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£1.70 (£1.36 to subscribers) SATURDAY OCTOBER 10 2015Online: yorkshirepost.co.uk Twitter: @yorkshirepostYORKSHIRE’S NATIONAL NEWSPAPER

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INSIDE TODAY’S NEWSPAPER... A bigger, brighter and

better weekend magazineNEWPLUS

Ian McMillanand

Christine Austin

ENERGY: The company aiming to frack in North Yorkshire has insisted there are “no grounds” for the local council’s decision to ban the controversial mining method.

Third Energy’s plans to ex-plore for gas at a site in Ryedale were hit by a setback when the district council agreed to a five-year ‘moratorium’ on fracking.

Full story: Page 2.

Fracking company hits at ban decision

POLITICS: Margaret Thatcher was warned to soften her Iron Lady image by her Press secretary, Bernard Ingham, newly released documents show.

The former Prime Minister’s aide wrote a memo to Baroness Thatcher setting out her “natural assets” against “weaknesses” in 1985.

Full story: Page 9.

‘Iron Lady’ urged to soften image

COURT: A mother who ignored warnings about the dangers of a pond in her garden was on the social networking site Facebook when her two-year-old son fell in and drowned.

Claire Barnett, 31, was sentenced to five years in jail after a judge described her behaviour as a “gross dereliction of duty”.

Full story: Page 5.

Mother jailed over boy’s pond death

DEATH: An elderly woman from North Yorkshire has donated some of her pension to the family of tragic police officer David Phillips.

The move came as it was revealed that Clayton Williams accepted his driving caused the death of PC Dave Phillips and has “extended his apologies” to the father-of-two’s family.

Full story: Page 14.

Pension donation over PC tragedy

Briefing

AROUND ONE in every five cas-es relating to domestic violence is being dropped, despite a huge rise in cases across the region, an investigation by The Yorkshire Post has revealed.

Figures obtained under Free-dom of Information requests show that the number of inci-dents referred to the Crown Pros-ecution Service in Yorkshire and the Humber last year was 11,131, compared with 9,760 five years ago.

Of the cases dealt with in 2014/2015, 2,066 were dropped for “evidential or public inter-est reasons” and there were just 6,705 convictions – almost half the number of cases initially sent to the CPS.

State agencies have been ac-cused of letting victims down at every stage, and today victims’ charity Refuge has called for a na-tional inquiry into the problem.

Chief executive Sandra Hor-ley CBE said: “We know a huge number of domestic violence cases never even reach the police and therefore the courts. Many women are simply too frightened to come forward. Women who are brave enough to report their ex-periences to the police are often

disbelieved, ignored and denied protection.

“Last year, an investigation into police forces found damning evi-dence that the police response is ‘not good enough’ and that se-rious failings in policing were putting women and children at ‘unnecessary risk’.

“All too often, evidence is not collected, photographs of injuries are not taken, and a ‘canteen cul-ture’ still exists in forces where domestic violence is not taken se-riously.

“We also know, through our work with victims, that every day women are let down by the CPS. The court process is long, stress-ful and can be re-traumatising.”

The Yorkshire Post’s investiga-tion found that South Yorkshire has the worst record when it comes to failure to prosecute. Of the 3,243 pre-charge decisions referred to the Yorkshire and Humberside branch of the CPS in the last financial year, 737 – or 22.7 per cent – were not pursued through the courts.

Each is counted in terms of suspects.

Superintendent Natalie Shaw, who leads on domestic abuse for South Yorkshire Police, said: “The protection of vulnerable peo-ple is a priority across our force and this includes the work we do alongside our partner agencies to safeguard and protect victims of domestic abuse.

“We have seen the number of reported domestic abuse cases rising but given that in the past, crimes of this nature were under-reported, I take this as a positive indication that victims are reas-sured by the service we are pro-viding and have the confidence to come forward and report their abuse to police.”

For West Yorkshire Police, the decision to take ‘no further ac-tion’ occurred in 17.3 per cent of the 5,477 cases for what it de-scribes as evidential or public Continued on Page 2.

Victims of domestic violence ‘being let down’MOLLY LYNCHNEWS CORRESPODENT

■Email: molly.lynch @ypn.co.uk ■Twitter: @yorkshirepost

One case in every five is dropped despite big rise

A P HO TO F I N I S H

Reg Haigh from Ilkley Cycles Race Team rides on a hill

near Otley after Welcome to Yorkshire announced that

the town would host a start or finish of the the 2016 Tour De Yorkshire. The route will take in diverse parts of the county, organisers said, as Otley celebrated the news.

PICTURE: BRUCE ROLLINSON

SEE PAGE 3

MP launches petition to scrap system and get a fairer funding deal for rural schools

A NORTH YORKSHIRE MP has launched a petition calling on the Government to create a new national formula which delivers fairer funding for rural schools.

Rishi Sunak, the Conservative MP for Richmond, told an edu-cation forum in his constituency that it was unfair that schools in North Yorkshire received hun-dreds of pounds less per pupil than some neighbouring urban authorities.

He used the event to launch a

petition calling for a new nation-al funding formula to replace the existing “arbitrary and unfair sys-tem”.

Mr Sunak said the system was based on historic criteria which discriminated against rural are-as, adding: “There can be no justi-fication for a formula which gives schools in Bradford and Mid-dlesbrough about £400 per pupil more than North Yorkshire.”

His call follows more than a decade of campaigning by repre-sentatives of some of the worst- funded education authority are-as in the country. The f40 group, whose vice chairman is the

former education select commit-tee chairman and Beverley and Holderness Tory MP Graham Stuart, has been pressing succes-sive governments to create a new national funding formula.

And last week Russell Hobby, the General Secretary of the Na-tional Association of Head Teach-ers, also said reforming the sys-tem needed to go ahead.

Earlier this year, David Cam-eron said an extra £390m award-ed to schools in some of the worst- funded areas of the country last year to close the gap would be re-peated in this Parliament.Fair funding vital: Page 17.

RISHI SUNAK: The new Richmond MP has launched a petition over rural school funding.

JOHN ROBERTSEDUCATION CORRESPONDENT

■Email: john.roberts@ypn.co.uk ■Twitter: @JohnGRoberts

Policing tsar says sorry for bollard crash

WEST YORKSHIRE’S crime commissioner has issued an “unreserved apology” after reversing his car into a bollard while attending an event in Leeds.

Mark Burns-Williamson damaged the bollard during a visit to a local police base on land owned by the University of Leeds.

He said later that he “did not realise I had done so until the matter was brought to my attention shortly afterwards”.

The Labour police and crime commissioner was spoken to officers from West Yorkshire Police. After an investigation it was concluded that no criminal action had taken place.

Mr Burns-Williamson said: “On Friday October 2 I attended an event in Leeds where I reversed into a bollard. I did not realise I had done so until the matter was brought to my attention shortly afterwards.

“I have since spoken to West Yorkshire Police who investigated the matter and

Turn to Page 2.

ROB PARSONSCRIME CORRESPONDENT

■Email: rob.parsons@ypn.co.uk ■Twitter: @yorkshirepost