22/02/2017 East Midlands Today

And now the news for the East Midlands.

Alex Hamilton's here with the latest on Storm Doris,

still heading straight for us tonight.

The full update in our weather forecast at

First though, the boss of an East Midlands drinks

manufacturer has warned his company could be seriously damaged

by the soft drink sugar tax planned by the Government.

Belvoir Fruit Farms uses sugar to flavour its products.

Our Health Correspondent Rob Sissons has this report.

Presses, cordials, made in the shadow of Belvoir Castle.

It's a business that employs over 80 people and turns over more

But the boss is really worried about the sugar levy.

These will be taxed a lot and we've got to work out whether we can make

them with lower sugar but the same amount of quality taste so that

customers who love them won't be put off by them.

If they do attract the tax, a classic example is ginger beer.

Ginger beer, because it is so peppery and sharp

with the taste of ginger, it needs sugar to soften it.

That one, if we make the ginger beer without sugar,

it really doesn't taste very nice at all.

Some people will say sugar is sugar and we've got to do something

It's not just taxing soft drinks, though.

Much better would be to tax bulk sugar.

If you taxed sugar which went in everything then the government

The sugar tax could work out at least 18p more on the firm's

sparkling elderflower presse and put more than a pound on the cost

Up to 100,000 bottles pass along this production line every day.

This business is worried about the sugar tax,

that it could put the brakes on expansion or even put

It could have a profound impact on us, depending

on how high it is set, where exactly these things kick in,

The East Midlands Chamber of Commerce has written

to the Chancellor, Phillip Hammond, asking him to rethink

Local independent shops say it's unfair that the tax is based

on the rental value of a commercial property, as well as rises

in property prices over the last decade.

Bills for the coming year are due out on Friday.

And some businesses are expecting a steep hike.

Our increase is likely to be about ?4,000-?5,000 a year

extra and that is over and above the ?44,000

In the last six months, our product has become more expensive,

our cost of staff has gone up by about 5%, our sales

have dropped about 10% and now our rates are going up.

What we are calling for as a chamber is fundamental

As it currently stands, they dis-incentivise growth.

If you invest in your business, you will end up having higher tax

for your business rates and they put many businesses, large and small,

Earlier, I spoke to Natalie Gasson, development manager

with the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Federation

The federation wants business rates assessed not on property value

First of all, the business rate system is quite out

of date and the Federation of Small Businesses have looked

The best ones seem to be based on turnover because currently

the rateable value of a property is based on just that,

the value of the property, not on the business's

So for example if you are a new business and,

even before you have opened up, your business rate bill arrives.

What we would like to see is businesses almost

get a bedding-in period where they have a better idea

Under the current system, which is based on the value

of the property, the government tells us that the business rate

burden will actually drop by 3% under what is being proposed,

It doesn't sound too bad but we have looked at those

We have estimated around 400,000 businesses will not

see a change at all, 900,000 businesses will see

a decrease and 500,000 businesses will see an increase,

so suddenly if you were to take 500,000 businesses out

of the economy, that is a massive impact.

So 3% doesn't sound so bad but 500,000 businesses hit

Your idea of rating businesses on turnover, finally,

would that not dis-incentivise friends to make money,

However, as I said, the system as it stands is out of date.

What we would really like to see is it replaced completely

but currently that is the lesser of the two evils.

Leicester City Council has tonight decided to go ahead with the closure

of a library in the city, despite a vocal protest outside

The council's shutting down Rushey Mead library and merging it

Library users, though, believe it will threaten

Navtej Johal's in Leicester for us tonight.

Making a racket for the future of their library.

Ahead of tonight's full council meeting, protesters made themselves

heard regarding plans to close Rushey Mead library and merge it

with the nearby recreation centre, saving the authority around

It is just a few rooms, and our normal library is much bigger.

How important is the library building, Rushey Mead

Very, very important, it is the heart and

This is one of the daftest proposals the council

has ever come up with, in my view.

