A PARAGLIDER had to be airlifted to hospital after being rescued on the Yorkshire Dales.

Bill Bankes-Jones, 48, crashed on a hillside near Addlebrough after accidentally releasing his emergency parachute. Emergency teams had to abandon their vehicles and trek up steep inclines and over dry-stone walls to reach him. The first to reach the casualty, not far from Worton and Bainbridge, was community paramedic Pete Shaw, based at Leyburn. He said: "Only with the help of a police officer, the landowner and the search and rescue helicopter did the ambulance crew manage to get the casualty, in pain and very cold, off the hillside." The drama happened on Bank Holiday Monday as Mr Bankes-Jones, a physiotherapist from Norwich, was doing his paraglider training. The search and rescue helicopter from RAF Bulmer took Mr Bankes-Jones to the Friarage Hospital, in Northallerton.

SANCTUARY MUM: Julie Piercy, 46, who ran the Pampered Parrots sanctuary at Slingsby, near Malton, has died after suffering a brain haemorrhage. Mrs Piercy, who worked at Flamingo Land, was well known for looking after animals and was also involved with a number of charities.

CHIP BLAZE: Two people were taken to hospital as a precaution after a chip-pan blaze at a flat in Newborough, Scarborough. Severe fire damage was caused to the kitchen and the rest of the flat was smoke-damaged.

ROAD CLOSURE: A section of Crichton Avenue, in York, from its junction with Wigginton Road to the junction with Burton Stone Lane, will be closed until 11.30pm on Monday. A bridge over the railway line is being refurbished.

POOL REOPENS: The Edmund Wilson swimming pool in York will re-open on Monday following refurbishment. New exercise equipment has also been installed.