29/01/2013 East Midlands Today

This is East Midlands Today, with Anne Davies, and me, Dominic Heale.

Our top story tonight: HS2 - the Government admits house

prices will fall. The day after the rule was

published, concerns grow over the impact of the. Shocked to think it

is going to cut Harland in half. Plus, why the police are changing

their attitudes to mental health. For five, six years ago we would

have had to take somebody we had detained two mis-sell blocker was

mentally ill. I do not think that is the right place. -- to a cell

block. And why high streets continue to

struggle but others go from strength to strength.

And me the latest edition here at Twycross Zoo of that is causing

Good evening and welcome to the programme. The Government has

admitted that property prices along the new high-speed rail link will

fall in the short term. The proposed new route between London

and Leeds was announced yesterday, and already estate agents in the

East Midlands are reporting that buyers are getting cold feet and

pulling out of sales. Our reporter Geoff Maskell is at Long Eaton in

Derbyshire, one of the communities directly affected by the HS2 route.

Good evening. Nobody wants to talk about a property deal that has gone

sour, at least not on camera. But I know about one sale that has gone

to pot so far. �10,000 not of the value of their home. But the

evidence from the Government is that after the confusion and

building phase, property prices could be in for a bit of a boost.

If welcome to the North London suburb of totem.

But at least it could be in 20 years' time. Derbyshire based

developers have an application to build more than 700 houses on these

fields. They stretch from the island over there down to the

siding at the bottom of the hill, and that will be home to the new

HS2 station. And with a 51 minute commute into London, those houses

will be effectively closer to the capital than any existing commuter

towns. We are going to get Londoners moving in, I think!

Pushing up your house prices? Possibly, yes. I think it is very

good and will bring some prosperity to the area. At Robert Ellis they

have been selling houses in Long Eaton for 25 years and HS2 could be

a big change. When it takes place it will have a very positive effect

but we did talk about the transport links we already have in the Long

Eaton area because we are close to the M1 motorway, the railway

station. So people do move into the area for these links and we know a

high-speed train into London will move things up again. But first,

the market faces its worst fear - uncertainty.

At the other branch, they are already dealing with the kind of

uncertainty that comes from the extension of the Nottingham tram

network, but here they say they are expecting an uplift in property in

those areas as well, which is a good bit of news for homeowners.

Last night I spoke to Margaret and her neighbours at drink cottages

and they were exhausted today by what they had been going through

and still have had no communication from the VAT company and were no

clearer about what any compensation package might mean from them. --

the HS2 company. So, communities, businesses and

individuals still trying to assess the impact of the high-speed rail

link. But what about the effect on our landscape? Today the National

Trust said it was opposed to the line's proposed route through its

historic Hardwick Hall estate, as Mike O'Sullivan reports.

It wasn't on East Midlands Airport's radar. So it was news to

them that a giant 2.5-kilometre tunnel would be built underneath

the airport to bring high-speed rail to the region. They're still

looking at the implications. I do not think we can expect the

Government to have told everybody whose land they were going to

tunnel under. I think they would probably say East Midlands Airport

should not be an exception to this. After tunnelling under the airport,

there is another huge construction job for HS2. It will pass under

junction 24 of the M1 motorway and then go under the flood plain of

the rivers or under a two mile viaduct to the power station. After

two miles of elevated travel, the line will touch ground again as it

cuts through Red Hill, near the Ratcliffe Power Station. Then it's

onto another viaduct for another mile to get across the River Trent

and its floodplain. Further North, the most spectacular bridge of all.

The landowner is stunned. Never heard anything about it before and

it was quite a surprise, probably a shock, to think it was going to go

and cut our land in half. Further North, HS2 will run through

National Trust land at Hardwick Hall, tucked alongside the M1,

which already bisects the estate. We will discuss things with them to

get the best possible solution, whatever that might be. We hope

people will look at the positive benefits. There could be a lot of

jobs and the railway supply industry, regardless of who builds

it, the actual trains. The public consultation period for the high-

speed rail proposals will end on 29th April.

Well, forget high-speed for a moment. Because later in the

programme, we'll celebrate a slower pace of life. A camera causes

excitement in the Derbyshire countryside. Well, it is the 1930s,

when for many, this was as fast as things got.