The idea that you take a library twice the size

of this building here, this room we're in, put it in this

room and pretend everything can carry on as before.

The authority says the move is justified due to the cuts

it has had to endure from central government.

We do not have an option in regards to the savings.

Will there be a scenario where for example there will be

dancers or aerobics in one room and in the nest room there are kids

There are are more than enough opportunities and gaps

in the recreation centre timetables to allow for additional activities.

Despite the protests, the council agreed to go ahead

It was extremely disappointing that it seemed they were quite

blatant about the fact they were going to disregard us.

Our choice now is to continue to protest and demonstrate and show

them exactly what the people of Rushey Mead are capable of.

A Nottinghamshire policeman's facing charges of gross misconduct,

after he failed to spot an elderly man had had his driving

87-year-old Albert Newman had dementia, and went on to cause

a fatal accident in October last year, driving the wrong

Mr Newman and a passenger in a van both died.

A force disciplinary hearing today heard that PC Jonathan Mortimer

encountered Mr Newman a year before but, it was claimed,

didn't check if the pensioner was allowed to drive.

The Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has asked for the decision to shut

Grantham Hospital's A overnight to be looked at.

Lincolnshire County Council referred the decision to him last year.

Today the authority was told an independent panel will do

an initial assessment of the decision, to see

It comes on the day three local MPs met with the Prime Minister

to express their worries about the unit being

Leicester have been playing Seville in Spain in the last 16

The Foxes lost 2-1 and Colin Hazelden has sent this

Let's start with a very, very big moment indeed.

Jamie Vardy scoring his first goal of 2017.

A massive moment for Leicester City in this tie

and a massive moment for him as well.

He wasn't the only hero this evening.

Kasper Schmeichel in the Leicester City goal had to make

a string of saves to keep Seville out.

As it was, they had to be happy with their two goals, splitting

They will be disappointed, though, to have looked at Vardy bulging

the back of their net and meaning that at the King Power

in three weeks' time, a 1-0 win would be enough

for Leicester City because they have the away goal.

So, it's goodbye from me, but with your Doris

Storm Doris is on the way over the next day or so and we have an amber

whether warning -- weather warning in force tomorrow. From 6am to 8pm

tomorrow. It means be prepared but what are we prepared for? Amber

warning stretches right across the country and the East Midlands is

right in the middle. Wind gusts expected at 60-70 mph, traps even 80

mph over the Peak District on higher ground. We could see fences down,

high sided vehicles need to take extra care on the roads, and we

could also see some trees down as well. That is not to say this will

definitely happen but be prepared. Through the afternoon we expect the

peak of their gusts of wind at around three - 4pm. Stay tuned to

your local radio stations tomorrow morning. We expect the isobars to

squeeze together through the afternoon. Tonight we expect a wet

and windy night ahead. Widespread rain and low temperatures of six

Celsius. Slightly more dry tomorrow morning. We will start -- as we move

towards tomorrow morning. We will start on a wet note. But slightly

drier and brighter into the afternoon. A bit of a respite on

Friday, with highs of around seven Celsius. More wet and windy weather

on the way for Saturday. some sunshine around and light

winds. For more on Doris and its impact, here is the national

weather. Good evening, a rough patch weather

on the way. Time to fasten your seat belt. A high wind warning from the

Met office, an amber one, so pretty severe. Let's see where Storm Doris

is right now, only just developing to the west of the UK, in its early

stages which is not good because it will be at its peak when it crosses

the UK. You can see this hook of cloud which is where the twisting is

starting to happen, which is where the big mid-latitude cyclone is

starting to develop and it will slam into the centre of the UK during the

morning and move across the country through the morning and into the

afternoon. Two rounds from this storm, we will see some snow across

southern and central parts of Scotland first tonight and into the

early hours of Thursday morning. Let's look at the snow, also an