29/05/2014 BBC London News

Good evening. Welcome. The family of a man who died in

police custody want to block the resignation of an officer facing

investigation. Sean Rigg, who was schizophrenic,

dice of being restrained at Brixton police station in 2008. An inquest

found four officers used unsuitable force. His family wants to stop one

of them from resigning, claiming he's trying to avoid possible

disciplinary action. An inquest jury described it as

unsuitable force. 40`year`old Sean Rigg known by police to have mental

health problems, was restrained for eight minutes by officers. A short

time later, he died of heart problems. That was 200. Now the IPCC

is reinvestigating and was about to summon the officers involved, only

to find that one of themPC Andrew Burkes, is about to be allowed to

resign. Sean's family call it an insult.

Officers have always played the get out of jail card to resign or retire

before any proceedings have been brought against them and then the

opportunity is for them that they literally get away with it. So I and

my family are absolutely livid that the Commissioner has accepted his

resignation. The IPCC has expressed extreme

disappointment that they weren't told the officer was about to leave

and have written to the Met urging them to reverse the decision adding:

The pressure will be mounting here too. The Home Secretary, Theresa

May, in her hard`hitting speech to the Met Police federation last week,

promised endless practice of officers retiring or resigning

before facing disciplinaries, strong words Sean Rigg's family though want

to see some action. What's so worrying about that case is it's not

isolated. It's part of a systemic problem we see around the country.

It sends a clear message out that It sends a clear message out that

the police are above the law. The Met told us they are considering the

request to block the resignation. If not, PC Burkes will officially

resign on Sunday, in which case Sean Rigg's family will launch legal

action on Monday. The mayor should be stepping in to

stop Londoners being priced out of the housing market by foreign

investors. That's the view of one of the country's most respected

planners. Peter Wynne`Rees, who was Head of Planning in the City of

London, denounces what he describes as dirty Russian money and Chinese

gamblers. We met across the Thames from where

he says one mistake's already been made. The St George's tower in

Vauxhall and where another is about to happen, skyscraper even taller

containing many apartments and a luxury hotel given the green light

by the mayor just last week. Be`he says it typifies what is going wrong

at the moment. I think it's homogenized international

architecture out of scale with its surroundings, damaging the London

skyline and giving a very bad impression to people who visit

London. And for what purpose? To provide

safety deposit boxes for international investors. It's not

creating the right homes and communities, he claims. People are

buying them for financial security. They are furnishing them, locking

the door and maybe they'll have a vacation for twoer three weeks a

year. The rest of the time they are empty. There will be no people, no

community. All that's missing is the tumbleweed blowing between the

buildings. Less than half a mile away, he shows

me what he thinks are the homes we should be building, a 1970s estate

in Pimlico, seven or eight floors high,en closed, plentiful greenery.

Any reason why this can't be replicated aRoss the river? He

claims the mayor should be getting more community benefits and money

out of developers and imposing height restrictions. Only the mayor

with a strategic plan can say that's not appropriate in that location,

let's set a limit. The argument is if you put too many controls on

they'll go elsewhere and won't invest? People will be able to

afford to buy a home. So are we getting economic benefits from

investors building developments? No, dirty Russian money is being

laundered and Chinese are gambling, they pay a 10% deposit off plan in

Hong Kong and take off a contract on the apartment reaching a certain

price by a certain date so it's a combination of a casino and laundry.

The mayor says such areas will boost the capital's economy considerably.

He says he's delivering a record number of affordable home and

tackling the issue of property left empty. Be` What I'm say thering is,

I want to see the councils using their powers to impose pawnty of

council taxes on people who buy a flat or whatever and leave it empty.

We are providing for absolutely everybody in London. The difficulty

is, we are trying to cope with a short fall that goes back 30 years.

But the rate of acceleration is starting to take off now in the

construction sector in London. After 0 years, constrained by his planning

role in the Square Mile, from commenting much publicly, he now

feels t time to speak out. Gareth Furby is by the Thames in

Pimlico this evening. This is clearly a critical issue? Yes. And

the MP will be giving evidence to the assembly inquiry. His view is if

the mayor gave a clear enough lead on this, brown field sites like we

have along the Thames would be the ideal location for new communities.

.s the view from City Hall though equally strong, that the billions of

pounds which comes here from abroad is absolutely essential to the

economy. Thank you very much.

That is it from me. I'll leave you with the forecast.

It was a nice day today, we saw plenty of sunshine. Conditions are

set to turn more settled with lovely spells of sunshine. This evening and

tonight it will be cloudy. Spits and spots of rain around, but most

places remain dry. It should be pretty mild.

Tomorrow, we start off a little bit grey with good spells of sunshine

developing through the afternoon. It will feel pleasant as the winds

remain light. A grey start at first. The odd spot of light rain or

drizzle to the north of region. With the sunny spells, pleasant through

the afternoon. Saturday is looking good. More in

the way of sunshine. Light winds and temperatures reaching highs of

around 0, maybe 21. As we head in towards Sunday, it

looks like rain will push in from the west.

Good evening. Most of us look like ending the week on a dry note. Some

of us end it today on a particularly wet note. Notably across parts of

south-west England and up into the Midland, a line of vicious storms

and thunder in there too. They have been spreading further west in parts

of Wales and southern counties. They'll tend to fade away the rest

of the night, but one or two lingering on. Most other places

having a quiet night. Cloud and mistiness out there.

Across the glens of northern Scotland, temperatures will get well

down into single fir. But for most of the rest of us, a relatively mild

night staying in double digits. One or two showers from word go across

the south-west which will be the focus for any showers tomorrow.

There won't be that many. Most of the country will have a quiet day,

albeit rather cloudy. Through the afternoon, a snapshot,

mid afternoon one or two showers across Scotland but most places will

avoid these. A fair bit of cloud. Some of the best of