| Two of 2022's big political issues are colliding in York, where the local hospital trust says it's been left in a "very vulnerable" position after the Government said it wanted to use accommodation currently used by nurses to house asylum seekers. The hospital hires out rooms at two hotels in the city for its international nurses, but the Home Office has now block-booked the rooms to host those seeking asylum, according to Polly McMeekin, director of workforce and organisational development. Hospital bosses at York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust are now struggling to find appropriate alternative accommodation, writes Local Democracy Reporter Joe Cooper. Recruiting nurses from abroad is a key part of the hospital's workforce strategy due to a shortage of nurses within the UK. There were around 130 nursing vacancies across the trust in September, though hospital bosses hope this will reduce to around 50 by December. The trust pays for overseas nurses' accommodation while they undertake the exams necessary to allow them to work in the UK. There are 82 foreign nurses in one York hotel, with 17 more set to arrive in December. Ms McMeekin said: "York has a dearth of accommodation. [This] leaves us with no other accommodation – we've explored the military, we've explored universities. That would leave us in a very vulnerable position." 
It's proving hard to pour funding Alphabet Soup into just one pot It's there in black and white in Michael Gove's Levelling Up White Paper: "By 2030, every part of England that wants one will have a devolution deal with powers at or approaching the highest level of devolution and a simplified, long-term funding settlement." But the latter proposition looks like being a major challenge for government. MPs have identified more than 130 different pots of money local leaders can bid for (like the ones in this graphic) - making the task of getting much-needed funding for local schemes complex and time-consuming.  Our graphic shows just some of the funding pots Northern leaders have to bid for. Graphic by Carly Holds and Paul Gallagher
Leading experts were quizzed about the issue yesterday by the Levelling Up Select Committee, whose chairman, Sheffield MP Clive Betts said when it came to funding "it's almost impossible at first glance to understand what on earth is going on". Paul Swinney, a Sunderland-born economist from the Centre for Cities, said there had been "very little action" so far on the issue since the White Paper came out in February. And Professor Steve Fothergill of Sheffield Hallam University recalled recently asking the Treasury official in charge of expenditure in Mr Gove's Levelling Up Department what had been achieved so far. "He took a very deep breath and said, 'Well, we have this commitment to say something by the end of the year, I don't think we're going to make it on that timescale, it's clearly going to slip'." You can watch the evidence session in full here.
PM's 'bloody cheese man' sells his firm after being hit by Brexit woes  Simon Spurrell from the Cheshire Cheese Company (Image: Simon Spurrell)
A Cheshire businessman who Boris Johnson called 'that bloody cheese man' when he was Prime Minister has sold his company after being hit by Brexit woes. The Cheshire Cheese Company has been acquired by Nantwich-based family-owned cheese producer Joseph Heler for an undisclosed sum, BusinessLive reports today. The Macclesfield-based company was established in 2010 while co-founder Simon Spurrell will retain an equitable stake in the business and remain as managing director. The deal comes after Mr Spurrell warned that the government's failure to negotiate a health certificate hit his business overnight as soon as the UK withdrew from the EU. He has previously said Brexit directly cost his company £250,000.
Census data reveal changing face of North's population  In 2021, there were a total 261,125 residents in the North who were not born in the UK. Graphic by Carly Holds
It's been a decade where the country has gone through the upheaval of Brexit and the unprecedented challenge of the pandemic. And new National Census data shows how the North's population has changed between 2011 and 2021. One fascinating part of the data is how many people in our towns and cities were born in the UK, with Richard Ault of Reach's Data Unit reporting that Manchester has the highest proportion of foreign-born residents of any area in the North. Some 34.1% of people living in Manchester in 2021 were born overseas, up from 25.3% 10 years earlier. Preston (19.3%), Salford (19.0%) and Bradford (18.7%) have the second, third and fourth-highest totals. Copeland in Cumbria has the lowest proportion of residents who were not born in the UK in the North (2.9%). Of an estimated 261,125 residents of the North who were not born in the UK, 35.5% were born in the Middle East and Asia, while 52.5% were born in EU nations. Overall, the population of England and Wales grew by more than 3.5 million (6.3%) in the period between 2011 and 2021. Census Deputy Director Jon Wroth-Smith said that while Brexit and the pandemic "may have had an impact on people's decisions or ability to migrate or travel at a given time, the census tells us about the change over the whole decade – who was living here in March 2021, compared with March 2011". He said: "We can see Romanians have been a big driver in this change, while there have also been increases due to migration from India, Pakistan and Poland, as well as southern European countries such as Italy."