We have been giving with one hand and taking with the other. It is a

lot milder now but it is about to get a whole deal wetter and a good

deal when as well. Join me for the details later in the programmes. --

A police force is training thousands of officers and staff to

deal with people who have mental health problems. Leicestershire's

Chief Constable has told us that up to a quarter of calls to his force

are the result of mental health issues, as our social affairs

correspondent, Jeremy Ball, reports. A stranger pushed under a moving

train in Loughborough. A Nottinghamshire pensioner stabbed

to death by his paranoid schizophrenic grandson. Mental

health makes headlines when things go badly wrong but for Simon it is

a Daily priority. He is in charge of dealing with mental health for

police chiefs across the country. Probably 25% of our business has

some linked to mental health. It is 3am, who do they turn to? Quite

often it is us and that means are patrolling officer who literally

saves the life by the way they talk to somebody. You talk about people

having a psychotic episode. And now all frontline officers are being

trained here to deal with everything from dementia sufferers

who are missing or island to preventing suicide. Then needs to

be 24-7 access for crisis care for people it is perhaps more immediate

ban at the moment, so if an individual is at a point of crisis,

they know who to call or their friends and family no mood to call

at 3am and then a officers can support them, and I think that

could be done more effectively across the country overall. --

their friends and family know whom to call. Many of the people end up

under lock and key and it is protecting the staff and care staff.

Patients, where, at the first stage, we can identify the consultant for

that patient and classified the type of offence. It has made a

massive difference. Five, six years ago we would have had to take

somebody we had detained who was mentally ill to a prison cell and I

do not think that is the place where we should be treating

somebody. You would not take somebody with a broken leg tour

prison cell and expect them to get better. Often these are people who

are ill rather than those who have committed a crime. People have this

will keep all of us safer in future. -- the police hope.

Cuts to services in Derbyshire of �127 million have been approved

today. It'll mean big reductions in the budgets for adult services and

support for children and young people. It'll also lead to more

than 1,000 jobs being lost over the next four years. Derbyshire County

Council says the most vulnerable people will be protected but their

services will be delivered differently, as Quentin Rayner

reports. The Conservative Cabinet met to

County Hall today and ratified and other four years of cuts. Between

now and 2017, �127 million of savings will be made. 25 million

will be cut this year. Exactly where has now been revealed. Almost

a million pounds will go from support for children services and a

further �9 million from adult care. -- �8 million. �3 million will be

saved from the budget for highways maintenance. The council says money

can be saved by be -- by fixing potholes in other ways. We are

focused on their needs and there will be different services

delivered in different ways to cope with these budget pressures but we

are well practised at this and we have their interests at heart.

frontline services be reduced? will be changed as a result of this,

as we have already delivered changes. It is the only way to cope

with these sorts of pressures. is this denial again - trying to

carry on, doing the same as they have done with less money, and if

you keep doing that, you end up sailing. Those involved in

providing adult care say there will be an impact on services on top of

what they are already experiencing. Many are going to have the only day

of day care they received taken away, and we have one man going to

a centre and it is the only service he received. That is being cut.

Since 2000 and, the council has already cut 2000 jobs, and with

this latest raft of cuts, it expects to lose 14 another 1,400

posts. -- since 2010 of. A 50-year-old man has been charged

with a Public Order Offence after a police investigation into disorder

at a football match in Leicester. It follows an under-15s game

between Blaby and Whetstone Football Club and Leicester Nirvana

FC last October, in which players from both teams and the referee

were charged with improper conduct. The man is due to appear at

Leicester Magistrates Court next month.

Roadworks have been blamed for bringing traffic in Derby to a

standstill this morning. The three bridges that carry the city's inner

ring-road between the Derwent Underpass and King Street, close to

the A52, are being renovated. The team behind the bridge project at

Derby City Council say that this morning's problems should be the

worst that motorists experience during the renovation work.

A woman was taken to hospital after being trapped in a car which

crashed in Nottingham. Part of Canal Street in the city centre was

closed for four hours after the vehicle lost control near the

London Road roundabout. A second car drove off. Police are appealing

for witnesses. Traders and shoppers in Ilkeston

say they need more support from the local council to stop more shops

following the Co-op and quitting the high street. The department

store is one of seven in the East Midlands to close, threatening

dozens of jobs. But over in Belper, many shops say parts of the town

there are thriving. Tom Brown has been following the varied fortunes

of these two Derbyshire towns. The end of the road from one of

this town's biggest shops. Last week's announcement that the Co-op

department store would close was another blow to the struggling

high-street. Today, traders and shoppers Tommy morale in the town

is at its lowest binges and that the local council needs to step in.

