13/02/2014 East Midlands Today

And now the news for the East Midlands. I'm Dominic Heale.

Controversial plans to close fire stations and lay`off firefighters

have been scrapped. It follows an oucry from members of the public,

who were worried lives would be put at risk. But campaigners fear the

reprieve could prove to be only temporary. Simon Hare can tell us

more. You hope you will never need them, but if you do, you also hope

they will come quickly. And that's what had led to widespread concerns

about what was being proposed. Cutting the number of fire stations

in Derbyshire by over a third, from 31 to 20. And a quarter of full`time

firefighter posters were to go. Up to 40,000 people had signed the Fire

Brigades Union petition against the plans. The man who received it today

urged fellow members of the county's fire authority to ditch their

original proposals. We have said that for a two year period we will

not be closing any fire stations and there will be no firefighter

redundancies. But should the Government impose more cuts on us,

the closure of fire stations and redundancies would be unavoidable.

Yet there is a promise that closures will only happen as a last resort.

The news was given a cautious welcome by members of the Save

Melbourne Fire Station group. We still have concerns and we want the

station to remain open. The county's Chief Fire Officer warned the

meeting he won't be able to deliver the same level of service and he

urged politicians not to allow elections to get in the way of

delivering an effective Fire Service. Derbyshire Fire and Rescue

needs to save ?4.4 million over the next four years. Communities like

here in Melbourne now know that their fire stations are safe for at

least two of those four years. The jury has retired to consider its

verdict in the trial of a man accused of attempting to murder a

Sikh spiritual leader with an axe. Harjit Singh Toor from Oadby in

Leicestershire denies the charge, but admits grievous bodily harm. He

attacked His Holiness Sirisat Guru Uday as he attended a religious

ceremony at a Leicester temple last August. The judge told the jury the

key question they had to answer is whether they were sure Mr Toor

intended to kill the guru. An animal charity is urging dog owners to

consider vaccination against parvovirus. Vets say a small number

of cases have been confirmed in the Derby area, but despite concern from

some owners, the level of infection is not higher than normal.

Parvovirus can be fatal, but dogs can be protected. If you get your

animal vaccinated and keep up`to`date with the booster

injections through adulthood, it would be an exceptional case that

would go on to be infected with parvovirus. It is important to keep

up the booster vaccinations for dogs. Next, robotic technology is

being used in the fight against cancer. Nottingham City Hospital is

the first in the East Midlands to use the device to remove prostate

tumours. The first operation using the robot was carried out this week,

as our Health Correspondent Rob Sissons reports. Your life in the

robot's hands. A ?2 million addition to Nottingham City Hospital. They

call it da Vinci. The surgical robot combines high`definition vision with

artculated wristed instruments that allows the surgeon a level of

precision and dexterity. What that really means is surgeons can cut

better and see better than ever before. Recovering at home, Alan was

the first patient to have his prostate cancer removed with the new

technology three days ago. He was diagnosed after sensing something

was wrong. Something just wasn't right, with my wee pattern mainly

through the nights, getting up, wanting to wee. The machine is

fantastic. I Googled a little bit of it on YouTube and looked at what it

did. Didn't look too much because of the fear factor, but it has done its

job. We have got the prostate out in one. Let's be clear, what are the

benefits for the patient? So for men that had prostate cancer surgery

using the robot, length of stay is reduced, complications is reduced,

bleeding is less. The outcomes for the patient are better and they tend

to get back to work quicker. The surgeons train on a simulator.

Accuracy within millimetres here is everything. One might liken it to an

expensive PlayStation. It allows surgeons to train before going live.

Alan dreams of going on his mountain bike this summer. I'll always been a

strong believer in that what you don't know, don't hurt you, but in

this case, what you don't know will kill you. And it will. It will have

you if you are not careful. It's been a very special night tonight

for two of our region's sporting superstars. In Sarajevo, the city

where they won Olympic gold 30 years ago, Jayne Torvill and Christopher

Dean took to the ice to recreate their winning performance. They had

spent hours training in the Bosnian capital, perfecting their 1984

Bolero We'll have a full report from

Sarajevo on tomorrow's programme. Now, more high winds and heavy rain

are on the way. Mel will be here with the forecast in a moment. But

today those affected by yesterday's storm were clearing up. Eleanor

Garnier reports. Blue skies today, mask yesterday's bad weather, but

damage done by the high winds is clear. Lead ripped off the roof here

at St Peter's Church. I have never seen anything quite this dramatic

from storm damage. It is like a sardine can. The wind has got

underneath it. It ripped the lead off one side exposing the timber and

the main concern, of course, is water damage that might occur to the

timber. We need to arrange to get that covered with temporary sheeting

today. Overnight, firefighters in Leicestershire say they had to deal

with double the number of emergency calls they normally get. This road

was closed for much of the day after an 80`foot tree was blown down in

the wind. In Derby, this block of flats had to be evacuated. None of

the residents were hurt, but debris had to be cleared before people were

allowed back in their homes. There is relief back in Foston, as the

church does have insurance. It could be a very different situation. We

are incredibly fortunate that nobody was in or around the church

yesterday afternoon. Yes, I dread to imagine what would have happened if

anybody had been around. With more bad weather forecast, they are

focussed on making the church safe. That's your news. So, it's goodbye

from me, but with the latest on the weather now, here's Mel. Today has

been the calm between two storms. This was yesterday, clearing away to

the North East, but this is what we have got heading our way. Tonight,

largely dry with temperatures dropping to freezing, are just a

load in the countryside. Some fog in places and possibly some icy patches

around. And the winds, easing all the time. Tomorrow starts off on a

decent night but it will be a deteriorating picture once again.

That brain spilling into the south`west, and we will see that

clouds thicken and by mid`morning, that rain will push its way in. The

Met Office has issued a yellow weather warning for the Derbyshire

Peak District, where we expect to see some snow. Some clusters of

blustery showers packing in behind. The wind will peak overnight, with

the potential for costs of around 45 miles an hour. `` gusts. Nick Miller

will have the National forecast in a moment,

few days and now we go to the weather centre for the national

forecast from Nick Miller. Hello, in this winter of perpetual

autumn, it seems we're never more than a day away from a storm so we

must be due another one and as you've just heard, here it comes,

deepening in the Atlantic Trio heading for us. Overall for the UK,

we're not expecting this to be as severe as the storm yesterday that

there will be some significant impact, particularly where the Met

Office has weather warnings in force and that means more rain will serve

to heighten the floods. All the while, the wind is picking up,

reaching its peak tomorrow night in southern England. This is the rest

of tonight and where we've had showers, south-west England and

Northern Ireland and Scotland, as icy patches developing. Quite a cold

start but, for Scotland, Northern Ireland and northern England, a dry

start for most of us. Look at this - the rain from that area of low

pressure I showed you is already across much of southern England and

South Wales. These triangles are Met