01/08/2016 Reporting Scotland

An Australian family living in Dingwall face deportation

from tonight despite a high profile campaign aimed

Kathryn Brain arrived with her husband and young son

on a student visa five years ago, but a change in immigration rules

It was the Brain family's dream to live in Scotland.

Seven-year-old Lachlan only knows living here but the

scheme that brought them here has come to an end unless Kathryn Brain

We are still hopeful common-sense will prevail and the UK Government

will see they made a promise to us six years ago that these visas

would be available and encouraged us to sell our house

and invest our lives here in a multi-year programme.

I gave up a ?40,000 a year job to come here.

In 2010 the family were granted a visa with the

promise of staying here for two years after study.

The family arrived here three months later.

It was only the following year they realised

the post-study work visa was to be withdrawn.

So instead of being able to stay in Scotland until 2017

and look for a job they have to go now.

To be honest we don't know what will happen after midnight tonight.

Greg and Kathryn Brain have spent today publicising their case

in the media, hoping someone will offer her a job.

They don't want to go back to Australia.

Yes, we love Australia and we have friends and relatives

back there but this is where we belong.

This is all Lachlan knows, he doesn't know Australia at all.

We really do feel that we belong here.

The Home Office say all visa applications are considered on their

merits and applicants must meet requirements of immigration rules.

One immigration lawyer says their case is very different

It is quite unusual for a family to be given an extension

beyond the normal 28 day grace period when the visa expires.

But when your current visa comes to an end

you are required to either extend it prior to the expiry or

within the grace period, or leave the UK at the end of it.

Ten years of planning, struggling and saving and

looking at these options, and going through a house buy, both of our

looking at these options, and going through a house fire, both of our

mothers dying of cancer in that period and telling us don't die with

Passing the deadline will put the Brain family in the same

position as tens of thousands of others in the UK who are here

ScotRail has made a new offer aimed at ending a dispute over

driver-only trains which has led to a series of strikes.

The RMT union says it will closely examine the details but further

This dispute is all about the possibility that more trains in

Scotland will operate with the driver opening and closing the doors

without the need of a conductor to do that. The unions oppose any

extension of this citing safety fears they also fear the role of the

conductor could be phased out. ScotRail safe run efficiently in

this way and that is good for passengers and they will schedule a

second person on their services. The strikes have been going on since

July and a new wave hat will come through in August which will be

inconvenient for passengers especially with things like the

Edinburgh Festival around the corner and the two sides have been locked

in an increasingly bitter stalemate. We have seen a movie the right

direction this afternoon with ScotRail saying it is committed now

to retaining conductors on the new fleet of electric trains that are

due to come into operation next year. The unions on the other hand

say they want to scrutinise the detail of the new proposal before

calling off any further strike action.

Police have appealed for information

following a serious sexual assault on a woman

in the Torry area of Aberdeen in the early hours of Saturday.

It's thought the attack took place between 3.00am and 4.00am in

Police Scotland want information on a light coloured estate-type

It's claimed it's damaged trust between police and football fans,

and now an MSP has lodged proposals to scrap a law that was brought

The Offensive Behaviour at Football Act was introduced in 2012.

When the law came in in 2012 the Scottish Government said it was

needed to tackle unacceptable behaviour like this.

Historically linked to football, especially in the west of Scotland.

It's always been controversial, prompting protests from supporters.

There is existing legislation which appears to work much better.

It's unworkable because it is poorly drafted, the sheriffs have commented

on how badly it's drafted and how difficult it is to get convictions.

And it's unfair because it makes behaviours criminal in the context

of a football match which are not criminal elsewhere.

Now this Labour MSP is launching a consultation on scrapping the act.

It's a case of using the existing laws, it's strengthening the work in

And also working with football clubs to act more responsibly

and fans to create an environment where people can come

Something had to be put in place, legislation is now in place that

shows we have an issue and we can now deal with it.

If it's not the right legislation, let's look at that, but at the

moment it gives the police the powers they need to.

under section 1 of the Offensive Behaviour at Football Act,

the highest number since the law came into force.

But fans claimed more than two million people went to games

in Scotland during the 2015-16 season.

The Scottish Government says its law is making things better.

It claims 80% of Scots support the legislation.

For the first time in a long time we will have the Old Firm games

on a regular basis again and this is not the time to be scrapping

a bill and not the time to be scrapping a bill if we can't say

It's very important, this season more than any other,

that this bill is in place to see how it has an effect on Old Firm

games, particularly in Scottish football in general.

All four opposition parties at Holyrood

have pledged to repeal the law, so there could now be a majority in

parliament for kicking the act into the long grass.

