Hello, its Peter here and welcome to Thursdays Levy Letter. I hope your day is going well and I hope youll be able to join me tonight on BBC One at 6.30pm. Ill have all the days news and Look North tonight will exclusively reveal that traders in Hull are planning to buy in their own police force to combat crime in their shops. Ill have the full story on that one.
Also on tonight's programme, we'll be in Skegness to talk to the travellers, who have set up a camp on the sea front. They say they're only in Skegness for a holiday, but not everyone in the resort wants them there. And as the planning proposals for the new incinerator in the area hots up, then I'll be speaking to the man, who says that burning waste is dangerous to the health of people living nearby. Plus, whilst John Prescott is in the headlines again, we'll try and catch up with him as he joins the opening of the new Wilberforce Institute in Hull. The President of Ghana will be joining him in Hull this lunchtime to open the country's first institute dedicated to the research of slavery and emancipation. The centre is named after the city's most famous son, William Wilberforce. Ill have more on that later. And we'll be at home with our Home Grown family from Lincolnshire, who today are getting a lesson in cookery, using only locally produced and grown food. The mother of the family is such a character isnt she? And its so amazing how much effort theyre putting into this experiment, so I hope you can join me tonight for the latest update on how theyre getting on. Oh, and of course, Lisa will have the forecast for us! Birthday Its the birthday today of the bikini! We were talking about bikinis the other night in that car wash story in Skegness, but bikinis are still flying off the shelves today exactly sixty years since they were first launched. The swimwear that was once considered to be too revealing, is now regarded by many women as the most essential fashion item of the summer. It was designed by Louis Reard and he launched the two piece swimming costume on this day in 1946 on Bikini Atoll island in the South Pacific. Thats where the name came from. It was made from just three small triangles of material held together by ties and it was considered very shocking at the time. Sixty years later and little has changed! And it looks like some of us are still shocked by bikini clad girls washing our cars in Skegness! But it is a hugely popular fashion item for the summer. And talking of the beach in the old days, your beach bag contained probably no more than maybe a paperback book and some sun tan lotion and a towel. So you could casually saunter onto the beach with no worries, because you believed that no one would nick it whilst you swam. But these days the average price of the contents of our beach bag is £1500! How could that possibly be true? Well, these days the contents of our beach bag, according to research just out, shows that we carry things that are considerably more valuable than just a paper back book and sun tan lotion. Holiday makers cram in more than £1500 pounds worth of gadgets just to survive a day by the sea, including Ipods or a portable music player. 95% of us wouldnt leave the hotel without a digital camera and, not surprisingly, more than eight out of ten of us would take our mobile phones with us, whilst just under half of those owned a blackberry email system and they would put that in there as well. Not to ment! ion Gameboys and portable gaming systems as well. And all of that adds up to £1500. So when you think about it, then I suppose we do go to the beach with that amount of money in our beach bag! So be warned! Swimming This is a great story. Well done to David Walliams, the Little Britain comic, who has just swum the Channel. He now actually ranks amongst the top fifty fastest Channel swims of all time. It was a twenty-one mile swim and he did it in ten hours and thirty-four minutes, which is one of the best times going. And a lot of people, who actually attempt to swim the Channel, pack in half way across, because its not quite as easy as just swimming twenty-one miles in a swimming pool. Youve got to contend with jelly fish, boats and lots of seaweed, high waves and also something like a hundred ferries going passed. And imagine those huge tankers going passed you as well as youre swimming along! But well done to David. The greatest thing about this is that he is a great comic and is well known for dressing up in ladies dresses, but from this stunt hes raised over £400,000 for Sport Relief! So there you are. Isnt that amazing? I would love to meet David Walliams. I think hes quite ! a character from all accounts. But well done to David for raising all that money for Sport Relief. And talking of Sport Relief, the mile to run in Hull is taking place a week on Saturday. I shall be there for that one, right in the centre of Hull and just by the Wilberforce statue. So if you can make it down at 11am on Saturday 15th July, then I look forward to seeing you there. So its not this Saturday, but the Saturday after on the 15th July. Ill have some special guests and youll be able to watch or hopefully join in the Hull mile run. So thats Saturday morning on the 15th. Hope to see you there. Planning Homeowners are to be given a lot more freedom to build extensions and to make improvements to their property. People will be horrified at this I think, but changes to planning laws, due to come into force next year, will make it easier for people, who own houses, to convert their garages and build extensions or put up solar panels or wind turbines. This is as long as they dont impact on neighbours. I think this is the controversial bit, isnt it? The measures that were announced this week, are designed to cut bureaucracy and red tape, which can hinder planning applications, according to the experts. As the law stands, families must apply for full planning permission with local councils if the work they want to do is above 15% of an area of a property. This process can take up to six weeks, but now these plans can go straight ahead and you can start building straight away. So, your views on that, and indeed on anything else Ive discussed in the Levy Letter, then email me at! [EMAIL PROTECTED] And dont forget if youve got a problem that you think I could help with on Leave it to Levy, then email me at the usual address with all the details. Also include a contact telephone number as well so that I can get in touch with you and well see if we can help you out. Competition So as I mentioned last night, weve got some great tickets to give away to see the Buddy Holly Story at Yorks Grand Opera House. Its a wonderful show, with some great music, so get in touch with the answer to this very simple question if youd like to see this show. All you have to do is to name one of Buddy Hollys hit songs. Nice and easy there. Just name one of his hit songs and email me at [EMAIL PROTECTED] The show is on Monday 7th August, so if youre able to get to York on that date, then get in touch as soon as you can with the answer. And good luck! Well, that's it from me for today. Join me tonight on BBC One at 6.30pm. Also look out for a special programme tonight on BBC One straight after Look North. Its about the legendary cricketer, Fiery Fred! Its Fred Truemans funeral today at Bolton Abbey and straight after Look North at 7pm, therell be a special programme documenting his extraordinary life. He was an amazing character in cricket and therell be some wonderful archive footage of Fred and lots of memories from his cricketing friends and colleagues. So I hope you can watch that as well tonight. Have a lovely day. Take care, Peter And for the latest news and more where you live, go to: http://bbc.co.uk/humber and http://bbc.co.uk/lincolnshire ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the BBC Look North newsletter, go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/england/looknorthhull/newsletter/newsletter_index.shtml, enter your email address in the unsubscribe box. 1.94.4
