| A truly bizarre story emerged from Middlesbrough this weekend, as it turns out mayor Andy Preston's identity is being used to fleece women out of hundreds of pounds in North Africa. As Local Democracy Reporter Emily Craigie writes, one woman called Nabila, 40, who lives in Algeria, was the victim of a scam that saw her lose €500 after being promised thousands of pounds worth of gifts. The mother of three was sent a Facebook request from a fake account impersonating Andy Preston. It appears the scammer has set up at least two false Facebook pages and a WhatsApp account. Mr Preston said he is appalled that people are using his name to rip off unsuspecting individuals and will be reporting the fake accounts. Mr Preston said: "Sadly, scamming is a really common global problem on social media and I suspect hundreds of people's profiles are being abused in this way, so I'd advise people to be very cautious online at all times. For the record, I have only two Facebook pages – Tees Issues by Andy Preston, which I use for my mayoral activity, and a personal Andy Preston profile." 
In better news for the Middlesbrough mayor, millions of pounds of government cash are set to be plunged into the town's Gresham area to boost regeneration. The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has granted £15m to the Tees Valley Combined Authority and £8m will be used in Middlesbrough. The other £7m will be used for a hangar at Teesside Airport and associated infrastructure The Gresham funds will be used to regenerate a stretch of Linthorpe Road and Borough Road which Tory Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen said was in dire need of investment. The TVCA is drawing up plans for a complex of apartments, as well as townhouses, and food and drink outlets.
The Yorkshire town where nearly 1 in 10 proudly say they're LGBTQ+  Malcolm Struthers of Happy Valley Pride is a guest on The Northern Agenda podcast along with Labour's Jonathan Ashworth, who's talking about benefits reforms and devolution
When the places with the biggest LGBTQ+ populations were revealed in the census for the first time last week the names near the top of the list were perhaps not a surprise: Brighton and London in the South and in Northern England big cities like Manchester, Leeds and Newcastle. But a less well-known is the West Yorkshire market town of Hebden Bridge, where 8.95% of over-16s have revealed they are lesbian, gay, bisexual or other. How did the town get its reputation as the lesbian capital of the North and more widely one of the best places for those seeking an alternative lifestyle? Malcolm Struthers, a trustee from Happy Valley Pride, which organises a week-long queer arts and pride festival in Hebden Bridge, told The Northern Agenda podcast that over the past decade the town had become more diverse with even more gay men arriving, becoming more well known for being such an LGBTQ+-friendly place that it's bringing more people in. Mr Struthers says that like many towns, in the 1970s it was in decline. "An old mill town, post industrial, it was losing its way somewhat, when it attracted a lot of squatters, with more of a bohemian lifestyle, a creative lifestyle, writers, painters, musicians, and it was really through the arts, that I think Hebden Bridge started to then really flourish. "And then in the 1980s, I think that attracted a lot of lesbians to the area, partly because of that creativity, and that hippie lifestyle. And it really became quite embedded within the 80s and into the 90s. As a very alternative place to be. "And when I think a town like Hebden Bridge becomes very open to alternative lifestyles, it's going to attract people who want to be who want to be their true selves, who are maybe not finding that they can do that in other places."
As data journalist Richard Ault reports for The Northern Agenda, more LGBTQ+ people live in one Manchester neighbourhood, Piccadilly & Ancoats, than in any other area of the North. LGBTQ+ people make up 16.96% of the over-16 population in this area, putting it ahead of Greengate & Blackfriars in Salford (15.34%) and then City Centre North & Collyhurst in Manchester (15.11%). In fact, seven of the top 10 neighbourhoods with the highest percentage of LGBQ+ residents in the North are in Manchester, while another two are in neighbouring Salford. The Burley neighbourhood of Leeds is the only area outside of Greater Manchester to make the top 10 list of the North's strongest LGBQ+ communities.
'Until Awaab's Law is enshrined in the statue books, we will not rest'  Awaab Ishak will have a lasting impact on social housing conditions (Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)
"Awaab Ishak WILL have a lasting legacy, with ministers vowing to ensure social housing tenants across the country live in safer conditions." That was the verdict of Manchester Evening News reporter Stephen Topping - whose investigation brought the story of the two-year-old's death in Rochdale to the world - after Ministers announced a review of landlord guidance on the health risks of damp and mould. Awaab died eight days after his second birthday after breathing in mould at his home for several months, with no action taken by social landlord Rochdale Boroughwide Housing, despite repeated pleas for help from his family. The harrowing details uncovered in Awaab's inquest sent shockwaves across Greater Manchester and beyond. In the two months that have followed, more than 170,000 people have signed the M.E.N.'s petition calling for Awaab's Law (new legislation to stop such a tragedy happening again). In a response to a coroner's decision in November that Awaab had died because of the mould, Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove and Health Secretary Steve Barclay set out five areas of concern. They want to update current guidance to social homes to include damp and mould as well as review the housing health and safety rating system. A separate M.E.N. editorial on Saturday night said: "We've taken a step forward in our campaign in the toddler's name. But let's be clear, the fight for tangible change goes on. Until Awaab's Law is enshrined in the statue books, we will not rest."
