31/01/2014 East Midlands Today

Good evening. Controversial free schools are back

in the education spotlight tonight. It's after the Government turned

down an application for a new free school at Newark in Nottinghamshire.

It was going to be led by the man who used to be in charge of Derby's

Al`Madinah School which has also seen another major change today.

Simon Hare reports. Well, the trust which helped to

set`up the Al`Madinah School in derby has gone. They had come in for

a lot of criticism from the Government and its inspectors about

how the school was being run. It was branded as dysfunctional. They were

given as a deadline of today to step down and now they have. A new is in

charge and tonight in a letter confirmation in a letter to parents

that the primary school site will be closed and all pupils moved to the

site near Derby train station and the school will continue to have a

Muslim ethos. The man who had been the principal here, he wanted to be

the principal of the Newark School of Enterprise, but the Government

has said that that proposal didn't reach the high bar we have set so

the project will go no further. News welcomed by the man who runs

Nottingham's local authority schools. I think it is the right

decision for Newark. I don't think it was viable because the take`up

wasn't there. The numbers of pupils that they claim that they had to

start in September was not sufficient. Those behind the Newark

plans say they are disappointed and the future of Al`Madinah School is

far from secure. It is due another Government inspection very soon.

One of the region's former leading Conservatives has announced he is

joining UKIP. David Parsons was the leader of Leicestershire County

Council for nine years until a police investigation into his

expense claims. Earlier today, the former Conservative leader and his

wife Elizabeth were shaking hands with their new party leader, UKIP's

Nigel Farage. For the moment, David Parsons has ruled out standing as a

UKIP candidate in the next year's general election. They are a new

political force. They have got something to say to people. I'm very

interested in talking about the European Union. I have no plans to

stand. David Parsons brings a wealth of experience, having been involved

with the regional assembly, he has seen at first hand the European

Union is having not just on national Government, but on Local Government

in this country. An inspection has revealed that

two`thirds of tanning salons in Derbyshire were breaking the legal

ultraviolet ray limits. Council inspectors carried out the checks

months ago, but have their results have only just been made public. The

council has yet to see if anything has changed. Here's our health

correspondent, Rob Sissons. It is one way of getting a suntan, but

just how safe are sunbeds? New rules came in in 2009 limiting

the level of ultra individual lot rays to 0.3 watts per square meet r,

but how many salons are compliant? 45 sunbeds breached the legal UV

output limit and five of those had emission ratings double the

recommended level. We are working with the local businesses to make

sure they are aware of what they need to do to make sure that people

are not exposed to risks. It is knowing what the risks are when they

go to a tanning salon. Even sunbeds operating at the legal

level give the equivalent to an hour's sun in Australia. Shouldn't

the checks have been done years ago? We prioritise where we think is most

appropriate. We haven't got the capacity to visit every business in

Derbyshire. Trading Standards told me they want

to give businesses time to put things right, but they confiscate

sunbeds if shops don't comply. A number of people were arrested

today in Leicestershire during a police led operation targeting

criminals on the road. Nine agencies including immigration and Customs

officials joined police in stopping motorists at Beaumont Leys. They say

from 40 vehicles checked, they uncovered 23 offences. They included

immigration issues as well as driving offences. Police say they'll

continue to use mobile patrols going forward as part of what they've

called Operation Tiger. It has been confirmed today that

work to demolish Leicester's Belgrave flyover should take just

over two months. The city council announced the nine week timescale

after consulting local people. It says more than two`thirds were in

favour of a short, more intense period of work to dismantle the

structure. The flyover shuts forever at midnight. The East Midlands is

seeing a bigger boom in house building than any other part of the

country. Figures from the national house building council shows the

number of new homes built here was up by almost 60% compared to the

same period the year before. Nationally, the rise was just over

half of that. Leicester Tigers were in Cup action

against Bath, but were defeated 17`35. In the championship,

Nottingham won at home. They beat London Scottish 15`3.

As well as being the transfer deadline, it is the last day of

January and it has been a month that saw record rainfall for some parts

of the UK. Was the East Midlands setting new records? Not here,

Maurice. Leicestershire had the highest rainfall totals. No surprise

that many fields like these in Derbyshire and Leicestershire are

underwater. Motorists continue to struggle on roads that a liable to

flooding, but at least the swans look to be enjoying themselves. If

you are hoping for better prospects for the weekend weather, well

tomorrow is looking really quite unsettled. It is going to be very

windy and there will be plenty of scattered showers around, but

Sunday, by far the better day, drier and brighter. So this is the main

area of rain. It started to clear away to the east. There will be a

few showers around through the night tonight before they clear away by

morning. The skies start to clear and the temperatures will drop and I

expect it should get low enough for frost in places. Tomorrow morning

will be a cold start. It remains very windy with a gusty

south`westerly wind throughout the day on Saturday. A dry start. The

showers will move in. As I said, a better prospect on Sunday. Drier,

brighter with lighter winds. Newsnight is starting now on BBC

Two. For now, good night. Good evening. Today's heavy and

persistent rain is disappearing over the horizon. Sadly, the other

problems are not. Problems to come tonight include snow over Scotland

and Northern Ireland, and tomorrow, strong winds and high tides bringing

the potential for flooding.