22/04/2014 East Midlands Today

And now the news for the East Midlands, I'm Anne Davies. First

tonight ` the Prime Minister has been in the East Midlands today. He

told us new businesses are replacing jobs under threat in the region's

traditional industries. Mr Cameron viewed motorway works at Catthorpe

Junction in Leicestershire as he made the case for the effectiveness

of the Government's infrastructure spending programme. After his tour,

he spoke to our Home Affairs Correspondent, Jeremy Ball. It is

important to seek myself this is really important infrastructure

project, we need our roads to be working well, schemes like this

improve road safety and everybody knows where the M1 and the M6 meet

there have been a lot of traffic and accidents and this will make things

better. And this is economic success stories, in these traditional

industries it has been a tough time. The last cigarette factory is

closing down and the last deep coalmine. What you say to those

people? We need to grow the economy to create new jobs and there are

over 1.5 million more people in work today than there were four years

ago. In the East Midlands, 72,000 more people in work. Of course you

see some industries facing difficult times, new businesses, new jobs and

investment are coming including here. Many of the new jobs are

part`time jobs, zero contract hours. That isn't what I want but a few

look at the employment figures, the biggest level of growth in permanent

employment, full`time jobs. In the East Midlands we have seen a fall in

the number claiming unemployment benefits, 5000 fewer unemployed and

a lot of new private`sector jobs and new businesses starting up, 400,000

businesses nationwide. We are seeing growth in the economy but what

matters is making sure the growth is felt across the country, not just

London and the south`east as transport has a huge role to play

which is why motorway scheme is matter and railways matter. I want

all of the country to benefit from the growth.

The owner of an animal rescue centre has denied more than 30 neglect

charges in court today. One allegation centres on the death of a

pig which made the headlines after it was rescued from its home `

inside a house. Mike O'Sullivan watched the case at Stafford

Magistrates' Court. The former veterinary nurse who

denies 31 charges of neglect at our animal rescue sanctuary. Lindsay

Newall from Burton on Trent is facing the RSPCA allegations at

Stafford Magistrates' Court. She ran sanctuary in Etwall getting local

and national media coverage when she took in Babe the pig which had been

evicted after living with its owner a council house in Derby. The court

heard the pig was in good condition when she arrived at the sanctuary.

Concerns were raised about the welfare of animals by this

volunteer, and police and RSPCA raided the centre in November 2012.

The court heard the pig died as this man a trading standards officer

filmed the animal in a ramshackle pen. The RSPCA prosecutor said it

showed the pig was seriously undernourished, quite simply it died

because it was not properly fed. The court heard the sanctuary looked

after too many animals, including ponies, sheep, goats and rabbits.

There was no evidence Lindsay Newall arranged for veterinary treatment.

The case is expected to last for five days.

A Nottinghamshire conman has been jailed for three and a half years

for defrauding elderly and vulnerable people, for a second

time. 39`year`old John Cooney from Radcliffe`on`Trent admitted taking

over ten thousand pounds from at least ten victims aged from sixty

nine to ninety nine. He mis`sold sofas, stair lifts and mobility

scooters. In 2012, Cooney was sentenced to six months in prison,

also for mis`selling mobility aids. Next, new pictures of youngsters

risking their lives trespassing on train lines over Easter. Network

Rail and British Transport Police have brought back safety trains or

"Q trains" to try and deal with trespassers, thieves and vandals. Jo

Healey reports. Children trespassing near the Robin

Hood line at Easter unaware how incredibly dangerous it can be. The

railway is hazardous. Not places children should be playing on or

hanging around on. They are risking their lives. This is about safety

trains patrolling lines in the East Midlands. And by British Transport

Police officers and Network Rail. `` manned by. Searching for trespassers

and vandals. They started running in time for the Easter break in so far

they are making a difference. Last year, during Easter there were 41

incidents, this year, so far there have been 33. They say the

improvement is slight and there is little room for complacency. We are

striving to reduce trespassing and vandalism and the aim is to get it

down to know incidents of trust pass and vandalism on the railway. Some

trains travel at 120 miles an hour, weighing 400 tonnes. It would take

the driver a mile and a quarter before he could stop so a few are a

child on the line, you would not stand a chance. This is the sort of

thing the safety trains look out for and they are desperate to stop it.

As the pictures from the Easter weekend show, some youngsters still

need to heed the warnings. Football now and Leicester City are

the Football League Champions. Victory at Bolton means they now

can't be caught at the top of the Championship and can celebrate with

two games to spare. Goodbye from me. Now, the weather. A

mixture of sunshine and April showers. The showers are hit and

miss. A few get one, you will know about it. Some warm sunshine in

between the showers. A few showers this evening are starting to fade

away, it will be tried for the rest of the night. A lot of cloud and

turning misty and murky but very mild. To my morning, dry, cloudy at

first `` tomorrow morning it will be dry. Some decent spells of sunshine

coming through, a few heavy showers across eastern parts of the East

Midlands. Elsewhere, we could stay dry, feeling quite pleasant. That is

if from us. Goodbye. is not looking too bad. That's

weather front. It is never too early to think about

next weekend and I will be doing that in a couple of minutes. But we

have a sizeable chunk of this week's whether to go first. There

are more showers, but there will be spells of warm sunshine around as

well, so there will be no frost at night. Bands of showers across the

western side of the UK and Scotland's passing through

overnight. Another heavy burst coming into the south-west later on

in the night. This rain band slowly comes in from the South West and

this is how Wednesday starts at eight o'clock in the morning. It

will turn out to be a warmer day in