Inside Manchester's top secret spy headquarters - and it's above a Greggs  Heron House is home to signals intelligence agency GCHQ (Image: Vincent Cole - Manchester Evening News)
Speaking of Manchester, Damon Wilkinson of the Manchester Evening News is one of a select group of reports given a glimpse inside the city base of secretive intelligence agency GCHQ. As Damon describes it, Manchester's most secretive building Heron House lies "through a glass door next to a Chinese restaurant, in an anonymous 1970s office block above a barbers and a Greggs". "Inside hundreds of spies carry out the clandestine business of keeping tabs on those who might wish to do the UK harm." Read the full piece here.
Confidence vote over offensive Facebook posts fails to oust council chairman  Yarm Town Council chairman John Coulson, left, was subject to a motion of no confidence brought by Councillor Peter Monck, right, over "totally inappropriate" Facebook posts (Image: Yarm Town Council)
There's no love lost between local politicians in the scenic market town of Yarm, where the local council chairman has remained in his position after being accused by fellow members of misogynistic Facebook posts. John Coulson, the chairman of Yarm Town Council on Teesside, was subject to a motion of no confidence proposed by fellow councillor Peter Monck, who said he had brought the council into disrepute. Cllr Coulson, who declined to comment to Local Democracy Reporter Stuart Arnold, told a meeting the posts in question were from three years ago and prior to him becoming a councillor and chair. He said they were personal and not council-related and he did not intend any offence. Cllr Monck, whose motion was carried by four votes to two, with five councillors abstaining, said despite the outcome there was no requirement for the council to take any action, unless Cllr Coulson had chosen to resign as a result. He said the posts were "totally inappropriate, particularly in his position as chairman" and could be interpreted as derogatory and offensive. He added: "I don't have confidence in his ability to chair and lead the council." Ex-town councillor Chris Johnson claimed the town council had made "every effort" to avoid the motion of no confidence being heard in public after the matter was declared as an exempt item – something denied by the authority. 
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Northern Stories  National Trust handout photo of sunlight glancing through the trunks of trees at Ennerdale, Cumbria.
- More than 7,400 acres of water, forests and mountains in the Lake District have been designated as a "super national nature reserve". Wild Ennerdale in Cumbria has been formally designated as one of the first super national nature reserves (NNR) in England, which are recognised for partners working at a landscape scale. The designation of the landscape, which is home to rare wildlife including red squirrels, freshwater pearl mussels and Arctic charr as well as juniper, damp Atlantic oakwood and scarce mountain plants, makes it the largest NNR in Cumbria and the ninth largest in England.
- Tributes have been paid to the chairman of North Yorkshire County Council, who has died suddenly. Community leaders were stunned to learn Councillor Margaret Atkinson, who represented the rural Fountains and Ripley ward on Harrogate Borough Council and Masham and Fountains division on the county council, had died after becoming ill at her home in Kirkby Malzeard, which she shared with her husband Michael. Her death comes less than seven months after the committed Conservative was sworn in to become the county council's final figurehead to perform civic duties across England's largest county before it is replaced by a unitary authority.
- Barnsley Council's failure to count a box of missing postal votes at last May's election "significantly damaged trust in the electoral process", states a report. During the council elections on May 5, 2021, the Labour-run council "failed to count a box of postal ballot papers through simple human error". The chief executive of Barnsley Council apologised and says there are "lessons to be learned" after the box of postal votes for the Royston ward were not included in the overnight count.
- A proposed £200,000 plus tree top adventure park with zip wires in a Lancashire country park would not compromise the protected 'Green Belt', planners have advised. The 'Go Ape' high ropes course, which would create 21 jobs, has been put forward for Blackburn's Witton Park with a provisional opening date of Easter. Adventure Forest Ltd have proposed the scheme, similar to one at Rivington, for a 1.6 acre site near The Pavilion at the 480-acre Green Belt open space in Preston New Road. The proposal has been recommended for approval by Blackburn with Darwen Council.
- North Tyneside has the lowest number of foster carers the local authority has ever seen, a report reveals. North Tyneside Council's safeguarding and children's services report revealed there are only 83 foster carers in the area. However, the number of kids needing care has increased from 288 in March 2021 to 358 today. The report explains that foster carers are an "ageing workforce" and 13 carers have left the service this year alone. The Covid-19 pandemic also stopped the local authority from recruiting foster carers from drop-ins or face-to-face meetings.
- A former Tory MP for Wakefield jailed for groping a 15-year-old boy was due to challenge his conviction at the Court of Appeal today. Imran Ahmad Khan, 49, was jailed for 18 months at Southwark Crown Court in May after being found guilty of sexual assaulting the teenager after a party in 2008. The victim came forward days after Khan won his seat in West Yorkshire, in the December 2019 general election. Khan, who maintains he is innocent, was expelled from the Conservative Party and resigned, triggering a by-election in the constituency, after his conviction.
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