05/03/2014 BBC London News

Good evening. BBC London has learnt that around a quarter of Frde

Schools hoping to set up in the capital in September are sthll

struggling to find sites. While a proposed Free school in

Hertfordshire is causing anger among parents and staff because they've

been told to open their school on an industrial estate. Here's S`rah

Harris. Come on then, mate, time to school. It's the final year at

primary school for William from Radlett in Hertfordshire. Hd was

expecting to start his secondary education at a new school,

Harperbury Free, in Septembdr. But that has fallen through, le`ving him

with an option that's not ideal for his family. William has to get on

the bus at 7.30am in the morning in the middle of Radlett, which will

cost ?1,000 a year for us. @lso it's a Church of England school we've

been given, our third choicd. And it's a religious school and we are

not religious people. This hs the sticking point for the new free

school according to the headteacher, Who's already been appointed and

being paid. This suggested building on an industrial estate, he says, is

not fit for purpose. There hs virtually no external space if you

look around here. This small area would have to be the car park,

playground and the turning space for cars, so not nearly enough outside

space. And it's sandwiched between this railway track over herd and

this main road over here. Jtst getting into the site itself would

be a health and safety nightmare. In a statement, the Department for

Education said this project has The head met with some of the

parents today to give them the latest news on the free school they

had hoped their children wotld be going to. Free schools are not

controlled by local education authorities but are funded by the

Government and usually set tp by parents. 200 children in Radlett

alone who are expecting to go to a free school in September ard now

preparing for a much longer journey to school. Legoland Windsor is to

close this weekend following threats from extreme far`right groups. The

theme park had been due to host an event organised by the Muslhm

Research and Development Fotndation in Tower Hamlets. But it was

cancelled after Legoland received abusive messages from extrelist

right wing groups on social media. All bookings for the resort have

been cancelled for the weekdnd on advice from Thames Valley Police.

The Thames Barrier has closdd for a record 50th time this winter, making

it the busiest period in its history. More than a quarter of all

its flood defence closures have now happened in the last three lonths.

It's due to the wettest winter on record with the South East receiving

double the expected amount of rainfall. The Environment Agency

called this year's number of closures a blip. London has retained

its top spot in the Global City super`rich list even though the

number of very wealthy people in the world is rising. The Intern`tional

Wealth Report looks at how lany super`rich individuals live per

square mile and found that London is home to more than 4,000 people who

have assets worth ?30 million or more. That number is expectdd to

rise over the next decade. Train companies are being criticised for

dumping toilet waste on the tracks of some of our busiest stathons

They include King's Cross, Paddington and Liverpool Street and

it's argued that the human waste is creating a health risk. Herd's our

Transport Correspondent, Tol Edwards. King's Cross is a new,

clean, ?500 million station but old practices are still going on here.

Look away now if you're squdamish. This is where toilet waste hs dumped

straight onto the tracks. I think it's pretty gross. It sounds quite

disgusting actually. It's a bit awful to be honest. It unhygienic.

I'm a German. We do it diffdrent in Germany, you know. We have the tanks

underneath the train. It's `lso happening at Liverpool Stredt and

Paddington. Unlike new trains, old rolling stocks still discharges

sewage onto the track. East Coast Trains says its cleaners and

passengers are told not to flush in stations. The union says it

shouldn't even be an issue. It's not even Victorian. It's prehistoric

what they're doing and we think for our members, it's completelx

unhealthy and also for the travelling public, we don't think

it's right that raw sewage should be thrown over the railway track. They

pay high enough fares at thhs moment in time and they should havd a

decent respectable railway `nd sewage is contained properlx by the

train operating companies. So who is responsible? The Government has

called this practice disgusting and told the train companies to stop.

Incidentally, though, the company that the video, East Coast Trains,

is run by the Government. The train companies though say the nulber of

trains without effluent tanks is decreasing as newer models `re

introduced. The Government says new trains in and out of King's Cross

and Paddington are due to bd introduced in 2017 where thhs won't

be a problem. They are also looking at ways to help upgrade the fleet

out of Liverpool Street. Whx are you doing it still? This is an hssue

which stems from trains built before the mid`90s. The number of those

trains in services being reduced as more trains are built. Billhons more

pounds are being spent in the next few years on new trains and

improving stations. You think in the long term it will be resolvdd? It's

impossible to the date on when this problem will be solved, but billions

of pounds are being spent on new trains that will come into service

over the next few years. Until then, communters and and workers `re going

to have to put up with what the unions call the scandal that shames

Britain's railways. That's it from me for tonight.

Newsnight's starting on BBC Two and they are be looking at the decision

to turn BBC Three into an online only channel. But before we leave

you, let's get the weather forecast from Wendy.

A few good days, especially for the weekend to look forward to. Over the

next ten days, at least there's going to be some quite settled

weather, dry conditions. It doesn't always mean completely clear skies

but tending to lose those ott there at the moment. A fair amount of

cloud drifting in and out as they go through the night and that leans in

the sheltered spots of the country we could get low enough for a tiny

bit of frost but for most of us it won't be as cold as the previous

couple of nights. Tomorrow, not such blue skies. There will be a bit more

cloud. And there will be more of a breeze blowing as well from the

south`west. That's not to s`y we won't see any sunshine. It will

eventually break through here and there during the day and

temperatures will get up to 13 Celsius. A bit of drizzle towards

the end of the day because the cloud is generally going to be thhckening

up through Friday. The outlook, fairly grey for Friday but that is

ahead of a pretty decent wedkend. The best of the sunshine, wd could

exceed 15 Celsius. The unsettled weather will continue.

exceed 15 Celsius. The unsettled weather will continue. With more on

that, here is the National forecast. Good evening. I would like to start

by showing you simply haven't seen the quite some time. After a

three-month onslaught, finally I can show you a chart with high pressure

across the whole of the UK. Yes things are settling down. You may

have spotted, though,