-- local shoppers told me. If they do not step in now, it will become

a ghost town like many others. I would like to know what the council

will do about it. Sadly, nobody from the council was able to talk

to us today but in a statement, they said they were working

together with partners to improve regenerate the town centre. But it

did not mention any concrete proposals, so what do the people of

Ilkeston thing should be done to revive the fortunes of their high

street? What they need to do was move with the times and incorporate

the customer shopping experience with the internet as well. Get rid

of Tesco! They are building another Morrisons down the road, so this is

doomed, really, I think. But while sales go down in Ilkeston, bin

Belper, thanks to innovative ideas, stores on the streets there are

striving and. You can even buy chocolate shoes! It is having the

courage to open up the first job and be the first people to do it

and also the council has to be behind us with rates and the

landlords with their rent. There has to be something in place so

these shops can start up and hopefully flourish. Backing

Ilkeston, the Chamber of Trade says supporting the businesses is the

key to high street revival. The is has been going on for years. All

sorts of proposals have been put to the council. They have even agreed

some ideas are good but they do not seem to be able to implement them.

Two towns separated by 10 miles up worlds apart when it comes to

confidence on the High Street. Chocolate shoes! That his genius!

Everything combine in one! Coming up, the sport, and here's a

brief preview. Yes, when it comes to a pay-off,

you could say our Helen is on a roll. Helen Barnes... BBC East

Lovely! Now it's time to travel back in

time to the village of Kniveton, right in the heart of Derbyshire.

We can see what life in the countryside was like in the 1930s,

thanks to a local gent, a Mr Wright and his chauffeur, a Mr Radcliffe.

Here's Teresa Mikula with Go right, turn at the Old Vicarage,

and he was the first person in the village to have a car and a

telephone. And a refrigerator! I think it was just the novelty of

having something. I do not think he was minded that always so he got Mr

Radcliffe to drive the car and make the films. Beth Hunt was born in

Kniveton and is on one of the films. I don't know what I was doing but I

was putting this thing in his hat. They took a lot of films and he

used to London to various organisations, like the mothers'

union, to show them. Now, some 80 years later, those same films have

been shown again as part of the media archive collection. Oh, yes,

there were lots of people wanting a film of their parents. And

grandparents! My wife's family is on the films. I recognised my

father-in-law and his father, who was still living there. Kniveton

was quite a remote village in the 30s but this did not concern the

residents. People do not want to go out, apart from going to Ashbourne.

Apart from that, people did not seem to worry about going out of

the village. With people not travelling very far, we were

families who very much into married. It was a very good community spirit.

Go and they knew how to party! It is 1936 and George V's Silver

Jubilee. Everybody had a commemorative mug and there was a

tea and races and so on. They now work with local communities to

preserve such local history. These films would probably have got lost

in time. It is very nice that they should be kept and that the younger

generation can look at them and see What beautiful pictures! I could

watch that for hours. Just lovely! It does make you hanker a bit,

doesn't it? Yes, for a gentler pace of life.

But we're going to break the spell now, because it is time for the

sport. Notts County is in action in League

1 tonight, away at struggling Portsmouth. Now, it's a long enough

trip to do once, but for many fans, this is the second time they've

been down there in just a couple of weeks. Last time around, the match

got called off at the last minute because of torrential rain. Kirsty

Edwards has been down to see them get ready for round two.

It is deja-vu for these fans, off again to the south coast. Notts

County saw their impressive away unbeaten run come to an end at the

weekend. I am sure they had hoped to get another run going tonight at

Portsmouth and in fact, I am sure they would love to get all three

points. 12th in League One and eight points off the play-off

places. Not where they were hoping to be. But as the fans waited to

set off, the mood certainly seemed positive. Still early days yet. Not

even February. I am hoping we can get to the play-offs at least.

season hangs in the balance tonight, I think. Things will be easier

after this one if we can get momentum and get out strikers

sought it. After that, we should be OK. So off they go, and indeed the

team will have to get very used to sitting on a bus over the next few

days. Tonight it is the second of the four a way -- away matches for

the team. I sorry if you had trouble hearing the earlier.

Hopefully it is now fixed. Nottingham Forest are stepping up

their efforts to add to their squad before Thursday's transfer deadline.

