18/06/2014 East Midlands Today

He's been on assignment with the London Mayor, Boris Johnson

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

evening. Villagers are opposing plans to develop one of the

country's largest sand and gravel quarries only a few hundred yards

from their homes. They say ht'll be catastrophic for wildlife and the

environment.The 80`hectare site will stretch from the village of Barton

In Fabis in Nottinghamshire to the border of the Attenborough Nature

reserve and over to Clifton. Here's our chief news reporter, Qudntin

Rayner. Barton In Fabis is raising an army to fight this proposed

quarry. Villagers and Rambldrs rallying to defend what thex regard

as a precious piece of countryside for both people and wildlifd. The

proposed area is the equivelant of 36 Old Market Squares in Nottingham

and will border the Attenborough Nature Reserve behind me and will

stretch all the way to thosd woods in the distance. It feels lhke we're

under attack. We have had the A 53 widening, a tram put in, a housing

development and now they want to dig up this land as well. When xou look

at the landscape here, how beautiful it is, this is going to be destroyed

if we do not do something about it. The council says it has a statutory

responsibility to identify lineral reserves for the future and this is

one of five new quarries it has to consider. We are obliged by central

government to find sites for mineral extraction, we have to find sites

for up to 49 million tonnes of sand and gravel extraction by thd year

2030, that will be used for projects such as houses, roads and r`il

projects. If approved, thred million tonnes of sand and gravel whll be

excavated from the site. Thhs is potentially catastrophic for this

part of Nottingham. It is bding stolen from under our noses. We have

a nature reserve just across the river there and the valley hs used

by birds, 75 types of conservation concern. So far, 2,000 leaflets

about the scheme have been delivered, another 1,000 will be

dropping through letterboxes in the next couple of days.

Police have named two men who died in a plane crash at the weekend The

light aircraft came down in a field near the M1 motorway in

Nottinghamshire on Saturday afternoon. 70`year`old John Gill

from Belper and 76`year`old Robert Eaves from Selston died at the

scene. Police say there werd no medical conditions that contributed

to the crash. An air accident investigation is continuing.

Leicester's hospitals have the biggest cash shortfall in the

country. That claim's been lade today by the Labour Party. HT says

the big deficit shows the NHS is in crisis. Carolyn Moses reports.

Lester's hospitals have strtggled with their financial health for

years. Now the University hospitals have left the trust in charge it has

been found to be working with the biggest shortfall in the cotntry,

just under ?40 million. We `s a health economy and trust cotld

clearly have done better. Wd are working closely with partners to

work out better ways of meeting those challenges, to access patient

quality and finances. Why is it in this situation? The trust s`ys it

has not received as much money as expected from other parts of the

NHS, bus its wage bill has risen sharply. The health minister who

released the figures also blames the government reorganisation of the

health service. It does not make sense to cut figures so that people

end up in hospital. It does not do to reorganise the back structures to

be more complicated. The trtst says it has a plan in place to gdt back

to financial fitness but th`t could take a number of years. In `

statement, the Department of Health says, "The Government has m`de tough

decisions on the economy but at the same time we have increased the NHS

budget in real terms. It is essential that Trusts have ` tight

financial grip and ensure they live within their means. Deliverhng high

quality services and balanchng the books must go hand in hand." Some

students affected by a blood test scare at the University of Derby are

now seeking compensation. More than 600 people were given blood tests by

a health care worker who was later found to be re`using syringd

barrels. Letters were sent warning students they might be at rhsk of

diseases like hepatitis and HIV Several have now begun legal action.

The university says an investigation is underway. Fresh from his victory

in the hotly`contested Newark by`election, Conservative MP Robert

Jenrick, has asked his first question in the House of Colmons. Mr

Jenrick was loudly cheered by his fellow Tory MPs before posing a

question to the Prime Minister about the flooding in Southwell l`st

summer. I regret to inform the Prime Minister that a town in my

constituency was again flooded last week. We'll be Prime Ministdr

reaffirmed his commitment to support my proposal that those parts of

Nottinghamshire which were severely affected by the floods of 2013 will

receive similar grants to those parts of the country flooded earlier

this year? Well, David Cameron responded by saying he's looking at

whether the county could be made eligible for winter flood

compensation. 100 new bus thmetables in Leicester have got to be taken

down and repositioned. Contractors placed them too high for people to

read. It was all due apparently to the shape of the lamp posts. The

council's now having them rddone. That's your news. So, it's goodbye

from me, but with your weather now, here's Anna Church. Thank you. We

have had the warm day to dax and they settled weather is set to

continue for the rest of thd week. I am hopeful we should see sole decent

sunny spells by tomorrow afternoon. There are clear skies at thd moment.

The cloud will increase frol the North into the early hours of

Thursday morning. It is a mhld night. Tomorrow morning, a cloudy

start. The chance for a little light patchy rain or drizzle but lost of

ours will get away with a Friday. Into the afternoon the cloud will

fin and break to give some sunny spells. Another warm afternoon. I'll

leave you with the outlook. Celsius. The outlook for the weekend

is looking pretty good.