important bonus point, making it a very good day to be a Yorkie. Sunday night saw the chaotic debut performance of Clabber, a ten-piece band just signed to Leeds' new indie label Turncoat Records. The Hyde Park Book Club snog was filled to the brim with hopeful punters, awaiting Clabber, who currently have no internet presence. Sophia Kenny has more. Music enthusiasts of Leeds huddled into Hyde Park Book Club on Sunday evening to see the debut of two new Turncoat Records signings. Headlining the event was ten-person band Clabber, a progressive rock and garage combination of sound and performance. I spoke to Faye Kaye, lead vocalist of the band. Like garage rock and a hardcore band. It's meant to be silly, to bring ten people together. It's like a complete novelty thing. I think if you walked into a venue and you just saw ten people on stage, you'd just immediately think, like, what is happening? Especially to this kind of music, because the only time that you see such a large amount of people is to, like, quite traditionally practice music. I also spoke to James Vardy, promoter of the gig via Private Wedge Records, who had more about the new bands on the Leeds music scene. There's loads of people involved. I mean, there's so many good bands in Leeds right now. Like, especially over the last couple of years. So it's just a case of, like, putting everyone on all the time and just trying to get something going where there's something on every couple of weeks. Clabber caused a stir. Mosh pits involving the band itself, as well as climbing on furniture were some of the sights to see. Alessandra Waterloo and Clabber are now signed by a turncoat record, with the label hoping to put many of its new acts out into the Leeds music scene. I reckon I'd probably have to pull out the black face paint and the headbanger for that. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, that certainly sounds chaotic. Anyway, that's as far as we go today. Join us next week when we'll do it all again. Leeds Tax Radio News. It's quarter to four. .