'UK first' base to train Northern learners in vital green job skills There are exciting plans afoot in Greater Manchester, where a facility described as the first of its kind in the UK will train people to do the green jobs needed to help the UK hit its 'net zero' carbon targets. Bosses say the Green Skills Academy in Trafford Park is equipped with the latest equipment that will help prepare today's workforce for the opportunities and challenges presented by the global transition to a carbon neutral economy.  Wind turbine installation is one of the courses on offer at the Green Skills Academy
The site, which hosts 'real-world work environments', including a model house to show how existing homes can be entirely powered by green technology, was set up by the Growth Company social enterprise. It officially opens on Thursday with Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham in attendance. With an increased uptake in green technology, demand is growing for people with the skills to install, repair and maintain these facilities. The Green Skills Academy offers courses and has the capacity on site to train up to 100 learners per day. It's open to apprentices, sole traders and micro businesses as well as larger organisations, with opportunities for those working in skilled trades across the North including electricians, plumbers, roofers, gas engineers, construction workers, heating programmers and technicians. Roosevelt Alexander, Director of the Green Skills Academy, said a "tremendous effort" was required for the transition to net zero "and we see the Green Skills Academy as being on the front line in terms of how we will help our workforce, individual households and communities to play a key part in the fight back against climate change."
 Metro mayors Ben Houchen and Oliver Coppard want more powers to help boost their economies
Speaking of Andy Burnham, the Greater Manchester mayor is among those who could benefit from the growing consensus that local leaders - rather than central government - should be in charge of vital employment support schemes designed to get people back to work. Responding to an interview by Labour's Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Jonathan Ashworth on The Northern Agenda podcast last week, he said the region's Working Well scheme had used local knowledge to help tens of thousands of people into employment. He told this newsletter: "Now that we've proven we can make this work – it is time to go further. We're currently negotiating a new trailblazer devolution deal with the Government. As part of that we have been clear that, at the least, we want all future employment support programmes to be co-designed with, and co-commissioned by leaders in Greater Manchester." South Yorkshire mayor Oliver Coppard pointed to the success of his area's scheme, Working Win, which over five years has helped more than 10,000 people to stay in, or return to, work and is "locally delivered by organisations that are accountable to their communities". He said: "We need to devolve the tools and decision-making that also drive that economic prosperity, especially where they reflect needs that are different from region to region." And in the Tees Valley Tory metro mayor Ben Houchen said: "We have seen across the country how the devolution of powers to regional Mayors has delivered tangible change to our nation and this relationship needs to be looked at again and expanded if we are genuinely serious about improving the lives of local people." He singled out post-16 education as an area where the Government must go further as "this is vital in allowing us to skill local people and enable them to take good quality jobs in their local communities without feeling like they need to 'move away' to build a life, a career and a family". 
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Northern Stories  Labour MP for Batley and Spen, Kim Leadbeater speaks at a service of thanksgiving for BBC presenter Harry Gration last summer
- Kim Leadbeater said she will "never" see constituents without an appointment after how her sister Jo Cox and Tory MP Sir David Amess were brutally murdered. The Batley and Spen MP told GB News that holding open surgeries to which constituents can freely attend without booking was "not the way of doing this job safely". The Labour politician won the West Yorkshire seat her sister had once held during a by-election in 2021. Ms Cox was killed by Thomas Mair, a fanatic with far-right views, after he shot and stabbed her multiple times as she arrived for a constituency surgery in June 2016.
- The former boss of a Northern homelessness charity spent thousands of pounds of its money on luxury travel, meals and watches, an investigation has found. Lee Dribben, former chief executive of the Ashley Foundation, also used charity funds to buy a surveillance system, according to an inquiry by the Charity Commission. The regulator said it had found evidence of "serious financial mismanagement" and that charity funds were used to benefit Mr Dribben and former trustees. The charity operates hostels and flats for homeless people in Blackburn, Blackpool and Sunderland.
- Seven skeletons have been discovered in graves beneath a Lindisfarne car park during construction work. The graves were found before the new year by Northumberland County Council archaeologists during work to install a new water pipe. Speaking at Wednesday's meeting of the Ashington and Blyth Local Area Council, assistant county archaeologist Nick Best told councillors about the findings. He said: "The assumption is there is probably more. We haven't dated them yet, but they might be medieval, it's very likely they're medieval and there's a chance they could be very early medieval."
- A firm has been fined more than £4 million after workers twice struck overhead power lines, with dramatic footage showing the moment a cable nearly hit someone when it fell on a motorway. In one incident, an overhead cable brought down by workers from civil engineering company Kier hit a lorry. Kier put workers and drivers in "significant danger" through its "failure to plan the work properly and provide an adequate risk assessment", the Health and Safety Executive found. Both incidents took place during overnight roadworks between junctions 16 and 18 on the M6 near Sandbach in Cheshire.
- A plan to power almost a third of the households in North Yorkshire's expansive Hambleton district with clean renewable energy by creating a solar farm has met with a wall of opposition. While Lightrock Power and Econergy say their proposal to generate 45,000 MWh of electricity per year at Woolpots Solar Farm, near the ancient village of Husthwaite, could power 10,146 homes in Hambleton, the site is in the shadow of the North York Moors National Park, the Howardian Hills Area Of Outstanding Natural Beauty as well as ancient village conservation areas. As a consequence, the plan being considered by Hambleton District Council on Thursday has seen organisations ranging from Historic England to the Civil Aviation Authority raising serious concerns.
- Placing tributes – except flowers – on memorial benches on Barrow Council-owned land has been banned as part of a revision of policy. New rules governing memorial benches were voted through by a meeting of the borough council's executive committee. Controversial proposals to stop people leaving items to honour loved ones were edited ahead of the meeting to allow for flowers to be left on seats. However, the Cumbrian council says that floral tributes must not 'cover more than a quarter of the seating area of the bench', must not be wrapped in paper or plastic, must only be placed on the bench 'for a reasonable period or until the flowers die – whichever is the sooner', and must not 'prevent the bench being used as a seating area'.
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