They've made another offer for Birmingham's Chris Burke. The Reds

have already had one bid for the winger, turned down, but Birmingham

say they are considering this improved offer. He's actually

scored a couple of decent goals against the Reds over the past two

seasons. Now, the first ever programme to

find Olympic canoe slalom stars of the future has just been run right

here in the East Midlands. And it's been so successful, similar schemes

are about to start round the country. So, for the first in her

series on the Olympic legacy, Helen Barnes has been to meet the

youngsters who are progressing way 12 months ago, these were just a

bunch of ordinary school kids. Then they got picked by talent spotters

to do canoe slalom and now they are some of the best up and coming

The youngsters have benefited from having training sessions during

school time, as well as evenings and weekends. We will really

ambitious with the targets we set and they have always delivered

whatever we have asked them to. And there progress has been absolutely

phenomenal. The kids are all loving it and it is pushing them and they

have got focused on getting the gold medal. Etienne Stott was part

of canoeing's record 2012 medals and the sport is still on high.

think it is really cool. It is part of what the sport thrives on. You

need inspiration and a champion to draw the youngsters up and to push

the standards amongst the elite athletes. He is a great inspiration

for the sport and he is just an inspiration for all of us. You can

now think, I can get a gold medal as well. Talent-spotting and

training is behind many gold medal successes but these Nottingham

youngsters are the first ever in canoe slalom. Be a complicated

sport like ours it is difficult to tell what are the most important

factors you try to identified in youngsters. -- in a complicated

sport. People out there are being coached and learning to canoe on

their own and those will be successful as well. We will see who

gets the prize first! It is really I have been canoeing for 25 years,

but so much has changed recently. For a great role models, the

opportunities these kids have got our just better than ever. Helen

Barnes... For BBC East Midlands Today in Nottingham!

A bit of news about Helen herself to leave you with - after 20 years

as an international canoeist and two Guinness World Records, she's

decided to retire from the top level of the sport. It will miss

her. But you can see Helen again tomorrow as she explores whether

the Olympic legacy is going far enough. It will be well worth a

watch. Trust me! Just like that! Good luck, Helen. In whatever you

do. She will be fantastic whatever it is. Next tonight, Twycross Zoo

is celebrating a new arrival. A baby gorilla from an endangered

species native to Central Africa. Western Lowland gorillas are dying

out due to declining habits and hunting. There are estimated to be

fewer than 100,000 in the wild, which officially classifies the

species as being dangerously close to extinction, as Rebecca Sheeran

reports. Meet the latest edition at less

than four weeks old, this little baby has been clinging so closely

to mum, zoo-keeper has still do not know if it is a boy or A Gill.

are always excited about these gorilla births. Every birth of a

gorilla is an important contribution to the conservation of

the species because of the numbers are dwindling. It has made a year.

Be it might be small, but this little baby is attracting a big

audience. We have been looking forward to seeing it. We've been

trying to spy on the baby be on the adults. But Daddy is very

protective! In his thought and there are fewer than 100,000

lowland rivers in the wild. Hunting and habitat loss are just a couple

of the reasons that they are coming so close to extinction. So the

birth of his baby is being celebrated. The birth of a baby is

actually very important for the whole structure, social structure,

of the group, because it brings a whole cohesiveness to their society.

A zoo is learning more about the birth of this baby but like any mum,

this one is keeping her baby under wraps.

The baby does not let go of its mother properly for two years! It

must be true! That is a miracle. Along milder for us today. This

time last week we were struggling to get above freezing. -- a lot

milder. But today we have been at 13 degrees. The average for this

time of year is about seven Celsius so we have gone from well below to

well above. The reason for that is these westerly winds. It is a lot

might as well. We have picked up a wondering whether front. So far

today, we have had a force-field around us. The rain has been

skipping across us but we don't think we will be quite as lucky

this evening and overnight, so the cloud will be thickening up and we

will see outbreaks of light, patchy rain to start with it through the

early hours of the morning. Later on, we see the rain padding up,

particularly across parts of Leicestershire, where Grieg could

get an inch of rain. -- the rain increasing. Very mild tonight with

the temperatures. Tomorrow morning, still some rain kicking around

early on but it clears away fairly quickly and behind that, the skies

are brighter, with beautiful sunshine for tomorrow morning, but

very windy with showers coming in but -- behind that. We have a

yellow weather morning in force for tomorrow with gusts of around 40-50

miles an hour. A cross wind, a westerly one, going across the M1

motorway. Further rain to come through Thursday night from

Wednesday. A word of warning - it looks like it is cooling down once

again towards the end of the week and into the weekend. Lots of