22/12/2016 East Midlands Today

And now the news for the East Midlands, I'm Quentin Rayner.

First tonight, armed police have begun patrolling parts

of the East Midlands in a bid to reassure the public following

The officers will be out for the next two weeks over

the festive period in Leicester and Nottingham, but not in Derby.

Our Social Affairs Correspondent, Jeremy Ball, reports.

Police firearms officers patrolling Nottingham's Christmas market.

You can expect to see them at major sporting events

So, what do the shoppers here make of it all?

Reassuring to see them with guns but I wonder how effective

it is if somebody wants to drive a lorry down a pedestrian walkway

I think if people see that they are there, it will give

I don't think bringing guns into the city of Nottingham

or into any city is the right thing to do.

It's more than a decade since armed police carried out routine

Now they are part of a regional firearms unit who usually deal

You will also see them in crowded places across Leicestershire,

It is run by what is known as the East Midlands

We have got no specific intelligence to suggest there is anything likely

So this is solely a precautionary measure to provide some visible

reassurance to the residents and also if in the very unlikely

event that an incident did occur, the officers are in the right

location with the right equipment and would be able

It is a very unlikely event that happened in Berlin this week,

a deadly trap attack on a Christmas market.

It would be a deterrent and I think we have got to see it positively.

These armed officers are just normal police officers with a firearm.

They've gone through all the same training, they've carried out

similar role to unarmed officers, so they are still approachable,

they are doing their job and that is to keep us all safe.

The UK's terrorism threat level are currently described as severe.

There will be armed patrols on the streets of the East Midlands

Derbyshire Police aren't involved because they have a separate

firearms team but they say they are doing all the usual threat

assessments at events where there are large crowds.

In a separate development, police in Derbyshire have confirmed

this evening that two men arrested and questioned on suspicion

of terror offences earlier this month have been released.

The men, aged 22 and 27, were arrested in Derby

on the 12th of December by Counter Terrorism teams.

Police say there are no grounds to press charges.

A coroner has said that an observant driver should have seen a young

Derbyshire man who died after he was struck

21-year-old Halcyon Theuri fell into the road after getting

He was hit by a taxi driver who failed to spot

A 21-year-old chef described as hard-working, caring and loving.

In August last year, Halcyon Theuri, drunk after a night out

in Ripley with a friend, was on his way home when he was sick

He was then involved in a scuffle at a car park with the taxi driver

Minutes later, he fell or tripped into Wingfield Road in Alfreton,

He died shortly after, lying on the road.

The coroner said the cause of death was a head injury,

She said Halcyon Theuri was struck a glancing blow by the car

while lying in the road and though the taxi driver, Alan Bramley,

didn't see the 21-year-old, an observant driver should

She concluded that Mr Bramley's vehicle's faulty de-mister,

lower visibility on the road tutor heavy rain, and a lack of signal

from Halcyon Theuri as he lay on the road all contributed

There are lessons to be learned concerning the

Surrounding the care and upkeep of taxi vehicles and a duty of care

they should have two passengers in vulnerable states.

It does bring home the reality of the vulnerability of young people

when they have been out of an evening drinking.

I think it's fair to say that this is every parent's nightmare.

That something will happen to their loved one when they are out.

The coroner has said she will be writing to the taxi company

where Alan Bramley was employed at the time about her concerns.

He is now no longer working as a taxi driver and his vehicle has

Dozens of people with learning difficulties, who've been

incarcerated in institutions for years, are finally getting

It's part of Nottinghamshire County Council's plan to move

patients from secure units to independent living.

One such former patient is 58-year-old Sally Fenwick.

Going with her carer through her own front door,

something for the last four years, Sally could not choose to do.

Now though she has her own flat and an independent life with care.

Sally was severely affected by a virus as a child,

which left her with learning difficulties and

It meant she spent four decades almost entirely inside secure

So, that wasn't a nice experience at all?

It has taken Dawn two years to get Sally into leaving the last

institution and now to start enjoying a free life.