Earlier I asked our political correspondent Glenn Campbell if this

could become the first real parliamentary test for the SNP's

When this legislation came before the Scottish Parliament five years

ago opposition parties were critical, but at that time the SNP

had more seats in parliament than all the other parties put together

and it was able to use that majority to make sure that the offensive

behaviour Bill became law. Since the election this year the SNP is

outnumbered at Holyrood. If all its political opponents loving up on the

same side, and that seems to be what is happening in this case. I should

say that the Green party, while they are in favour of repeal, want to

retain some aspects of the legislation which deals with

threatening communications, whether it is online or by letter, and

perhaps there is some room for compromise there. Certainly the

Scottish Government has indicated that it is willing to listen to

criticisms and to try and address concerns, but at this stage it seems

hard to believe that this legislation can remain in its

current form. An independent investigation

is to be carried out after Police Scotland breached

guidelines on accessing data in a row linked

to journalists' sources. The five breaches were linked

to the investigation into the murder of Emma Caldwell,

who was killed in 2005. Durham Constabulary has been asked

to look into the circumstances after Police Scotland admitted it

fell below the required standards. Margaret Thatcher attempted

to change the economy by offering council house tenants the right

to buy their home. Over the past 30 years almost half

a million Scottish home owners did so, but from today the policy

has been withdrawn here amid claims that it's contributed to growing

housing waiting lists. Our Social Affairs Correspondent

Reevel Alderson has been looking 130 on this site on the southern

edge of Glasgow. This used to be one

of the biggest council estates in Europe with more

than 60,000 residents. Now it's transformed

with many houses sold to tenants and

high-rises and tenements demolished. It's a far cry from the heady days

in the '80s when Mrs Thatcher's government sold off a million

council properties. It's my great pleasure

to hand that over to you. Mrs Thatcher's policy was being

questioned. What about the 24,000

homeless in Scotland? Right To Buy fundamentally changed

the face Since it was introduced,

almost 500,000 council and housing association

homes have been sold. But in the past 20 years,

only 84,000 homes have been built

in the social sector. That's why housing charities say

150,000 people are on the I probably bought it about 20

times over, the house, June rented her flat for 27

years and she's one of the last to buy her property under

the legislation being scrapped now. I really love my home,

it's a lovely big flat and quite a lot of the new houses

are smaller now. But I've been here, as I say, that

length of time, and it would be

silly not to buy it. Council and housing association

properties were sold at considerable discounts, but the cash didn't go

back to the housing provider. The latest figures that we saw

in 2014, was that people were able

to buy at 40,000 a unit, whereas the average price

is 150 odd. And the value of that discount

is coming from the public purse and That money should be used in order

to invest in housing. The Scottish Government has

committed to delivering 35,000 homes for rent in five years,

part of a ?3 billion investment programme,

but many housing charities say at least 12,000 must be

built each year to tackle Let's get the weather

forecast now with Kirsteen. Thank you very much. Good evening.

We have started August on a very settled note freely and tonight we

continue along the theme of mostly dry conditions with some clear

spells and indeed for some sheltered rural areas they chilly night with

temperatures dropping just low enough to allow a touch of frost. A

fairly chilly start tomorrow. Driver most of us and the sunshine quickly

gets to work so about 8am tomorrow morning temperatures will be 11 or

14 degrees. We will see mist and a low cloud affecting eastern parts of

the Central Belt and for some parts of the north-east as well. A few

showers continue to affect the Northern Isles. Cloudy conditions to

come here. As we go through the day in the rest of the UK we have cloudy

conditions with outbreaks of rain and eventually during tomorrow

afternoon the rain will reach western parts of Scotland, with the

likes of the North Highlands holding the lions share of the sunshine.

Temperatures of 20 of 20 or 22 degrees under fairly muddy field

under the cloud and rain. Where we see any car brakes in the south-east

it will pick about 24 degrees in the sunshine here. In Scotland in the

evening period we will see cloud increasing and a batch of rain

continues its journey North East and turns heavy and persisted during

Tuesday night especially across the North. On Wednesday we have an area

of low pressure sting across the UK, fairly tightly packed isobars,

especially across England Amway. A breezy day to cover showers and

longer spells of rain and the showers are heavy and slow moving

and thundery, especially across Scotland with bright and sunny

spells in between the south-east sees the lion's share of the

sunshine on Wednesday, with highs of 25. A similar story for Thursday

here and elsewhere showers or longer of rain. That is the forecast.

But, from everyone on the late team here in Glasgow and around