The difference is now with Sally, Sally can choose

Everything that Sally does on a daily basis is down

Nottinghamshire County Council and Nottinghamshire City Council

want dozens of people still in institutions out of them.

It is part of a national review of secure care after the scandal

of abuse revealed five years ago at the Winterbourne View

Can county councils afford to do this for everybody who needs it?

The county councils and the local authorities can't

We are very committed to supporting the remaining number of people

in long-stay hospital settings to move into the community.

How do you feel about being here now?

I like it very much because you can do what you like.

And what do you think about the people who look

The charity Mencap has long been calling for those

with learning difficulties, like Sally, to have

Earlier I asked Dan Scorer from Mencap, why it was so important.

It is important because people want to have a life in the community,

near their friends and family, like everyone else,

and that is where they are safe, where their friends and family can

see the quality of care that they are getting.

People don't want to be living in institutional settings,

far away from their friends and family, where they are at risk

of things like over medication, restraint and being kept

in isolation, which is what was happening in many cases.

We have seen it work successfully in Sally's case.

How concerned are you that the pace of change isn't fast enough?

Well, we are concerned the pace of change hasn't been fast enough.

This programme of work has been going now for five years,

since the Winterbourne View abuse scandal was exposed in 2011.

The NHS have now published a programme to close up to half

of beds in these units by 2019, but is very welcome,

and councils and the NHS are working together across the country to make

that change happen but it can't come soon enough for families who have

loved ones in these units who are incredibly worried

about what is happening to them and who want them back

Well, I think this involves the NHS and local councils having to work

together to make sure that there is the right support

for people in the community, the right professionals to support

them, the right housing available for them and that

Many people have been sent away, out of their area, to inpatient

units because there haven't been the right services for them

in the community and now that is what we are waiting for to be

developed in many areas so that people can come out of these places

and be supported back in their communities.

I'll leave you with Kay with our weather forecast.

Tomorrow it looks like we are set for a really windy day.

We do have a yellow warning in force.

We are expecting rain later as well and that is all part

of Storm Barbara, but for tonight, it remains dry.

Plenty of clear skies first but during the early

hours of the morning, we will get more

And then the breeze starts to pick up from the south-west.

Temperatures down to about three or four degrees.

So, it will be dry and relatively first thing.

Still, well broken across southern parts but thickening

The warning in force from 12 o'clock tomorrow.

Gusts of up to 60 mph, especially as the rain starts

to come through and that rain will be heavy for a short

period but as you can see across more southern parts,

it will not really reach us until later on,

Highs of 10 degrees but given the strength of the wind,

it won't feel that mild through the day.

Now, Storm Barbara continues to rattle down to the south-east

and that actually leaves us with a dry, bright, although breezy

Temperatures will be a little bit fresher as well but it will stay

We are just looking at a little bit more in the way of rain pouring

through one that is part of a warm front which means temperatures

Double figures, around about 13 degrees, 55 in Fahrenheit.

But then a fresher feel for Boxing Day.

That it from us here on the late team.

I will leave you with the summary and then your national

itself, it's not white, but it's warm. Temperatures could reach 15.

I suppose you could say today was the calm before the storm. A winter

chill, plenty of sunshine, but more wintry showers in Scotland, more

snow over the higher ground. Some of this snow will melt for a time

tomorrow because there is wind and rain coming in from the Atlantic. So

we'll leave the Highlands behind, head out and look at the cloud here,

this tell-tale hook of cloud, signifies a storm is developing,

this is Storm Barbara, of course, it is a deep and deepening area of low

pressure, rushing towards the north-west of Scotland.

Steppingening the winds and bringing rain into the north-west by tomorrow

morning. Ahead of it fairly quiet. Already the showers in the north

less wintry. Fewer and clearer skies, across England and Wales for

a time, it could be chilly. One or two mist and fog patches. Out to the

west winds pick up later, cloud increases and the rain arrives and

very quickly tomorrow across Scotland and Northern Ireland it'll

turn very